Recent development of the solar cooking system with or without heat storage for families and institutions.

Abstract

This article presents the recent development in manufacturing a solar cooker, with indirect heating and with or without temporary heat storage. The two basic system components are the solar collectors with reflectors and a cooking unit. The working fluid, thermal oil, circulates in natural, thermo-siphon flow through copper piping connect the components. The system presents interesting features such as the possibility of indoor cooking, heat flow control in the pots, and modularity. The first prototype of this collector-cooker system was built and installed in Juelich, Germany. Further development and adjustment were performed for the next versions. For this work, a new flat plate collector with one plastic and one glass cover was tested and the experimental measurements show the good performance of the cooker.