A solar oven traps sun’s ray or solar particles called photons to generate heat. Metallic reflectors are positioned around the oven to maximize the light input. Sun’s rays pass through the oven’s transparent glass top and strike the interior of the insulated box.
To get the best output, a dark, metallic pot is placed at the center of the oven, so that it can absorb the incoming sun’s rays. Once the cooking pot becomes warmer than the surrounding air, the heated air tries to escape to a cooler space. Since it cannot break through the glass barrier, it remains trapped inside. The heat is reflected back to the metal pot and the oven’s temperature rises rapidly. It can go up to even 400 degrees Fahrenheit on a very hot sunny day.
That’s in a nutshell how a solar oven works. Using the same principle you can make a simple pizza box solar oven at home.
How To Make A Solar Oven For S’mores With A Pizza Box
What you need for this experiment is a pizza box, a skewer foil, tape, ruler, plastic wrap, black paper, box cutter and a hot sunny day.
So to start, make an outline on the pizza box about an inch away from all the corners.
Take a box cutter and cut the lines traced out. Cut out three sides so the front of the box pivots up.
It flips up just like that. Next, we’re going to take some aluminum foil and we’re going to foil the piece that we just flipped up.
Cut a piece of foil and you lay it on the back just a little bit bigger than the flipped up piece itself. Fold it over and use scotch tape or any kind of tape to tape it to the top part of the box.
Next, make a glass-like window using a plastic saran wrap and cover the cut-out space. Ensure that it is stretched out nice and tight. Tape it on the outside so it stays in place.
So now you’ve got the plastic lid over the cutout portion. Next, layer the inside of the pizza box so that the aluminum foil is covering the whole bottom of the box.
Don’t use any tape on the inside but tape the outside so it holds down.
Next cut out a piece of black paper put it on the bottom of the pan.
Take a skewer and put it in there are little holes on the side of the pizza box. Prop it up against the lid and then tape it in.
Put graham cracker marshmallow chocolate on an aluminum plate inside the oven and put the oven on Sun.
Make sure you put it to an angle so that there’s enough reflection coming down into the tray.
The heat would then come up get trapped in the plastic lid and cook the shmores.
You will know it is done when you can see the marshmallows very gooey and the chocolate is has melted.