Windshield Shade Solar Cooker

Making the funnel

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Kathy Dahl-Bredine developed the Windshield Shade SolarCooker while experimenting with various designs of cookersto introduce in the indigenous communities where Kathy livesand works in southern Mexico. She hit upon an utterly simpleway to make an instant portable solar oven by taking anautomobile windshield shade and turning it into a solar funnel.

Materials neededReflective accordion-folding car sunshade

Black pot

Bucket or cardboard box

Oven cooking bag

Cake rack (or wire frame or grill) (optional)

12 cm. (4 ½ in.) of Velcro (optional)

Instructions(Note that the windshield shade can be attached to itself by means other than Velcro.)

Lay the sunshade out with the notched side toward you, asabove.

1.

Cut the Velcro into three pieces, each about 4 cm. or 1 ½inches long.

2.

Stick one half of each piece, evenly spaced, onto the edgeto the left of the notch. Attach the matching half of eachpiece onto the underneath size to the right of the notch, sothat they fit together when the two sides are broughttogether to form a funnel. (I first tried sewing these on asewing machine, but found it cut through the reflectivematerial.) If using stick-on Velcro, you can align the twopieces easily like this: Stick down one side of the Velcro,then press the two pieces of Velcro together, fold the shadeinto the funnel shape and stick down the second side.

3.

Press the Velcro pieces together, and set the funnel on top of a bucket or a round or rectangular plasticwastebasket.

4.

Place a black pot on top of a square cake rack, placed inside a plastic baking bag. A standard size rack inthe U.S. is 25 cm. (10 in.). This is placed inside the funnel, so that the rack rests on the top edges of thebucket or wastebasket. Since the sunshade material is soft and flexible, the rack is necessary to supportthe pot. It also allows the sun's rays to shine down under the pot and reflect on all sides. If such a rack is

5.

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Cooker with stabilizing stick

Size comparison between carwindshield shade cooker and thesuper-size version.

Close-up of Sharon Cousins's supersizewindshield shade cooker showing details ofdouble grate system. Since this photo, Sharonhas realized it works just as well to slip thebag over the top and sides of the water boiler,which is much easier than trying to insert theboiler into the bag. Very little heat is lostthrough the bottom. Just slide it over top andsides and tuck a bit at the bottom.

around the sides of the rack.

See also Solar Funnel Cooker.

TipsThe funnel can be tilted in the direction of the sun.

A stick placed across from one side of the funnel to the otherhelps to stabilize it in windy weather (see photo).

After cooking, simply fold up your “oven” and slip the elasticbands in place for easy travel or storage.

Kathy Dahl-Bredine writes: "I have found this totally simple solar

oven extremely practical, as it is so lightweight and easy to carry

along anywhere. But in addition, it has reached a higher

temperature in a shorter time than all the other models I have

experimented with so far (I haven’t used a parabolic) - a little

above 350 degrees F. I have cooked black beans in about the same amount of time as on a gas stove; I’ve used

it to bake breads, granola, brownies, lasagna, all sorts of vegetables, and to purify water. The sunshade may not

be available everywhere, but I suspect it can be found in most urban areas, since I found it here in southern

Mexico. The Velcro was also available in fabric stores. Cost of the sunshade was about $3.00 USD; the Velcro

about $.25."

Variations"Super-size" variationSharon Cousins has come up with a super-size version made from awindshield shade cover sized for a large pickup truck or SUV. The larger sizerequires something on the order of a tub instead of a bucket for support. The19" round grate from a broken fan helps hold the windshield shade in the tuband helps maintain the shape. Pots rest on a flat grate laid across the edgesof the round grate, which lets a lot of light get under the food. .This cooker is

vulnerable to wind, so putsome weight (such as a largerock or two or three) in the tub,and if it is very windy you canalso put a few foiled rocks onthe grates to help hold it all down. This super-size version canhandle up to two gallons of food or up to ten pounds of meat indecent sun. In really good sun, it has gotten a full two-gallon waterboiler hot enough for dishwashing (too hot to put a bare hand in) inless than an hour This cooker gets almost hot enough to saute,and will get smaller amounts of food very hot very quickly. In onesoup stock cooking adventure at the height of summer '07, a 1 qt.cooking jar stuffed with the bones and skin of a roast chicken,some seasonings, and water with a little wine to fill, was set tocook on a glass plate under a glass cover. The contents reached agood boil and fat from the top began boiling over and out of the

