Performance Of Solar Cooker Research Articles

Solar cooking intensive experiences in south of Iberian Peninsula and its importance in research planning

The Southern part of the Iberian Peninsula has a great solar energy potential available for domestic and industrial scale applications. Despite this potential, solar cooking has not been widely adopted. Both authors are employed by universities, one as a teacher in the University of Algarve (Portugal) and other as a laboratory technician in the University of Huelva (Spain). They are each passionate about incorporating solar cooking in their daily lives. They both solar cookers frequently, and have advocated their use in their respective countries for many years. They consider themselves “well contaminated with the solar cooking virus”. They entered the solar cooking world by making and using several types of solar cookers, most of which were low cost devices made from recycled materials, later working on some commercialized units. This extensive experience of solar cookers and on solar cooking has enabled them to develop and optimise different types of solar cookers, and test different cooking vessels. By contrast, some published authors appear to have had little day to day experience of using solar cookers. Thus, the main goal of this study is to list some important aspects of the practical use and performance of solar cookers that the research community should investigate

Improvement in the opto-thermal performance of Indian standard solar box cooker by novel internal retrofit radiative control

Design intervention for improvement in the performance of a solar cooker is required for its mass adoption and popularization. It has remained stagnant for decades for want of a holistic tool which provides metric for prediction of its cumulative optical and thermal(opto-thermal) performance, cooking type/objectives, techno-economic feasibility and climatic impact/carbon mitigation potential. In this work assessment of effectiveness of novel design intervention through retrofitting of internal radiative control in an Indian solar box cooker, one of the most popular family cookers in India, has been investigated using available tools. The solar cooker, with the minimal design intervention, and negligible cost implication shows an improvement of 6.74%, and 6.86% in the values of figures of merit, F1 and F2, respectively, used for the thermal performance evaluation. Here, the standard test procedure for figures of merit mainly accounts for the thermal aspect of the performance as it excludes the use of external booster reflector. Alternatively, the Cooker opto-thermal ratio (COR), a parameter measuring opto-thermal performance, shows a 1.25-fold increase. The retrofitted reflectors enhance localised targeted absorption and reduce thermal losses, resulting in a 25% improvement in COR. The retrofitting process is simple, and easy; and offers superior performance, favourable economics, and potential for carbon mitigation, making it highly attractive. Also, this work demonstrates COR as a tool with higher resolution enabling analysis of the impact of even minimal design intervention.

Testing solar cookers for cooking efficiency

Solar Cookers International (SCI) staff developed and implemented a calculation to measure the cooking efficiency of solar thermal cookers. The calculation complements and enhances SCI's existing performance evaluation process (PEP), which can now be used for determining both the standard cooking power and the cooking efficiency for solar thermal cookers. The standard cooking power value is a single measure of solar cooker performance taken when the temperature of the test water load is specifically 50 °C greater than ambient temperature. Cooking efficiency values extend the perspective of solar cooker performance, as they are applicable to a continuum of load temperature measurements made during a heating cycle. Cooking efficiency is the ratio of energy absorbed by the solar cooking load divided by the input solar energy intercepted by the device during a test interval. Examples of cooking efficiency calculations using water loads during three days of testing for an anonymous group of different types of solar cookers are: solar box oven (18.9 %), reflective-panel solar cooker (28.5 %), parabolic reflector (35.2 %), and evacuated-tube solar cooker (34.6 %).

An experimental study on parabolic trough solar cookers with materials collector of chrome stickers and glass mirrors

