This document describes a student's design of two solar ovens and the testing process. For the first design, materials included felt, cloth and sand. Testing showed the oven only reached 49.4°C. For the second design, materials were changed to flat felt and shredded cloth. Testing showed this oven reached a higher temperature of 43.2°C but cooled quickly in the shade. The student concluded that better insulation was needed to retain heat for a longer period of time.

1. Designing a Solar Oven
By Jaxon Holt
Monday, May 20, 13

2. Imagine for Design #1
• Idea #1
• Our materials are dark felt, dark cloth, and sand.
• We need 1 unit for each material.
• The advantages of this idea are that the more
materials, the more opportunities for more heat and
does not hurt the environment. We also have a -1
point.
• The disadvantage of this idea is that the sand
might not heat up the air.
Monday, May 20, 13

3. Imagine for Design #1
• Idea #2
• Our material is dark shredded felt
• The advantage to this idea is that we can
reuse or recycle the felt after this project.
• The disadvantage to this idea is that it only
has one material.
Monday, May 20, 13

4. Plan for Design #1
•top view
Monday, May 20, 13

5. Plan Design #1
•side view
Monday, May 20, 13

6. Plan for Design #1
Material Units
We will use
the material
by
Dark Felt 1
The felt will
absorb heat and
it will be placed
on the walls.
Dark Cloth 1
The cloth will
absorb the heat
and will be placed
on the bottom.
Sand 1
Sand gets really
hot when the sun
heats it and it will
be next to the
cloth.
Monday, May 20, 13

7. Impact Score for Design #1
Design
#1
Reduc
e
Natural
or
Process
ed
Reuse
Recycl
e
Total
Points
Sand
Felt
Dark
Cloth
1 point
Natural
-1 point
Yes
-1 point
Yes
-1 point
1 point
1 point
Processe
d
+1 point
No
+1
point
No
+1
point
3
points
1 point
Process
ed
+1 point
Yes
-1 point
No
+1
point
2
points
Our total impact score is 6 points.
Monday, May 20, 13

8. Solar Oven Testing in the Sun
Time Temperature
0 minutes 25°C
5 minutes 49°C
10 minutes 49.4°C
15 minutes 49.4°C
20 minutes 49.4°C
25 minutes 49.2°C
Monday, May 20, 13

9. Solar Oven in the Shade
Time Temperature
1 minute 49.2°C
2 minutes 49.1°C
3 minutes 49°C
4 minutes 48.9°C
5 minutes 48.9°C
6 minutes 48.9°C
Monday, May 20, 13

10. Create for Design #1
• Our heat score is our solar oven maximum
temperature subtracted from the control oven:
49.4°C - 55°C = -6
• Our time score is the number of minutes it took
to cool down but we did not collect accurate
data.
• Our total impact score was 6 points.
• We did not get accurate results so we do not
have an accurate total score.
Monday, May 20, 13

11. Improve for Design #1
• We did not have an accurate result for our total oven score.
• The part of our solar oven design that worked well was the
felt because the felt absorbed the most sunlight and that
made the oven hotter.
• The part if our solar oven that did not work well was the sand
because it didn't heat up a lot or as much as we thought and
that did not heat the oven.
• We are going to try to improve our heat and time.
• We are going to improve our heat by using foam and felt
because they are both good heat conductors. We are going
to improve our time by letting the better conductors collect
more heat.
Monday, May 20, 13

12. Plan for Design #2
Monday, May 20, 13

13. Plan for Design #2
Monday, May 20, 13

14. Plan for Design #2
Material Units
How we will
use the
material
Flat felt 2
We will put it on
the sides.
Shredded dark
cloth
1
We will put this
on the bottom.
Monday, May 20, 13

15. Impact Score for Design #2
Design
#2
Reduce
Natural or
processe
d
Reuse
Recycl
e
Total
points
Flat felt 4 points
Process
ed
+1
point
No
+1point
No
+1
point
7 points
Shredd
ed dark
cloth
1 point
Process
ed
+1
point
Yes
-1 point
No
+1
point
2 points
Our total solar oven score is 9 points.
Monday, May 20, 13

16. Solar Oven Testing in the Sun
Time Tempertature
0 minutes 16°C
5 minutes 37°C
10 minutes 37.4°C
15 minutes 39.1°C
20 minutes 42°C
25 minutes 41.6°C
30 minutes 43.2°C
Monday, May 20, 13

17. Solar Oven Testing in the
Shade
Time Temperature
1 minute 35.8°C
2 minutes 29.7°C
3 minutes 25.7°C
4 minutes 23.1°C
5 minutes 21.2°C
6 minutes 20.2°C
7 minutes 19.3°C
8 minutes 18.8°C
9 minutes 18.4°C
10 minutes 18.1°C
Monday, May 20, 13

18. Create for Design #2
• Our heat score is our solar ovens maximum
temperature subtracted from the control ovens
maximum temperature. 43°C-41°C=2°C
• Our time score is the number of minutes it took
to cool down which was 5 minutes.
• Our total impact score was 9 points.
• Our new total score -2 points.
Monday, May 20, 13

19. Reflection
• Our improved design worked well because it got to a
high temperature but it did not insulate that heat for
long so our insulation was not really good. The
materials we used like dark cloth and felt for
insulators we poor because they did not hold the
heat in and we know that because when we put our
oven in the shade the temperature dropped fast.
• If we could improve again we would improve the
insulators because keeping the heat in was our only
big problem our solar oven had.
Monday, May 20, 13