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plate under the cover but also bubbled on the plate outside of the glass cover where it was seeping under theedge! NOTE: The double-grate system will work with a smaller shade, too... usually around 13-14 inches indiameter is about right for the broken fan grate. At least in the developed world broken fans are not hard to comeby. Double-grating probably gives more benefits to those suncooking in the north than it would closer to theequator.

Steel bowl variation

Inside this cooker is a Pyrex Pie Plate on a short candlestand. On top is a Pyrex Bowl. More info: http://arnies-solarcooking.blogspot.com/2008/06/steel-bowl-cooker_22.html

See also Aluminum Roasting Pan Solar Cooker.

Two steel bowl variationArnies-Solarcooking blog also came up with this variation that sandwiches the windshield shade between two

metal bowls.]

Steel Bowl cooker used like an oven (00:59)384 views

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The picture above was my first attempt using an 18 guage stainless steel mixing bowl and a windshield shade. I

used the buckets (weighted with rocks inside) to hold the shade around the bowl. I could get water temperatures

up to 150F, but not much higher. I bought the bowl at a restaurant supply house in my home town.

I struggled for a month to find some way to attach the shade to the bowl... eventually I thought I need something

the same shape as the bowl to easily hold it in place, hence, the second mixing bowl.

I used silver 'pinch' style paper clips to hold the ends of the shade onto the bottom bowl, and at the back where

the rear view mirro depression was to help the shade conform more to the bowls.

With this design, I have been able to get 2 cups of water to a boil within an hour. Larger amounts of soup- with

broth, vegetables and meat- will get to 200F easily.

I have more photos of this cooker at my blog .

I live in The Middle of Nowhere, Texas (San Angelo) Lat: 31.38 Lon: -100.5 Elev: 1916

UltraLightCooker variation

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This variation using foam panels for support was designed by Andrew Kotowski. We built this cooker specifically

for this trip to Poland. Our object was to build a simple cooker, dismount, light, cheap and easy to carry. It is

good for a demonstration and to cook simple meals.

Materials used: Sunshades car and plate of polystyrene (1.5 cm thick).

Weight: 0.5 kg (no recipient).

See more information on this variation on the French wiki (English translation available there).

Kettle Cooker variation

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Converted kettle grill cooker meets the sun for thefirst time

View of top of kettle cooker.

Sharon Cousins built this powerful cooker from an old kettle grill. The addition of windshield shade reflector at the

back makes it a very strong cooker. On its maiden flight, temperatures in the cast iron fry pan under the glass lid

reached 225° F by 8:30am, 250° F by 8:45am, and by mid-afternoon it was running just shy of 325° F. The tilt

angle of the reflector can be adjusted to keep the hot spot over the pan. This is a very good cooker for demos, as

it can turn out a hot quesadilla or pan of nachos (slip black plates or shallow pans of nachos into the pre-heated

cast-iron fry-pan—use an upside down Pyrex pie pan or bowl for a lid if your glass lid is too shallow for a pile of

nachos) in under ten minutes.