Cooking, a fundamental human necessity, frequently relies on environmentally harmful energy sources. Concentrated solar power offers a promising solution through solar cookers to address this issue. This study assesses a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) solar cooker's performance with two reflector materials: chrome stickers and glass mirrors. The PTC-type solar cooker comprises essential components, including an absorber tube, a flexible conduit, and a spiral-shaped cooking container holder that accommodates a diverse range of cooking vessels. In the configuration of the PTC collector, reflectors fabricated from chrome stickers and glass mirrors are strategically employed to harness and concentrate solar radiation effectively. The absorber tube, crafted from copper, is filled with a heat-transfer fluid consisting of soya oil. Experimental investigations were conducted in a two-stage process, encompassing trials without any applied load and subsequently with varying loads. In the no-load experiments, alterations were made to the PTC collector's inclination angle, spanning the ranges of 15º, 20º, 25º, and 30º. In contrast, the load-bearing tests encompassed the assessment of the PTC solar cooker's performance under a diverse array of cooking scenarios, including boiling water, heating oil, frying eggs, and crisping crackers. The evaluated parameters encompassed key metrics such as incident solar radiation (Ir), ambient temperature (Ta), receiver temperature (Tr), fluid temperature (Tf), spiral furnace temperature (Tsf), and load temperature (To). Subsequently, the outcomes of the experiments were employed to determine the efficiency of the solar cooker. Analysis of the no-load test results indicates that the most favorable performance, as observed in the parameters Tr, Tf, and Tsf, is achieved at a collector inclination angle of 15º for both chrome sticker and glass mirror reflector materials. The solar cooker demonstrated commendable proficiency in boiling water, heating oil, frying eggs, and crisping crackers, accomplishing these tasks within a time frame ranging from 5 to 20 minutes. Notably, the solar cooker featuring the glass mirror reflector exhibited a superior thermal efficiency of 33.7%, surpassing the efficiency of the counterpart with the chrome sticker reflector, which registered an efficiency of 30.9%. These findings underscore the efficacy of the glass mirror reflector in harnessing solar energy for enhanced cooking performance within this solar cooker configuration.

Effect of inserting 10-PPI copper foam as a porous absorber on the solar cooker performance

Effect of inserting 10-PPI copper foam as a porous absorber on the solar cooker performance

Performance of solar cooker with evacuated tubes and photovoltaic panels with phase change materials

Performance of solar cooker with evacuated tubes and photovoltaic panels with phase change materials

“Experiment Analysis of Box Type Solar Cooker with and without Thermal Energy Storage Medium”

Abstract: Energy plays a vital role for cooking purpose. This study is focused on the performance analysis of box type solar cooker at the climate conditions of Gwalior. Thermal energy storage materials provide better temperature and reducing cooking time as compared to without TES. In this thesis, two different types of TES material are used i.e. water and sand and the performance of solar cooker with TES and without TES are compared, the maxi mum temperature is attained by the solar cooker without TES was found 90.6oC when solar radiation was 1075 w/m2 while using sand and water as TES the maximum temperature was found 81.3°C and 69.4oC respectively when solar radiation was found very low 496 w/m2 and 365 w/m2 .It seems that where radiation is low and off-sunshine, TES material is used for attaining maximum temperature. The sand gains the temperature faster than the water but it needs to be moisture free. The advantage of using water is that even though there occurs a sudden fall in solar radiation, the water temperature remains the same for a long duration, which is not possible in case of cooker without thermal energy storage.

Analysis of energy storage materials for developments in solar cookers.

Solar energy is accessible freely and can be utilized for many household and industrial applications. The consumption of solar energy for cooking applications has found significant success. Various innovations have been employed in facilitating cooking during off-sunshine hours. Thermal energy storage helps in overcoming the fluctuations in the supply of energy required for cooking during different time periods of the day. This study focuses on the different types of thermal energy storage mediums that are currently utilized in solar cooking. Primarily, oils and pebbles are most commonly used as sensible heat storage (SHS) while organic phase change materials (PCMs) are used as latent heat thermal energy storage materials (LHTES). The properties and performances of various SHS and latent heat storage (LHS) mediums have been compared for their suitable utilization. SHS materials are cost-effective but have lower thermal gradient compared to LHTES materials. The energy storage capability of LHTES is high while degradation with the increasing number of charging and discharging cycles is also considerable. The melting point should be close to the utilization temperature for being used as LHTES as thermal diffusivity of the materials greatly influences the performance of solar cookers. The cooking time is lower for solar cooking systems equipped with energy storage compared to non-equipped cooking systems. It is recognized that the use of energy storage has been proved as a huge advantage to solar cooking systems, however, the design, and heat transfer characteristics of the cooking vessel along with the storage material type and volume must be optimized in order to make this technology more influential.

