The solar tyre cooker - Construction

This video demonstrates the process followed to build the solar tyre cooker, a design proposed for the 2009 EWB Tonle Sap challenge. This design was one of the top 4 entrants from the University of Western Australia. A report to accompany this design can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• UWA
• EWB
• Solar
• Tyre
• Oven
• Cooker
• Tonle
• Sap
• Cambodia
• Tire

[Dailydose13]

hello, i build earthships (selfsustaining houses with tyrewalls) and the only reason why offgassing in an earthship does not occur is because the tyres are completely packed with soil and covered with adobeclay which protects it from 3 main factors that trigger the offgassing process: alkalines, acids and unfortunately direct UVlight. anyway chrz.

[tomtheswede]

@Dailydose13 Thank you for a properly informed opinion. Indeed direct UV light would be a concern for my initial design and it may be worthwhile taking action to protect the cooking vessel from the gas products.

[mkmason2002]

Why the two tires? The bottomone seems unnecessary as your video never explained it's purpose.

[tomtheswede]

@mkmason2002 The second tyre rises the cooking chamber off the often cooler ground providing better insulation and ease of use. There is more detail in the report link in the description.

[shazlionusa]

Why we need Solar tire cooker for? We can use wood, gas, electric cookers and wood is available every where!

[tomtheswede]

@screamphilling While there are some studies going on regarding plastic water bottles and long term exposure to plastics regarding carcinogenic properties, this project still had a target for underprivileged areas hence these issues were neglected. I guess the safest thing would be to use proper cooking vessels to protect the food and isolate from the cooker surfaces. I'm sure conventional oven cleaning detergent residues aren't that good for us either really...

[screamphilling]

@tomtheswede cool. I am starting to wonder about off-gases possibly given off by the bag. It does seem susceptible to overcast weather.  I think I will discontinue this project but in the meantime it makes a pretty good rice cooker for my region of the world.

[tomtheswede]

@screamphilling Great to hear you've given it a try. Good idea with the use of plastic bags, they should still immobilise the air within the tire for good insulation. You may note that the oven can be quite vulnerable to overcast or cloudy weather. I would note the differences in sun contact if you wanted to correlate your data properly. I will post a link to our full report soon.

[screamphilling]

Just built one as per your instructions. I used recycled plastic shopping bags instead of newspaper for insulation.

My oven only seems to get up to about 76C (170F). It is mid-April at 30 degrees latitude in the northern hemisphere.

I am adding external reflectors to see if I can increase the temperature / sun intensity. The tire is very effective at storing heat it seems.... I may post a video response...

[tomtheswede]

Good point, in the report that accompanied this design proposal, we included this second tyre as a means of raising the hot contents off the ground and providing another insulating layer of air. The ground the oven is sitting on could be quite cold. Please pm me if you would like a copy of the report