Tuesday, 10. February 2009, 05:17:22
I recently learned that Superbowl Sunday has an estimated
500-ton carbon footprint. So, I started thinking about what could be done to offset the Super-carbon footprint during that weekend. Two things that seem extremely abundant in the desert surrounding my home town are sunlight and rocks. How could I combine the two to maximize fun and efficiency? I had a new mission for Saturday, Jan 31st.
The Mission:
Gather with friends to build solar ovens and take our cooking apparati with us to
Box Canyon to Boulder while we Bake.
Methods:
I had quite a few responses to the message I sent out, but in the end Bob and Cort were the most inspired (or bored? or curious to watch my follies?). I decided to build a box-style solar oven using cardboard, aluminum foil, and a pane of glass that I found near a dumpster. Most of my design ideas came from the internet (my design followed
this website mostly, but with significant variations that I learned from
this other website).
Results:

Out at Box Canyon, from right to left: Bob still working on his parabolic roaster, my solar box oven, Cort toasting the occasion, and Cort's trash scraps-to-oven box cooker. Oh yeah, and Cort's white Prius. Since when did computer scientists become hippies? Cort got his oven to 180F in the afternoon light. Enough to get his cinnamon rolls warm and gooey.

Bob attempting to roast a weenie in the last rays of the day. Yes, we ran out of daylight and didn't get to fully test our newly built eco-pliances. And, strangely, solar ovens don't work well at night.

However, there was time for some Box-style cranking where the sun was shining down the canyon.
Trial #2 was much more successful. Back at the house I set the oven up at 8:45AM on Feb 6th. By 10:00 I was over 280F and melted the plastic off my cheap-o instant-read thermometer. After a trip to the store to buy a real oven thermometer, I put my vegetarian "pigs-in-a-blanket" in the oven to bake while I cleaned out the fuel tank of my truck,
also vegetarian (there were marble-sized fried kibbles plugging the fuel line intake). The oven got up to 325deg F by 11:30am. Not bad for a winter day with a 39.1 degree
sun altitude! The ambient temperature was 64 in the shade.

Here's a picture of the "soy-pigs-in-a-blanket" turning golden brown at 325F in the solar oven.
Conclusion:
For most days of the year in New Mexico, this oven will work really well. With it's ability to maintain at least 325F, I can bake chicken and brownies! During the summer, with ambient temperatures reaching >100F, I'm going to try breaking 400F. I can see pizzas, chicken pot pies, fresh baked bread in the future... Mmmmm can't wait to try out more sun-cuisine!