ADVANCES IN SOLAR COOKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - A REVIEW

Increased energy demand has forced societies to rely on traditional fuel sources with negative health andenvironmental impacts. In most developing countries, solar energy is available for long hours and in ranges thatif exploited can reduce dependence on biomass and fossil fuels. However, despite its potential, uptake of solarcooking devices is low due to intermittent radiation, technological challenges, lack of awareness and slowercooking rates compared to other energy sources. There are four traditional types of solar cookers, box, panel,parabolic and tube. The latest technology is the PV conversion to electricity. Since the advent of solar cooking,numerous experiments, designs and improvements of solar cookers have been successfully developed. Researchhas focused on improving solar cooker performance such as; improved design, sun tracking mechanisms, solarthermal storage or “hybrid” designs that remove limitation of nighttime cooking or periods of poor irradiance.These improvements have increased the efficiency, reduce the cost of the solar cookers, and addressedsociocultural challenges such as sheltered cooking, visual appearance, and the ability to cook traditionalrecipes. However, more needs to be done to increase ease of adoption, the capacity of energy storage andflexibility. The cost of domestic workloads and environmental degradation should also be a factor in energypolicy formulation.

Experimental thermal performance studies on solar hot box cooker with different absorber coating materials

Hot box-type solar cookers can be a promising option for meeting the challenges of clean cooking fuel for communities in developing countries. One of the major components of hot box solar cookers is the absorber tray, which is responsible for converting solar radiation into useful thermal energy for a heating load. For improving the efficiency of the hot box solar cooker it is important to enhance the absorption. The present work focuses on enhancing the thermal performance of solar cookers using different absorber coating materials on the absorber tray. Comparative studies on box-type solar cookers have been done for black matt paint and mixed material paints. Five types of mixed material paints were prepared by mixing CuO, TiO2, activated carbon, Tungsten, and mica with black paint. These prepared mixed material paints were examined in reference to the black matt paint on the identical sections of box type solar cooker. The experiments were conducted with different coating materials with water load and without load conditions. During the experiments, the surface temperature difference without load was found to be in the range of1°C to 14 °C for different materials. With water load conditions, the hot water temperature difference was observed to be about 1 °C to 7 °C for different coatings.

Analysis of energy storage materials for developments in solar cookers

Solar energy is accessible freely and can be utilized for many household and industrial applications. The consumption of solar energy for cooking applications has found significant success. Various innovations have been employed in facilitating cooking during off-sunshine hours. Thermal energy storage helps in overcoming the fluctuations in the supply of energy required for cooking during different time periods of the day. This study focuses on the different types of thermal energy storage mediums that are currently utilized in solar cooking. Primarily, oils and pebbles are most commonly used as sensible heat storage (SHS) while organic phase change materials (PCMs) are used as latent heat thermal energy storage materials (LHTES). The properties and performances of various SHS and latent heat storage (LHS) mediums have been compared for their suitable utilization. SHS materials are cost-effective but have lower thermal gradient compared to LHTES materials. The energy storage capability of LHTES is high while degradation with the increasing number of charging and discharging cycles is also considerable. The melting point should be close to the utilization temperature for being used as LHTES as thermal diffusivity of the materials greatly influences the performance of solar cookers. The cooking time is lower for solar cooking systems equipped with energy storage compared to non-equipped cooking systems. It is recognized that the use of energy storage has been proved as a huge advantage to solar cooking systems, however, the design, and heat transfer characteristics of the cooking vessel along with the storage material type and volume must be optimized in order to make this technology more influential.

Experimental investigations on the performance of solar cooker using nichrome heating coil—Photovoltaic with microcontroller PIC 16F877A

AbstractIn this article, a solar cooker with photovoltaic was developed and manufactured, which offers an electrical emergency power supply and a nichrome heating element in order to be able to cook even on cloudy days and nights. An effective charge controller is made with the microcontroller PIC 16F877A to charge and power the nichrome heating element wound on the cooking vessel. The charge controller prevented the battery from overcharging by effectively regulating the voltage and current from the solar panel. The current through the nichrome coil provides additional heating and the thermal energy that is absorbed by the cooker's absorber plate. Hence the hot water needs a minimum amount of auxiliary heat energy to reach the maximum temperature which is well supplied by the nichrome heating coil. Simulation study for the proposed cooker is recommended in the future to commercialize the cooker for a family of four members with minimum cost. The charge stored in the battery during the day is used to cook food at night and on cloudy days.

