Cheap solar ovens from recycled cardboard boxes

[B-Lue]

It doesn't get cold enough down here to use the fireplace much.  I have a pile of firewood on the patio (oak I think) that's been there for years.  It's starting to rot as you might guess.  So is it full of spores & bugs & stuff I don't want in the house?   Should I just get rid of it or does firewood "keep"?

Back to the solar cooking... I want to know more about it to make regular use.  Can't do that if I have to leave the same dish in it all afternoon.
So I'm gonna "characterize the process" as we say in the factory.  I have 2 castiron and 2 graniteware vessels which I'll cook a chicken breast in at the same time of day for each vessel.  I'll note the time it takes to achieve 250 degrees in the chamber, and in the vessel, and how long it takes the meat temp to return to 150 degrees with the vessel sitting on the patio in the sun.  This will give an idea of whether the sun oven can be used to simply build heat, then rely on the vessel's own stored energy to do some of the work.
 

[opsec]

I'd keep it. That pile of firewood is slowly converting itself into some of the best tinder which can be real handy stuff if you need to start a fire.

I'm glad you are doing some actual research on this. I have plans to get solar oven(s), but I am behind the curve as they say.

[B-Lue]

Thanks Opsec, I'll keep that wood.
Hey Wander, as I think through my solar cooking design-of-experiment I want to ask you a couple of things about yours:
Does your wireless thermometer have a box connected to the probe as well as the remote box?  If so, did you let the lead come out through the lid?  Mine is a meat thermometer, and there is a braided wire lead connecting the probe to a small box that displays the temp (meant to be just outside the oven door).  I'll have to run the lead through the lid of the pot, and that will break the lid seal.  Not the best.  
Did you put anything inside the pot besides the thermometer?  Water or food?
In order to get comparable info I'll have to spread my data-collection over several days, setting up at 12:00 each day, probe-tip in a refrigerated pre-cooked chicken breast, with all hardware starting from the same baseline (air-conditioned house) temperature.
I also have all the materials for building the velcro-parabola type, so I'll prob'ly do a water-to-boiling test with the big pots, just to have the extra solar capacity.  
"Process characterization" will have to wait till Wednesday due to my night-shift work.  
That's enough thinking for now.  Back to bed.  

[wander]

My wireless thermometer is the outdoors kind that you hang outside and put the monitor inside so you can see what the outside temperature is. So no leads of anykind.

I do need to do a water boining test. My concern was that I wanted to do a set amount, like 1 quart, but I was concerned the thing wouldn't be sturdy enough for sitting water somewhere and being able to adjust it to capture maximum sunlight. I need to work on my design.

[Beeherder]

 

Excellent refinement of the experiment.

For the results to be really comparable the initial water volume needs to be the same and the atmospheric pressure needs to be the same (or known), and the starting temperature needs to be the same (or known). Water boils at 93 C in Denver Colorado, this is my personal measurement done in 1976 during my basic first level chemistry class. So it will be important to know what tmeperature the water boils at as well as how long it takes to boil and a reasonably accurate measure of atmospheric pressure is also a valid parameter.

My suggestions:

Initial volume: 0.5 liter
Initial water temperature: 20 C
Measure initial and ending ambient air temperatures
Atmospheric pressure in millibars from a nearby location not significantly different in elevation than the experiment site
Sky conditon report: clear, scattered, broken, overcast cloud conditions.
similar cooking vessels

Best comparisons from clear or scattered cloud cover but overcast would also be very interesting.