00:19So this is my solar cooker thing.
00:24So I'm steaming up a big pot of soil and you steam the soil and it's about 20% faster
00:34at growing plants and I'm not sure exactly why, a bunch of reasons.
00:41See this isn't even, I haven't just set up right yet but it's working fine.
00:47The water gets airlifted up from this, turns the water wheel and I'll just show you the
00:54water wheel moves the reflector.
01:02Last year I had weights on both sides and this year I have weights up here and this seems
01:10a little easier.
01:11I'd be able to move them a little bit back and forward for centre of gravity and you
01:16move them up or down again for centre of gravity to counteract the height of this.
01:25This isn't, I haven't this set up yet correctly but it's very close to being right and this
01:32has been going for a few hours now and the soil is being nicely steamed.
01:41So what I have is, I have about this much water in the bottom and then there's a screen and
01:49then the soil is above and the water boils and the soil gets steamed over the course of
01:54a few hours.
01:56I'm just going to get a little water and flick it on it so you can see the water boiling
02:04off
02:05very quickly.
02:05If I flicked it on the bottom it would steam.
02:08Well it only goes to about 110 degrees when there's water in it because that's the, you
02:16know 100 is boiling point for water but you have a little higher temperature to pass the
02:21heat through to the water and if there's no water in it, I've done it before, that you
02:26can test and it will go to 300 or 400 or 500 degrees when there's nothing to take away the
02:31heat.
02:31So anyway, it's working pretty nicely and this is my first batch of the year.
02:39This is the second year of this and if you look along it there is some damage from, what
02:45would this be from, it's from water and pine pollen and stuff like that on it.
02:55It has done a little bit of corrosion but it's pretty good material.
03:02It has some sort of coating on it, it's designed for solar reflectors and that's what you need.
03:10I did find another material that might do the job as well.
03:17So this thing, this was my demonstration model and you can see that last year when I was using
03:23it, it burnt, you know, I was burning little pieces of wood on it and it burnt the wood
03:28a few times and it burnt holes in it.
03:29But this material, I left this out in the sun over the winter.
03:32So this has actually been in the sun a bit longer than this and it's looking very good.
03:41And this is just from, that came from plates from the dollar store.
03:48So it is technically possible for someone to make a solar cooker with that silvery plate,
03:57plastic stuff that they are making for the dollar store.
04:02So instead of making plates for $3 or $4 a piece, you could sell solar reflectors for,
04:09I don't know, $100 a piece with the same material.
04:16I am not sure why people haven't done it.
04:19I did run into people telling me that aluminum foil is good enough for this and that is simply
04:26not true.
04:27You have to have the right material.
04:29So in Europe there's companies which make special aluminum, highly reflective aluminum,
04:39and these can be used as well.
04:41I don't have access to that.
04:43So I used the stuff from China for recoating solar reflectors.
04:48And it works, works well.
04:50And there is, on my design, I used a type of ABS plastic and I used this to stick the
05:01strips together.
05:02And unfortunately the reflective material doesn't stick to that.
05:14And that means that I've got these strips which aren't actually reflecting accurately to the target.
05:28And that's a problem.
05:29Anyway I talk too much but this can make a difference.
05:32So I'm, I'm, I'm steaming up soil but you could, you know, you can cook food in it.
05:38The reason I steam up soil is because plants, let's say lettuce grows over, over a month,
05:44it will grow 20% faster in steamed soil than in non-steamed soil.
05:48Unless we have any fertilizer or anything like that.
05:51So it's well worth doing.
05:53Oh the other thing is, see how this is going here.
05:56It's slowly turning and keeping it in focus.
06:04What I'm planning to do is have something here that just makes steam.
06:10And have the steam come to something with soil with a thermostat.
06:15I have all the thermostat spots for it.
06:16And then the thermostat will turn on an auger.
06:21And when a section of soil is steamed, the auger will come on until the temperature drops.
06:29And in that way, instead of having to do batches, I'll have a big hopper on top.
06:35And you just fill it.
06:38And as the soil is steamed, in a kind of a continuous process, the auger will move the soil.
06:48So that potentially we could get two or three or four times as much per day as with this method.
06:54So that's, that's my plan for the year.
06:56And I hope other people join in.
06:57I'll stick the, um, the dimensions for, for making one of these online.
07:03And, um, yeah, it'll, I'll, I'll, I'll put some of it on, on this video.
07:10And I'll put more in a, maybe a PDF or something like that.
07:13But, um, it's way past time for other people to make these.
07:16I don't understand what the problem is.
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