Making a solar furnace out of cardboard is the cheapest and easiest option for such designs. Such solar ovens are lightweight, easy to fold and take up little space. Therefore, it is always convenient to take such solar ovens with you on a camping trip, or during ordinary outings. Thanks to the solar oven, you can easily heat and cook food even in places where bonfires are prohibited, while not causing any damage to the environment.
The materials that the author needed to make a marching version of a cardboard solar furnace:
1) corrugated cardboard from cardboard boxes measuring 50 by 50 by 50 cm
2) mirror coated foil
3) glue
4) elastic or rope
5) shoe box as stand.
6) ruler or metal corner
Let us consider in more detail the main points in creating the design of this solar furnace, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
To make a solar furnace do it yourself the author needed some materials, the main of which were cardboard and foil. The author took the cardboard from ordinary cardboard boxes measuring 50 by 50 by 50 cm. As a foil, you can use the usual baking foil, which is sold in the store, or the foil, which is used to reflect sunlight on the windows. However, the author advises still to use polished foil with a mirror coating, this will allow to achieve a greater reflectivity for coating your furnace, and therefore increase the temperature that this furnace can reach. Accordingly, the higher the cooking temperature, the faster you can cook food.
After the author had the necessary materials, he immediately glued a foil to the surface of the cardboard, receiving blanks for sections of the future solar furnace:
Since the solar furnace will have to be folded, for ease of transportation in camp conditions, it will consist of several sections.
Below are the diagrams by which the author made a pattern of the main elements of a solar furnace from cardboard blanks.
After marking according to these schemes, it remains only to cut out two necessary fragments of the surface of the solar furnace, and then bend them along the lines of the scheme, which are indicated by a dotted line.
For the convenience of folding cardboard, the author chose to use a metal corner and a ruler.Thus, pressing the blank sheet with the edge of a metal corner along the bend line, the author received two completely prepared fragments of the solar furnace.
Then, the author bonded both main fragments of the solar stove with each other using glue. In the diagram below, the places where the two halves of the solar furnace were glued together are indicated by a red line.
In order for the pan to be more stable when the solar furnace moves towards the sun, the author uses an ordinary shoe box, which is installed under the furnace.
Also with the help of simple fixtures from the remaining cardboard and rubber, the author made a stand for the back of the stove, which will fix the position of the stove relative to the rays of the sun.
Even a cardboard solar furnace, of such a simple design, can heat a pot with a capacity of 4 liters in just half an hour to 150 degrees. If this is not enough for you, then you can put the pan in the baking sleeve thus creating a greenhouse effect and increasing the temperature to 180 degrees. Sharing his experience of using the author gives an example of the fact that 2 cups of rice can be cooked using this solar furnace in about 100 minutes.
Below is a video where the power of a solar furnace made of cardboard is clearly demonstrated:
As already mentioned, the design of this oven is very simple and not too demanding in terms of materials and costs, so it is perfect for those who want to try to use solar energy for cooking for the first time.