Abstract:
In Uganda, due to the high price of cooking gases and electricity, people still cook with noncommercial
fuels
like
charcoal
and
firewood.
These
cause
a
lot
of health
problems
and
also
harm
the
environment.
A
clean
solution
to this
problem is
to
use
a
solar
cooker.
As
solar
cooker
uses
solar
energy
for
its
operation
and
provides
an
effective
solution
for
the
energy
crisis,
which
is a
major
problem.
Besides
being
safe
it
is
also
environmentally
sustainable
as
there
is
no
carbon
emission.
Firewood
and
charcoal
have
been
the main
backbone
of
cooking
energy
in Uganda.
However,
firewood
is got
from
cutting
down trees
which
has
led to rapid
rate
of deforestation
and
desertification.
This
project
describes
the performance
evaluation
of a
box-type
solarcooker wit h reflector fabricated using locally available materials, size of the box is
635 mm × 635 mm. The experimental solar cooker consists of an al uminum absorber pl ate
( 1 mm) paint ed matt black and a doubl e-glazed lid. The bottom and sides are lagged
with wool insulator, thickness = 100 mm. The reflector consists of a metallic-framed cover for
the box when not in use.
Thermal performance experiments were conducted in order to determine the output energy
(Eout) of the box type solar cooker by calculating the temperature difference. Finally, the results illustrated that the cooker has a good reliability for cooking food and boiling water.
