Solar Cooker Update

After taking a break from solar cookers, we got back into it. Benjamin, one of the others in my group, brought it home and finished the main construction. So far we have a fresnel lens on two legs with notches to adjust height. Two weeks ago, I went outside during fourth period after finishing a test, and the wind had knocked it over. Then someone else outside came over and picked up the lens and started burning a wooden stick. It caught on fire, and there's a pic below. I readjusted the cooker after sixth period Kyle, the other group member came to me and told me that it had burned the other piece of wood I placed inside of the pot beneath the lens at the focal point. Now the only problem we have is finding out how to make it wind resistant, and focusing the focal point onto the pot when lying straight. We've gotten to around 175ºF, and we're aiming for about 200ºF-225ºF. We'll get that working and I'll update later.

Solar Cooker Post #2

So far, building the solar cooker has been pretty fun. We made a parabolic, and it's easier than I expected. I didn't learn much so far, though, to be honest. Right now, we're planning to have two legs that hold up the frame and have notches on them for adjustment. I'm not sure if we're finished with that yet, though, because I wasn't there today, since I got another ear infection and the doctor advised me to stay home. I think it will cook effectively because our fresnel lens seems to work pretty well. We used it the other week and we actually got a paper towel to almost burn. That's pretty much all I have to say. Thanks for reading.

Solar Cooker

Well, for science (physics) I need to make a solar cooker. A solar cooker is something that allows you to cook using the power of the sun. There are three types of solar cookers; including parabolic, box, and panel. I am writing this blog post to help me decide what kind of solar cooker to make. I don't know how to word that sentence to get my point across, but you get it, right?

I am probably going to try to convince my group to make a box cooker. Box cookers seem the cheapest out of all of them. This is supposed to be for a developing country, so they won't be able to afford it. Box cookers also seem to be a bit more easy to make. They look like they require less materials (pictures below), so that will be convienient for the people buying them and ordering them (and easier for my group to make when testing.....).

Picture of a box cooker.

Picture by Sponheim, T. http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Minimum_Solar_Box_Cooker?file=Minimum_Solar_Box_Cooker_Photo_small.jpg