Proposal of a non-linear curve for reporting the performance of solar cookers

Performance parameters of solar cookers have conventionally been determined by assuming a linear trend between the cooker power and the difference between load temperature and ambient air temperature. This approach may not be convenient for some solar cooker designs. In the present work, the suitability of a non-linear regression derived from fitting the measured load temperature to a second order exponential polynomial was investigated and compared with the linear regression. Both regressions were compared with the corresponding experimental curves of a panel cooker and a box cooker. In the case of the panel cooker, the linear trend of the experimental plot was confirmed over a large period of the conducted test. Minor deviations from the experimental data were observed only at the beginning and at the end of the test. On the contrary, in the box solar cooker, significant deviations between the linear regression plot and the experimental points were observed, while smaller deviations were obtained using the non-linear regression. Thus, the proposed method can be seen as a promising approach that should be considered when updating the existing procedures for testing and reporting the performance of solar cookers.

An experimental study of solar cooker performance with thermal concentrator system by spot Fresnel lens

The study to investigate the thermal performance of solar cooker using a spot Fresnel lens for concentrators of solar thermal energy is conducted.The main objectives of the present work are:a) to develop a new design of the cooking pot of solar cooker as an absorber of solar thermal from a spot Fresnel lens;b) to analyze the relationship of several temperature parameters in the cooking pot with the thermal efficiency of the Fresnel solar cooker (FSC);c) to conduct field test by heating test and cooling test to obtain a performance characteristic of FSC.The experimental test was conducted at Brawijaya University (7.9553°S, 112.6145°E), East Java, Indonesia during August – September 2019. The Fresnel lens operation method uses the azimuth manual tracker to concentrate direct normal irradiance (DNI). The measurement of Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) was made by the SM 206 Solar Power Meter and placed on the FSC frame. A new design of solar cooking pot has been developed. That is a cylindrical shape for boiling water and food cooking with a cone cavity as a solar collector. While on the cooking pot, the temperature sensor is placed:1) ambient temperature;2) cooking pot temperature;3) focal point temperature on the receiver surface;4) water temperature in the solar cooking pot.It is connected to the Digi-Sense 12 CH-Scanning Benchtop Thermometer for temperature data acquisition system. The measurement of wind speed was made by Cup Anemometer ABH-4224. The procedure for testing the FSC was developed based on existing international testing standards. The receiver/cooking pot was tested for thermal performance characteristics of cooking by conducting the following tests:1) no-load test;2) water heating and cooling tests.The experimental results show that the average stagnation temperature in a cooking pot with a conical cavity receiver was 267.35 °C. The receiver shape with a conical cavity has better heat transfer capability and low heat losses, hence, making it suitable for applications on FSC. DNI ±850 W/m² produces a focal point temperature of 1064 °C, a heat removal factor of 7.39 W/m². °C, and an optical efficiency factor of 0.312. Therefore, the thermal efficiency of the FSC is 27.72 %. The thermal efficiency tends to decrease until the end of the process due to the influence of the optical efficiency factor

Evaluation of performance of household solar cookers

Household solar cookers were evaluated according to ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) Standard S580.1 – Testing and Reporting Solar Cooker Performance. Per ASAE S580.1, standardized cooking power at a temperature difference of 50 °C between ambient air and cooking vessel water temperatures (±95% confidence interval) was 198 (±32) W for a parabolic-type cooker, 65 (±12) W for a box-type cooker, and 25 (±9) W for a panel-type cooker. ASAE S580.1 specifies standardized cooking power as a single measure of performance, and additional measures of performance, including thermal efficiency and water heating times, were evaluated. The issue of water evaporation was examined. Clarifications for ASAE S580.1 wind velocity specification are recommended. ASAE S580.1 is specified as a normative reference in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 19867–1:2018 standard for laboratory testing of cookstoves, and a specified deviation for average wind velocity, ≤1.5 m/s, is based on recommendations from this study and concurrence from other ISO working group experts.

