Solar Cooking Archive Discussion Forums

SharonID · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 74 Location: northern Idaho

At about 1pm (PDT), I hit 275F in my new Easy Lid. I'd finished it shortly before leaving for my writer's conference, but had not yet had a totally clear day for testing (though I'd hit 250F in less than ideal conditions).

I am so happy with my new oven. I sprung for double-strength glass (with a 50 mi. clear sweep into the prevailing wind from our property, wind can definitely be an issue!), and I also had a good piece of 18-guage steel cut for my bottom tray—worth the cost, I think. I really feel it gives me an edge on holding the heat when there are intermittent clouds, and it took the flat-black paint nicely (I washed it in detergent and hot water first, as anything out of a welding/machine shop has oil on it).

275F, and while it is clear (still, at 3pm), it is not a particularly hot day. That is so cool... or is that hot? Wink

Gotta go check the rolls (should be done) and add the greens to the soup for the last stage. Boy, this is really a nice cooker. Again, kudos to Tom Sponheim and Chao Tan for the design idea. Bet I'll hit 300F under the most ideal conditions. Cool

Regards,
SharonID
_________________
Idaho Regional Representative, International Women's Writing Guild
Visit the Guild at: http://www.iwwg.org/

coconino · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 77 Location: Sunny Brixton

That sounds great! Did you take any pictures? I'd really like to see how it looks. How did the rolls and soup turn out?

SharonID · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 74 Location: northern Idaho

coconino · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 77 Location: Sunny Brixton

Flickr is a good tool for pictures and really easy to use. Also free, which is a bonus. I'm on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/coconino/

webmaster

I've never really mentioned how the "Easy Lid" solar box cooker came to be. In 1995 or so, I had my ESL class at Seattle Central Community College build the "Minimum" solar cooker (http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Minimum_Solar_Box_Cooker) one evening in class. A few days later, a student (Chao Tan) brought a cooker to class that he had built I assume from memory. He hadn't followed the directions, but what he showed me was really quite ingenious.

In the original design, there were no tabs and the finished base had square holes in each corner where the flaps from the smaller box didn't cover. I added the tabs to the liner, named it, drew up the plans, and posted them in the Solar Cooking Archive (http://solarcooking.org/plans/easylid.htm). That's the story.

Just when we think we've gotten things simple, we find that we've been making it too complicated all along.

Tom Sponheim
Solar Cookers International