Find in Library

The main aim of this work is to design, develop and experimentally test the performance of an improved box-type solar cooker with thermal energy storage. The improvement features are the ability to concentrate solar rays and store thermal energy. The improved solar cooker became 20% less in inner surface area compared to the conventional solar cooker for the same intercept area of the sun. Experiments are conducted for stagnation test and load test followed by comparison of the thermal performance of improved solar cooker with conventional one. The performance testing parameters are used as per the Indian standard for box type solar cooker. Testing results showed that the averaged first figure of merits (F1) is 0.115 for conventional and, 0.1349 for improved solar cooker with black stone as a thermal energy storage, 0.1238 for improved solar cooker with concrete as a thermal energy storage and 0.1453 for improved solar cooker without any thermal storage. As per the Indian standard for testing of box type solar cooker, the improved box-type solar cookers in all condition are found to be grade ‘A’ due to the fact that the first figure of merits (F1) is greater than 0.12. Also the thermal energy storage materials used gives a remarkable storing capacity.