The Green Pail Retained Heat Cooker

The Green Pail retained heat cooker holds many foods at cooking temps long enough that simmering is not necessary it will hold 7 liters of pintos hot long enough to cook them well done and keep them above 170 deg F for 5 hours.

The Green pail is basically an inner shell isolated from an outer shell with loose fill insulation.

The Green Pail retained heat cooker is green because:
1- It is made from recycled plastic pails
2- It saves the energy that it takes to simmer food.
3- It keeps the heat out of the kitchen saving summer time ac cost
4- It can be made locally from local materials with local labor.
5- It saves the time necessary to watch food simmer, you can simply set it and forget it, walk away and leave it for hours.
6- It can hold food at safe temps between meals making refrigeration unnecessary, which could be handy in off grid situations.
7- It is a street vender micro enterprise design that someone could build and sell at flea markets, garage sales.

Step 1 7 Liters of pintos of cooked well done.

7 Liters of pintos of cooked well done.

Comments

[jack_of_all_everything]

i know sawdust can be found for free but what about using vermiculite or pearlite from the garden center. it would make for a lighter (and mold/rot retandant) retained heat cooker!

[whtboybig]

WHERE IS THE VIDEO??

[juanangel]

Excellent instructable. Only suggestion, leave the pail white. White absorbs the heat from the sunlight and is more visible in the outdoors. Heat coming from the inside will meet the heat coming from outside. Have the green and white with boiling water and then test and take new temperature measurements to see if it helped?.

[tfalter]

I always read that Black obsorbs, white repels...

[Allhands55]

Actually white will reflect heat. Dark colors absorb heat/light, while lighter colors reflect them. The color you see is the wavelength being reflected back. In the case of black, it is that color because it is absorbing all the visible light wavelengths. White is that color because it is reflecting back all visible light wavelengths. The white pail might keep it warmer longer but it would be because it is reflecting the heat back into the pail instead of absorbing it (like black would).

[juanangel]

You are 1000% correct. What I was thinking off?, I don't know. It was posibly visibility that blinded me.

[sedona007]

why not use a white bucket and paint the outside dark? In gardening white containers hold the heat well, but for plants that require more watering, dark containers absorb too much heat causing more watering.

[pnp]

I have made 6 of these since last fall. WalMart carries a camo 5-gallon plastic bucket with lid for around $6-7.00 in the hardware dept. Conceals well in the bush, plush the dark green/black/brown color absorbs more heat from the sun. I purchased some Stainless Steel "Bain Marie" pots from Lanny. They work great. Also WalMart carries a Ozark Trail 3.5quart blue enameled pot with lid and wire handle for about $10.00 which works fine. Thanks again, Lanny.

[meddler]

Thank goodness, i thought i was the only one who liked retained heat cooking.

[Bongmaster]

great to see it in instructable form :)