Energy and Exergy Analysis of Three Domestic Parabolic Solar Cookers with Different Geometries

Abstract

In this paper, a thermodynamic performance assessment of three parabolic solar cookers of same aperture area with different geometries based on energy and exergy concepts has been carried out. The paper evaluates and discusses the effect of various thermal parameters like variation in water temperature, figure of merits, standard cooking power, energy & exergy output, energy & exergy efficiency. The issue of latent heat of evaporation was inspected. For the same energy input, the energy output of the conventional circular dish cooker varied between 184-1072 kJ, whereas it was between 234-1122 kJ & 301-1139 kJ for fabricated & segmented rectangular dish cooker. The average energy and exergy efficiency for selected cookers was found in 40%-48% & 2%- 3%, respectively. The comparative analysis demonstrates that the performance of segmented solar cooker with novel rectangular geometry was superior to conventional circular dish cooker due to improved thermal efficiency, heat duty and geometry.