CHETAN BALIRAM KHOBRAGADE, FLORENCE AKANGLE PANME*, AKSHAY CHOUDHARY AND NARENDRA KUMAR
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Assam University, Silchar-788 011 (Assam), India *(e-mail: panmeflorence@gmail.com; Mobile: 80111 99791)
(Received: June 15, 2023; Accepted: July 21, 2023)
ABSTRACT
A parabolic solar cooker was developed and tested for usage by small farmers and households in the North East Region (NER) of India. The parabolic solar cooker was developed with an aperture area of 0.8624 m2 to prepare food items such as rice, tea, potatoes, eggs and others. To check the performance, hourly statistics were recorded throughout the testing period, which ran from 9:00 A. M. to 17:00 P. M. A no load test and full load test was conducted to determine the temporal variations in ambient temperature, focus point temperature, sun insolation and relative humidity. The maximum ambient and focal point temperature was found to be 32, 37.60, 33.90 and 46.80, 54.0, 48.2°C at 14:00, 12:00 and 12:00 P. M., respectively, for tests, T1, T2 and T3 under no load condition. Also, the maximum solar irradiance recorded was 565 W/m2 at 14:00 PM, 589 W/m2 at 12:00 PM and 503 W/m2 at 12:00 PM, respectively for T1, T2 and T3 of no load tests. In the water boiling test, the average maximum ambient temperature recorded was 35.4°C at 12:00 P. M. and the maximum temperature of water recorded was 80.87°C at 13:00 h. For cooking of rice, boiling of potato and making tea, the average time consumed was 90, 128 and 85 min, respectively. For boiling of eggs, the average time consumed was 95 min. The overall thermal efficiency of the developed parabolic solar cooker was found to be 13.64%. As compared to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), the estimated payback period of the parabolic solar cooker was found to be 1.4.
Key words : Focal point temperature, parabolic solar cooker, renewable energy, pay-back period, solar intensity, thermal efficiency