Conical solar cooker

Abstract

Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 30 June - 2 July, 2008.

A conical solar cooker is build based on concentrating solar radiation into heat. The radius of focus and opening of conical concentrator are 0.15 m and 0.362 m. It is made of polished, reflective stainless steel. The solar incidence angle can also be changed according to solar times and seasonal factors. Experiments were conducted by cooking rice, boiling the eggs and boiling the pickled mustard green pork. Cooking 300 grams of rice with 900 cm3 of water, the rice was softened within 30 minutes and the rice was fully cooked within 2 hours at 91°C to boil the four eggs completely. Boiling 321 grams of pork with 1 liter of water, after 2 hours the temperature reach to 81°C. The experiments revealed that the solar cooker performed efficiently at a solar intensity of 350 W/m2 and higher. The solar intensity affected the cooking performance. Therefore, for the best results, cooking should be conducted between 9:30 am to 3:30 p.m.