Description of the Problem

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Description of the Problem

Recently, the Nicaraguan women have requested a larger oven so that they can cook in larger pots and make larger quantities of food.  This request, in essence, is a desire for greater cooking efficiency, an issue that has been around in one form or another from the inception of the solar oven project.  Accordingly, the solar oven team decided to test different means of cooking with the box oven. We investigated cooking in parallel (multiple pots simultaneously) as well as in series (pots in sequence). The team also chose to investigate the issue of heat leakage through the door, a problem the solar oven team noticed during its testing this semester. While the women of Nicaragua have not explicitly mentioned this issue, it directly relates to cooking efficiency and thus merits investigation. The solar oven team hopes that our findings will help empower the women of Nicaragua to cook more food in a shorter amount of time.

Methods

Testing Pots in Parallel

Black pots and their caps were weighed on a scale and the weights were recorded to four decimal places. The cap of the pot was removed and the scale was then tared. Three pounds of water were poured into the pot. The weight of the water in the pot was recorded to four decimal places. The pots were covered and placed in solar oven, with their placement in the solar oven recorded.

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