back to basics: boiling water

Boiling water is something that a lot of us do everyday in the kitchen, whether it be for making tea, cooking pasta or boiling potatoes. I thought it would be a good test of the oven to see if it could in fact boil water and how long the process would take. This took place on Tuesday morning when the sun was shining. Come back sun!!

11:20am I placed a (black) mug of cold water in the oven. It is very warm and sunny however I am a little worried about the breeze blowing. It is messing with the reflector a little bit.


15 mins in - Water is still cold but the mug is heating up.

30 mins in - Tea is now warming up. I have adjusted the angle of the reflector to get some stronger heat. I am going to leave the oven for half an hour before opening it again as I want to keep to heat inside. Continuous opening is lessening the sun's effect.

1 hour in - The water seems to be getting close to boiling.. Heat bubbles can be seen on the bottom and sides of the mug.

1 1/2 hours in - The reflector keeps getting pushed around by the breeze because of the direction it is blowing so have decided to just take the mug out. I almost burnt my fingers lifting the mug out of the oven. The water has not quite hit boiling point but it sure is scalding!! My pinky finger was not so happy to have been thrust so carelessly into the fiery water.

According to 'Solar Cookers International' (and organisation I have been researching that does a lot of work to provide solar ovens in poorer countries such as Haiti) water heated to 65°C for a short period of time is free from microbes, including E. coli, Rotaviruses, Giardia and the Hepatitis A virus. Their ability to pasteurise water and kill disease-causing organisms is one of the main benefits of providing access to solar ovens overseas.
I need to get a thermometer I can stick in the water and do this again and measure the result more accurately.