Or better know as the EPIC fail. For science we are currently learning about the solar system, so to show the awesome power of the sun we made a solar oven out of a pizza box. The goal was to make s’mores…and while they did turn out pretty good…we thought there would be better results considering how long they were in the oven.
The epic problems:
1) The pizza box we used was not as secure as it should have been in order to keep the heat in. I ended up taping around it, in an attempt to lock heat in. But it didn’t work out that well.
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2) We used regular kitchen plastic instead of a heavy duty plastic, which for one didn’t fit right so I had to use two pieces which created an overlap that I am sure let heat out. And two it wasn’t secured tight enough to keep heat from seeping out of the sides.
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3) We did it early evening time *around 2-3pm* instead of early in the day about 1130am-12pm when the sun is highest in the sky. There was also a good helping of cloud cover by this time, versus early in the day when the sky was clear. It was hot and humid like always, but the sun rays are the most important part when using a solar oven and we didn’t have enough of those.
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So what would we do differently? Well instead of making a solar oven out of a used pizza box, we will use a regular box and follow THESE instructions.
We’ll also start earlier in the day, and place an oven thermometer inside so we can check out the raising temperatures *and ensure the temps are actually going up because hot air is staying inside*. Hopefully it works next time, not sure when we will do it, but we will.
And if it works really well the second time around, we may cook in it once a week. But we will see if that is so after we actually have a successful s’mores meal!
The epic problems:
1) The pizza box we used was not as secure as it should have been in order to keep the heat in. I ended up taping around it, in an attempt to lock heat in. But it didn’t work out that well.
2) We used regular kitchen plastic instead of a heavy duty plastic, which for one didn’t fit right so I had to use two pieces which created an overlap that I am sure let heat out. And two it wasn’t secured tight enough to keep heat from seeping out of the sides.
3) We did it early evening time *around 2-3pm* instead of early in the day about 1130am-12pm when the sun is highest in the sky. There was also a good helping of cloud cover by this time, versus early in the day when the sky was clear. It was hot and humid like always, but the sun rays are the most important part when using a solar oven and we didn’t have enough of those.
So what would we do differently? Well instead of making a solar oven out of a used pizza box, we will use a regular box and follow THESE instructions.
We’ll also start earlier in the day, and place an oven thermometer inside so we can check out the raising temperatures *and ensure the temps are actually going up because hot air is staying inside*. Hopefully it works next time, not sure when we will do it, but we will.
And if it works really well the second time around, we may cook in it once a week. But we will see if that is so after we actually have a successful s’mores meal!
Copyright(c) 2010 Rayven Holmes
August 16, 2010 at 3:04 PM
sound like U have it all worked out. What r U all going 2 cook when the project get finished?