Sunday, December 9, 2007

Bad Solar Oven

Alright, I built a solar oven last month and have tried in vain to increase the temperature. It gets up to a high of 170 degrees which is hot but not hot enough to bake bread. Beans were cooked in the oven a couple of times and they turned out good but I am concerned about not boiling them, they had to cook all day to be edible.

The problem appears to be the large design of the thing. It is a two by two foot square that one foot deep with a glass cover. The inside is lined with black sheet metal backed with half inch polyurethane insulation. The whole unit is tilted to align with the sun. There are no mirrored collectors on the front.

I will rework the unit with a smaller interior area and external collectors to see if that makes a difference.

1 comment:

BigBear said...

I have found a lot of resources on solar ovens just have not spent a great deal of time studying them.

They should provide the answers.