Solar Oven Beta 1 is baking flower pot bread. It seems to be working well, though I believe lining the box with foil was a mistake. The extra reflection seems to cause a net loss in heat retention. I'll take it out next time and see how the flat black interior works. I also saw a tip about putting a piece of tile or stone slab in the bottom and letting it preheat for an hour or so, so the bread gets more heat from below, instead of cooking purely from the top down.
Note the temperature probe in the large pot on the bottom left. 2 hours and 30 mins into the baking process it reads 149 degrees. That's the temperature of the bread in the pot. I suspect the surrounding air is warmer, as the two loaves on top are much browner.
I just learned to cut glass in preparation for Solar Oven 1.0. The problem with the beta version is that it's too light, and the solar collectors catch the wind and make it tip over. I used this design
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html
for the beta, and I'm going to use mirrors and plywood for version 1.0. The cardboard one works just fine, but I want something a bit more heavy duty and stable.
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