Outdoor Solar Lights

I’m thinking of building a wooden box solar oven. Not really a box, you see, a cylindrical shape "solar box oven". I would think the circle shape would help reflect more light towards the food. Would this work as I expect?

And at the bottom of the oven, should I cover it with aluminum or mirror or leave black?

Ideas to make a cylindrical mirror that would fit in the, or would I be able to buy one anywhere? And wooden box too…

I’m pretty new to this, that’s why I’m asking…

the design of a university, used to cook a 12 pound turkey was two cardboard boxes,

the first sits inside the 2nd with a layer of glass on top

the second also had a layer of glass on top,

operational temperature inside was 250-300 degrees, adjust cooking time accordingly

if you are going to build from scratch, build small, learn and measure your temperature gradients, those affect cooking.

insulating your oven may not be a problem using a 2nd wall effect as the university did.

remember, they don’t work on cloudy days as well as clear days, and not at night

so we are currently trying to make a solar cooker. What are good insulators to use? Our idea is using a shoebox. we take cylinder (toilet paper roll maybe) and stick it upward through the top of the lid. then we put a wrap above the hole sticking out of the shoebox (to absorb the light) and put a magnifying glass over that (to magnify the sun’s light). inside the cylinder we want to put some insulator (what? maybe bubble wrap. what else?) and then aluminum foil will be at the bottom where the food will be. we will cover the rest of the inside of the box with aluminum foil. is cardboard a good insulator?

also more important what else can we add on which isnt too expensive and hopefully something which we can find at home or if not atleast in a store like Home Depot?
please and thank you! <3 10 pts best answer.

Solar cooker? Get a whole bunch of solar cells, hook them up to a microwave oven, drag it all outside in the sun and press Start.

Don’t forget my 10 points.

We have a yellow bellied slider ( 8 months old ) she lives in a 40 gallon aquarium.
When we first got her we purchased her aquarium, filters etc from the local pet shop. They sold us a 100w basking light and an aluminum globe for the bulb. We set it all up but she wouldn’t sit under it. When i checked i realised that the globe was way too hot and the water was heating up also.
The next day we returned the bulb to the petshop. They told us the following. " Well this bulb is way to strong for your turtle. You were making turtle soup!!! You probably killed your turtle!" Then they told us that the globe only holds a 50 watt bulb and we would have had a fire on our hands soon had we not realized. They then refused to take back the bulb. WHen I pointed out that THEY had told us which globe/bulb to buy, they exchanged the bulb for a different wattage.

Now today I went back to get a UVB light for turtle. ( we used to take her outside on the balcony for sunlight, but there is construction going on now so we can’t take her out )
The petshop owner told us all she had was a 100 watt "Solar Brite Exotic Pet Buld" . She said that our globe is ok for a 100 watt and that we should just suspend the light a little above the aquarium so it’s not too strong for our turtle.

This is the opposite of what we were told just a few months ago. I’m confused and don’t want to do something that might harm our turtle or cause a fire…
What kind of wattage is needed for a UVB light? Is 100 w too strong?
I would just go to another pet shop but we live in Key West and there is only one petshop…

dont ask the stupid petshop owners, they have no idea what the are talking about, and 100 wats is wwaaaaaayyyyy too strong, you should get like a 50 watt basking bulb, and then a seperate UVB bulb that is a strip light, 15 watts.

you 100% need to buy a basking lamp+bulb, you buy them separatly, then screw the bulb in ( 50 watts) and shine it on the basking dock over a mesh hood( cut a hole out of it and place the light there!). This is very important, you need a uvb light. It is a long thin light, you need to get the actual lamp+ the long skinny bulb. Reptosun 5.0 is the best bulb( together costs $55). Shine that onto the basking dock as well. Turtles need these together because they use the uva for heat, so they stay warm ( the basking site should be 90-95F, not colder) and they need the uvb rays to metabolize calcium and vitamin d3 for a stronger shell ( like you need it for your bones!)

I’m trying to develop an inexpensive solar cooler for camping.

I’ve made a solar box COOKER before, using nested cardboard boxes painted black, with aluminum foil glued on the inside. The black surface absorbs heat from the sun’s rays, while when the heat is re-emitted inside, the reflective foil tends to keep it in. It is a slow cooker which can develop about 325 degrees F.

