A DIY Solar Cooker allows you to enjoy hot food anywhere off-grid; it’s a portable and low-cost method to cook food while out and about. You can slow cook stew, make soup, or even heat hot dogs — all with solar energy! The easiest way to get your hands on a solar cooker is to make one yourself. Truthfully, the project’s complexity depends on your level of ambition. You can have a simple solar cooker that does the job or an intricate one with sliding drawers. But let’s bit waste any more time; we’re here to teach you how to make a durable DIY solar cooker. All you’ll need is wood, cardboard, a car windshield sun protector (and a few tools along the way).
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Building a DIY solar cooker can be as straightforward or as complicated as you’d like to make it. It’s a science project you can make at a high school level or a professional DIY build for outdoor cooking. In the end, the difference comes down to the amount of effort you put in. There are 6 steps you’ll need to follow to build a DIY solar cooker. These include:
This is an intermediate-level DIY project. It requires some wood cutting, but other than that, you’ll find the process to be pretty straightforward.
DIY projects always require a good bit of planning. Without a solid plan, your project can go sideways quickly. In this case, you’ll need to plan out the amount of wood you’ll require and the sizes of your cardboard.
The best way to do this is to sketch a design for your DIY solar cooker in a notebook or on some rough paper. Don’t worry if your drawings aren’t masterpieces; you just need to put your ideas down on paper.
Once you have a plan, you’ll better understand your solar cooker’s appearance and dimensions.
Next, gather your materials together; it’s time to start building!
The next step is to create the box where you’ll place your cooking pot. This piece acts as the center and main body of your solar cooker, so it needs to be sturdy — hence why we recommend using wood.
To create the box, measure out 4 sides onto your wood planks. You can make your cooker square or rectangle; it’s entirely up to you. The size of our box is 12” x 12”.
Using these dimensions, measure and cut the base of your solar cooker.
Lastly, the height of your box will depend on the size of your pot. Our box is 7” in height.
It’s best to finish up with the woodwork side of things before you move on to working with the other materials. For this step, you’ll need your electric screwdriver.
Using your pencil, mark holes on each corner of one of the side planks. Then, drill a pilot hole using a screw and the electric screwdriver. Next, hold one plank against the other plank at a 90º angle and fix them together with the screws. You may need an extra hand to make this step easier.
Repeat this step until all 4 planks are connected into a square shape. Lastly, add the base to the box using the same technique as above.
As you’ll see in our pictures, we were short on wood. So we fixed 2 strips to the bottom before gluing cardboard over them to make a sturdy base.
Now it’s time to cut the cardboard and the car windshield sun protector. You’ll use the cardboard to make the top of your solar cooker; the windshield sun protector will cover the sides.
The cardboard you use can be anything you find on your recycling pile. For example, we used an empty pizza box. First, cut the right amount of cardboard so that it’s long enough to cover the top of the wooden box. When doing so, leave a piece on one side of the top flap to glue to the wooden box. It’s also best to have the cardboard lid overlap the wooden box so the flap has something to rest on.
Next, cut the windshield protector to cover the following surfaces:
Once you’ve cut the windshield protector, use insulation tape to tape up the edges; this will give them a finished look and make them easier to glue together. Moreover, it’ll increase your solar cooker’s insulation levels.
Start by gluing the cardboard flap to the wooden box. Doing this first is essential as the flap will stick better to the wood than the windshield sun protector.
Next, cover each side of the solar cooker with its respective windshield protector piece. You’ll notice that because of how we fixed our wooden sides, the two sides are slightly smaller than the other.
Use heavy items like books or ornaments to keep the sides in place while the glue dries. Additionally, if you apply thin layers of glue, it’ll dry quicker. To do this, use a scrap piece of cardboard to smear the glue across the surface in a thin layer.
Pro tip: apply glue to the corners of the wooden box before sticking it in the windshield sun protector. This will ensure the sides stick to the wood correctly without peeling away.
The final step is to add the finishing touches to your DIY solar cooker. You’ll need to make a stand that holds the top flap at the right angle and cover the box with plastic wrap.
To make the stand, cut a thin piece of dowel which you can use to prop the flap up. To determine the length of your stand, measure the highest angle you’d position the flap; this is the length between the front corner of the solar cooker and the back corner of the top flap.
Lastly, place the cooking pot in the center of the solar cooker and cover the box with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap will catch the heat and trap it within the cooker, creating a greenhouse effect.
Place the solar cooker in direct sunlight, and position the tap flap to reflect the sun into the box. It won’t be long before your solar cooker starts doing its job — cooking your food!
You can use a glass panel instead of plastic wrap to create the greenhouse effect. It’s renewable and better for the environment. However, the only downside is that it makes the project a little more complex, and the glass panel can break easily.
You’ll need to add a lip to the wooden box for the glass to rest on. In addition, you’ll need a glass cutter to cut your piece of glass to size.
We hope you’re proud of how your DIY solar cooker turned out. We enjoyed doing this project and found that the design worked perfectly.
The solar cooker produced hot water within the hour, and we can’t wait to use it on our next camping trip.
If you have any alterations to the design, we’d love to hear them. Alternatively, if you’ve tried this out, share the results in the comments below!
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