Solar Oven Design

Collect It!

Type Environmental/Physical Science Grade 7-12 Difficulty of the Project Difficult Cost $5-30 depending on designs chosen Safety Issues Use UV protection (eyewear, sun block) and avoid staring at the sun. Approximate Time Required to Complete the Project 2-3 weeks, works best during warm sunny weather

Objective
Student builds and compares the heating abilities of solar ovens.

Materials and Equipment/Ingredients

y y y y y y Aluminum foil Clear tape Glue Cardboard Plastic wrap and/or Plexiglas Two thermometers

Introduction
As nonrenewable fossil fuels continue to cause problems with pollution, many people are looking toward renewable energy for solutions. Solar energy is a source of clean, renewable energy that powers ecosystems and nutrient cycles on Earth. One application of solar energy is the use of solar ovens. Unlike photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity, solar ovens use the heat of the sun to cook food directly. They are inexpensive and relatively easy to build, qualities that make them a good choice for developing countries where both electricity and fuel wood are scarce. In this experiment, the student will build two different solar ovens and compare their designs and heating abilities.

Terms, Concepts and Questions for Background Research

y y y y y Renewable energy Nonrenewable energy Fossil fuels Air Pollution Solar energy

y y y y y y y y y y y 1.

Solar ovens Solar cookers Ultraviolet (UV) light Heat What are the advantages and disadvantages of coal and oil? What are the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy? How is solar energy important to Earths ecosystems? How is solar energy important to Earths nutrient cycles? How do solar ovens work? What are the different types of designs for solar ovens? How could solar ovens be important for developing countries? Visit the websites listed in the bibliography. Choose two designs to construct. Be sure to read through all of the instructions before choosing a design to make sure that you will be able to construct the oven. Get adult help if necessary. Build two solar ovens with different designs, using the instructions on the websites. Create your hypothesis as to which oven will heat better and why. Consider which oven you think will heat faster and which oven you think will reach the highest temperature. Near noon on a warm sunny day, take your ovens outside and position them for maximum sun exposure. Sun block, protective clothing, and sunglasses will protect you from UV rays. Once the ovens are positioned, place thermometers inside each and close the oven as described in the design guidelines. Record the initial temperature inside each oven. Observe the thermometers as the ovens work. Record the temperature in each oven every 5 minutes. Reposition the ovens as necessary to keep maximum sun exposure as the sun moves through the sky. Continue for 1-3 hours until the ovens stop increasing in temperature for a full 30 minutes. Take down your ovens and keep for future use. Create a line graph showing your results. Compare your results to your hypothesis. http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/solarbox.htm http://www.solarnow.org/pizzabx.htm http://sunnycooker.webs.com/sunnycookerplan.htm http://www.angelfire.com/80s/shobhapardeshi/ParvatiCooker.html http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html

Research Questions

Experimental Procedure

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Bibliography
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Lynsey Peterson is a science education writer with research experience in plant ecology. She has enjoyed many years of teaching biological, environmental, and earth sciences to middle and high school students.

Sunny Cooker - Construction Plan

INTRODUCTION: The price of corrugated cardboard, which is widely used for the making of low cost solar cookers, has been rising at an annual rate of 15-20% in recent years. The price rise is due to the costlier energy, labor, chemical products and recovered paper, which are used for making corrugated cardboard. The cardboard price increase may not have an impact on those solar cookers made from used cardboard boxes, but it would impact those made from newly purchased cardboard material.

Cardboard price increase is inevitable, but we could alleviate the cost impact per solar cooker if we are able to reduce the amount of construction material needed in making each solar cooker. In early 2008, I set a goal to create a functional solar cooker, from a flat sheet of cardboard, by using 25% less material than that required for a CooKit solar cooker. The end result, after about eight month's time, is the Sunny Cooker. The Sunny Cooker, made from a 36" x 36" sheet of cardboard, has multiple triangular shape reflector panels to help focus sunlight towards a cooking pot. 'Sunny Cooker' is designed in such a way that its contour can be easily re-shaped, simply by tilting the cooker forward or backward. Altering the contour of the cooker would enable the cooker to become more efficient in capturing the sunlight at different sun angles.

