Solar Spaghetti in Haiti

We’ve built the first Haitian Phaeton solar cooking array in Port-au-Prince and we’ve celebrated by making a big batch of spaghetti!

 

Above, you can see Junior stirring up the noodles above the upward reflector, which provides a convenient, waist high cooking console.

Above, Pena works on the focal point, learning how to adjust the mirrors to make the resulting reflection smaller and thus hotter.

Here Junior blows on the coals after a traditional stick burning. It’s odd, everywhere I’ve been, you can tell people about 2000 watts, that it will boil 12L of water per hour, that the maximum temperature of the focal point is around 600C but nothing gets them WOWing like a flaming stick!

This was an experimental model, with new individual mirror concentrating devices, and they have their pros and cons, so for completeness’ sake we’re going to build another Phaeton using the old favorite 9 facet mirror module technique illustrated below…

There’s more to it than that and I’ll post an instructional video once we’re gone through the process, but it results in a better concentration ration. It is more complicated and involves the use of fiberglass, which is a whole other sometimes hard to find material.

Tomorrow, I’ll buy more materials, and we’ll start making an oven. Meanwhile, I’ll train the guys how to make the 9 facet mirrors.

The rainy season is starting to make itself felt… clouds start to form towards 5 o’clock and then it starts to pour just after dark. So far it hasn’t interfered with daily operations but we’re only just starting to feel the effects.

By the weekend we’ll be baking pizza!

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