Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Experimental determination of the thermal performance of a solar box

cooker with a modified cooking pot
Atul A. Sagade a, d, *, S.K. Samdarshi a, b, **, P.J. Lahkar c, 1, Narayani A. Sagade d
a
Center for Energy Engineering, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835205, Jharkhand, India
b
Centre of Excellence in Green and Efficient Energy Technology, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835205, Jharkhand, India
c
Tezpur University, Assam, India
d
Solar Energy Research Laboratory, Pandharpur, 413304, Maharashtra, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance improvement of the solar box cookers is possible using different techniques and design
Received 20 September 2019 changes. One of them is new or advanced designs of cooking utensil/pot. New designs of the cooking pot
Received in revised form enhance the heat transfer to the food leading to reduced cooking time. The present work depicts the
15 November 2019
performance of a Solar Box Cooker (SBC) using a modified cooking pot (MCP). The SBC is tested with new
Accepted 18 November 2019
Available online 22 November 2019
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
Keywords:
Solar cookers
cooking pot (CCP).
Modified utensils for solar cookers It is shown that the thermal performance of a solar box cooker (SBC) improves with a modified
Thermal performance of solar cookers cooking pot (MCP) because of reduction in heat loss with the additional benefit of visualization of the
Cooker opto-thermal ratio solar cooking activity.
Thermal performance parameters © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction made of aluminium or copper are preferred for the cooking in a

SBC, although any type of them can be used in SBCs. The surface of
Many designs of solar box cookers (SBCs) have been designed, pots/vessels is generally coated/painted black to enhance the opto-
fabricated and investigated to enhance their thermal performance thermal performance. The number of vessels can be varied ac-
using different techniques. Some of them are alterations in the cording to the quantity and nature of food. The heat transfer into
geometries of SBCs and cooking pots; addition of booster mirrors in the cooking pot in different designs of solar cookers has been the
SBCs; heat augmentation techniques for SBCs and heat storage ar- subject of several experimental and theoretical studies (Grupp et al.
rangements using different materials. Some studies focus on the [1]; Binark and Turkmen [2]; Nahar, 2001 [3]; Amer, 2003 [4];
modified or advance design of cooking pots. In the case of SBCs, one Ekechukwu and Ugwuoke [5]; Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam
or more pots are kept at the center of the absorber plate/tray to [6]; N and Purohit [7]; Petela [8]; Sagade et al. [9]; Bhave and
achieve the desired and effective contact between the pots/vessels Thakare [22] and Rekha and Sukhchi [23]). The results of these
and the absorber plate/tray in order to increase the rate of heat studies indicate that typical cooking times in the case of the SBCs
transfer by conduction between the absorber plate and the cooking are ~ 2e3 h and 1e2 h for the solar concentrating cookers (SCCs).
vessels and transfer it to the food being cooked. Generally, con- Thus, the heat augmentation to the food item being cooked in a
ventional cylindrical or rectangular shaped cooking pots/vessels typical design of a solar cooker is possible using the modifications
in the shape/geometries of the cooking pot/vessel leading to a
reduction in the reference cooking time. Gaur et al. [10] investi-
* Corresponding author. Center for Energy Engineering, Central University of gated a SBC using a cooking vessel provided with a concave lid.
Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835205, Jharkhand, India. Their results showed a reduction of 10e13% in the cooking time
** Corresponding author. Center for Energy Engineering, Central University of
compared to conventional cooking vessel under the same condi-
Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835205, Jharkhand, India.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.A. Sagade), drsksamdarshi@ tions. Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam [11] showed that the
rediffmail.com (S.K. Samdarshi). cooking time can be reduced by increasing the effective area of heat
1
Current Affiliation: Dhemaji Polytechnic, Silapathar, Assam, India.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.114
0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1002 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009

transfer into the food item using a central annular cavity cooking
pot. Harmim et al. [12] used a finned cooking pot to reduce the
cooking time of a double exposure SBC. Sethi et al. [13] reported the
comparative performance SBC with a conventional and parallel
piped cooking vessel.
Although several studies have been reported in the literature, it
can be seen that the cooking pot design changes were incorporated
and studied at low temperature (~100
C) using the relevant ther-
mal performance parameters (TPPs). Also the evidence of using
modified cooking pots with metallic container-glass/glazed lids for
solar cooker and their detailed analysis is scarce as reported in
recent literature. Thus, the objective of the present study is to
investigate a modified design of the conventional cooking pot with
a glass lid for the SBC with the motive to i) increase heat gain and
heat transfer to the food item in the solar box cooker; ii) study the
possibility of reducing the heat loss characteristics and reference
cooking time for a particular design of solar cooker; iii) impact on
the TPP value of the solar cooker to enable performance rating.