High Performance of Solar Cooker by Heat Transfer Mode Condition System Using Fuzzy Logic Controller Applications

In this work has been made to predict the effect of several parameters on the productivity to a system by expending fuzzy set technique. A solar cooker has been developed low cost and critically high efficiency produce in Vel Tech Multitech Engineering College at Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. Dissects in thermal performance of cooking system have been produced heat transfer follow in fuzzy logic techniques (Low, Medium, and High). The thermal effect of factor should be developed in fuzzy logic for the system. They should have groups of heat transfer produced in fuzzy logic controller for solar cooker system which had been implemented of system performance discussed. It is to study have induced to give the shortly time for the enhancement of the box solar cooker production.

STUDY ON IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR COOKER BY USING DIFFERENT COATING MATERIAL

Day by day demand of the energy increasing in all over the world. Solar energy is very large, in exhaustible source of energy. The use of renewable energy is receiving growing interest worldwide. Everybody demand clean and safe energy devices with cost effective. One of the most essential energy needs for human living is for cooking. In India mostly rural sector uses Biogas, Kerosene, and LPG for cooking. According to the World Health Organization comparative risk study, exposure to smoke from household use of solid fuels is responsible for the premature deaths of approximate 400000 women in India every year.Also in solar cooker device if black material coating is done for receiver it improves the efficiency of system and it also increases the temperature of cooker for cooking. Black coating improves the absorbptance of the receiver surface. This project paper is Improving performance of solar cooker by using different coating material.

Thermal Performance of Solar Cooker Based on Evacuated Tube Collector and PCM Storage Unit

In this experimental set up, solar cooker with thermal storage unit was connected to evacuated tube collector through connecting pipes via a low flow rate pump. The design of solar cooker was such that the following fluid transfers its heat to PCM and cooking vessel simultaneously. Commercial grade acetanilide was used as latent heat storage material in the solar cooker. Cooking experiments were conducted during noon and evening with different loads and PCM storage processes were carried out simultaneously. The result include that cooking lunch for a family is possible simultaneously with heat storage along the day. Closing gate valves afterward allows cooking the dinner with the retained heat up to late evening. This expands the applicability of solar cooking and sustains the possibility of all the day around cooking using solar energy with a low inventory cost.

Experimental characterization of a solar cooker with thermal energy storage based on solar salt

High temperature solar cooking allows to cook food fast and with good efficiency. An unavoidable drawback of this technology is that it requires nearly clear-sky conditions. In addition, evening cooking is difficult to be accomplished, particularly on the winter season during which solar radiation availability is limited to a few hours in the afternoon in most of countries. These restrictions could be overcome using a cooker thermal storage unit (TSU). In this work, a TSU based on solar salt was studied. The unit consists of two metal concentric cylindrical vessels, connected together to form a double-walled vessel. The volume between walls was filled with a certain amount of nitrate based phase change material (solar salt). In order to characterize the TSU, a test bench used to assess solar cooker performance was adopted. Experimental load tests with the TSU were carried out to evaluate the cooker performance. The obtained preliminary results show that the adoption of the solar salt TSU seems to allow both the opportunity of evening cooking and the possibility to better stabilize the cooker temperature when sky conditions are variable.

Experimental Study on Performance of a Box Solar Cooker with Flat Plate Collector to Boil Water

In this study, a flat plate type solar cooker is tested by exposing in solar irradiation. The objective is to examine the performance of solar cooker in boiling water. The solar cooker is a box type with collector area and height are 100 × 100 cm and 40 cm, respectively. Vessel for water is made of aluminum plate with diameter and height of 22 cm and 15 cm. The experiments are performed by varying mass of the water. It is 2 kg and 4 kg, respectively. Every experiment starts from 10:00 AM until the boiling temperature is reached. The parameters measured are radiance intensity, ambient and solar box cooker temperatures, and wind speed. The results show that the duration of water heating up to 100°C with water mass 2 kg within 2 hours 45 minutes and water mass 4 kg within 3 hours 17 minutes. The maximum temperatur of solar box cooker is 117°C at 12:56 PM and maximum efficiency is 46.30%. The main conclusion can be drawn here is that a simple solar box cooker can be used to boil water.