Design and experimental investigation of solar cooker with thermal energy storage

Abstract

Solar cookers can be of great use in saving fuel and enabling in eco-friendly cooking of food. Solar energy is available during daytime only and also intermittent. So, thermal energy storage is very important for indoor solar cooking requirements and will ensure continuity utilization. The overall system is designed theoretically to cook 1 kg of rice in 45 minutes requiring the power of 421 W which is obtained from the stored energy from the sun. As it is shown in the experimental result, due to so many losses, the energy transfer to the water reduced to some extent and its temperature reaches 355 K. Even if it has low energy, it is possible to reduce energy of TES to the surrounding by placing it in the insulated tank during discharging. However, there is a variation between experiment and analytic calculation because the model did not account the basic losses and variation of solar radiation. The discharging of TES is started after it is lifted from solar collector but immediately it is placed on the insulated tank and loaded by the pot with water. Thus, the maximum temperature of water reached after 40 minutes is 355 K.