From Guest Blogger Brian McGowan: Solar Cooking — Because I Can
For amusement only….
Today I cooked mashed potatoes in my solar oven. The oven is made of one of those shiny windshield shades, a rack from an old countertop oven, a very large clear plastic pretzel container and a 2lb 13oz Prego spagetti sauce jar which I painted black with high temperature paint except for a stripe I left so I could look at what was going on in there. I peeled and cut potatoes to fill the jar and added water and put the arrangement out in the sun around 12:30. About 6:30 I retrieved the arrangement and brought the jar in to see what I had.
It had been shaded for about 1/2 hour. It was still so hot I could not hold it. I think I actually burned my fingers. I emptied the water and removed the potatoes and they were totally cooked. I grabbed the masher and mashed them up. I know have a quart of mashed potatoes courtesy of Mother Nature. What should I cook next?
I also harvested and used 3.8 kWh of solar power which I used to:
Run the fridge for at least 6 hours
Run my computer room for at least 6 hours
Run my solar air heater for 11 hours
Run my landscape lights all night
Run my AV control system 24 hours
Charge my wireless touchpanel for the AV control system
Charge my cell phone all day and night
Charge 2 roombas
Make 5 big cups of coffee
And put .87 kWh back onto the grid
Yesterday I harvested 4kWh and did all of the above plus a load of wash and made a basket of air popped popcorn.
Just trying my best to do as much as I can.
Brian, just how many waking hours were you tethered to your “advanced” technology energy collection system?
The whole purpose of technology is to devise ways to free people from the drudgery of direct manual labor while providing free time to contemplate the wonders of the universe. Unless you have automated your system(s) or found a way to think deeply while flipping switches and adjusting pots, mirrors, plumbing etc………
Now if it is truely the challenge of Everest that is in your blood, then I understand completely. It is then about the mountain and the cost be damned.
LL
LL
Larry,
OK let’s see.
I have a pure sine wave inverter in the garage next to the batteries and a line runs through the basement to a pair of 4 outlet boxes, one at each end more or less. From those boxes I have extension cords running to various places in the house where they poke through already existing holes in discrete locations into the living space where I need them. I do have to plug in the fridge when I want to use solar power on that but otherwise everything else stays plugged in all the time.
In the computer room I have an outlet box that I put a relay in which has 2 power cords coming out. One cord plugs into the wall outlet and one cord plugs into my inverter line. That cord to the inverter also goes to the coil of the relay so whenever it gets power from the inverter it automatically flips the relay to power the outlet box from inverter power. When I shut the inverter off it goes back to wall power. This happens so fast the computers do not even notice. All the computer stuff, TV/2nd monitor, cable modem and router and cordless phone plug into that outlet box so that is automatic.
The AV control system and solar air heater run straight off the battery and are always pluged in as well as a bunch of lights I use around the house. The AV control system uses a 12volt to 24 volt converter and is attached to the batteries and is always on and the solar air heater is also 12 volts and runs directly off the batteries and has a control circuit I designed that turns it on whenever the box is hotter than the room and off whenever it is not so that stuff is automatic.
The landscape lights are 12 volts and run directly off the batteries and are controlled by a circuit I made that turns them on and off depending on how dark it is so that is automatic.
The cellphone and wireless touchpanel are 12 volt and attached directly to the batteries and get plugged in when they are not being used so they are charged for when they need to be used just like they would if they were being charged by the grid so no additional effort or thought is required there.
The one cup coffee maker is right next to the modified sine wave inverter that runs it which is right next to the pure sine wave inverter.
The inverter that feeds power back to the grid is controlled by the dump load function of the solar charge controller so that is automatic.
So basically I stumble into the kitchen and unplug the fridge from the wall and plug it into the inverter line. Prep my coffee stuff and take it out into the garage and put it into the coffee maker and turn on both inverters. Get my coffee 4 minutes later when it is done and turn off the modified sine wave inverter. After that it just runs all day by itself until I am not making enough power anymore and I turn off the pure sine wave inverter and plug the fridge back into the wall. I am going to make an outlet box for the fridge so I don’t have to mess with that. I adjusted the solar oven 4 times during the course of the time it was out there but I bet I could automate that also.
When I need to do wash I pull the plug from the wall next to the washer and plug it into the outlet box from the inverter right over my head. I thought about making a switching outlet box for that also but I only do 2-3 loads of wash a week so I am not sure it is worth the trouble.
Did I miss anything? I don’t really feel that I am “tethered” to the system. It is pretty much automated and I am not done yet.
And can I just add, wow Craig! Where did you find that picture! That thing is huge! My whole oven thing bucket and all doesn’t weigh as much as what I was cooking.
I get 99+% of my photos from http://commons.wikimedia.org/. It doesn’t compare with Google Images in terms of breadth, but I can use them as I choose, and I can normally find something close to what I’m looking for.