Performance investigation of convex lens as light collector in low cost solar cooker

Abstract

People all over the world always cooked every day, the fuel they used neither biomass, fossil fuels or firewood. All of these fuels had several problems, it can cause global warming and some of them nearly extinct. Solar cookers can be used to solve this problem. These cookers use solar radiation as fuel, so it won’t be extinct. The device has been used in some developed country and successfully reduce pollution at a low cost. A minus point of solar cookers is, it was consumed a longer time to cook which caused many people to still prefer conventional cookers. This research tried to reduce cooking time in solar cooker by adding a convex lens as a light collector. The design of solar cooker used a common rectangular with a size 45 × 20 × 12 cm and three reflector panels attached. Various components like reflector, insulation and cover lid have been analyzed to created solar cookers with lower cost and better performance. Solar cooker builds from wood and the inner part is coated with black styrofoam for storage heat. Mirror and aluminum seal has been used as a reflector and the result showed mirror had similar performance with aluminum seal. Convex lens put directly on top of cookers lid, the pot with convex lens reach 5-8° C temperature higher than the one without it.