Solar Parabolic Trough Charcoal Oven

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Infinite, by all means report back if you get or make one..

http://www.sunoven.com/order.asp

At a hundred and ninety bucks, not too likely anytime soon.

But at an avg temp btw 360 and 400, I don't see why a turkey'd be too difficult.

[cwes99_03]

Well a turkey in July anyway !

[Turtle]

It is clear & Sunny today & I have the oven cooking away on its charge of leaves & branches. By the end of the day about 15 hours total baking time. Ambient temperature unsure as my thermometer is in direct sunlight now (gotta move that thing!).

HOT!

[Racoon]

Originally Posted by Turtle

It is clear & Sunny today & I have the oven cooking away on its charge of leaves & branches. By the end of the day about 15 hours total baking time.

Then what?
Mix finished product in the soil? or Make enough for super-rich Potted Plants soil?

I need to build one of those guys for Pot Plants...errr Potted Plants

Your attachments make it easy to follow. Again, a pat on your sore back.

I love the this thread,
the 'coon

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Racoon

Then what?
Mix finished product in the soil? or Make enough for super-rich Potted Plants soil?
the 'coon

Caution! I do not think this size oven is sufficient to make charcoal. It sounds like charcoal briquets crushed up will work. Don't use the self-lighting kind.

[gost]

Argggh- I missed the jump to this new thread when it first started. I'm so stupid sometimes...

Hey Turtle, thanks for all your hard work and posting on this. I bet you could cook some serious hot dogs with that thing. I think I will take your advice and try to use aluminum foil as a reflecting surface. Believe it or not, I've actually had some experience using AOL discs as reflectors and found that they become more or less transparent after only a few months of outdoor exposure. My guess is that all the mylar based materials will do the same. While the aluminum may not be quite as reflective, it should certainly last longer. Besides, you don't really need a mirror finish, just need to focus onto a four inch width. I'm going to try to build an 8 foot trough, perhaps wide enough for two stovepipe lengths, over the next few weeks. Will let everyone know what happens and try to post some pics. Hope maybe the group here can come up with a design that really cooks ash! ... Er, charcoal, I mean.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by gost

Argggh- I missed the jump to this new thread when it first started. I'm so stupid sometimes...

I'm going to try to build an 8 foot trough, perhaps wide enough for two stovepipe lengths, over the next few weeks. Will let everyone know what happens and try to post some pics. Hope maybe the group here can come up with a design that really cooks ash! ... Er, charcoal, I mean.

Excellent gost! Looking forward to your progress.
I emptied the tube & found the material very dry but no evidence of any charcoaling or browning. It may help retain some heat if I enclose the ends with reflective material as well, which is tantamount to using the 'positive' cutout as we discussed earlier in the thread.

[gost]

LOL. Guess you found a novel way to dry firewood.

I think the "positive" cutout for the ends makes sense as long as the wrap around material is rigid enough to give it strength. I was thinking about using eighth inch masonite, with half inch plywood ends, then gluing on the foil with spray adhesive. The parabola is cut from two by eight foot plywood using X^2 = 4(24)y. If the masonite is 46 inches wide, a 4 foot stovepipe can be supported at the ends using three metal pins (screws) to keep it from touching the plywood. The biggest problem with the positive ends is that they will cast a shadow if you don't keep the thing aligned to the sun.

[cwes99_03]

Hey I want some physics here (pounds fist like a little child.) Do you have some data or a graph yet of your temperatures plotted throughout the day? Are you even interested in that, or just building and testing it without examinging the data? Just wanted to know, because I myself won't build one, but might be able to make suggestions based off of design and data.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by gost

The biggest problem with the positive ends is that they will cast a shadow if you don't keep the thing aligned to the sun.

Good point. Without an automatic tracking system the open ends make more sense.

Originally Posted by cwes99_03

Hey I want some physics here (pounds fist like a little child.) Do you have some data or a graph yet of your temperatures plotted throughout the day? Are you even interested in that, or just building and testing it without examinging the data.

I made no graph of temps, & gost isn't that far along yet. While I checked the temp periodically, doing so meant taking an end off the pipe & so letting the built up heat escape. At optimum conditions (no clouds, full Sun, squarely oriented) my oven raised the temp in the tube to 190°F. In looking at a lot of web articles for both commercial & home project ovens I saw no temperature data of any kind. Perhaps if we write one of the commercial plant's engineers & ask?