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Devine Lu Linvega

We've been cooking from solar for the past 4 days. So far we've tried potatoes, seitan, brussel sprouts and today we're cooking legumes for the first time.

🌻 The big advantage of using the sun to cook our meals is that instead of using the pressure cooker over the gas stove, which creates a lot of moisture in the galley, we'll be able to make our meals in the summer without heating up the habitat!

Chickpeas in a vacuum tube.
67 comments
R E K

@neauoire today's conditions: 6°C, light wind, sunny :>.

Maša Kepic

@rek @neauoire Amazing they cook so well at only 6C, and that design's really elegant too.

Alexander Cobleigh

@neauoire super cool :) i remember seeing one of these in a lil feature of this super-inventive nomadic shepard grazing in the usa and being awed by it :>

can you take a pic that's a bit farther out and shows how it's set up in general?

Joël Franusic

@neauoire don’t forget the advantage of the satisfaction that comes with using fire that you stole from the gods

Devine Lu Linvega

It blows my mind how hot it gets, check out the steam coming out of the vacuum tube-

uh oh I angered it

doll!

@neauoire I saw "vacuum tube" without context and assumed you were getting into really retro computing

Devine Lu Linvega

@hierarchon "cooking with salvaged soviet radio equipment"

🚲

@neauoire I 100% cannot justify owning one of those as we have a great electric stove powered by mostly clean BC hydro, but you’re making it look really fun

R E K

@dx @neauoire itll be useful for us for when at anchor. Even if you do use clean energy tho (bc hydro here too, we have induction plate when at a dock), we see it as redundancy. If your power goes out, you can still cook (provided it is not too overcast). Of course, if the stove is powered by a solar installation at home you can still cook :> (dont know your setup)

🚲

@rek @neauoire Resilience is a good point. We’re 100% electric and therefore 100% using our camping gear every time the power goes out. No solar, because I ran the numbers and it wasn’t clear that it was the best option from a GHG standpoint given the clean grid power (likely neutral, but then the financials don’t work, and grid tied can’t be used in a power outage with a normal installation anyway)

vacuumbeef

@neauoire How long does it take to heat up enough on a sunny day?

Devine Lu Linvega

@vacuumbeef depends on the food inside, but it starts to steam in about 15 minutes.

vacuumbeef

@neauoire I want to try it so much, I just can't get my head around the fact that it's real, haha. I found this pipes in local stores, so maybe this summer... I'm thinking maybe a stainless steel sheet will be good as a diy reflector.

Devine Lu Linvega

@vacuumbeef try it out and document your experiments, I feel like more people should know that it's possible. It's good for when the grid goes down or when LPG runs out. We'll try all sorts of different foods and collect the cooktimes and weather.

Devine Lu Linvega

Soaked dried chickpeas overnight, perfectly solar-cooked in about 1h30. No steam inside the boat, no fuel used. After an hour we re-oriented the reflectors.

Next, we'll try rice and bread.

calutron

@neauoire This is so cool do you think this would work as a total replacement cooking method vs gas?

Devine Lu Linvega

@calutron unlikely, but who knows, it will reduce our consumption of LGP considerably in the short term.

I think we're satisfied to have found a way to stretch the length of time we can stay away without refueling, and a bit of redundancy for cooking since our inverter and battery bank are not powerful enough to drive an induction plate.

calutron

@neauoire would it work to have an array of them where you've got like four parallel tubes. Curious how scalable it is

Devine Lu Linvega

@calutron I think so, but we'd need larger reflectors.

poetaster

@neauoire ah, your using the tubes. Brilliant idea. I use my 'spare' solar to heat water from about now to sept. But I have space for big panels. Of to go find some tubes!

troethe

@neauoire Nice! Just be sure to not use this on more toxic legumes like kidney beans, because the temperatures reached in there might not be high enough for it to be safe.

R E K

@troethe @neauoire no worse than stovetop, temp gets quite high.

sam.sh

@neauoire ooo you could make little buns! Or one cylinder of bread. 🍞

Devine Lu Linvega

🌻 I'll stop freakin' out about this soon, promise.

Made some pasta sauce(ground beets, tvp, kale, garlic, zataar) and left it out for 45 minutes in the vacuum tube, in the afternoon sun. Turned out so good.

#theGalley

A vacuum tube solar cooking tray with beets.
Devine Lu Linvega

@alexglow it was! topped it up with nutritional yeast and chilies. :moomin_yay:

Tendigits

@neauoire please keep sharing. This solar food cooking tube is so interesting.

Brian Boucheron

@neauoire every time you post about this i think of the Mr. Wizard's World (80s kids science show) episode where he cooks breakfast on a variety of solar contraptions, including some shiny metallic funnels on sticks!

8 year old me thought it was the coolest, of course, but these vacuum tubes are even more neat.

The episode is available here: youtube.com/watch?v=3bObVFVu_3

Devine Lu Linvega

@beardicus that show's intro animation alone was worth the detour, wow!

अनीश

@neauoire don't stop freaking out, this fucking awesome!!

tomasz stecko

@neauoire it's really cool tech, i first found it through Kirstren Dirksen video of a nomadic shepherd (13:30 onward)

youtu.be/U54HRmglYEA?t=812

ірина

@neauoire that's so cool!! can you still use it on overcast days?

Devine Lu Linvega

@lrlna we tried it only once overcast(it has been sunny recently), and it still worked, but it took almost twice as long.

256k

@neauoire same concept is used for more industrial power generation using these vacuum tubes filled with oil that would then get used to generate steam I believe as a source of power for turbine electricity generation. You’d have a small field filled with one long long tube in a single closed system.

Did one summer internship at a renewable energy research facility and it was fascinating I learned so much.

Devine Lu Linvega

🌻 Hell yeah solar cooked brown rice.

Vacuum tube tray with cooked brown rice.
[DATA EXPUNGED]
moonglum

@neauoire That looks amazing ❤️ How do you clean this, though? 🤔

Mika

@neauoire Seeing the vacuum tube work so well is so cool!

daniel

@neauoire oh we got one of those as well! It’s extremely satisfying to cook from virtually nothing

floatvoid

@neauoire so cool. That is way more effective than I'd think. my kids had to make solar ovens out of foil and cardboard for school. they could cook eggs and stuff in it.

abortretryfail

@neauoire
I've been waffling about getting one of these for years but after seeing that video I'm sold.

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