Microwave popcorn-1.jpg
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Project data
Authors Tony
Tyler
Devan
Bart Orlando
Location Arcata, California
Instance of Solar cooker
OKH Manifest Download

Three students, Tony, Tyler, Devan, and their mentor Bart , as a school project for Cal Poly Humboldt, collaborated to design and build a hot air popcorn maker powered only by the sun. Using a heat exchanger constructed by a previous engineering student, a parabolic solar cooking dish, a fan, and a, solar panel and various recycled materials from scrap piles we created a near working device. Although we never made a full batch of popcorn, we did achieve hot enough temperatures (about 300i F within the heat exchanger) that we later found had popped the kernels we placed in there to see if they would pop

Introduction[edit | edit source]

This project was for a school group project for the ENG 114 class taught at Cal Poly Humboldt by Lonny Grafman. Many neat projects were done by other groups as well such as the solar cooker for CCAT, The thermal curtains CCAT thermal curtains howto, and an earth ship wall.

Project Requirements[edit | edit source]

The project began with 4 components already assembled and ready to use:

  • A rusty steal heat exchanger designed by a previous engineering student,
  • A parabolic satellite dish converted into a solar cooker,
  • A 12v D.C. fan and
  • a solar panel to power the fan.

Our assignment was to take these elements and find a way to combine them into a functional hot air popcorn popper. The design began with the idea that a fan would be based at the apex of the dish and would blow air through a tube to the heat exchanger placed at the dish's focal point. The air would...

Design[edit | edit source]

The design began with the idea that a fan would be based at the apex of the dish and would blow air through a tube to the heat exchanger placed at the dish's focal point. The air would....

Costs[edit | edit source]

We only spent about $5 for the scrap metal.

Next Steps[edit | edit source]

The next steps it needs is to be refined to get more air, and hotter air flowing into the kernels. This is best done in summer when there is sun.

Conclusions[edit | edit source]

Parabolic solar cookers

FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Keywords solar cooking
SDG SDG07 Affordable and clean energy
Authors Devan
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Organizations Cal Poly Humboldt
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 2 pages link here
Aliases Solar Hot Air Popcorn Maker, How to make a solar hot air popcorn maker
Impact 1,651 page views
Created November 10, 2008 by Devan
Modified February 28, 2024 by Felipe Schenone
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