Experimental investigation of a box type solar cooker employing a non-tracking concentrator

The present work alms at development of a box type solar cooker utilizing non-tracking concentrator optics to enhance the solar energy availability in the box of the cooker for efficient cooking. A laboratory model of a box type solar cooker employing a non-tracking concentrator has been designed and fabricated, and its thermal performance has been investigated experimentally. The concentrator, consisting of two planar reflectors suitably positioned in an east-west configuration on an inclined framework, is mounted on the box of the cooker to reflect incident solar radiation on the base absorber of the cooker. The design angle of inclination of the framework is taken equal to the latitude of the location and it is adjusted seasonally. The thermal performance of the experimental solar cooker has also been compared with that of a conventional box type solar cooker whose dimensions and make are identical to the box used with the former and which was also tested simultaneously under similar solar insolation and ambient conditions. The experimental results obtained show that the concentrator solar cooker provides a stagnation temperature 15-22 degreesC higher than that of the conventional box type solar cooker using a booster mirror. It is also observed that the boiling point of water with the concentrator cooker is reached faster, by 50-55 min, than with the conventional box type cooker using a booster mirror. Thus, the solar cooker utilizing non-tracking reflectors provides increased heat collection and faster cooking compared to the conventional box type cooker. The results of the tests conducted have been analyzed and discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.