What is Digg?55 Comments
- cyborg, on 06/11/2008, -1/+30Are there any pictures during construction?
Are there any pictures of a finished project?
"and impress you friends at a bbq"
.....really?
How hot can one of these things get?
I sort of doubt that this would impress anyone, you'd set up at a BBQ and people would probably laugh at you as the guy with an actual grill makes stakes.........while you, make half thawed meat sickles that vaguely taste like cardboard, Mmmm......pass the A1 will ya'? - Oea420, on 06/12/2008, -3/+20Did this in the sixth grade.
The still frozen pizza was not splendid.
Would not repeat. - 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -0/+16On the other hand,
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30. ...
gives pictures and more detailed instructions for a solar cooker that actually works. Mine routinely hits 290F and is going on two years old, which is not bad for a bunch of recycled cardboard, a pane of scrap window glass and some foil. Other tested designs are at:
http://solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm - AgmLauncher, on 06/12/2008, -0/+12"Are there any pictures during construction?
Are there any pictures of a finished project?"
No, why would the author of this want to include any information or images that would lend credence or make it interesting? - AgmLauncher, on 06/12/2008, -0/+10Hahha, if it's hot enough to cook food, it's also hot enough TO CATCH ON FIRE.
I call shenanigans - qwertydvorak, on 06/12/2008, -0/+9"and impress you friends at a bbq"
i prefer to impress them with blocks of hickory, and a long smoking time. - Berkana, on 06/12/2008, -0/+7That's rather lame. I like this idea better: hang a dutch oven at the focus of a big old C-band satellite dish that has had mirror chips epoxied onto the parabolic surface, and point it at the sun. Cross your fingers and hope it doesn't melt the dutch oven.
Here's what a C-band satellite dish can do when the surface is covered in mirror chips: Behold, the Lightsharpener!—
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB2_5euShD4
Light sharpener vs. a water mellon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFV91SQKD5c - agentb111, on 06/12/2008, -0/+7R.I.P Solid Snake
- fluidfoundation, on 06/11/2008, -1/+8We did this in boy scouts. Didn't work well then either.
- inactive, on 06/12/2008, -0/+6space blankets ($2 at walmart) are really good for insulation, generally they block 80% of the IR going in one direction, and let it pass in the other. This can improve cooking temps (potentially igniting the box, test early, test often) especially if you plan on doing pork or poultry. I would also suggest a thermometer (like a turkey one, long stick so the sensor is inside but the dial is outside) to ensure that you are cooking hot enough to kill whatever may be in the food (E.coli, salmonella, etc).
You can get 96% IR reflection if you line both the inside and outside of the box with a space blanket, but again watch that you dont ignite the cardboard. This would be a dramatic boost in efficiency lowering cooking times, increasing temps to safer levels, and could be used instead of the tin foil.
Space blankets are technically plastic not metal, so watch that they dont melt, again test early, test often. You also have to angle the reflector just right, and honestly I dont see their method as the best, the better ones use a parabola (think discarded satellite dish) to focus more heat into a smaller area getting to the point that cardboard wouldnt be as suitable. You can also cut wedges yourself to make a parabola for use with this.
The red cross at one time had disposable solar ovens that would actually boil water, so even 10-15 years ago the technology was there, most of the time its just bad design that causes problems. - yoda17, on 06/12/2008, -0/+6Ar a BBQ, you could get some luke warm hotdogs, but it might take a few hours and everyone will likely have gone home by then.
- thefandango, on 06/12/2008, -0/+5step 1: light cardboard box on fire.
step 2: BBQ! - DjOverEZ, on 06/12/2008, -0/+5That's nothin!
When I was a kid, I could turn a cardboard box into a car, an airplane, a fort, a tank, a.... - wcaclimbing, on 06/12/2008, -1/+5old news. I learned how to do this way back in elementary school..... It couldn't even toast a marshmellow....
- AgmLauncher, on 06/12/2008, -0/+4Sadly that would probably be cheaper than making it yourself.
- d3dm, on 06/12/2008, -0/+4I don't know what sort of people that you have over for a BBQ, but my friends would be most impressed if you opened that cardboard box and pulled out a 12-pack of cold microbrew and a half-dozen rib-eyes.
- 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -0/+4Well, not better, just different. Parabolic cookers can get far hotter than solar box ovens, but they are way more fussy about keeping them properly aligned. There are pros and cons to both designs.
- 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -0/+4Nope. Regardless of what temperature your oven is at, the vast majority of your food cooks at 212F. As long as it has any water in it, it physically can't get over that temp. All higher oven temperatures do is give you a little browning (by driving the water out of the outer edges of your food) and faster cook times. My first solar oven was a "heaven's flame" cardboard box cooker which routinely gets over 250F - on a good day approaching 280F. Paper, i.e. cardboard doesn't ignite till well over 400F.
It's best to treat the box cookers like crock-pots or slow cookers. I've put a roast and veggies in mine at 11:00 in the morning - re-orient it three or four times during the day, and by dinner, you've got a tender well-cooked meal.
And don't think you have to live in Mexico or Kenya for it to work - hears a vid of a wood oven a guy in Ontario is using...in February.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=47rpRAA86eo - FaithclubDotNet, on 06/12/2008, -0/+3I built one of these, and without even testing it, I gave it to my friend's daughter for a science project. It was the only oven that actually worked in the whole bunch and she told me that they were cooking all sorts of stuff on it. All I did was look up solar ovens on some search engine and made a parabola out of tin foil.
