Sun Min Yeo

Eva Williams
Iris Benitez
Daniela Vlasak
Due: 12/14/2015

Solar Cooker Oven Paper

Our purpose was to create a solar cooker in its most effective and dynamic on
order for people living near the mountains of Ecuador to cook their food as needed. In
order to create the Solar Cooker Oven, we used a medium box. We cutted the center
part of a cartoon flap lid, and covered it with a thick plastic sheet. We placed several layer
of aluminium foil before hot gluing organic wool onto the box and added more layers of
aluminum foil on top of that. We taped styrofoam onto the outer sides of the box, and
once again we covered it all with layers of aluminum foil. Lastly, we taped four pieces of
cardboard, painted with black paint in one side and aluminium foil in the other, to work
as reflectors. After creating the solar cooker itself, we collected pieces of data from
different times of the day, regarding the temperature of the interior of the solar cooker. As
you have seen before in the graphs, the temperature at 11:00 AM was 35C. At 12:00 PM,
it rose to 40. Later, at 12:30 PM it rose to 55 C, the highest temperature our solar
cooker reached during the exposure to direct sunlight. At 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, the
temperatures stayed the same, at 40. Finally, at 3:00 PM the temperature dropped to 38.
As you have seen already, the highest point of the interior temperature of the cooker was

at half past noon, at 55. Although our solar cooker didnt fully cook any food, it still
heated up at least 3C from the outside temperature, which was 35. In conclusion tweaks
and changes would have to be made in order to radically increase temperature levels and
be able to cook food/boil water in a sustainable way.

The struggle that is being faced is the massive loss of electricity in a rural
community near Cotopaxi, this happened due to the eruption of the once dormant
Cotopaxi volcano. Unfortunately the Ecuadorian government in last few years made most
individuals change from gas to electric stoves, and these people are now not able to cook
their daily meals.

People who cook over fires with fuel or animal feces, solar cookers are are more
efficient and cheap solution to heat up their everyday food and purify water that
otherwise would be harmful to them. Due to the fact that they use no fuel or emit harmful
gasses it is much more convenient and safe for the users and the environment. Cooking
by the means of the sun has been used since primitive times, but the first known solar
cooker box was first built in 1767 by Horace de Saussure.

Our goal is to design the most efficient and proactive solar cooker, that can be
easily built with materials that are found at home, this is a requirement due to the
circumstance the people close to the volcano would find themselves in. While doing this
we shall find a way to overcome some of the factors that might influence the efficiency of
the product, factors like climate.

After researching and analysing different options we found best and most optimal
solution to this problem that we are facing would be to use solar cookers, more
specifically carton and aluminium based solar cookers due to the cheap materials and
how accessible they are to people of low income.
The process we followed in order to achieve our goal of making a solar cooker is
the following. First we identified the problem. Then, we started researching about the
problem. After we listed possible solutions to our problem, we selected the best solution
for the group. Finally, we made prototypes for the best solutions. The first thing we did
was to look for a medium carton box. After getting the box we painted the outside of it
with black paint. Then, we made a lid with a flap on each side. We cut out the center part
of our lid in order to be able to glue a thick plastic sheet to cover the hole. We placed
several layers of aluminum foil on the inside of our box. Then, we hot glued organic wool
onto the box and placed more layers of aluminum foil on top of that. We taped styrofoam
onto the outer sides of the box and taped some more aluminum foil on top of that. Later,
we cut out four pieces of cardboard the size of the outer sides of the box. After painting
one side with black acrylic paint, we super glued aluminum foil onto the other side.
Finally, we taped the cardboard pieces to stay around our solar oven and reflect the suns
light into the box. Lastly we placed inside the cooker a few different types of food like:
brownie mix, eggs, and marshmallows. We left the items for some time inside the cooker
and recorded their state and the temperature inside the cooker every few hours.

On the table below you can see the temperature inside the cooker at different time
of the day, it is important to keep in mind that the temperature outside never rose above
35 degrees.

Time

Temperature (C)

11:00

35

12:00

40

12:30

55

13:00

40

14:00

40

15:00

38

As you can see there is a slight pattern between the hour of the day and the
temperature inside the cooker. The hottest the cooker got was at twelve, which makes

sense as this is one of the hottest hours of the day, mostly because of the positioning of
the sun. Before that and afterwards the temperature is a lot lower a whole ten degrees
lower. Even though the temperature that were reached inside the cooker where nowhere
the temperature needed to cook food like eggs, or brownie mix, we know this because of
the slight change in state of the items we placed inside the cooker throughout the day.
Even though we technically did not cook anything, heat was contained inside the cooker,
as there always was at least a five degrees of difference between the outside and the
cooker.

Our main purpose which was to create a solar cooker in its most effective and
dynamic on order for people living near the mountains of Ecuador to cook their food as
needed. The problem was finding a way to make it work while also taking into
consideration different factors such as climate and cost. We made sure to use easy,
common household materials to build our solar cooker. The results in the end were
somewhat successful seeing as the egg, brownies, and marshmallows did not cook
completely, but did change form a bit. Heat was able to remain contained inside the
cooker and as we can see in our data chart the highest temperature recorded was that of
55 degrees C at 12:30 pm. This is due to the sun being at its highest point at around that
exact time. In conclusion tweaks and changes would have to be made in order to radically
increase temperature levels and be able to cook food/boil water in a sustainable way.