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Forum Index : Solar : solar cooking?
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| petanque don Senior Member  Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
Has anybody had experience with solar cooking? I am toying with getting a 1.5m parabolic dish to play with. Initially for people living off the grid they look worth investigating. |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
link to cooker is an example of what I am considering if it helps start a comment or two. |
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Tinker Guru  Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Well, it looks interesting but one would have a job of keeping those mirrors spotless of food splatter if the cooking is in an open pan or pot. I think the idea might have more merit for baking where the baking dish is inside an enclosure. Solar cakes anyone?  Klaus |
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KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178 |
DIy is the go Start with a plywood (or cardboard) box insulate it with foil backed foam make some reflectors out of cardboard and tin foil result -surprising! I use a piece of fake grass as it gets really hot, a couple of pieces of foil board as a reflector and if we've forgotten to defrost food for the evening meal 20mins in the "heater" and its good to go. An old BBQ is a good shell to start with too. need glass lid for best results and if it gets big, which it will, best to remain on the wheels so you can re-position it every 20mins Luck favours the well prepared |
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| philb Regular Member  Joined: 05/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 96 |
This is my second year to use a Sun Oven I would have never believed they work so well. I use mine primarily as a 'crock pot'. Load it in the morning and eat in the afternoon. It takes very little work and it's too hot for the local varmints to get into. If I had it to do over, I would make my own. philb |
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MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
petanque don I have lots of plates in the air right now (working on many projects), but if you can wait a while, I will be making a flat-plate solar cooker. It uses oil and has a "loop" at the top where a frying pan or kettle can be placed and used for cooking. Because it's oil filled, it can hold much more heat than something with water, but it is also much more dangerous, so I'll have to build in some safety features before I post it on the Internet. Be patient; it'll happen sooner or later. I'm working on a new "MacGyver Pumper" which is a windmill that pumps air using an unusual mechanical-advantage feature. It's about a third done and as soon as it's finished, I'll post the build and move on to the next project. It also furls, not that it needs it, but it'll be cool! Unfortunately, I've got the airplane bug again, so I have to finish two planes before I get to the solar thing, but it'll happen. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| JimBo911 Senior Member Joined: 26/03/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 262 |
Solar cooking is awesome. Load it in the morning, go to work, come home and eat. Never burns or over cooks at least not around here Chicago USA.  Jim |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
It came on Wednesday (18 days from China) I assembled it this morning it took about 90 minutes and about 50 to 60 bolts. It seems to work well as long as you have a shadow. You do need dark glasses or welding goggles to use it but arc welding helmet is too dark |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
petanque don Could you toss up a picture, please? . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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AMUN-RA Senior Member Joined: 10/03/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 144 |
don what type did you get and from what company Please Every day the sun shines & gravity sucks= free energy. |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
PM sent I will get some photos soon I should mention that the box it came in was not up to international freight as a single item it had cosmetic damage. |
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| AMUN-RA Senior Member Joined: 10/03/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 144 |
looking forward to pics and cooking results Every day the sun shines & gravity sucks= free energy. |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
cooked some soup this today started as 10 am frying the onions you really needed to watch the pot closely or you could get a brown spot on the bottom (almost burning) easily boiled about 6l of soup if it had been on a conventional cook-top I would have turned it down. cooker need to be re-aimed about every 20 to 25 minutes. initial impressions are it had similar heat to a 60 mm across gas burner that is about on 3/4 it was a clear sunny day today in Adelaide (26/4/2011) the pot holder was beginning to sag with a 30cm stock pot about 3/4 full on it. 
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
the cosmetic damage from the freight can be seen on the panel below the cooker |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
Another photo |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
checking the size of the pot it was 250 mm in diameter and 160 mm deep it had about 100 mm of liquid in the bottom. so my calculations suggest there was about 5 liters probably around 6 Kg with the pot |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
petanque don Very Star Warsie; I like it. How much did it cost? I've tried making reflecting cookers like this and I always spill something on the mirror and botch up it's shine. I remember the first one I made, which cooked hot dogs in less than a minute. I dropped a greasy dog on it right away and it was downhill from there. My new cooker will be flat plate and very "passive". The plan is to double its duty as a cooker as well as a heater element for both my clothes dryer and domestic hot water. I'll post pictures of the build when it's done. . . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
the freight cost more than the cooker. by todays effort I would wonder if the 1.2 m diameter one would be adequate for the middle of the day. the link at the beginning of the tread contains a video of people using a pressure cooker in 7 degrees F I only did the conversion this is -13 Centigrade if you are going home made would some sort of box cooker be worth considering? |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
pentaque do I made a box cooker once using a Styrofoam-insulated and polished, aluminum-lined interior all made out of a cardboard box. The lid was hinged (with duct tape) and there was a Lexan window, which let in sunlight. The cooking pot was dark colored and it would boil beans or make corn bread and nothing ever burned. I never tried cooking any meat in it. I tried a cake and it was fine for the most part, but the center was a bit mushy. I suppose I should have left it in several hours longer. The interior temperature stayed about 350 degrees F and that was in the summer. My latitude is approximately 34*N and that is the tilt I used to "aim" it at the sun's arc in my southern sky. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
the link at the beginning of the thread has a group that sell them for $170 USD in the states this is about what I paid. if you are in the states I would suggest this is about as good a deal as you would get. |
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