Now I am thinking about trying the same idea inverted. I know I won’t be able to freeze things. but if I start with something frozen, could I keep it frozen this way without having to use those pre-frozen plastic containers of blue chemical?

Anybody ever make a cooler like this? anybody know how? Any sites for plans? (not the cooker sites, I already have those.)

Please include ideas for evaporative cooling using wet towels, if that has worked for you in the past. I’m trying to do this no-electricity, no chemicals, no bottle of gas. I want to travel light.

Thanks!

Although I’m familiar with what you are trying to do (and it does work) I don’t know any way to do it light weight.

The clear sky is really cold and heat will radiate off. But if the air is warm you need a window to prevent convection (air circulation) from defeating your purpose.

If it gets cloudy and warm (as it will in some areas) you have a problem.

There are naturally occurring "ice caves" where there is sufficient thermal mass that radiative cooling can keep water frozen year round.

I think just super good insulation is the biggest key. If you can open a box to the night sky when the air is cool and close it up during the day…

Evaporative cooling is my favorite. It does require that the air be reasonably dry – not good in humid climates. It can be effective with something a simple as a wet towel, but a filter pad that air can flow through while wet is the best.

There are plenty of energy sources out there.

New technology makes it possible to readily filter hydrogen from water at an efficient rate… but you have to set up recycling centers to pick up the filters (gallium filter separate the hydrogen but leave aluminum and some other element behind … but no material is lost and they can be recombined to form the same amount of gallium again.. you just have to build the industry to do it)

There is 3,000 times more geothermal energy produced under our feet every day than is used in the US.

A new material that absorbs 99.9% of light makes solar cells more effective.

Nanotechnology applied to silicon to make them into cylinders makes batteries 10 times more efficient.

The list goes on and on…. but HOW do we transition into these systems? The consumer can’t afford to pay for it, the government doesn’t have to pay for it, and companies surely won’t pay for it when they are making money off the current system. So what do you suggest?
These are all true statements.. I’m a bit of a science nerd. I’ll see if I can still find a couple of links for those that want to read up
geothermal

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129183725.htm

10 times the battery life

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219103105.htm

Here’s a neat one.. using solar energy to turn CO2 into fuel.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070418091932.htm

I was a little off on my Hydrogen claim… but not much.. it’s gallium and aluminum combined.. there is no gallium splitting into aluminum and something else.. but anyway.. here is the article.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070827174310.htm

Well, that’s acutally very simple–if you drop all the right-wing rhetoric.

These new technologies are not only "clean"–they are also increasingly less expensive sources of energy. Taht means that in a free market, they will be more competitive and will replace outmoded energy sourceslike coal, oil , and natural gas–just the way those fuel sorces replaced wood, animal power, and waterwheels over a century ago.

But it has to be a REAL free market. That means no more favors for the coal companies. No more subsidies to the oil companies. .

A REAL free market–not the blank check the right-wing keeps handing the fossil fuel industry. And what will happen? Who will pay for all this? the answer is also simple: the same people who built the auto industry, the airline indusstry, the computer industry–and brought prices DOWN for consumers while they did so. Investors. Entrepreneurs. CAPITALISTS.

Damn, what won’t those liberals think of next! Imagine–acutally relying on capitalism, instead of just giving it lip service the way the "neoconservatives" do!

I’m trying to develop an inexpensive solar cooler for camping.

I’ve made a solar box COOKER before, using nested cardboard boxes painted black, with aluminum foil glued on the inside. The black surface absorbs heat from the sun’s rays, while when the heat is re-emitted inside, the reflective foil tends to keep it in. It is a slow cooker which can develop about 325 degrees F.

Now I am thinking about trying the same idea inverted. I know I won’t be able to freeze things. but if I start with something frozen, could I keep it frozen this way without having to use those pre-frozen plastic containers of blue chemical?

Anybody ever make a cooler like this? anybody know how? Any sites for plans? (not the cooker sites, I already have those.)

Please include ideas for evaporative cooling using wet towels, if that has worked for you in the past. I’m trying to do this no-electricity, no chemicals, no bottle of gas. I want to travel light.

Thanks!

Every Gram of Water that evaporates will absorb approx 560 calories of heat, depending on environmental factors.

