As we edge toward a world beyond fossil fuels, how many of you have experimented with solar oven cooking? I've just set up my oven for another lay-back summer of solar meals.
hey, Sue, I’m aware of this technology. I hadn’t thought that I would be able to use it, but now that I’ve moved back home from Assisted Living I may rig something up in the backyard. It just has to be where I can get it while holding onto things, as I am disabled and can’t walk very well.
I have increasing mobility and strength issues too, Fran.I can still lift my oven, which weighs roughly five pounds (Buda weighed sixteen and was a challenge). If you put it on a table or surface level that's easy for you, this would be a simple solution. I'd be curious to learn how Portland's constant cloud-cover would affect the temperatures. Air temp sometimes comes in to play here. At sea level, cloud cover may not pose the same problem that using an oven at altitude might. I hope you'll try this and please let me know how it works for you. I live at 4500-5000 feet elevation on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas. We get over 300 sunny days a year, but even a brilliant sunny day at 30 degree F doesn't work very well.
It does not rain all the time in Portland. This is a Mediterranean climate, much like California. It rains in the winter but the summers are dry and usually sunny. We only get about 36 inches of rain a year.
It is farther north, of course, so the intensity of the sun isn’t as good. So that might make solar less of an option.
I once saw a solar mirror collector an organization in Sudan was demonstrating. As they were setting it up, it was accidentally focused on a steel shipping container and was so hot, it cut a corner off the container, sort of like using a magnifying glass on ants. The amount of heat it produced when focused was amazing.
I enjoy making power from the sun. For me, it’s fun and not political(or religious!). I think the future is a mix of solar and fossil fuels. We have an rv I installed solar panels on and they can power our electrical requirements indefinitely. Some things are more efficiently powered with propane, such as the refrigerator and the cooking range, but both use very little fuel.
I've found it interesting to watch nomad videos and see how they have installed various energy resources as you have on their rigs. There are different sources for different purposed, but put all together, it saves a lot of energy.
Meanwhile, that mirror reflector system has some definite drawbacks for birds. When they fly into the "ring of fire" so to speak, they get fried immediately. Probably never knew what hit them, but like wind turbines, millions of them die for these huge installations. I'm all for roof-top localized solar and wind collection sources. Closer to the customer and safer for the birds.
I visited a friend’s home in California, who lives in a home with a huge solar array on the roof. Unfortunately, it feeds directly into the grid and is shut down during the frequent blackouts. There is no onsite storage capacity and his house goes dark just like everyone else.
Another friend has two large arrays that track with the sun and he also has storage capacity that feeds back through a device called an inverter that converts 12 or 24 volt dc solar power into 110 volts to power his household needs. He also uses the solar panels to recharge his plug-in Honda hybrid car, which has a 40 mile range on battery power only. He almost never buys California’s $6 per gallon fuels.
Beginning next year, Californians can no longer buy generators. Buy a million dollar motor home, no generator to run air conditioners. Own a restaurant with a walk-in freezer full of perishable food, no generator. It seems the utopian legislators are running out ahead of reality. When they start making life harder and more miserable for the masses, at some point the masses may rise up and smite them
The smiting is already happening in the form of "getting the fuck out of Dodge" migration from the state. I really don't think CA gov is trying to serve its people, especially the business sector. It's as though they are trying to destroy business and have been making it more and more impossible to do business in CA for decades. My in-laws have been complaining about it for years, yet do they actually pick up and LEAVE? One sister almost did, but alas, health reasons change.
Meanwhile, Bill Maher has made a major satire out of his experience setting up his solar array. There's no reason why energy companies can't implement technology so customers can switch their solar power off the grid when it goes down and just use it in their own homes. That can be done. They just don't want to make things work efficiently. California has a real problem with true functionality. Need water? Desalination plants along the coast. Yeah I know, there are environmental/animal issues. Need public transportation? Stop feeding the fiefdoms and just do it! Need dependable and safe energy? Implement the technology to give customers options and strengthen the grid at the same time.
I don't know, Switter. I'm just too simple-minded. (rantover)
Creeping slowly beyond fossil fuels. So slow our generation will be dead. Just think about all the people, like me, who live in a apartment building and don't have a yard. We are a long way off from all the apartments not bring heated by fossil fuels. Then there is the fact that fossil fuels are used in the manufacture of things like solar panels and those giant windmills. And the huge amount of concrete poured as the base so they don't tip over is a major carbon polluter. We went past the tipping point when people went from rural living like you to city living. Even grilling is not possible. My apartment has no grounds, just right out to the street. Where my mother lived had 6, for 3 story apartment buildings. Plus grilling is also adding to the carbon footprint. Imagine the smoke in even a small city if everyone went back to heating and cooking with wood. Sedona had to ban real fireplaces because of that. It's like living with wildfire smoke constantly. And disposing of those solar panels and the huge wind veins after their 20 year life span is also a major problem. None of the way people lived was a problem with a world population of 1 billion. 8 billion people is the problem. We are the problem.
hey, Sue, I’m aware of this technology. I hadn’t thought that I would be able to use it, but now that I’ve moved back home from Assisted Living I may rig something up in the backyard. It just has to be where I can get it while holding onto things, as I am disabled and can’t walk very well.
