Your Opinion On This Solar Cooker

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the design and effectiveness of a solar cooker, specifically focusing on achieving a temperature sufficient to heat 500ml of water within 30 minutes. Participants explore various materials, configurations, and principles of thermal conductivity and solar energy collection.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes a design involving a box structure with a metal component featuring fins to increase surface area, along with folded aluminum foil to enhance heat retention.
  • Another participant questions the clarity of the design, asking for details about the orientation and sunlight interaction, suggesting that existing solar cooker designs could be referenced.
  • A different participant suggests that spreading water over a larger area could enhance energy absorption, noting the importance of minimizing heat loss through design choices.
  • One participant mentions that using a parabolic reflector could reduce heat losses and improve efficiency, sharing a personal experience with a homemade reflector.
  • There is a discussion about the effectiveness of direct sunlight versus heat retention, with one participant questioning their understanding of heat loss in their design.
  • Another participant agrees that a compact shape would reduce heat loss and emphasizes the need for calculations to determine the appropriate size of the reflector.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the effectiveness of the proposed design and the importance of using reflectors. There is no consensus on the best approach, and several points remain contested or unclear.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention the need for calculations regarding reflector size and the potential for heat loss, indicating that assumptions about efficiency and design effectiveness are not fully resolved.

Muhammad Syahril
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First of all, even I did mentioned Solar Cooker, the main goal is to reach most temperature of 500ml of water in 30 minutes.

Basic information that I have is some material with different thermal conductivity. I seek for simple english language and a bit complex physics language. The idea of this design is using box (or any same priced material) as the outer or the case.

Next I'm attaching or making a contact of a metal with many fins (to increase surface area) with the box from the inside and finally the 'idk just an idea', making many folds of aluminium foil (or other same priced material) in the box with each end of box touched.

The water will be placed on a box's base sized plate (I'm thinking of a metal plate with a short wall on the sides). Refer to my nice (very very very ugly) image drawn (barely) by paint. Ugly but you can understand the concept.

Photo Labels : Black - Box , Aqua - Metal with fins (solid not empty) , Purple - Folded aluminium foil (touching metal on each side), Green - A Peaking area (can be open to place water and monitor temperature), and the Maroon - Metal plate to place water
 

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I'm sorry, but the drawing is completely unintelligible. Is this viewed from the side? The Top? Where is the sunlight coming from, and what is it reflected onto? There are probably designs for solar cookers on line, I suggest you google them.
 
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I can see what he means. The pipes are all illuminated by the sun. Spreading the water over a large area will pick up more power.
A rule of thumb is that a maximum of about 1kW falls on a Square metre of surface and that should give a clue about the area that your 500ml of water needs to cover (given the time requirement). There'll be losses, of course, if you are using such a lot of piping - partly because the pipes need also to be warmed and also, the large area will radiate (lose) an appreciable amount of IR. Using a parabolic reflector system, the losses will be less as the heated volume can be kept in a smaller space. Most solar ovens use a reflector system and can reach extremely high temperatures.
The Optics don't need to be too special as it's not actually necessary to focus the heat onto a single spot - just the 500ml container. A reflector can be made easily with papier mache´and covered with kitchen foil. You don't want wrinkles so you need to cut out thin strips which can be stuck down and still stay optically flat enough (shiny). I did this once, with an old satellite (0.5m dish) and could boil a small blackened tin of water in full sun very quickly. (No numbers, I'm afraid)
 
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Algr said:
I'm sorry, but the drawing is completely unintelligible. Is this viewed from the side? The Top? Where is the sunlight coming from, and what is it reflected onto? There are probably designs for solar cookers on line, I suggest you google them.
Sorry for lack of information, its is from the top view.
 
So to sum it up, it is better to use direct sunlight, as in parabolic reflector it will focus in giving direct sunlight towards an desired area. So my idea of 'keeping the heat' is basically bad due to loosing of heat, am I correct?
 
Muhammad Syahril said:
So my idea of 'keeping the heat' is basically bad due to loosing of heat, am I correct?
Yes. A compact shape will reduce the heat loss and you get the advantage of the gathering power of a massive reflector.
You really must do some calculations or you don't know what size your reflector needs to be. Are you ok with that?
 

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