By carefull design there is no violation of any thermodynamics. These principles are what coolss the refigerator, in your house..
In fact there are kerosine burning refigerators.

The change of state of matter .
Water is going from a liquid , to a vapor and it is taking in energy.
Water vapor is therefore less stable than liquid water, .
Water vapor is produced by liquid and heat .
Conversly
As the Vapor cools to a liquid the reverse occurs and heat is released .
The change of state pf matter is the principle involved

The trick of course is to vaporize water efficiently.
A large surface area where the water, can come in contact with the air, is what is needed.
Passive cooling is the problem, since you can not use an electric fan, but you can use solar power.

You might use a wind driven water pump, to bring the water to the top of tower , where a container is located to distribute the water through numerous holes and run down a series of strips,
The more strips the more surface area, available to expose the water to air, for evaporatve cooling.

The strips can be aluminum foil, cloth, or almost anything, as long as it permits air flow, and enhances evaporation.

It may also be possible to use direct solar energy in your solar cooker, to heat the water, to a steam.
The steam pressure can then be used to force water and steam out of a mist nozzel .
The finer the mist the more surface area of water droplets are exposed to exaporation .
Making evapoation more efficient .

If the humidity is low enough and
if the temperature warm enough and
if there is a breeze
then the fine mist will change from water droplets to water vapor . and cool the air.
Strategically placed mist nozels, You can achieve a 20 degrees drop in air temperature

For a warming effect approx 50 calories of heat are released for every gram of water that changes from a liquid to a solid .
So by spraying water into the air when the temperature is below freezing , you will produce a solid (snow), releasing heat and warming the air nearby.
This is why it seems to warm up as a result of a snow storm, major amounts of heat are released.,

Theoretically 560 calories of heat are absorbed per gram of water, turned to vapor.

What about a gram of water vapor becoming liquid.
560 calories of energy will be released instead of being absorbed.
However ,not all the energy is heat energy.
If you watch a rain storm as it moves you notice the lightning in front of the rain.
There must be something generating the electricity, and what better source than the change of state of matter,
The vapor is becoming a liquid, releasing 560 colories of energy.
Some of it as heat, some of it as electricity.

In addition, as the liquid rain evavorates , it is reversing the energy flow again, with all this energy exchange, it is easy to see that a storm has a lot of energy, and can do considerable damage.

We recently purchased an above ground pool and want to buy a solar blanket to go over it. (The kind with the bubbles, like bubble wrap)

When looking online, I have seen several options with differing descriptions:

The clear solar blanket is said to be "best" because it allows the sun to penetrate to the water to heat it. (As opposed to reflecting the light back up or soaking up the light and not heating the water)

The blue suggests that it is the "best" because it’s dark color soaks up the sun’s heat.

The blue/aluminum combo suggest that the blue soaks up the heat and the aluminum reflects the heat back into the pool, making it the "best".

Arg!! And to make the decision harder, there are different thicknesses as well??

Can someone with experience with any of these please shed some light on this subject? The dumb things are so expensive. I want to get the right thing the first time.

Oh, and I posted this Q in home & garden –> maintenance & repairs and only got one answer. I thought I would go straight to those who are most likely using the covers for their pools: Parents with kids.

Help please?

Well I don’t have a pool, but my uncle & aunt do and they used to have one last summer that was blue that covered the whole pool, but this summer they have new ones that are circular and have a lot of them to cover the whole underground pool and they are also blue and heat up the pool really well. That’s all I have had experience with though.

I’m thinking of building a wooden box solar oven. Not really a box, you see, a cylindrical shape "solar box oven". I would think the circle shape would help reflect more light towards the food. Would this work as I expect?

And at the bottom of the oven, should I cover it with aluminum or mirror or leave black?

Ideas to make a cylindrical mirror that would fit in the, or would I be able to buy one anywhere? And wooden box too…

I’m pretty new to this, that’s why I’m asking…

Start reading. http://www.solarcooking.org/

For our class we have the assignment to cook a marshmallow using a solar oven.

Right now we have a large box with aluminum foil on the inside to reflect the light and the top open with a piece of transparent plastic covering the top to keep the heat in. Then on the inside we have another box painted black on the outside and aluminum foil lining the inside to keep the heat in. The outside box is about 1.5′ x 1.5′ x 1.5′ and the inside box is about 1′ x 1′ x 1′

Any suggestions to make this better?

