DefinePK

Abstract

In this study, experimental and numerical works have been performed to investigate characteristics and thermal performance of a simple solar box cooker for boiling water. In the experiment, a simple solar box cooker with absorber area of 0.835 m 0.835 m has been designed and fabricated. The solar box cooker has been employed to boil water by exposing to the solar radiation in Medan city of Indonesia. Numerical method, where heat capacity of the material of solar box cooker is taken into consideration, has been developed. Numerical and experimental results show a good agreement. The results show that the simple solar cooker can be used to boil water up to 6 kg. The analyses show that the heat loss, useful energy, and hidden heat can be up to 57%, 15%, and 28%, respectively. The hidden heat stored in the solar box cooker material is very significant and it should be considered in the analysis and designing of solar cooker. The correlation to estimate boiling time as a function of water mass is proposed.