By: Brynne, Hojun, and Dryden
Pizza Box Oven
Materials:
Pizza box
Box cutter
Scissors
Aluminum foil
Glue
Tape
Ruler
Straw
Clear Plastic Wrap
Black construction paper
A thermometer
A treat to cook with the oven.
Procedure:
- Draw a square on the top of the pizza box measuring about 1 ½ inches away from the edges/sides of the pizza box.
- Cut along the lines of the square leaving the back side free to fold.
- Fold on the side of the square that is not cut out.
- Lift up the top flap of the pizza box.
- Glue one piece of tin foil (shiny side out) to the inside of the flap.
- Cut two pieces of clear plastic wrap.
- Tape one piece of clear plastic wrap to the top side of the hole in the pizza lid.
- Tape another piece of the clear plastic wrap to the bottom side of the hole in the pizza lid.
- Cut a square piece of tin foil (shiny side out) to go inside the pizza box.
- Glue the tin foil to the inside bottom of the pizza box.
- Glue sheets of black construction paper over the tin foil in the bottom of the pizza box.
- Place one end of the straw on the corner of the pizza box and the other end near the corner of the flap.
- Make sure to have the straw on an angle steep enough to have enough glare to go into the inside of the pizza box.
- Look outside for a nice day, and start thinking about what you are going to cook with the solar oven.
- Once you have found a nice day, try out your oven.
- Have fun😊
- Just remember, be safe!!
Pros and Cons of The Pizza Box Solar Oven Design
| Pros | Cons |
| – Easy to make and materials are easy to get.
– The black paper on the bottom will heat the box up faster. – Ruler will hold up the lid. – Tin foil on the flap of the pizza box will send all the heat to the box. |
– Measurements in inches not cm.
– Pizza lid will be flimsy. – The pizza box oven may be too big to heat up quickly. – We are using clear plastic wrap instead of glass. |
| Pros: | Pros: | Pros: |
| Stable shape. | Very efficient in capturing sunlight. | Creates more reflection than the Panel Cooker. |
| It is like a regular oven. | Inexpensive to make. | More room than the panel cooker. |
| Simple and inexpensive to make. | Less steps than the parabolic solar cooker. | Inexpensive to make. |
| Cons: | Cons: | Cons: |
| Should make sure there isn’t any air bubbles underneath the materials used to make the oven. | Unstable shape. | More complicated to make than the Panel Cooker. |
| You would have to make sure that the pizza box is closed, for it to work. | More complicated to make than the pizza box oven. | Requires more steps than the panel cooker. |
How Thermal Energy Transfers affected our solar oven and cooking process.
The black construction paper in the pizza box oven conducts the heat from the sun.
The tin foil is also a conductor of heat from the sun.
The tin foil is reflective.
The heat from the sun is transferred by radiation to the tin foil, black construction paper, and the food inside of the pizza box oven.
The hot air is transferred to the inside of the pizza box oven through convection.
With all these transfers of thermal energy, the food inside the pizza box oven gets cooked.
The first trial was 13 minutes long. The starting temperature was 40 degrees Celsius and the ending temperature was 50 degrees Celsius. The marshmallow was warm on the inside, smooth on the outside, and tasted fluffly.
The second trial was 10 minutes long. The starting temperature was 50 degrees Celsius and the ending temperature was 40 degrees Celsius. The outside of the marshmallow was smooth and lumpy. It tasted sweet and fluffy.
The third trial was 7 minutes long. The starting temperature was 40 degrees Celsius and the ending temperature was 50 degrees Celsius. The outside of the marshmallow was very soft and on the inside it was moist.
The trials of the experiment didn’t go as planned. The third trial was the one that actually melted the marshmallow.
https://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Solar-Panel-Cooker
https://www.greenoptimistic.com/solar-oven-cardboard/#.WyV-fqdKjIU
http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/build_a_simple_solar_cooker.html