In order to get a really high temperature you are going to have to focus heat. I would position a couple of mirrors so they reflect sunlight into the oven. If I were to build an oven to cook a marshmallow I would just get a big magnifying glass and focus the heat on the marshmallow.
The e bay item below would melt some butt!

My Idea for solving Hydrocarbon Problems
My idea consists of creating an electrical system placed upon our nations highways in the form of an interconnected highly durable plastic solar panel system. Imagine if all of our roads were covered with such a system! Once manufactured, in the form of large and long plastic rolls, the system would make up the top layer of the roadway.

Plastics are being developed now which can store charges (batteries), conduct electricity, produce light (flexible television screens), and I would not doubt- also provide magnetic properties. By adding silicon in different property levels of ionic charge distributions, according to the movement of electrons flowing from lower energy voids to higher, solar activation of propulsions would be easily achieved, stored, and be made available to all in need of energy supplies.

Charge current could be supplied to moving vehicles as they travel and vehicles would never need to leave the road to charge. This could be achieved by proximity of tires to the road through conductive wires located within the tires or even by methods not easily explained other than in laymen’s terms. There are methods of charging by magnetic proximity which would be enhanced due to movement. Advances in understanding the magnetic properties associated to moving aluminum allow the use of aluminum in products not to mention the use of plastics for lightweight materials of vehicles. Carbon fiber materials are perspective as well.

All surfaces of vehicles, buildings, and walkways are possible locations for the development of solar power generating surfaces.

The importance of developing systems which cover roadways are unlimited. The system should be developed with the perspective of controlling vehicles; propelling vehicles by magnetic pulse, future levitation of vehicles by mirror action magnetic repulsion now seen in superconductive materials, traffic control, and accident prevention. Tracking of all users as well as communication and information and data transfer should be implemented into the construction process. Management of surface durability and ice prevention are also benefits.

The future of vehicle self-drive systems would be highly manageable due to the construction of these roadways as well as national security. As the use of liquid fuel engines would become obsolete in the near future, everyone on the roadways could be easily accounted for at all times.

The idea certainly makes me think…I love questions that make me ponder "now why didn’t I think of that? It makes sense!" I’d like to answer a few questions and concerns which other answerers have brought to light.

Semi-trucks can’t stop hauling because America lives through the goods the truckers haul. And up here in MN, the river barges bring up alot of goods, but they can only run when the river isn’t frozen…we’d be in big trouble without the truckers running in the winter months.

The current road workers would simply switch materials, instead of laying asphalt and concrete, they’d lay solar panels and electrical wiring. And as for the oil industry employees, they can help maintain the new roadways. With a project like this, there’ll be plenty to do and there’ll be people who need that work.

If we can go from home-spun and wooden farm implements to tv and cell phones in 200 years, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to go from asphalt and oil to solar panels and magnetic cars in another 200. The colonists would never have dreamed of the things we have now, the inventions we’ve come up with. So it’s understandable that we now can’t fathom using solar panels for roadways.

How will erasing our dependancy on oil and building electro-magnetic interstate highways revert us into a 3rd world country? We’d still be thriving and expanding, we’d be moving forward. Some 3rd world countries still have public plumbing in the streets and walk further everyday for dry wood to heat their homes and hearths.

What WOULD the durability of these panels be? Would we have to reduce speed limits (which increases travel time, thus making a moot issue of conservancy and prevention) so there’d potentially be fewer accidents?

As for Star Trek, you should have watched the show titled something like "How William Shatner Changed the World". The guy who invented cell phones got the idea from Kirk’s communicator that he was constantly flipping out of his pocket.

I’d be willing to take part in such a venture as this, but I need more research done and stats provided because I can’t answer anything about another person’s concerns about CO2 or heat or friction. Plus, I have a question of my own. In the regions that get snow, plus those that flood, how will we prevent the electricity from shorting out? If I’m reading the original proposition correctly, electricity keeps traffic moving. Traffic standing still is generally something seen in big cities (or construction on the I-90 bridge here, LOL) So would little burbs of 50K people have traffic jams like LA notoriously does if the electricity shorts out?