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Step 10The future of the compound parabolic solar cooker?
Some little visions.
The compound parabolic solar cooker is part of my seeking after my holy grail.
A low tech, tracking solar cooker. I think it brings it way way closer!
But it is a lot more than that. It is a pretty good reliable and easy to make stand alone solar cooker.
Even the little one I made puts about 200 watts into the food. On an engineering forum, a guy calculated that it could pay for itself in electricity costs in 50 meals. (assuming the material cost 30 dollars).
He calculated that my 15 watt solar panel would pay for itself in "wait for it" Wait, WAIT ______
Wait 70 YEARS!!!!!!
If anyone can make the umbrella cooker a bit more close to the proper shape (without wrinkles like I had), the cost comes right down to under 10 dollars!
That could be a life saver all over the world when people go hungry.
The compound parabolic shape means that you can use pretty low tech tracking and still get good performance. The seasonal change in the suns altitude in the sky is 46 degrees.
That means that my cooker (if on a single axis tracking system), could cover almost the entire YEAR!
That is incredibly valuable. Accurately Tracking the sun is criminally hard to do.
With this little thing you do not have to be really accurate.
I also see this compound parabolic dish (in a half dish version) as being super useful for upside down solar ovens on tables. You have your tracking half dish under the table focusing the light through a hole in the table into the underside of the highly insulated solar oven.
So you can get higher heat and a greater transfer of energy too.
Some people think me weird to want to use it for soil steaming. I spoke on an online forum and some gardeners are quite liking the idea.
Including one with a tv show! Expanding the uses of solar cooking is good in my opinion!
Brian (Diagrams to come soon)
The compound parabolic solar cooker is part of my seeking after my holy grail.
A low tech, tracking solar cooker. I think it brings it way way closer!
But it is a lot more than that. It is a pretty good reliable and easy to make stand alone solar cooker.
Even the little one I made puts about 200 watts into the food. On an engineering forum, a guy calculated that it could pay for itself in electricity costs in 50 meals. (assuming the material cost 30 dollars).
He calculated that my 15 watt solar panel would pay for itself in "wait for it" Wait, WAIT ______
Wait 70 YEARS!!!!!!
If anyone can make the umbrella cooker a bit more close to the proper shape (without wrinkles like I had), the cost comes right down to under 10 dollars!
That could be a life saver all over the world when people go hungry.
The compound parabolic shape means that you can use pretty low tech tracking and still get good performance. The seasonal change in the suns altitude in the sky is 46 degrees.
That means that my cooker (if on a single axis tracking system), could cover almost the entire YEAR!
That is incredibly valuable. Accurately Tracking the sun is criminally hard to do.
With this little thing you do not have to be really accurate.
I also see this compound parabolic dish (in a half dish version) as being super useful for upside down solar ovens on tables. You have your tracking half dish under the table focusing the light through a hole in the table into the underside of the highly insulated solar oven.
So you can get higher heat and a greater transfer of energy too.
Some people think me weird to want to use it for soil steaming. I spoke on an online forum and some gardeners are quite liking the idea.
Including one with a tv show! Expanding the uses of solar cooking is good in my opinion!
Brian (Diagrams to come soon)
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