|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 28, 2009 13:30:49 GMT 12.75
I was just thumbing through the latest copy of Mother Earth News and spotted a side bar about cooking in a solar oven. I thought it was pretty cool and googled "Solar Ovens" and found a ton of ways to build (very inexpensivley) solar ovens. One model that caught my eye, because I have the things to build it with, was made from a piece of plywood, a truck innertube, and a pane of glass. Can it get simpler? I called Fred and asked if he wanted to do a science project and he did, so I helped him build it. We painted the 30"X30" piece of plywood black, blew up the innertube and laid it on the plywood out in the front yard. He mixed up a batch of oatmeal cookies and put them on a dark pizza pan I have and we set it on a couple of small wood blocks so air can circulate beneath it and placed a 32"X32" pane of glass (I had out of some old barn windows Dad kept). The black board and tube draw the heat which traps beneath the glass and the temperature got around 250-300 degrees I figured because his cookies were done in about forty-five minutes to an hour. Longer than in the house oven at 350 or 400, but still it worked great and used no electricity. He's doing a report for his homeschool project and I'll post it here after it's graded and include a couple of pictures. Next time I'm including an oven thermometer to see how hot it really gets. There was no cloud cover and it gets pretty hot down here, BUT, they say that outside temperature has nothing to do with cooking time since the inner air is insulated by the rubber tire and heated by the suns rays. Add a reflecter and I bet that sumbitch'll cook a small ham or a chicken dinner and totally off the grid too!
|
|
|
Post by OLKoot on Jul 28, 2009 14:16:16 GMT 12.75
Low and slow Brother, and I'll bet you can do some pulled pork......As long as you get the temps about 225 degrees, that butt will cook, but it'll take about 12-14 hours......That's all it took for my pulled pork a few weeks ago.....Back in the 50's, when I was in the Boy Scouts and when ever we wanted something good, we went underground too....We'd dig a hole , put some burning coals in the bottom of the pit , put some meat, potato's , butter veggies, salt and pepper, cover the hole all up and come back hours later.....YUMMMM....Similar principle if your in a sun field......
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 28, 2009 16:17:19 GMT 12.75
We made a similar solar oven back in the '70's for a school science project. We used Mylar on the inside as a reflector and it would cook a hot-dog quick enough to give a microwave a run for it's money. I've made them out of a cereal box with the front cut out and aluminum foil on the inside and Saran Wrap instead of a glass front and it works. Imagine what it would cook if the glass was a magnifier.
|
|
|
Post by OLKoot on Jul 28, 2009 16:37:24 GMT 12.75
Wanna cook a cow Mars??!! I'm game................
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 28, 2009 19:56:58 GMT 12.75
Wonder if a cow would "pop" like a frog in a microwave? Toby would want to use a hog though.
|
|
|
Post by RogueWarrior1957 on Jul 29, 2009 23:09:43 GMT 12.75
If you figure out how to make the reflector part of the solar cooker into a parabolic dish, it actually does magnify the effects of the sun. For an experiment, I used the polished aluminum reflector off one of those cheap clamp-on lights like you put a heat lamp in. When you put a hotdog through the hole where it originally screwed onto the light socket and if you aimed it toward the sun, the hotdog would start to smoke in a few seconds. Only problem on that one, the focal point was small so you had to pass the hotdog through the hole slowly to cook it.
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 30, 2009 9:41:04 GMT 12.75
"was small so you had to pass the hotdog through the hole slowly" - RW
Roguey, you a dirty ol' man even when you ain't trying to be, lolol!
Heck yeah man, that's a cheap way to fix lunch! For what the microwave burns in electricity, for a few seconds more you can reheat leftovers or cook weiners at zero expense. I just got the "step by steps" on how to build a small reflector oven like Mars was talking about out of a ceral box or a pizza box.
Put your lunch in it and set it out on the front porch in the sunlight and in no time you're set to eat.
Might sound silly to some, but don't you know that'll be awful handy come the next hurricane? After the storm passes it's usually a couple of weeks to get the power restored; this can be a useful tool.
|
|
|
Post by OLKoot on Jul 30, 2009 9:51:28 GMT 12.75
Loss of power?? BBQ grill , that's the answer 24/7/365.....My in laws had a rural home and there were usually several power failures each year and it seemed that we were up there for all of them.....I just broke out the old BBQ and cooked everything from breakfast to supper........
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 30, 2009 12:58:09 GMT 12.75
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just another alternative... Not bad one either when you live in the "Sunshine State". I bet I can put in a crock of beans and ham and them sumguns'll be ready for supper. I'm gonna try it!
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 30, 2009 14:58:37 GMT 12.75
Build yourself a box minus a front panel and line it with Mylar. Get some tubing(metal works better then PVC types) and drill a hole in the top side of your box the diameter of the tubing and another on the bottom side. Coil and or weave the tubing but in such a manner it fits within the box and the ends stick out past the holes. Attach a bucket or other container to the top and put a same size container on the bottom.Fasten a glass panel to the front of the box. Plug the bottom opening of the tubing. Add water to the top container and face the box toward the Sun. Remove the bottom plug and let the water drain into the bottom container. When all the water is in the bottom replug the tubing and dump the water back into the top container. Repeat as needed to heat the water to the desired temperature.
We found that painting the tubing black, we used copper, made it work better.
|
|
|
Post by OLKoot on Jul 30, 2009 15:16:37 GMT 12.75
Hey Mars, LOL, next post by you, I think you'll have us making some Tennessee mash!!!....LOLOLOL ;D
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 30, 2009 15:43:15 GMT 12.75
Hey Mars, LOL, next post by you, I think you'll have us making some Tennessee mash!!!....LOLOLOL ;D ;D ;D ;D
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 30, 2009 21:10:20 GMT 12.75
I've seen a few stills but I never can figure out why they work. My youngest sister had her own legal still and she would be the one to tell you how to do it.She died of cancer(genetic) Dec. 3, 2002 so she ain't telling these days. My so called smart science teacher added an electric pump to circulate the water and got a little testy when I pointed out the fact that doing so requires electricity to run the pump thereby defeating the purpose of a solar water heater. He stated that photoelectric cells could be used to power the pump(which we didn't have so it was plugged into an outlet) but he went from testy to po'd when I said that the electric could then be used to power a regular water heater instead of doing all the extra junk to get the same result.
|
|
|
Post by OLKoot on Jul 31, 2009 4:52:38 GMT 12.75
All you have to do is get a big piece of glass place it at a 45 degree angle over a bucket and aim the glass to the sun ....Condensation will form on the glass and will form warm water droplets and roll down into the bucket......It'll take awhile, but it works...
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 31, 2009 5:43:54 GMT 12.75
Either way makes for a cold shave in the morning.
|
|