9.25.10

I had a garage sale today. While it was slow, I took the time to start a broken mirror mosaic on the surface of the dish to replace the warn out Mylar. I took silicone and spread it on the back of the mirror pieces and then arranged the shapes to roughly match up. While there will be a loss in efficiency because of the gaps between the mirrors I hope that the mirrors reflectivity will make up for it. It will be nice to have something that I can just leave outside.

This is a picture of the cooler that I designed to be used as an oven. concentrated sunlight will pass through the hole and the inside will also be covered with reflectors to pass the light onto a black body such as a cast iron. Some people say that this won't work and some say that it might work. When I painted this box, put the mylar on the outside, and added the thermometer my intention was for the dish reflector to be used. I have a feeling the the fresnel lens will work better because I will be able to get the light tighter but it is a linear focal point so I doubt that I will be able to get all of the light in the hole.

9.11.10

It rained all morning today. I will shoot for next week. I found out that the Madison children's museum is going to be having a solar cooking demonstration on the 19th perhaps I can show what I have come up with there.

9.8.10

I tested the stainless steel cooking container(SSCC) with oil today to try to make popcorn. I believe that the oil should be about 400 degrees F. It seems that the SSCC looses heat faster than the cast iron. Really when it comes down to it, it is the oil that is difficult to heat. I heated three tablespoons of vegetable oil up to 375 in about a half hour in good sun. I think that popcorn is doable but I am going to give the container 45 minutes to warm up next time.

9.4.10

I decided to do a little research about where to setup at the farmers market today. I think that the sun will be better on the southeast side of the capital. I am going to ask the police if I can setup on the capital side of the street. I have decided that instead of pancakes at the farmers market I am going to try popcorn. It will be more dynamic and exciting.