2. Basic theory

Glass is transparent in the solar range and opaque to infrared

radiation (Duffie and Backman, [14]). Thermal properties of the
glass cover such as absorptance, transmittance, and reflectance are
functions of wavelength, angle of incidence of the incoming solar
Fig. 1a. Experimental test setup for the SBC.
radiation etc. Thus glass can be used as a lid for cooking pot,
because it absorbs almost all the infrared radiation re-emitted by
the inner part of the cooking pot, it is expected to result in an
enhancement of the thermal efficiency of the cooking pot (Khoukhi
and Maruyama [15]). Hence the proposed design of cooking pot
with the glass lidemetallic container allows the advantages of the
conventional cooking pot too.
It is also expected that the proposed modified design of the
cooking pot may enable the reduction in heat loss by keeping the
heat gain constant. Because, glass has certain properties like the
effective transmission of the shorter wavelength solar radiation
and blocking the longer wavelength re-radiation from the cooking
pot. In the case of a SBC, the radiation falling on the top of the lid
will be trapped and directly absorbed by the food item kept in the
cooking pot. Thus, the conduction and radiative heat loss will be
reduced. It also reduces the heat loss by convection from the
cooking item in the cooking pot. Another advantage of having such
designs is that the visualization of the cooking activity. It will
facilitate the person to observe the condition of the food being
cooked. However, the disadvantage of cracking of glass can be
minimized by using toughened/tempered glass (Goswami et al.,
[16]).

Fig. 1b. Conventional Cooking Pot (CCP) with the metallic lid.
2.1. Modified design of cooking pot/s

In the present work, an advance design of the cooking pot is MCP) with the metallic container maintains the advantage of
designed and fabricated. Here, the container of CCP (made up of conventional cooking pot (hereafter denoted as CCP) also. In the
stainless steel cooking pot) is kept metallic and top/lid is replaced case of a SBC-CCP combination, the food item kept in the cooking
with a glass as shown in the Fig. 1c. The middle portion of the pot is heated from the side and top of the container by the hot air
metallic lid of CCP is cut and retrofitted with a single glass top of trapped in the cooker interior. The bottom of the cooking pot re-
3.5 mm thickness and sealed properly using an appropriate high ceives heat from the absorber plate by conduction.
temperature sealant (Urja Sealants Pvt. Ltd, India). It makes them In the process of cooking, the food being cooked is converted to
workable at low (~100
C) as well as intermediate to high tem- semi solid state after the initial phase of heat distribution. A tem-
peratures (120e300
C). perature gradient is set up in the food and temperature will be high
This configuration increases the possibility of i) direct addition at the wall of the cooking pot. As the process of cooking progresses,
of heat from solar radiation to the food item placed in the cooking the temperature decreases as the distance of food from the wall
vessel ii) reduced heat losses and iii) visualization of the solar increases and even may reach a level which is insufficient to carry
cooking activity. Also, use of two cooking pots in a SBC enables the forward the cooking process (Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam,
inter-cooker thermal performance comparison. [11]). Thus, the use of the MCP with a glass lid may avoid this
This design of a modified cooking pot (hereafter denoted as
 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009 1003

difficulty partially. The glass will help to absorb heat energy directly
from the source and the entire food material will get an equal
amount of heat. Condensation of vapor on the glass top of the lid
may limit the transmissivity of glass during the final stages of
cooking (Tiwari, [17])

3. Experimental details

In the present experiments, the SBC used previously by Sagade

et al. ([9,18,19]), has been tested with modified cooking pot (MCP)
with glass lid. Open sun cooling tests (Sagade et al., [19]) were
conducted to determine the realistic value of the thermal perfor-
mance parameter (TPP), i.e. Cooker Opto-Thermal Ratio (COR). Also,
thermal heating tests (Sagade et al., [18]) were conducted to verify
the results. Glycerin (Sagade et al. [18,19]) was used as an inter-
mediate temperature test load and loaded in single a MCP only. As
suggested by Sagade et al. [19], a standard specific thermal load


(SSTL) of 10.46 kJ/ C of Glycerin per m2 of the cooker aperture area
is used for the experiments. The mean value of COR was used to
interpret the inter-cooker performance comparison.
Temperatures of the test load, absorber plate and ambient air Fig. 1c. Modified Cooking Pot (MCP) with the glass lid.
were measured using J-type temperature sensors. Solar radiation
and wind velocity were measured using a pyranometer (Dynalab, on a typical day at a location and used in the calculations. Fig. 1a
India) and wind sensor (Dynalab, India), respectively. All the depicts the experimental test setup and Fig. 1b and c shows the
measuring instruments were wired to a data logger (Unilog, India) conventional and modified cooking pot, respectively, used with the
and measurements were recorded at an interval of 90 s. During SBC in the present experimentation and Table 1 indicates the values
tests, the SBC was manually oriented according to azimuth in order of different parameters used in the determination of TPP, COR.
to collect the maximum of solar radiation on the cooker aperture
area.
The experimental data was used to find the value of Q_ } using 4. Results and discussions
equation (1) (Lahkar et al., 2012; Sagade et al. [19]) as
Fig. 2a and b depict the plots of temperature of test load (TGly) vs.

