Win $75K for Solar Oven Invention - Did You Know?

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A contestant won $75,000 for a solar oven invention that utilizes aluminum foil inside a cardboard box, a concept many participants recall from childhood experiments. The discussion highlights feelings of frustration and jealousy among commenters, particularly regarding the simplicity of the invention and the perceived ease of winning such competitions. Some participants reference their own experiences with similar solar cooking methods, noting that these techniques are not new and have been used in various forms for years. There is a sentiment that the innovation may lie in the presentation rather than the concept itself. Overall, the thread reflects a mix of admiration for the winner's marketing savvy and skepticism about the originality of the idea.
minger
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You won $75k for WHAT??

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/blog/solar-cooker-wins-climate-change-challenge

So, this guy wins $75,000 for putting aluminum foil on the inside of a cardboard box, thereby "inventing" a solar powered oven. Did anyone else do similar things, or see this kind of thing when they were kids? I remember Bill Nye and Mr. Wizard doing this exact same thing.

I guess I'm just surly because I'm still paying off student loans and this guy is making bank on a really easy simple concept that's been around for ages. I mean, you give Les Stroud (probably my father) a cardboard box, some aluminum foil, a pot, and whatever he can find in the Brazilian jungle, and I imagine he'd be able to build an induction oven that can boil water in 90s or less.
 
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I heard about it on the radio, and had a similar thought, that I'd seen it or something similar several times. In Boy Scouts, we had a Dutch oven the reflected sunlight from Al sheet onto another sheet which we used to cook (or boil water) during afternoons in summer.

Perhaps the innovation is putting the hot box in another box, and covering the top with perspex.


One would have to research solar ovens to see if it's been reported on the internet before.
 


Seems like he put a HotPot
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/HotPot-cooking-vessel.jpg
inside a CooKit Solar Panel Cooker
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Solar-Panel-Cooker-in-front-of-hut.jpg
 
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That's just irritating. $75,000?! That would keep me in beer and smokes for almost a month.
 


http://www.selfsufficientish.com/solaroven.htm

And hay box Cooking are ancient.
 
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wolram said:
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/solaroven.htm

And hay box Cooking are ancient.
That site has a link to http://www.solarcooking.org/

and a page of plans

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm


There was a comment form on a page announcing the contest winner. I made the comment that it seems that the Kyoto box has been done before. I wonder if my comment will be published.
 
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Idiots always win competitions like this because its always idiots that are in charge of them. This reminds me of all the scholarships I've lost in the past to liberal arts majors.
 


Topher925 said:
Idiots always win competitions like this

True, I often win competitions.My best win was an out of date tin of beans at a village fete.
 


Astronuc said:
I heard about it on the radio, and had a similar thought, that I'd seen it or something similar several times. In Boy Scouts, we had a Dutch oven the reflected sunlight from Al sheet onto another sheet which we used to cook (or boil water) during afternoons in summer.

Perhaps the innovation is putting the hot box in another box, and covering the top with perspex.


One would have to research solar ovens to see if it's been reported on the internet before.

Aren't http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_oven" somewhat different, usually a heavy cast iron kettle with a equally heavy lid. Designed to be covered with hot coals and used for baking and/or roasting anything from a cake or biscuits to a large beef roast.
We called the Al foil contraptions, which were more common then dutch ovens, reflector ovens.
 
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  • #10


Jealousy is ugly on you guys. Sure, he used an old solution everyone's seen in middle school science class (heck even I made a solar oven with a parabolic reflector that could melt copper in college), but he found someone that was actually dumb enough to give him 75 grand for it! That's what I call genius marketing, and I would have done the same thing given the chance :wink:
 
  • #11


When's the next contest? :P
 

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