Experimental characterization and performance comparison of four prototypes of panel solar cooker for low to high sun elevations

Solar panel cookers are affordable and easy-to-manufacture systems to cook food in a sustainable way. In this work, four solar panel cookers were assembled and tested outdoor in parallel to compare their thermal and optical performances under the same environmental conditions. The following four devices, assembled using inexpensive materials, were selected: Kimono, Funnel, Dual Setting Panel Cooker, Cookit. The Kimono cooker is a novel design proposed by one of the authors and was never analyzed before. The four cookers were tested outdoor in three different periods of the year, in the location of Ancona, Italy. Two configurations of the cookers, characterized by different aperture areas, were tested under no load and with the same amount of water (1 kg) in an identical cake pan placed inside a glass bowl used as heat trap. One configuration was more suitable for low-medium sun elevation, while the other one for medium-high sun elevation. It was found that the Kimono and Funnel cookers have the best performance with low-medium and medium-high sun elevations. In the three measurements sets, the average heating time for water to reach the boiling point was 1.74 h for the former cooker and 1.66 h for the latter. The Cookit showed a good performance at medium sun elevations, while the Dual Setting Panel Cooker was never able to reach water boiling point at low-medium sun elevation.