crockpot & van solar (paging bLEEps!)?

[Snikwahjm]

Kaylee, if you use one of those lunch box ovens buy some foil and some baking bags. Some times I cut the bags in half, shake in flour and put the food in the corner and twist tie it shut. I’m not cooking a turkey... some stores have generic bags a lot cheaper. By cutting the bags different ways I can get two or more uses out of a bag. You could cook a hamburger or a small meat loaf in the bag. BUT you do have to be careful because liquid will go everywhere when you move the bag. Also you can’t turn the bag over easily if you cut it. Line the box with foil or... Next time I do it I’ll be using a bag in a foil loaf pan in the cook box. Any way, I don’t love washing dishes... I like washing out that cook box even less. I also bought some stainless mugs that fit perfectly in the lunch box. They work to heat up soup, etc. they can’t tip over. I put some Aldi chicken or pork barbecue in one and heated it up, then threw some tortilla chips in there to heat. Then I put some cheese on... a bag might work for some of that, too.

[Wayne49]

Kaylee,

It's not something worthy of burning limited bandwidth. Maybe when you next hit the library and use their computer.

The site has a static image of the dearly departed dough boy at eternal rest in a coffin.

Then some humorous text. All sorts of punny floury prose.

I could post the text, but that might be ain't right. It looks like only the image is explicitly copyrighted.
I only know about explicitity, such as explicit consent. Implied volatility has no place in my lexicon.

[Wayne49]

Kaylee,
Way back before I had spent a night in the van, I purchased some items recommended as essentials by someone on some forum. Turns out they did not work for my purposes.

One is RoadPro, used one time only, cleaned it, put it back in the, by now tattered but still intact, original box. I had also bought the foil pans to hold the food. Put in soup. Plugged it in and waited for a while, then waited... If I had been driving the soup would have spilled over the foil pan inside the RoadPro and splashed on the inside of the cover. The foil pans are useless for liquids. It was too messy and slow for my instant gratification, lazy ass "I don't want to spend longer in cleanup than in consuming" pre-retirement self. I did clean it thoroughly that one time. It is in Pahrump and I'm not, but at some point this week I will be in Pahrump. I'll verify the condition and take a couple images to post. Or I could try to find the post with your "pita" email address and send them to you. Did I assume incorrectly that "pita" does not refer to the pocket bread?

If you can't find something local or really cheap, let me know if I can send the one I'm holding to you. Free of charge. No obligation. I hope to get some good karma from the cosmic consciousness as my reward. Does that jinx it?

[Texjbird]

 hi where abouts unknown the doug and everybody else.   i have that same westbend cooker that i bought here in al at an estate sale.  i think there is a reason i've been saving electric cooking things.  i've given away a lot of stuff over the last few years.  i still have a wolfgang puck digital electric pressure cooker, a convection oven/rotisseri, a nu wave oven, one of those big electric cookers big enough for a turkey, both a electric panini grill and 2 sizes george foreman grills,  a couple of electric skillets, a toaster oven, and a toaster.

i've lived in total electric homes for years.  i have the boxes for most of these so i can check their wattage<<<<<is that what i need to know for when i have a sloar set up?  whoops! i forgot 1 or 2 crockpots with one of them unopened.

i've been thinking that i probably will not be able to lift my propane tanks when they are full or get them hooked up tight enough to prevent them from leaking.
hen blowing queenie and my butts to kingdom come. 
 i do have both a propane and butane single burner that use the small cannisters.  also 1 or maybe 2 elec. hot plates.

just jim is so kind letting folks charge stuff from his solar.  maybe with enough extension cord i can park nearby to him and just run a power cord across  jj you are sooooo sweet and kind.

jewellann and queenie

[Kaylee]

Thanks y'all!
Next time I'm at a Library, I'll be hitting those "Thank You" buttons a bunch (they double bandwidth used)...


Snik: Thanks! I'm also not keen on dish-washing, so that's great info.

Are they generally tall enough that I could heat soup in its own can, after removing the lid?
I also have a bunch of retort meals (MREs, "ReadyMeals") that I should be able to heat easily, with no mess.
And The Big Dang Geek Question: can one easily heat an already defrosted HotPocket?!?
These are all no-cleaning-required experiments I plan to execute, document, and share.

I'm still nervous there's some catch, like it'll create too much heat using a car charger inverter.
Waiting for Sternwake to weigh in.


Wayne, thanks for the Kind Offer, duck while I toss some Karma your way!
Maybe that will Reverse Tempt Fate and ensure there's a slowcooker in one of the thrift shops?

Yes, pita as in P.I.T.A.
One of their slogans is "free the donkeys!". Yes, Geek Humor.

Here's a non-dough-boy slowcooker pizza page:
https://www.aspicyperspective.com/slow-c...ish-pizza/
My favorite part is where the author lists reasons:

Slow cooker pizza is hard to burn. I mean, you really have to try to burn it. If you have an affinity for leaving things in the oven too long, this recipe is for you! Leave the house for a few hours without fear.

