Hybrid design for Pompeii oven

[eorl]

Hello all,

Completely new to oven construction but I have been thinking about an oven plan for a few months and want to use the Pompeii Oven free plan as the baseline for my pizza oven. I plan to use this oven to cook Pizza occasionally but also want to use it to bake bread, grill vegetable on a daily basis.

The unique part of this design is that I have rooftop solar that produces more than I need during the day. What I envision is that everyday when I am overproducing, I utilize the power to preheat the oven such that by late afternoon I have an oven hot enough to bake breads or grill vegetables on a daily basis.

I am pretty comfortable with electrical and IoT automation side of things(Start when power positive/automatically shutdown when in deficit) but struggling with some of the technical questions :
1. At peak I have around 2-3KW power excess while at other time it may be lower. How do I utilize this dynamic power availability on a heating element ? What kind of digital controller can I use that can be used between 0-100% power rating
2. Where should the heating element go in this design? Should it go under the cooking floor or under the dome ceiling or something completely different ?
3. Would this design benefit wood usage if I preheat with electric before I start the fire because that could add even more to the efficiency of design ?
4. I understand the concept of thermal mass but how long could a 40" oven retain its temperature once heated. Like if it reaches 350-400F by afternoon and then I have no sun how long would it retain temp around 350 ?

[rwiegand]

With a really bad door my oven retains usable heat for three days in summer, less when it's 10 deg outside; I'm pretty sure that a decent door would extend the 275 plus temperature well into a fourth day. I went pretty far overboard with insulation but did not incorporate a thermal break between dome and chimney.

I suppose it depends on your rates, wood availability, and net metering options, but no way would it make sense to use electricity worth 32-34 cents/kWh to replace heating with nearly free wood.

[mongota]

Per your question, consider something simple like this, for reference only. All you need is a nearby outlet. Install it in your inner door so the element is inside the oven and the controller is outside the door. You can make an inner door specifically for this setup. Set a temp and watch it go.

https://grillpartsreplacement.com/products/1500-watt-heating-element-for-masterbuilt-20070210-20070410-30-inch-electric-smokers-with-adjustable-thermostat-cord-controller-for-most-smokers?currency=USD&variant=39681393393700&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=9ee7a8a06968&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22881497036&gclid=CjwKCAjwxrLHBhA2EiwAu9EdMxY9xhOh_9MWWWGequl5dut3CXovQPEel0fOfrkqpVW6V4rxWHvB7hoCFhsQAvD_BwE

Preheat...as has been mentioned, watts versus wood, coupled with the timeline for igniting a wood fire and letting the fire burn to coals? Not sure if there is a true monetary or time saving advantage there by preheating with electrons and cooking with wood. However, for just baking or dehydrating foods with no fire, using excess solar production? I could see it as a convenience especially if your excess power production isn't being credited at the same pay rates as your consumption. But unless you;re looking for a wood-smoke nuance to what you are cooking, is it any different than simply baking in your electric kitchen oven?

Electric heating elements can be finicky, I'd prefer to not bury one within the structure. I'd just mount it high on the door, perhaps work out the geometry so when inserting the door you can rotate and slide the door into place with the element mounted. Might need to be an uninsulated door to minimize door thickness to make the "rotation" easier. For insulation, add a secondary insulated door over the first.

Ideally I'd want to separate that element from the controller to mount the element higher in the dome, and modify the three terminals (two power and I believe the one in the middle is the themocouple) so I can have the controller fully outside the oven. Remove the element when using wood fire.

Not the best answer. But maybe a conversation starter?