Apples and Weenies

I took pictures, but they are still in the camera. I've been getting pretty good results from the cooking jars. My apple roasting continues on. I wrap the apple in foil and put that into an inverted black can. It takes about 4 -5 hours to cook one apple. Sounds bad, but I pack the cooking jar before I go to the studio and they are done by the time I get home.

The weenie cooking isn't doing as well. I mentioned that I put one on a spit, it fell off. It did get mostly cooked in a clear jar. It wasn't too bad, I guess. Today I put one in water, in a small pint jar that we painted black. My idea is that the water should get to near boiling and cook a lot better. I don't like the idea, but it's just like boiling them. Therein could be the problem. I'm not a fan of boiled weenies, but a lot of people do like them that way. I like mine flame kissed on a spit, but that requires time for fire building and stuff.

Anyway, I packed both my weenie jar and apple can into one cooking jar before I left the house. I'll just have to see what is edible when I get home. It might not sound like much, but with both cooking jars, I could heat beans, cook a couple weenies, and bake an apple for dinner. It's better than I've ever been able to do before. I'll try to get the pictures up with the next update.

Should I be Sorry?

I've been working with solar energy in some way for most of my life. Not because I have an agenda. I don't really have a reason. It's just something that I do. Should I be sorry? It seems like everywhere I look, the people using solar are just doing it for a "noble" reason. To save women and children from working, save wood, save something, agenda, agenda, agenda. Of course they are all attempting to make money with their "noble" efforts.

I guess if I have to be sorry, then it's because I don't have an agenda or a purpose to what I do. Maybe I'll sell a book one day about my experiences, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll have a solar picnic one day, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll just cook water and weenies, but then again, maybe I won't.

Solar Cooker Update

Here are some more pics of my Cooking Jars. I  didn't get to do another test with the beans yet, but here's a shot of the last test, and one with the "hoodie".

These beans got up to about 157 degrees.

Here's the hoodie. The water got up to about 187 degrees.

The Almost Perfect Solar Cooker

The concept for the "Perfect Solar Oven".

As some of you know, solar cooking has been a project of mine since I was a young inventor. I started out by making the type of cookers that you can find plans for all over the internet now. You know the ones, insulated boxes with glass on top. I couldn't heat anything in them. I have a lot of disdain for those things, and it is with great effort that I don't use words that really express my feelings for them and those who claim to use them. It was because of the cookers and the people, that I almost stopped experimenting completely. I even tried the parabolic idea. What a joke.

A "Cooking Jar" heating 1/2 gallon of water.

I did stop for a long time, but then I was thinking about it and it hit me; the reason they don't work is because they can't work for anything more than experimental curiosities. They can heat the air inside, but they can't do much more than that. I have never even been able to heat water beyond warm. Until now, that is. I designed my own cookers and these things COOK! My original idea was that of the "perfect cooker" that I have the cg pic of here. I actually built a version of it, but it doesn't work very well. I also made my "Cooking Jar". These actually work like I expected the perfect cooker to work. I made what I call a hoodie for it and it works really good now.

So how well do the cooking jars work? Without the hoodie, I can heat water in a clear quart jar to about 150 degrees (all of my measurements are in Fahrenheit) in a couple hours. A quart in the black jars to about 176 degrees. With the hoodie I got a black quart jar of water to 184 degrees. I'm still testing with the half gallon black jar, but that has gotten to about 130 degrees. I was able to heat a pint of beans to about 150 degrees in a clear quart jar. I haven't tested with the hoodie yet.

"Cooking Jar" heating 1/2 gallon of water.

I'm still experimenting, but things are looking promising. I hope to try the beans again tomorrow. I have taken pictures of the perfect cooker and the hoodie, but I haven't gotten them out of the camera yet. I'll post them with an update as soon as I get to it. Hopefully in the next couple days.

My Solar Stuff

I hate it when I have stuff to talk about, but can't find a place to do it. An audience I guess. Well, I made this blog to show off my solar "stuff". It's not as simple as solar electricity. There is a lot that you can do with the power of the sun. I mostly get really hot, burn things, and charge things. I've had perennial projects for a long time that include the sun. Short walks in the desert, followed by collapses in the garden. Attempts at cooking weenies or boiling water. It's all solar and depending on the company, it's fun!