Solar Cooker Stand Phase 1--brainstorming and project goals

For our final project, Ananya and I are working on improving and refining the existing solar cooker stand for our community partners in Nicaragua. Currently the problems are that the design is expensive, inefficient, and difficult to assemble.

Project Goals:

-Make a smaller, more efficient stand

-Use materials readily available in community

-Make it mobile, height adjustable and wind-proof

-It should be easy to assemble and easy to teach women in the community how to assemble

-Solar cooker should be secured to stand

Problems to consider:

Metal is too expensive, lumber needs to weatherproofed/treated.

-Could we use plastic? PVC piping structure

How can we secure the sliding cooktop surface?

-magnets? what is the solar cooker made out of?

- notches? what type of notch is the simplest to cut? what type of notch is the most secure?

Questions for community partners:

What material is the solar cooker made out of?

How large is the solar cooker?

How much does it weigh?

Does it need to be tilted?

Does it need to be height adjustable?

What tools do you have to use at your disposal?

What tools are available in the community?

What materials are readily available? (ie. plastic trays, PVC, lumber, wood, metal, etc)

existing stand: