Design and evaluation of a conical solar cooker in glazed and non-glazed configurations: Cooking tests

This paper reports the evaluation of a conical solar cooker. This prototype was designed in galvanized sheet with an opening diameter of 120 cm. The experiment was carried out on the roof of the building of the solar energy laboratory of FHB University. Tests of boiling eggs were carried out. During operation, two configurations of the conical cooker were adopted. In the first configuration, the cooker was used without modification. On the other hand, in the second configuration, a removable glass plate is placed in the cone and at a distance of 25 cm from the base. This contribution has the role of creating a greenhouse effect between the absorber and the glass. During the tests, the temperature of cooking, the ambient temperature as well as the solar illumination were measured. The tests were conducted in accordance with the maximum cooking time of some foods given by "Solar cookers international". Despite the observed cloudy periods, maximum temperatures obtained by the eggs were 82°C in 2 hours cooking for the first configuration and 100°C in cooking 1h10 for the second configuration. These results show that the addition of the glass plate in the conical solar cooker gives good satisfaction. In addition, in both cases, a perfect cooking of the eggs was observed.