I have increasing mobility and strength issues too, Fran.I can still lift my oven, which weighs roughly five pounds (Buda weighed sixteen and was a challenge). If you put it on a table or surface level that's easy for you, this would be a simple solution. I'd be curious to learn how Portland's constant cloud-cover would affect the temperatures. Air temp sometimes comes in to play here. At sea level, cloud cover may not pose the same problem that using an oven at altitude might. I hope you'll try this and please let me know how it works for you. I live at 4500-5000 feet elevation on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas. We get over 300 sunny days a year, but even a brilliant sunny day at 30 degree F doesn't work very well.
It does not rain all the time in Portland. This is a Mediterranean climate, much like California. It rains in the winter but the summers are dry and usually sunny. We only get about 36 inches of rain a year.
It is farther north, of course, so the intensity of the sun isn’t as good. So that might make solar less of an option.
I once saw a solar mirror collector an organization in Sudan was demonstrating. As they were setting it up, it was accidentally focused on a steel shipping container and was so hot, it cut a corner off the container, sort of like using a magnifying glass on ants. The amount of heat it produced when focused was amazing.
I enjoy making power from the sun. For me, it’s fun and not political(or religious!). I think the future is a mix of solar and fossil fuels. We have an rv I installed solar panels on and they can power our electrical requirements indefinitely. Some things are more efficiently powered with propane, such as the refrigerator and the cooking range, but both use very little fuel.
I like the idea of solar cooking. Fun stuff.
I've found it interesting to watch nomad videos and see how they have installed various energy resources as you have on their rigs. There are different sources for different purposed, but put all together, it saves a lot of energy.
Meanwhile, that mirror reflector system has some definite drawbacks for birds. When they fly into the "ring of fire" so to speak, they get fried immediately. Probably never knew what hit them, but like wind turbines, millions of them die for these huge installations. I'm all for roof-top localized solar and wind collection sources. Closer to the customer and safer for the birds.
I visited a friend’s home in California, who lives in a home with a huge solar array on the roof. Unfortunately, it feeds directly into the grid and is shut down during the frequent blackouts. There is no onsite storage capacity and his house goes dark just like everyone else.
Another friend has two large arrays that track with the sun and he also has storage capacity that feeds back through a device called an inverter that converts 12 or 24 volt dc solar power into 110 volts to power his household needs. He also uses the solar panels to recharge his plug-in Honda hybrid car, which has a 40 mile range on battery power only. He almost never buys California’s $6 per gallon fuels.
Beginning next year, Californians can no longer buy generators. Buy a million dollar motor home, no generator to run air conditioners. Own a restaurant with a walk-in freezer full of perishable food, no generator. It seems the utopian legislators are running out ahead of reality. When they start making life harder and more miserable for the masses, at some point the masses may rise up and smite them
The smiting is already happening in the form of "getting the fuck out of Dodge" migration from the state. I really don't think CA gov is trying to serve its people, especially the business sector. It's as though they are trying to destroy business and have been making it more and more impossible to do business in CA for decades. My in-laws have been complaining about it for years, yet do they actually pick up and LEAVE? One sister almost did, but alas, health reasons change.
Meanwhile, Bill Maher has made a major satire out of his experience setting up his solar array. There's no reason why energy companies can't implement technology so customers can switch their solar power off the grid when it goes down and just use it in their own homes. That can be done. They just don't want to make things work efficiently. California has a real problem with true functionality. Need water? Desalination plants along the coast. Yeah I know, there are environmental/animal issues. Need public transportation? Stop feeding the fiefdoms and just do it! Need dependable and safe energy? Implement the technology to give customers options and strengthen the grid at the same time.
I don't know, Switter. I'm just too simple-minded. (rantover)
Simple- minded is better than crazy, and CA is crazy.
Gosh, I'd never heard of this! I've learned so much, Sue! Great post. 😊
Thank you, Rebecca, I thought this was kind of old territory, but you've made my day. Thank you.
Fascinating stuff here, Sue. I have never had call to consider any of this. You have opened up a whole new area of inquiry! Thanks.
Creeping slowly beyond fossil fuels. So slow our generation will be dead. Just think about all the people, like me, who live in a apartment building and don't have a yard. We are a long way off from all the apartments not bring heated by fossil fuels. Then there is the fact that fossil fuels are used in the manufacture of things like solar panels and those giant windmills. And the huge amount of concrete poured as the base so they don't tip over is a major carbon polluter. We went past the tipping point when people went from rural living like you to city living. Even grilling is not possible. My apartment has no grounds, just right out to the street. Where my mother lived had 6, for 3 story apartment buildings. Plus grilling is also adding to the carbon footprint. Imagine the smoke in even a small city if everyone went back to heating and cooking with wood. Sedona had to ban real fireplaces because of that. It's like living with wildfire smoke constantly. And disposing of those solar panels and the huge wind veins after their 20 year life span is also a major problem. None of the way people lived was a problem with a world population of 1 billion. 8 billion people is the problem. We are the problem.
Have a nice day,Bob.