38. Comparative Performance of a Double Reflector Box Type Solar Cooker under Tracked and Non-tracked Conditions

Box type solar cookers are usually recommended to track (orient) towards the sun for better functioning of the solar cookers. Performance of the asymmetric folding doubel reflector CIAE solar cookers have been evaluated under tracked and non-tracked mode. The length: width ratio of the glass cover aperture of the cooker was 1: 1.2. Standard water heating tests were conducted under tracked and non-tracked mode with mirror reflectors on typical sunny days in the month of November. The solar cooker was tracked at every 45 min towards sun. Three litre water (distributed in four pots) was kept in the solar cooker. Tracking of the solar cooker was found to be advantageous. Due to non-tracking, performance drop in term of gain in water temperature was observed to be 13.5%. Time taken to raise water temperature to 80.5 ^OC (peak) in nontracked mode was 165 min, whereas time taken for raising same temperature under tracked mode was only 125 min. In tracked mode, in 165 min temperature raised to 93.5 ^OC and further it reached up to 96 ^OC (peak) in 195 min.