Harrison Ko, Sarah Clement, Karen Holway, Francis Vanek and Tim Bond visited Sabana Grande this Xochitl Cruz, Jocie Kluger, Emma Lejeune, Meghan Hilbert, Alex Huang and Tim Bond (Tim writing) of the CEE3090 Solar Cooker Project visited Las Mujeres... and Grupo Fenix this spring in Sabana Grande during spring break (March 19th 16 through 26th25). Hari, Sarah and I drove overnight from Ithaca to Newark Airport and caught the 6am flight to Atlanta, where we rendezvoused with Karen, then flew to Managua. The flights went well. The marvelous and wonderful Lyndsey Chapman met us at the airport and guided us to Sabana Grande via an express bus. The bus was pretty crowded, requiring one of us to stand in the aisle for the whole trip, though no live chickens. The Solar Center in Sabana Grande was much changed from my last visit (this is Tim writing), with substantial progress on the Solar Restaurant, new gardens to support the restaurant effort, more solar panels and more cookers. Our families gathered us up and took us home for the night. We took a day trip to Somoto Canyon, a totally beautiful canyon on the upper reaches of the Rio Coco, on Sunday. On Monday morning we met the group from MIT working on a charcoal stoves and making charcoal from corn straw and other waste vegetable materials. The cooker building started with discussions Lee Fritz and Jenna Morse of Calm Dog Productions documented the projects on film. We left Ithaca on Friday night driving to JFK to catch a 6am flight to San Jose, Costa Rica followed by a flight to Managua. Karen Holway, a skilled furniture maker, joined the team in Managua for the third year, lending her considerable skill and talent. The primary intent of the project for this year was to design and build versions of cookers designed for prefabrication and easy shipment. The standard cooker design is 30 inches square (exterior), 12 inches high and weighs roughly 60 pounds. It is an effective cooker, but is not easy to ship, especially with its heavy and brittle double glazed top.
Our team brought 2 new designs. A major point of the designs was to use materials readily available in Nicaragua and and methods the Solar Women already understand. The first cooker used wooden framing, fiberglass insulation and sheet metal typical of the cookers produced at the Centro Solar. This cooker weighed about 50 pounds and used Reynolds cooking bags stretched on thin metal frames instead of glass for the top glazing. Both metal cases were hinged to allow easy folding. The cooker was partially disassembled and packed in a cardboard box which was checked onto the airplane for the trip, to prove its transportability. We reassembled the cooker after arrival in Sabana Grande. The second cooker used interior and exterior sheet metal boxes framed with light aluminum angle stock. The boxes were separated by a layer of fiberglass board insulation. The tops of the two metal cases were tied together by screw connection to a rectangular wooden frame which supported the door/top. The door/top also used cooking bags stretched on thin metal frames as glazing. This cooker weighed approximately 30 pounds and was brought with us inside a suitcase.
Dr. Lynn Schlager, PE, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Platteville, who is a collaborator with the Solar Women and has been working with them this spring while on sabbatical leave. He has worked with the Solar women to implement a design by Dr. Richard Komp, a long term collaborator with the Solar Women and Grupo Fenix. Prof. Schlager also built an oven of his own design. These two ovens were designed to use polyisocyanurate insulation board to be light weight and easily fold-able for shipment. They are also easily unfolded or assembled for use.
The Solar women's construction team included Nimia, Alejandra, Ramuldah, Reyna, Yelba and Maria Magdelena. This team is very experienced, having built more than 50 cookers.
The first part of each of our visits is a technical exchange in which all the designs under consideration for the solution of the particular problems being considered are explained in adequate detail for all the team members to understand. Prof. Schlager and Nimia presented the two designs finished or under construction at the Solar Center.
The team helped build 2 new cookers and a food dryer with the considerable help and guidance of Dr. Lynn Schlager, PE a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Platteville, who is a collaborator with the Solar Women and has been working with them this spring while on sabbatical leave. The cookers built this year were extensions of a design by Prof. Schlager and a design by our team. The solar dryer is an extension of a design built by the Solar Women with the help of a group from University of California at Davis of what to build during the week: a new large cooker with fiberglass insulation (instead of wood planings) and a metal stand was the decision. Hari, Sarah and Karen teamed with Alejandra and Ramuldah to build the cooker. Reyna, Maria Magdalena and I worked on the support frame. One of the previous volunteers had worked out the dimensions for an angle iron frame which we adjusted for the larger oven. Cutting the angle iron with a hand hacksaw is lots of work. We set up the miter saw that the PV team uses to cut aluminum for the frames of the solar panels with a blade for cutting steel and had a training session on safe use of the saw. A second miter saw with a blade for cutting wood was donated to the Solar Center and put into operation after a safety training course. The teams worked diligently to finish the new cooker and the stand (support frame with wheels). Francis traveled separately, first to Costa Rica, then to Sabana Grande, arriving Wednesday morning. The Solar Center had a large drill press that was donated some time ago, but never used. We cleaned and lubricated the drill and frame and required the switches to get the press working nicely, then had a safety training class to teach safe use of this very dangerous tool. We finished the cooker and stand on Friday just before our closing party/event at which most everyone performed. The Solar Children put on a couple skits which were the hit of the show.