gaiatechnician
02-14-2010, 11:35 PM
I guess this should not really go in here because it is only at the early development stage.
Basically my original idea was to make a large solar cooker reflector that would give more or less full power for about 2 hours without having to move the solar cooker.
I solar cook soil to steam kill weed seeds and bugs and then use the soil for seedlings.
A lady from mother earth news uses a box cooker to kill off pathogens in her diseased fruit and veg. So this would be relevant to gardening.
I was thinking of an alternative to parabolic reflectors. Parabolics are supposed to be great because they can be a lot more powerful than box cookers.
IF you stay with them for the cooking period to readjust them as the sun moves across the sky. (They need to be readjusted every 15 to 20 minutes).
Well, I do NOT want to be stuck in the sun for a whole hour or longer getting cooked!
People have told me that it is IMPOSSIBLE to design a reflector to do that.
I had some success making the shape with little square mirrors.
There are 3 links for anyone wanting to follow it. http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_design_T-Square
with basic explanation and older pics (and changable by anybody)
Please check out the animated gif for a procedure.
http://solardesign.ning.com/photo/albums/solar-design-tsquare (more up to date but less text to explain what is going on)
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6N2IGcVHrg
(video of the little models). You can probably see the shapes best in the video. (It was hard to see depth when I photographed the mirrors).
Anyway, it does seem to work.
If anyone tries it, be aware that with the cheap little laser pointers the laser is not in line with the barrel! If you make a hole for it in a piece of wood or metal like I did, you just have to twist it round in the hole until it is pointing straight down before making any other adjustments. It might be worthwhile using small laser levels instead to avoid this hassle.
Anyway, thats it for now. It would be great if others could join in or if someone wanted to use this for a school or university project.
It is community commons licensed so we all own it!
And it is original work.
So if you want to keep ahead of the Jones's, be the first in your neighbourhood to make yourself a clam shaped solar cooker!
Brian
Basically my original idea was to make a large solar cooker reflector that would give more or less full power for about 2 hours without having to move the solar cooker.
I solar cook soil to steam kill weed seeds and bugs and then use the soil for seedlings.
A lady from mother earth news uses a box cooker to kill off pathogens in her diseased fruit and veg. So this would be relevant to gardening.
I was thinking of an alternative to parabolic reflectors. Parabolics are supposed to be great because they can be a lot more powerful than box cookers.
IF you stay with them for the cooking period to readjust them as the sun moves across the sky. (They need to be readjusted every 15 to 20 minutes).
Well, I do NOT want to be stuck in the sun for a whole hour or longer getting cooked!
People have told me that it is IMPOSSIBLE to design a reflector to do that.
I had some success making the shape with little square mirrors.
There are 3 links for anyone wanting to follow it. http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_design_T-Square
with basic explanation and older pics (and changable by anybody)
Please check out the animated gif for a procedure.
http://solardesign.ning.com/photo/albums/solar-design-tsquare (more up to date but less text to explain what is going on)
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6N2IGcVHrg
(video of the little models). You can probably see the shapes best in the video. (It was hard to see depth when I photographed the mirrors).
Anyway, it does seem to work.
If anyone tries it, be aware that with the cheap little laser pointers the laser is not in line with the barrel! If you make a hole for it in a piece of wood or metal like I did, you just have to twist it round in the hole until it is pointing straight down before making any other adjustments. It might be worthwhile using small laser levels instead to avoid this hassle.
Anyway, thats it for now. It would be great if others could join in or if someone wanted to use this for a school or university project.
It is community commons licensed so we all own it!
And it is original work.
So if you want to keep ahead of the Jones's, be the first in your neighbourhood to make yourself a clam shaped solar cooker!
Brian