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Through further searching, however, the team uncovered three designs that did not rely on a parabolic dish as the reflector. Professor Bowman's FIT Concept 3, Professor Bernard's independently-developed NELPA cooker, and the Xavier Devos open focused cooker pictured below:
Left to Right: Bowman FIT Concept
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3, Bernard's NELPA Solar
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Cooker, Devos Cooker
All three designs share several characteristics that make them very interesting as inspiration for this team's concentrating cooker. The user-interface is very similar to stove-top cooking, as the cook can stand behind a table with solar energy being directed onto pots and pans from below. This allows the cook to access the pot while cooking, so adjustments to the food such as patting of a tortilla can be done easily. Additionally, the cook's position behind the table also means that no shadow interferes with the reflector array, and the table top protects the user from being burned.
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Primary Reflector Parabola (Side View)
Secondary Reflector Parabola (Front View)
Figure 2 - Combining simple geometry with wide area using the secondary-reflector concept
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Reflector Assembly | Tabletop | Performance |
- Total width: 1.613 m | - Cooking hole: 10" across | - Minimum solar elevation: 52° |
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Construction of the Concentrated Solar Cooker
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