MACHINE · 37
What this step adds; in part B, sunlight and the heat it makesParts already in placeA box cooker with a 50 × 50 cm double-glazed opening (0.25 m²) and one foil reflector, on a turntable. Box cookers reach about 150 °C at most and cook at 107–135 °C (Solar Cookers International, via SHE Inc.); one with four reflectors cooked rice in 72 minutes. The heat balance here is simple and its constants are assumptions: sunlight on the glass is 900 W/m² × cos(hour angle), the reflector adds 60%, two panes and black paint keep 74% of it, and the box loses 2.2 W per °C above the 30 °C air. Empty and aimed at noon it would settle at 30 + 266 ÷ 2.2 ≈ 151 °C. Loaded with 400 g of rice in 0.8 L of water and a 1.5 L jar, each warming through its own contact with the box air (1.2 and 0.8 W/K), it passes 107 °C at 10:46, pasteurises the water (above 65 °C) at 10:58 and has the rice cooked, counted as 20 minutes above 90 °C, at 11:32. Turned on the hour to where the sun will be half an hour later, it is never more than 7.5° off. The clock runs about 1900 times fast while it heats, and waits while the cooker is turned. Drawn at 1 unit = 5 mm, from 36° up rather than 30°, so the inside of the box can be seen. This is a guide to how the parts go together, not engineering drawings. The glass, the tray and the pot pass 100 °C: lift them with dry cloths, and never look at the sun in the reflector. Pasteurising kills germs but does not remove chemicals or salt.
Solar cooker, build and run
50 MACHINESField manual · 50 machines
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