[PeakOiler]

You're a little richer, Matt.

It was time to buy another Global SunOven, since two is better than one!

[elocs]

My Sun Oven has been fun to use, but it is not r practical to regularly use. Since I got mine last spring I have paid much more attention to the amount of sun that I get each day and when somebody posted that Portland, Oregon gets more sun than La Crosse, Wisconsin, I can now believe it. This fall we have had weeks where there might be 1 day that had enough sun to do anything. Frequently, even in summer, it will start off nice and sunny at 8 a.m. and then be overcast by 10 or 11 a.m. My Sun Oven has become more of a fun toy than a practical tool.
The available sunshine here is too undependable.

[frankthetank]

Elocs i know what you mean. We had a break this weekend, but overall its been WAY to cloudy for me. I swear i'm getting that disorder. I see the next few should be cloudy. I'll take a cold sunny day anytime over a cool cloudy day.

Is it possible to bake, a loaf of bread, on a single digit, sunny, WI winter day?

[MattSavinar]

You're a little richer, Matt.

It was time to buy another Global SunOven, since two is better than one!

I saw the email address. GSO is raising their price by $20 in 2007 so this is about as affordable as they will get. Heck if I was sitting on a big stash of money I might a whole bunch from and then corner the market, at least till I ran out of ovens. Muhahahahahaha.

[PeakOiler]

Received the GSO today Matt. Thanks for the fast service!

Now that I have two fusion-powered ovens, I can cook the entree and the side dishes at the same time.

Gotta love living in a sunny environment!

Edit: I will make another donation to po.com too, so Aaron doesn't feel left out.

[WisJim]

Regarding baking bread in a solar oven: make sure that you have good sun all day, otherwise the bread will just keep rising and fill up the oven, before it gets hot enough to bake! Damhikt! Works okay for cookies, quick breads, coffee cake, muffins, etc., though. We put ours to work making cookies in October for the solar tour. Other styles of solar ovens might (and some do for sure) get hot enough and hold heat well enough to bake "regular" bread, but we don't do it in ours anymore.

[PeakOiler]

At the RE Roundup energy fair this last Sept. in Fredericksburg, TX, I spoke with one solar chef that had a "hybrid" solar oven, that is, it was also equipped with an electric heating element.

I suppose a web search for hybrid solar ovens is in order...

Edit: Hybrid Solar Ovens

The lady at the Roundup was serving pizza out of the hybrid oven, and cooking fajitas and veggies in the GSOs.
Also corrected gas burner to electric heating element. My bad.

[PeakOiler]

Yay! The sun came out for a few hours today. (It's been raining nearly every day for the last four or five days--all the rainwater tanks have been overflowing.) Just enough time to steam about 84 grams of home-grown green beans in the SunOven. (It took about two hours to get the water boiling, and about 20 minutes to cook the beans.)
I feel guilty using the electric range to cook something that has very few calories. The electric range probably requires more energy to cook the beans than I could get from those beans.

[Blacksmith]

Sun ovens sound great, going to make myself one.

[roccman]

The one issue I have with the Sun Oven is the distinct taste/smell of plastic on the food after cooked.

I have made roasts, brownies, baked bread and when done they have all tasted like plastic.

I think I will make one without the plastic bottom.

[PeakOiler]

The one issue I have with the Sun Oven is the distinct taste/smell of plastic on the food after cooked.

I have made roasts, brownies, baked bread and when done they have all tasted like plastic.

I think I will make one without the plastic bottom.

Did you "season" your SunOven before cooking any food? One should always boil water in the SunOven to steam out any residual plastic vapors. I have not had that problem. And a lot of the foods I cook are covered anyway, e.g., crock pot of black beans, foil-wrapped baked potatoes, etc.

[roccman]

Good idea- I will try that.

Thanks!

[Madpaddy]

Hi Matt,

Do you ship the ovens to Europe (Ireland) and how much would it cost in total for an oven shipped.

Regards,
MP

[gg3]

I want one of these, or possibly two. However where I live at present does not get direct sunlight at ground level due to shading from adjacent buildings. So this will wait until I move north where passive as well as active solar will be the rule.

Now what I think would be interesting would be to design a kitchen with a south exposure and appropriate windows, such that one could use a solar oven indoors. That would deal with the potential issue of cooling due to wind, and enable one to do all the cooking indoors rather than having to cook some stuff inside and some outside and run back & forth.

Question: has anyone tried this? Use the solar oven to heat rocks to a high temperature, and then transfer the rocks to an indoor insulated container where they will re-radiate the heat and cook food. It seems possible to design something whereby a decent sized pile of rocks could be kept at a very high temperature and then used as needed. Come to think of it, sand or gravel could work well in this application. I see an invention or two here...

[WisJim]

I have seen solar ovens built into the south-facing kitchen wall, with access from inside. One of them had adjustable reflectors that could be adjusted from inside. Seemed to work well. It is someting that I would consider doing if orientation of the kitchen allowed, but I don't think it is such a big deal to go outside to adjust the oven so it faces the sun every once in awhile (hour or so), and usually when it is sunny enough to use the solar cooker, I am outside anyway. It does work well for cooking a coffee cake or muffins when I am off to town for an hour or so doing morning errands.

[sirrom]

i think i need to buy myself a sun oven

[eXpat]

Hi Matt,

Do you ship the ovens to Europe (Ireland) and how much would it cost in total for an oven shipped.

Regards,
MP

+1, I live in Edinburgh (Scotland) and none in the UK that i have seen carries those ovens, i'm very interested in getting one.

[PeakOiler]

Hi Matt,

Do you ship the ovens to Europe (Ireland) and how much would it cost in total for an oven shipped.

Regards,

MP

+1, I live in Edinburgh (Scotland) and none in the UK that i have seen carries those ovens, i'm very interested in getting one.

If you go to sunoven.com you may want to contact the company and look into becoming a SunOven dealer. Do you know a lot of people that might buy one? Might be worth looking into...

[Madpaddy]

Thanks Peakoiler,

Just emailed them - Ireland gets a surprising number of sunny days. However, a rain oven if such a thing was possible would be absolutely great!!!

[Laurasia]

My husband bought me a Sun Oven from Matt's website a couple of weeks ago (for our wedding anniversary), to supplement an earlier Sun Oven he had bought me about 14 years ago (still in regular use, I might add!). They are the same models, but the new one from LATOC costs less than he paid for the first one 14 years ago! So I think it's a very good deal!

I baked apple crisp yesterday and it was scrumptious!

Regards,

L.