Solar cooker model 1/5 scale (Part way to making the new design!)

I won a prize for last years tracking solar cooking project on Instructables and this is the continuation of the project with a re-designed reflective dish.  Instead of going down a wrong route straight away, this time I made this little mini model and I'm going to just scale it up.  The full sized thing will have an approximately 16 sq ft reflector (1.4 sq meter) and should cook a lot quicker than last years model (because the heat will all be concentrated on the bottom of the cooking pot.  If anyone wants to do a school project,  I made the reflector from 3 dollar store plastic plates! And I just used technical drawing techniques to get all the figures and sizes of reflectors, etc.  I plan to build a box cooker over the hot spot and let heat in from the bottom, and have access for the cook at the back.  Also I want to use it as a solar drier to dry herbs and fruit.  In that case, I'm going to have a little solar powered fan blowing air past the hotspot and into the drier.    

Interesting.....  

I have been working on  playing with my solar cooker I have made from mirrors I have been collecting.

I was able to get up to over 200 degrees with my setup, not as good as my sun oven but it could cook, and I can leave it outside without having to worry with it.

I am now gathering what I need to make mirrors out of alum, and stainless steel,  I hope to collect scrap metal and make mirrors to make solar cookers.

Thanks for sharing.

Looking at your design, it makes me wonder if I could take apart my Chinese parabola and make two units out of it.....

Cheers.

Oh, Hi, Martin, It might be worth taking your Chinese parabola apart if its focal length is about 2 ft.  Thats the length from the bottom of the parabolic dish to the hot spot on if  the dish matches up to my drawing on the stadler  drawing board.  I think if it is taller than that,  it will be more difficult to do seasonal adjustment.

Brian White wrote:Oh, Hi, Martin, It might be worth taking your Chinese parabola apart if its focal length is about 2 ft.  Thats the length from the bottom of the parabolic dish to the hot spot on if  the dish matches up to my drawing on the stadler  drawing board.  I think if it is taller than that,  it will be more difficult to do seasonal adjustment.

True....

I have been thinking about building a large parabolic with a focal length 4 feet away from the solar cooker.        

Advantages  I could cook with it without having grease fall on the cooker...

Disadvantage,   This could  set my clothes on fire if I walked into the focal point........

But  I do like the idea of concentrating all of that energy down to a very small point  that one could trap that energy say thru  glass.. with a small opening...