Objective:

• Design and build some solar cookers for use in fundraising / social barbecues or bake sale events
• This will be a very fun, hands-on project (with very little calculation ... hooray!)

Aug 16, 2010 update:

This is the small solar cooker.



Tasks:

• Reinforce and stabilize the grill section so it will not spill the pot contents. Currently the grill looks like this and is not entirely stable:
  

Oct 23, 2009 update:

We've got the basic concentrator and cooking surface done from last term.  Some more work needs to happen, though, before we can actually use it to make some food.  This is a fun, hands-on project, requiring very little skills with tools.  Good for learning!

Tasks:

• design and build a stand to support the cooking surface
• adjustable to keep in focal point of mirrors
• improve our cooking surface to improve heat storage
• build barbecue rack inside?
• add a sturdy lid to keep in heat?

Background info:

Sunlight is hot.  Hot make food cook.  Cook food to eat.

Two main types of solar cookers:

• concentrating cooker
  
• some kind of parabolic/circular trough or dish, to concentrate sunlight onto the bottom (painted black) of a cooking surface
• trough-type shown below left
  

• solar oven / box cooker
  
• an insulated box with glass/plastic-covered chamber, to exploit the "greenhouse effect" and heat the contents
• could also be a simple black pot in a plastic bag (as shown below right)
  

We've got a HUGE roll of highly reflective thin sheet aluminum over at the solar lab that we can use.  The roll is about 21.5" wide. Let's build something!!

Images: