Description of Problem

Methods

Results

Critical Theory Issues and Challenges

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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Figure 3 - Pot Configuration and Lighting for New Door Test

Results

Heating in Parallel

We performed four different tests to evaluate the effects of water mass on cooking speed in the solar cooker.  We varied the test by adding an additional 3-lb of water filled pot to each successive test.  Figure 4 below shows the plots of temperature vs. time for the four parallel cooking tests. While the boiling time increased with water mass, the increase was not a direct relationship. The time to boil four pots of water (12 lbs) was far less than four times the amount of time to boil 1 pot of water (3 lbs).

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While the Solar Oven Group determined that cooking in parallel was the most efficient method of cooking, the group did not explore the maximum capacity that the oven could handle without being "overloaded".  This could be a noteworthy topic to investigate in coming semesters.

Critical Theory Issues and Challenges

The solar oven team's investigation into optimal pot distribution and placement strove to find a solution that is best for the people of Nicaragua. Tim Bond has been in frequent communication with the residents of Nicaragua, and thus served as an excellent resource for determining the people of Nicaragua's ideas of pot use and cooking and their relation to their daily lives. Through the group's discussions with Tim, the team was able to determine that the people of Nicaragua are very likely to jam as much food as possible into the oven each time they cook; however, they are flexible on what time they begin cooking. The investigation into the efficiency of cooking in parallel vs. series is strongly affected by these conceptions of cooking technology.

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