Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

[bodisafa]

Hi everybody,

I live in Los Angeles and have been thinking about supplementing the Pompeii oven design with a Solar Oven, feeding the inside with heat to keep a baseline temperature. The thought would be that I wouldn't have to heat the oven from cold, though I don't think I could get it hot enough to bake bread, let alone pizza.

Has anybody else thought about that?

Thanks,

- Jeff

[cobblerdave]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

Gudday
If they heat some commercial ovens with gas and then use a wood flame for the final flame and and pizza heat I don't see why not.
How would you go about transferring the solar heat in the enclosed oven?
Regards dave

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

This system in India uses the sun to produce steam which is used to cook with.
You could incorporate that kind of system into your design.
Or just have a separate simpler solar cooker when you cant be bothered chopping wood and lighting a fire and waiting for it to heat up the oven.
World

[bodisafa]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

I am thinking about combining a small version of the following:

Done By the Sun: Huge Glass Marble Solar Energy Collectors | Gadgets, Science & Technology

Then, the light gets spread with one of these:

Nautical SHIP Deck Light Prism Glass Paperweight | eBay

I don't know if a fishbowl would be enough to approximate this idea, but I was thinking about a thermal door or a cover for the sphere, to turn off the light source.

- Jeff

[bodisafa]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

I want to build a wood-based Pompeii oven. But if I can leverage the sun as part of the design, I think it could work well to heat the thermal battery.

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

Are you thinking of putting a giant marble/glass prism into the roof of the oven or just use it to focus a beam through the open door onto the oven floor?

[david s]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

I have a solar water heater that heats 200 L of water from around 20 C to 50 C in a day. It has a collector about 4 m2. That's around 30 C increase from ambient. You're going to need some serious collector area to get dense refractory up to any kind of usable cooking heat, which at the lowest would be around 150 C. That is some 130 C north of ambient. Don't forget also that the higher the temperature, the greater the heat loss.

[bodisafa]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

My worry with the ceiling is that I'll lose some of the thermal mass capability with a direct beam from the top. I was thinking to have another small opening into the chamber that was different than the door. But having light pour down from the ceiling would be pretty awesome. It is a different concept compared to the other solar collectors, but David it would most likely need to be pretty large. I have sent mail to the researchers to talk about a collaboration.

- Jeff

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Solar Oven supplemental for Pompeii?

If you could sort out insulation and thermal mass issues this might give you an idea.
A Solar Grill Prototype for a Greener Tomorrow | Innovasians' Blog