- Berkana, on 06/12/2008, -0/+3Here's another couple of ideas that is better than a box with foil in it:
Get an old Primestar satellite dish, mod the receiver arm to hold a small metal pot, and cover the surface of the parabolic dish with reflective tape. Point it at the sun.
Or:
Salvage the massive fresnel lens from one of those old projection based big screen TVs, and mount it on a wooden frame that can be steered around. One of those things can focus enough light to melt a penny in less than a minute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPgHkSMQP5s - gamben0, on 06/12/2008, -1/+4Useful way for homeless people to cook crack?
- Mongoose, on 06/12/2008, -0/+2Wasn't this on Bill Nye?
- yujie, on 06/12/2008, -0/+2Can it be in orange color?
- ramiro, on 06/12/2008, -0/+2Thanks for posting it!
- frositay, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1!
- inactive, on 06/12/2008, -1/+2Can these be made large enough to hold a cat? Er, a friend of mine wants to know. Yes, Not me, a friend. Really. Him.
Oh, all right. I admit it. I hate cats. Filthy buggers. With their fangs and those scales and the claws and the wings. Solar cook them all, I say! - harmonik, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1Just give him a handful of baking soda and some (preferably) distilled water and he'll be fine!
- 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1No, this is not crap. Or, to be more accurate, the posted design is crap, but you can make a very good oven from recycled cardboard, a pane of glass and some foil - I've cooked meatloaf, roasts w/veggies and chicken in mine. I'd kill to have the sunlight you've got in AZ - I live in the so-called "sunshine state" (hint: big fat marketing hype BS), but still manage to get in a few solar meals every week.
I'm sorry your first try didn't go well, but there was probably an issue with sealing that could have been corrected, and saved the meatloaf.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolarCooking/?v=1&t= ... - cyborg, on 06/12/2008, -1/+2Yeah, that's.
I like both those articles alot better. - ricoboy24, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1i did this in 5th grade. and we cooked hot dogs... they turned green... seriously. but tasted fine with mustard.
- 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1A) here's - sheesh.
and B) by wood oven, I mean a solar box oven constructed using wood. Damn that tequilla! - 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -1/+2Your post is dubious at best. I've cooked meatloaf, roasts and chicken in my first oven, made of scrap cardboard, a pane of discarded window glass and foil. The design posted won't do this, but if your oven was well-built, it was more than adequate for meatloaf. Chances are you had some sealing problems. Here are a bunch of folks cooking routinely with a variety of box and parabolic cookers - check out the files section:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolarCooking/?v=1&t= ... - Berkana, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1If you're going to make a paraboloid, make a big one:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-str ... - DavidYeah, on 06/12/2008, -1/+2At first I was like : |
Then, I lol'd. - redwallhp, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1I made a solar oven out of a pizza box once. It managed to melt chocolate and marshmallows after about 20mins.
- gn0stik, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1"Photo Credit: Christine Balderas/ Istock"
Nice box Christine. giggety. - inactive, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1what do you do if it's overcast?
- gn0stik, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1and GREEN too!
- vbullinger, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1I just realized how stupid this is:
If I'm ever out in the middle of nowhere or whatever, and I need to heat something up, I'll just start a fire.
This is a middle school project at best... which is when I made one for shop class, and it was a whole Hell of a lot better than this one. It cooked hot dogs quite nicely. - beauley, on 06/16/2008, -0/+1With Global Warming on many people's minds, do we have any ideas of the best way to lessen the impact on our future, or maybe a possible relief of its possible ravages or even a possible key to its eventual reversal. Many scientific experts have proposed
http://www.quazen.com/Science/Technology/Solar-Pow ...
Solar Power, Source of Endless Energy - HentaiJeff, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1starve, or eat it and succumb to food poisoning
- yoda17, on 06/12/2008, -1/+1This is crap. I built a solar oven in the 7th grade, but was professionally (for a 7th grader) constructed from plywood, glass, insulation, black thermal coating where appropriate and concentrator mirrors.
After being in the sun for 4+ hours, in Phoenix, in July, my mom thought it appropriate that her meatloaf went in the oven for a while before anyone was allowed to eat it.
They're totally impractical for something this small. - inactive, on 06/12/2008, -1/+1The article says "Hack"... what's the need?
- HentaiJeff, on 06/12/2008, -1/+1BBQ!=hot dogs, hamburgers, and steaks. BBQ=brisket, hotlinks, pulled pork, or W/E else you want to throw BBQ sause on.
- 47f0, on 06/12/2008, -1/+1And my sincere apologies for spamming you with two replies. Apparently digg has made yet another brilliant upgrade in the comments system.
Sigh. - HentaiJeff, on 06/12/2008, -1/+1step 3:???
step 4 profit!!! - mapls, on 03/05/2009, -0/+0This is genius. It' s great.
Don' t look under here(it' s totally unrelated to this post) :
http://weightwatchers-recipes.info/weight-watchers ... - JackFat, on 06/12/2008, -0/+0 I used to cook burritos on the dashboard of my car when working out in the sticks (summertime, Texas) with no place to microwave. Put them on the dash by 10 am or so, by noon they would be quite hot.
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