Experimental determination of the thermal performance of a solar box cooker with a modified cooking pot

The performance improvement of the solar box cookers is possible using different techniques and design changes. One of them is new or advanced designs of cooking utensil/pot. New designs of the cooking pot enhance the heat transfer to the food leading to reduced cooking time. The present work depicts the performance of a Solar Box Cooker (SBC) using a modified cooking pot (MCP). The SBC is tested with new design of the cooking pot equipped with top glazed lid. The COR is used as a thermal performance parameter (TPP) and determined experimentally using heating and open sun cooling tests. The inter-cooker performance comparison of the SBC is done using a newly designed MCP and a conventional cooking pot (CCP). It is shown that the thermal performance of a solar box cooker (SBC) improves with a modified cooking pot (MCP) because of reduction in heat loss with the additional benefit of visualization of the solar cooking activity.