Thanks Clare! It might be a little bit over sturdy, haha, it is pretty heavy and large. The top solar collector does come off the base though.

I definitely hear you about buying manufactured models of various green wizardry apparatus. On one hand, for some projects like this one, I like that making them requires some ingenuity as how you are going to make your version, how you are going to find the materials, etc. On the other hand, for larger projects, I'm not really sure I end up saving all that much money (!) and certainly it takes a fair bit of time.

For instance, I was thinking of getting involved with vermicomposting, and I attended a workshop were they had make your own models with rubbermaid bins (which I may still do), but I was looking at some online for about $150, and they looked very nice and easy to use, so I'm wondering hehe.

Nice little pot of vegetables, I got to get one of those kind of pans, I remember using them camping when I was a kid.

I was a little worried when I couldn't get the temps up very high, but actually the long slow cook produced some very tender meat. In the future I might quickly sear it first, which should also speed up the cook time - I think one reason it took so long is that the meat had to come up from fridge temperatures first.

I hadn't heard about the soda bottle water method, but if it works I'm wondering if it works on UV radiation rather than heat? I know the UV units we install in water lines basically damage the DNA of bacteria (I believe) and makes it so they are unable to radiate.

I'm thinking the soda bottle method might be a good first step, in some sort of disaster scenario, followed by filtering it through some charcoal, gravel and sand layers?

Thanks Dtrammel!

Thats an interesting idea for making the emergency candles, definitely post a picture if it works out. I like the idea of saving energy whenever a person has a chance, if only to build up the habit.

Thanks Justin! Yeah, I wasn't really even thinking about disaster type scenarios, I guess it might be useful for that - As it is, it is actually fairly impractical for me (!), for a working person for the time it takes to cook something and hours that I have to sun before it's shaded by other trees and buildings is pretty short, I think it's only going to be for weekend afternoons where the sun is out. (And its pretty cold here through a lot of the year!)

I suppose in some sort of disaster scenario, one might have more mid-day time for cooking though :) Nothing wrong with having some fuel stored up! But I guess that using a solar cooker could extend the use of stored fuel.