Sunny Cooker in normal low-sun-angle setting (For cooking when: 35o < sun angle < 50o)

Sunny Cooker in mid-sun-angle setting & tilted backward (For cooking when: 45o < sun angle < 60o)

Sunny Cooker in high-sun-angle setting & tilted backward o (For cooking when: sun angle > 50 )

MATERIAL and CONSTRUCTION STEPS: To construct a Sunny Cooker, this will require a square sheet of corrugated cardboard measuring 36x36, aluminum foil and glue.

The following are the construction steps for the Sunny Cooker: 1. Glue the aluminum foil on one side of the square cardboard. 2. Draw cookers outlines and fold lines on the aluminum side of the cardboard. Make sure that the cardboard corrugations or flutes run vertically from the top to the bottom. 3. Cut away all unwanted parts. 4. Crease and fold along the fold lines. 5. Cut open the four slots, and widen them to about the same dimension as the thickness of the cardboard.

Please click on the link below if you need a .cdr format copy of the 'Sunny Cooker' plan. I used the Corel Draw to create the plan. http://webzoom.freewebs.com/sunnycooker/Sunny Cooker Plan.cdr

COOKER ASSEMBLY and SETTINGS: For a new cooker, crush the corrugations or flutes within the two locking tabs first before using it. This will make it easier to bend and insert the locking tabs through the slots. When the suns angle is below 50o, assemble the cooker by inserting the two locking tabs through the two upper slots. When the suns angle is above 50o, assemble the cooker by inserting the two locking tabs through the two lower slots.

The vertical section of the cooker's panels can be tilted backward, and kept in the desired position, by wedging a small stone under the lower edge of the two vertical panels on the side. Backward tilting of the cooker will allow for better focusing of the sunlight towards the cooking pot when the sun moves to a higher altitude.

SETTINGS and COOKING: To cook, put food in a black metal pot (3 to 4 liters size), and cover the pot with a clear glass lid. Enclose the pot inside a clear oven bag, if available, and place the cooking pot on top of the cookers base. Set the cooker according to the instructions in the two previous paragraphs, and face the cooker directly towards the Sun to start cooking. Adjust the cooker, from time to time, to ensure that the sunlight stays focused on the cooking pot. Tilt the cooker forward, as shown in the above illustration, should there be a need to start cooking even when the sun is still low, less than 35o. It would also help if the cooking pot is raised higher by

an

inch

or

two, with

support, to

better

capture

the low sunlight.

Sunny

Cooker and (4L size

4L pot

size pot achieved

with 156

clear degree

glass lid C temperature)

STORAGE and TRANSPORTATION: The Sunny Cooker can be fully folded by first releasing the two locking tabs from their slots, and following the folding steps shown in the illustrations below. A fully folded Sunny Cooker measures about 21x18x3.

Some of the joints, between panels, may remain flat when a folded cooker is taken out of storage and re-assembled for use. To correct this, it is necessary to refold the cooker, along its existing fold lines, and adjust the panels until you get an even cooker curvature.

I hope that the introduction of the 'Sunny Cooker' design will be able to help bring about meaningful savings due to a reduction in the amount of construction material required. Teong H Tan 23 August 2008 Improvement Modifications for the Sunny Cooker Gravity and repeated folding of the cooker can cause the two lower reflectors, in the front, to flatten out and the cooker to loose its desired cooker's shape. This can be seen in the photo below, where the front edges of the lower panels no longer form a nice upward curve.

In order to correct this situation, a string can be used to pull the two lower panels closer together in order to restore the desired cooker's shape. See photo below, whch shows the front edges of the lower panels forming a proper upward curve.

Another modification that can be easily incorporated, in order to increase the amount of sunlight being reflected towards the pot, is to make an alteration to the two triangular reflectors, in the middle of the cooker, as shown in the photo below.

Below is a photo of the modified Sunny Cooker with a pot inthe middle of the cooker. The reflections of the pot can be seen on all the reflecting panels.