Friday, March 26, 2010

R&D














Rather obsessed with solar cooking today in order to prep for the Terligua Green Scene demo coming up on April 10. Just couldn't wrap my brain around how to keep the cooking surface level as I tilted the dish for my satellite fryer. Searched all over the internet and didn't find exactly what I was looking for so I am just going to have to design it myself. Had to rig some parts to see how it worked and soon discovered it is just a parallelogram. Ordered 200 one inch diameter glass mirrors to glue to the dish surface. Good price and fast service - my mirrors got shipped the same day I ordered them. http://www.bjcraftsupplies.com/
Just one more thing to distract me - also started playing with one of my old bike wheel wind mills - good attention getters.....hope to fix up my Stepper Spinner to show off soon. It is featured in my very first YouTube video posted November 21, 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxcMiXbxdTI 79,92,35,0

1 comment:

Unknown said...

One solar cooker design I've seen had a glass bottle resting in a cradle at the focus point. This was for boiling water. The bottle had a lid, but with a small hole for pressure relief. This cooker did not need to keep the bottle level.

For cooking or baking with pans, you'll need a gymbal or basket on a hanging chain. The pan itself is the weight and dark target at the same time. You won't be able to check the food or stir it while it's in focus due to the extreme light, so build the system like a crane, such that you can pull the pan away and swing it back easily.

It's best to cook with the sun just as you would in a crock pot. It's difficult to maintain a consistent high temperature, but a lower, adequate heat is pretty easy. Or perhaps you could consider flash-boiling water and then using that to cook in a thermos.