you remember that that's called son we haven't seen that here for a while it's
been very very gloomy so I was going to do two videos concerning this subject
but since we only have one day of Sun that's today I'm gonna do both videos
and what that is the winter Sun goes across the horizon at a much lower
altitude so what has to what you have to do in order to get the solar rays into
your oven that you have to turn it to it's winter position get it and you know
you would put the food down in here and I'm fixing to make what I'm going to
make today is just cabbage and sausage a quick easy thing set in there let it
simmer all day and since I have so many trees here I'm gonna be moving this all
day the second thing I'm gonna show you is is this is the old original solar for
reflector which I haven't had any trouble with it but they sent me a new
one that is uh more highly polished and
and it's called good lord I've lost the paper
it's 87 percent of the sun's rays are reflected into the solar oven so it's
got a numerical number of 87 and it's anodized polished and anodized so the
shine will stay which you know this one doesn't seem not shiny but when you
compare it to that one it's really a big difference but like I said
I haven't had any trouble with this and what I wanted to do if we had more
sunshine I wanted to compare the two reflectors with a thermometer in there
and see just how much of a difference it does make in the winter because in the
winter when the Sun is at its lowest wear crosses the horizon is when you had
to be the most particular about making sure you keep it aimed well and check it
you know a little more frequently to aiming at the Sun all right let me go in
and get my cabbage cut up and my sausage and find a pan that'll fit because this
area here is a little less wide than this area here which is typically the
bottom now this is the bottom I think this is eight inches I have a tape
measure in my pocket yeah eight inches versus I think that's nine and a half or
ten right yeah nine and a half so I'm gonna leave this here for now because
we're gonna have probably an hour or two right here where it's at of sunshine and
then I'm probably gonna have to move this no back here somewhere we'll see I
got I have sunshine all over my yard but I also have trees you know there's one
two three four big one five and then right in front of the house on the other
side of that chimney six seven eight so I may have to pull this out into my yard
which is fine because I built a wheel cart for hay all right let me go get my
cabbage and my sausage cut up
all right it's only been in there for a second or two and while I was in there
cutting the cabbage up I put this cover back on it to preheat the oven and it
was past 150 just in the few minutes it took me to cut the cabbage and sausage
up actually that's a little Smokies is what it is I didn't cut the sausage up
because the sausage is frozen but I did have some little Smokies so I can
definitely see where that there's a difference between the old reflector and
the new style reflector and I guess this is going to be the one they shipped with
these new stoves from now on as a more highly I'm not certain to that maybe
this is an option they offer but if you live in an extreme northern climate
maybe this is the answer this doesn't work for you but basically that's what I
wanted to tell you if you if you live in the northern part of the country or any
country if you live at a higher latitude this is how you gotta set your stove so
it'll catch the the lower Sun as it goes across the horizon and a friend of mine
Greg in Michigan and a misty Valley I think her name is and I believe she
lives in the north - maybe the Northwest but that's the answer if it doesn't work
for you set at its regular position turn it over to catch the lower rays of the
Sun and you know you do have to be a little more diligent about making sure
it's aimed at the Sun but I've seen these used to cook roasts in the winter
set in the snow so I know they work all right I'm gonna be in my shop here
behind me and throughout the day I just come out and check this just to make
sure it stays in the Sun I may have to move to the front yard here in a little
while but we'll see it's only been about an hour and a half
and uh it can't ask for more than that so that's the that's the secret is to
turning this down low enough I mean to flipping it over on what would normally
be its backside to catch the sun's rays now I'm gonna turn this little but you
see my shadow is not quite square with the thing so what I'm gonna do is the
way I do it is I aim this a little ahead of the Sun like fifteen or twenty
minutes ahead and then I come out fifteen or twenty minutes later and I
mean well an hour or so later and re-emit ahead again so here's here's how
I aim it look at my shadow not the big fat shadow there this shadow so the way
I figure now is this actually it's almost square with its own now so I'm
still gonna go a little more ahead so now I'm ahead of the Sun and actually
I'm gonna pull it towards me just a little bit more there we go okay now you
see the shadow is more to the left side of this now as the Sun moves this away
my shadow will move - and what I'm doing is I'm aiming this a little ahead of the
Sun so as it moves this away you know for an hour it'll get really good
focused sunshine and uh you know you may not have to be that particular about the
Sun but I figure in the winter time every little bit of attention you pay to
this helps get it that much hotter and 2:54 about an hour's worth of sitting in
the Sun that's pretty good and if I can't have this thing at 2:54 oh I don't
know three hours four hours that'll be cooked alright I'm working on
something in my shot let me get back to work
don't think you can ask for much more than that in the middle of winter it's
uh about three hours into this I can smell it cooking smells really good um
probably gonna give this another hour maybe two they would as soon as I lose
that Sun over here I'll take it out probably based on where that shadow is
probably got about another another hour actually I think I can pull this back a
little bit further so I didn't have to go far like I thought I was gonna have
to there we go yeah that's probably got two more hours
of Sun without going far right here so uh see a couple hours we'll take that
out alright it's been about five hours and it's held this held 300 for at least
a couple of hours I gotta go get some pot holders but you absolutely look at
the steam you absolutely can cook in the winter well if you can see the steam
coming out of it
I didn't even bring a yeah I can't lift it up I'll be right back let me get some
oven mitts yeah I should have stirred it
yeah that's good to know you can use a solar oven in any season
in the winter months you just have to turn it over on the back side I'm gonna
get a fork and give this a taste thanks for watching y'all