Solar Oven

If there is one thing that Chiapas has plenty of it is sunshine. On my many visits to Mexico during my summer mission trips, I often inquired about the use of active or passive solar techniques since there is an abundance of sunshine here. I was told that the technology is too expensive for electricity and that passive hot water heating works during the day, but keeping the water hot all night is a problem. Believe me when I tell you that cold showers in the morning are no fun even when it is only 50 degrees.

Before leaving Winston I investigated various passive solar projects and decided I would build a solar oven. I wanted to test out various recipes for fun and maybe be able to share this with some village cooks that still use wood fires for everyday cooking. I downloaded the plans for a simple solar oven made from two cardboard boxes and a Reynolds oven bag for its “lens.”

Well the other day I was frustrated by the lack of Internet access, so I decided to put the oven together and try it out. I had just found the Reynolds bags at a big store in Comitan where I also bought some aluminum pans and black spray paint. I tracked down a couple of cardboard boxes from the local tienda (store) and began cutting and gluing the oven together. I was finished in a couple of hours and was right pleased by the way it looked. Pablo’s dad came in about that time and snickered at my contraption, but Jan was excited by the prospect of not using up the valuable LP gas for baking.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the sky was clear for the first time in several days, so I mixed up a batch of brownies and put them in the oven in the sun out on the flat roof of the house (which is easy to access from a door on the second floor.) We then left for church and returned a couple of hours later. While it was a sunny day it was also windy and I understand that wind decreases the efficiency of solar ovens.

Well I let those brownies stay in the sun all day long and they never really got done. They tasted fine, but it was like eating chocolate pudding with a hard top crust. I will keep trying, because it is astounding how much wood people burn each day to prepare their meals. As we drive along the mountain roads on our travels, we always see women and children carrying piles of firewood using a strap that goes around their forehead.

One of God’s many blessings is that the sun comes up every morning, and I hope to be able to perfect a simple yet efficient way to tap into that boundless source of energy and give the folks here an option that could save much physical effort and save the environment too.