Design, Development and Performance Testing of a Novel Utility Solar Cooker with Highlighting Its Significance in Current Scenario

In most developing worlds, cooking with heat has been a technically feasible replacement for fuelwood in food production as the need of the hour. Cooking energy accounts for 36% of India's gross primary energy use. Non-commercial oils are used mainly by the rural and urban populations to fulfil their energy requirements. Solar cooking is one potential alternative, but it has been met with some resistance due to some obstacles. Simple box-type solar cookers are an easy way to cook food utilizing solar energy throughout the day, but cooking is not feasible all across the night-time. In this research, a box-type solar cooker with energy storage is developed, and a performance study is conducted to enable food to be cooked at odd hours. Thermal energy has been stored using phase change content (PCM). The amount of energy retained, the amount of heat lost during the charging and discharging period, and the amount of PCM needed are all calculated. Experiments were carried out with two continuous loads in a cooker with a 0.5 m2 aperture region and PCM (Erythritol). While the performance of the PCM cooker is comparable to that of a simple box-type cooker, cooking during off-sunshine hours is not feasible with the simple box-type cooker, according to the report. However, by utilizing the specially built and manufactured PCM cooker, cooking can be done at any time of day. As a result, this paper aims to summarise the research on solar cooking systems that incorporate phase shift materials (PCMs).