Wayne, I think we're all into fast cooking, but in my case, if I get totally absorbed in something else (Creating Code), I have an exceptional ability to Burn Stuff.
This sounds perfect for me.

Also... baking pizza is awesome Aroma Therapy.


Jewell Ann: LOL!
The boxes will give a general idea, in particular, they should be accurate for the maximum amount used.
It will be much more accurate to measure actual usage with a kill-a-watt meter.

On my trip North, I stopped into a Library where I have a card, and used one of their meters there and took some pictures.
I'll be posting an article, soon, to help you and others.
They really are easy to use.
You plug whatever you want to measure into it, then plug it into the wall, and it instantly starts measuring.
There's typically just one or two buttons, and you just keep hitting one until you see the measurement you're interested in.

[sternwake]

I have not used an inverter to cook anything, and as such should not be giving any advice on how to cook using an inverter.

As far as 12v cooking devices, that come with a ciggy plug, well no surprise to see me write that it will perform better with theciggy plug bypassed and more voltage reaching the heating element. A few tenths of a volt do not the heating element a similar amount hotter, it makes it exponentially hotter.

A 55 watt halogen bulb, getting 12.8 volts will make 1000 lumens
the same 55 watt halogen bulb getting 14.5volts will make 1528 lumens!!.

A halogen bulb is basically a resistive heating element, so one can easily see how the voltage reaching the heating element can make or break its ability to do its job.

So, the higher the voltage the faaster the resistive heating element will heat up and the hotter it will get.

With an inverter powering a 120Vac heating element, higher DC battery voltage reaching the inverter will make the inverter more effiient. If the wiring from battery to inverter is well sized for the length and the DC load, then the low voltage alarm on the inverter will not sound nearly as early, allowing one to cook for longer in peace.

Keep in mind a 200 watt solar system is doing good to actually produce 160 watts at noon, only if the battery is full and does not require much amperage to be held at 14.7, wil the battery be near 14.7 while powering a 120+ amp load.

12v DC cooking items will perform so much better the shorter and fatter the wiring is to the battery, and if the battery is being held at charging voltages by lotsof solar or an alternator, all the better.
12v cooking items using the ciggy plug and receptacle over inadequate sized wiring will perform absolutely horribly, and perhaps adequately when the engine is running or the solar can keep battery voltage up in the 14v+ range.

The inverter of adequate wattage, powering 115vAC cooking appliances will be more efficient, the higher the DC battery voltage it receives, and will power it for longer before low voltage inverter alarm starts screaming, but there will be little difference in heating/cooking ability of that appliance, until that inverter gives up from too low of input voltage.

As far as lead acid batteries powering cooking devices, well a single 1Lb bottle of propane contains many many times more energy than a large healthy happy fully charged 12v battery. Keeping the battery healthy and happy can be taken to ridiculous extremes, and cycling it unnecessarily can chew greatly into its potential lifespan.

All too often solar panel wattage is seen as producing that figure from sun up to sundown, when in actuality it is lucky to reach 80% of that rating for 2 to 4 hours each sunny day. If a cooking device is eating up all the solar output, then the battery is not being charged, and the battery really wants to be fully charged by sundown. Batteries chronically not getting fully charged will lose th eability to store the same energy a before. this is largely not recoverable, and if this lost capacity is recoverable, it requires longer times held at higher voltages, then likely a higher voltage on top of that applied for a few hours.

So beware of thinking tha tones solar capacity is abundant, and one can easily introduce cooking via electricity and all will continue to be well.

Batteries are rented and they are there to serve us, but they are finicky bastards, and getting good life from them can require the human become the servant to the battery

[Snikwahjm]

The stainless cups are smaller than a can of soup. You will need to measure height. Who knows, the right can should stay standing. Come to think of it they do slosh a bit unless they are covered in foil or something. But the cups won’t tip. The barbecue worked in the cups but probably would cook faster spread out flat in the bag. I don’t put anything acid in foil.

This is not your most efficient method of cooking unless you are traveling. If you are in one place there are better ways of cooking.

[rvpopeye]

^=You may encounter unforeseen issues .

I'm not sure but is that inverter the kind that look like a big cell phone charger ?
The hard wiring of one of those could be a bit involved .....disassembly ?

(The "boxy" ones usually have bare wire inputs so NO issues "expected" .)


The continuous wattage capabilities could be exaggerated too.......

But do keep going on your experiments , should be interesting for sure.

I burn stuff the same as everyone,,,,,even/or except abnorm , (depending on luck) .

The window of "perfect toastiness" is so very brief...yuz guts ta pay attentionsk !

[Cammalu]

I bought a solar oven that folds down this year. I haven’t tried it yet but looking at the construction I can’t see where I can’t make these myself for a LOT cheaper. I’m putting it on my list of things to do but my list is already very long...

The one I bought looks like this but doesn’t have all those accessories and cost about half of that. I think one could be made for about ten bucks????

[rvpopeye]

Looks a lot like a windshield sunscreen.