A disposable aluminum pie pan is used to close the hole in the bottom of the kettle and the rest of the kettle is

lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. The fry pan rests on the grill that formerly held the charcoal and is covered

with a glass lid from a thrift shop. The top of this kettle is covered with a 24"x30" oven bag , available from

restaurant supply stores that carry specialty bags such as the Webstaurant Store . It is laid flat, so it is actually

a double cover, and held on with binder clips. As shown, the cast iron pan with glass lid gets very hot, but the

ambient air temperature in the kettle is not tremendously hot, so any clear plastic might be worth a try if you do

not have access to an extra-large oven bag, or you could cut open two turkey-size bags to get large flat pieces

and cross them over the opening, which might work depending on the size of your kettle. Sturdy spring clamps

are used to secure the windshield shade and adjust the angle. If you still have the metal cover to your kettle grill

and you are in the time of year when you use your kettle cooker almost daily, you can cover your cooker (at least

if you used small binder clips, which do not interfere) and leave it out without having to end up with dew residue

and excess dust clouding your cooker top. In the morning just take off the cover, clip on the booster, and let your

pan start heating. To perform well, the cast-iron must be pre-heated, so if you're going to use it, the sooner you

start it heating the better.

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Part of what makes this arrangement so hot is the thermal mass of the cast iron. One attempt to bake bread in it

indicates that lighter pans would need to be oven-bagged or otherwise greenhoused in addition to the clear cover

on top of the kettle. Sharon believes that this cooker will cook in alternative pans, but only with an additional

greenhouse around the pan. This is a case where cast iron gives vastly superior performance, but only if it is well

pre-heated.

Sharon has since switched to the poster-board relector panels (See Aluminum Roasting Pan Solar Cooker and

click on the project sheet link for information on making these powerful reflectors) and is reaching temperatures

up to 400F in the glass-lidded fry pan. This has turned into a terrific cooker for quesadillas, among other things.

Sharon is planning to give this cooker its own wiki page as soon as she can make a little more time for it. This

jury-rig cooker is really a prototype for something that could be ground-breaking, and Sharon would welcome

contact and feedback from other solar cooking engineers and innovators on how to maximize its potential.

Armando Herculano variations

Other designs using windshield shades by Armando Herculano in Portugal

HVAC insulation variation: 1Stacy Ryerson has made a cooker using a material similar to the windshield screens. It is a quilted insulating

plastic covered with mylar. However, it differs from the typical windshield screen because it is designed to bend in

only one direction, and sold on a roll, intended for wrapping heat ducts. This means it appears to stand vertically

on its own without support, except for lateral wind bracing. The windshield screen must bend in two directions to

conform with the complex shape of the glass. This allows it to form a funnel shape cooker, but the cooker usually

requires additional support aids. This cooker is sturdy and is able to pack flat for transport. The back cardboard

panel is shingled with strips of duct tape to make it waterproof.

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HVAC insulation material is sturdy and supports itself.

The cooker still needs to be braced in windyconditions.

A simple tab is cut at the base of a flatsheet of insulation.

The tabs at the bottom are folded undereach other and clipped together.

HVAC insulation variation: 2Solar Cooker at Cantina West offers another inexpensive design possibility using reflective HVAC insulation. The

Reflectix bubble insulation can be purchased in a roll, (25' x 2') allowing you to make several reflective panels, or

you can buy a pre-cut length in some home improvement stores. This particular reflector panel is a 3' x 2' (three

by two foot) panel. The flat sheet first has a tab cut at the base, which is folded up. The adjacent bottom tabs

then fold underneath. The tabs can be secured with various clips available at office supply stores. The edges of

the cooker can be covered with reflective tape. A dark colored pot enclosed in an oven roasting plastic bag sets

in the center for cooking. It is best to raise the pot up, off the reflector, with a trivet or small stones or sticks for

better heating. See more detailed instructions...

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With a pot in a plastic cooking bag you areready to cook.

Wheelbarrow variation

Windshield shield cooker made mobile with awheelbarrow

Food cooking in the mobile windshield wheelbarrowcooker

See alsoJuly 2006: Technical Data Sheet - Kathy Dahl

http://texascook.blogspot.com/2008/06/windshield-chicken.html

Simple solar roaster pan cooking photos

External linksThe Terra Foundation's data sheet on this cooker

See this article in our foreign language wikisVoyez cet article dans le wiki en français: Pare-brise ombre cuiseur solaire

Categories: Solar cooker designs Solar cooker plans Solar panel cooker plans Solar panel cooker designs

Languages: Français

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