Project Idea #5: A Sturdy Solar Cooker for Public Use

There is a rich technology of solar cooking. I don't claim to be an expert on it, however my basic opinion is that it works, but is inconvenient.

I would like to try to change that by presenting a specific challenge. Here in Austin, Texas, we have recently been a severe drought so severe that charcoal fires in public parks have been disallowed due to fire hazard. In Austin's large central park, Zilker Park, there are normally large groups and families picnicing, complete with grilling hotdogs, fajitas, and, of course, veggie burgers.  The same outings are happening now without the grilling.

I would like to try to build a sturdy solar cooker that is so convenient that people would be just as happy to use it as a charcoal grill. This is, I think, quite a challenge. In general solar cooking requires a lot of attention, adjustment, waiting, and modifications of cooking practices. For example, when I was working with some wonderful people who were trying to do it in the ramshackle colonias of South Texas, they had an oven that worked for cooking beans and other slow-cooked foods, but was not terribly convenient.

There is a good reason for not focusing on convenience; the people who have worked on solar cookers so far have been coming from two angles: how can we help the poor who can't afford fuel for cooking, and how can we help the backpacker who can't carry fuel for cooking?

These are both noble goals. However, I am proposing something slightly different: a luxury cooker, in which we do not worry about money or weight, but focus on convenience.

One might attack this project by saying “What is the point of having rich people cook with solar energy? They will burn more fossil fuel driving to the park than you could ever save cooking.” This is, of course, true enough. However, as Dave and Pearl, my friends who tried to work with the people in the colonias, it can be a powerful symbol to start with a luxury good, because people want to emulate it. Although PIFAM is trying to be altruistic, I hope we will not be slavishly so. I am sure that succeeding in the challenge will help the next project that aims for a low-cost cooker.

So here is the challenge:

Let's build an installed cooker at Zilker park (how we get permission to do this, I don't know---don't bother me with details!) that:

• lets you cook at the same working height as the existing charcoal grills,
• cooks 6 hot dogs at least as fast as a charcoal grill,
• is safer to cook on than a charcoal grill,
• is less likely to ignite a fire,
• is wind-proof and vandal-proof,
• is fun to use.

This will be a significant challenge, but that is what we are here for.

If I can get a serious volunteer to assist me with this project, I will fund the project it up to $20,000.

What I really want is a team of workers, perhaps with someone else ready to lead the project, although I will be available to lead it until someone else comes along who wants to take charge. I think it would be really fun to have a number of people working on this project. Here are the kinds of help we could use:

• A team leader (I am a professional manager, but will bow out as soon as someone steps up to this),
• A test-cook (Enthusiasm counts more than skill---we're talking hot-dogs here!)
• An artist/designer to make sure it is beautiful (my weakest skill).
• A CAD designer to help us make computer designers (I can do this, but am no expert.)
• A heat/optics/mechanical engineer to design the collector and do the calculations to assure that on a sunny day we can beat a charcoal grill in cooking time.
• A metal-worker/fabricator to help us build the thing (I am pretty good with aluminum and pop-rivets, but I don't know how to weld, for instance.)
• A secretary/web designer/writer/videographer to document our progress.
• An electronics/microcontroller expert to apply temperature sensors, timers, and perhaps other control mechanisms to make the cooker more convenient.

I can do all of the these things myself, if I have to, but I know from experience that is a lonely business, and I need other people to keep my motivation going, and to help me tell a crazy idea from a good one.

If you think this would be a fun project, please contact me at the email above (read.robert at gmail.com), and let's get to work!

Here is an initial design that I would like to work from, though of course the reader may be able to think of improvements and elaborations:

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This is just a short addendum to explain my relevant experience to this project. About 8 years ago I worked with a group of Gifted and Talented kids at Zilker Elementary building box-style solar ovens. It was not very successful, in terms of cooking, but the kids had fun and some of the parents thought it was a good project. Just for fun I built a circular compound parabolic collector out of cardstock and silver paint, which concentrated light sufficiently to burn the skin of your hand.

I own a patent http://www.google.com/patents/US6966661 of my own invention related to solar energy collection (though not directly related to solar cookery), and in developing that invention I learned a great deal about solar energy that will be relevant to this project. For example, I understand Roland Winston's compound parabolic concentrator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonimaging_optics#Compound_parabolic_concentrator) very well, and also understand the theoretical use of waveguides and fiber optics.

Basic physics of heat and energy do not elude me; I have a certain judgment about what will function and am capable of doing the math to work out the actual expected performance of a particular system, to a first order approximation (reality tends to be more complicated than theory, which is why engineering is interesting.)

I can build computer simulations of almost anything including a solar oven/cooker like I would like to build or that others may suggest. I have a PhD in Computer Science, and am a professional programmer including a solar oven/cooker like I would like to build or that others may suggest. I am pretty good at working with aluminum (due to my experience with the Mefluke, mentioned previously in the blog.)

I enjoy teamwork and cooperation, and motivating a team, although I don't claim to be a master of it.

Significantly, I'm willing to pay for whatever we need within reason.

Finally, I bring the most important and scarce resource to the table: energy and enthusiasm.