’
 Q_ ” ðTmðGlyÞ T a Þ
Mf Cpf Tf 2  Tf 1 Time and corresponding linear fit of  vs. for the open
GT GT
±Q_ } ¼
f
(1) sun cooling tests. It is to be noted that the Y-axis of both Fig. 2a and
Ap Dt
b is set to offset (stack lines with constant) to avoid the overlapping
where, þQ_ } is the rate of useful heat gain (for heating tests) and  of curves or lines. The experimental results of five typical experi-
Q_ } is rate of heat loss (for open sun cooling tests), respectively, by mental days at a location are shown here.
the test load in the case of heating test and cooling test, respectively It is seen that the mean values of the F ’ ho , F ’ Ul =C and COR for
per unit aperture area of the SBC. SBC - MCP combination using the cooling test are estimated to be
The experimental data was used to plot exponential and linear 0.805 ± 0.059, 5.453 ± 0.463, and 0.147 ± 0.0027 respectively, with
Q_ ”
percentage standard deviation of 7.31%, 8.49% and 1.83%, respec-
plots of temperature of the test load (TGly) vs. Time and vs. tively and depicted in Table 2.
GT
ðTmðGlyÞ T a Þ It is important to note that the detailed analysis of heating tests
, respectively, for the heating test and temperature of the
GT and open sun cooling tests with conventional cooking pot (CCP)
_” ðTmðGlyÞ T a Þ
test load (TGly) vs. Time and Q vs. , respectively, for the were reported in the earlier work, Sagade et al. [18,19], respectively,
GT GT
therefore the repetition is avoided in the present work.
open sun cooling test on the SBC-MCP combination. Here, the
The value of the COR, determined experimentally from the
exponential relation, generated through a fit between temperature
cooling test is used to estimate the theoretical value of the heat
of the test load and time, is used in the eq. (1)). Thereafter, the
diffrence between Tf1 and Tf2 for a time interval Dt is taken from the
Table 1
generated relation/plot to calculate Q_" value for that time interval
Values of parameters used in the determination of TPP (COR) for SBC.
and mean of the same Tf1 and Tf2 (i.e.Tm(Gly)) is used in the further
Parameter Value for SBC
analysis using relevant plot. The value intercept, F ’ ho and slope,
F ’ Ul =C of the each linear plot was used to estimate value of COR for Mean value of Inclined aperture area of SBC (Ap) (m2) 0.37
Area of Cooking Pot (Apot) (m2) 0.06
the SBC. The value of COR was used to estimate the values of the Glazed Area of Solar Cooker (Aglz) (m2) 0.23
COR dependent objective parameters, reference time (tR), highest Geometric Concentration Ratio (C) 1.44 to 1.75
achievable load temperature (Tfmax) and heat retention time (thr) Effective Concentration Ratio (ECR) (Sagade et al., [9]) 1.33
for the SBC at a given location on a typical experimental day. Material for Cooking Pot Stainless Steel
Specific heat of Conventional Cooking Pot (CCP) (J/(kgK)) 510
The experiments were conducted at a location (17.66N; 75.32E)
Specific heat of Modified Cooking Pot (MCP) (J/(kgK)) 534
around ± 90 min of the local solar noon; under test conditions as GT Specific heat of Glycerin (CpGly) (J/(kgK)) 3014
 700 W/m2, 20
C  T a  40
C and wind velocity 1.5 m/s. The Mass of Glycerin in CCP (kg) 1.3
average of the ambient air temperature (T a ) and the total solar Mass of CCP (kg) 0.54
radiation (GT ) was taken for the complete duration of the heating Mass of Glycerin in MCP (kg) 1.22
Mass of MCP (kg) 0.92
tests or open sun cooling i.e. for the entire period of the experiment
1004 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009

190

185

180

175
TGly (oC)

170

165

160

155

150

145

140
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Time (Minutes)
Fig. 2a. Plot of TGly vs. Time for the SBC- HPC with the glass lid for open sun cooling tests.

+ 0.15

+ 0.10

+ 0.05

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

-0.15

-0.20

-0.25

0.14 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.20

’’
Fig. 2b. Q_ =GT vs. ðT mðGlyÞ T a Þ=GT plot for the SBC- HPC with the glass Lid for open sun cooling tests.

retention time (thr) (COR dependent objective parameter) on a The typical theoretical value of thr (using equation (A.4)) for a
typical experimental day at a location. thr is dependent on the typical experimental day at a location is estimated to be 24 min.
meteorological conditions of a location on a typical experimental Also, simple experiments were conducted for the experimental
day and seasonal variation is expected in their values. The details of determination of heat retention time (thr) for SBC e MCP combi-
the theoretical equation of thr are given in Appendix A. nation as suggested by Sagade et al. [19]. A typical experimental
 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009 1005

Table 2
Results of SBC using Cooling Tests.

Parameter Results of the SBC using Cooling Test

MCP with a Glass Lid CCP with a Metallic Lid (Sagade et al. [19])

Mean Value of F’h o

0.805 ± 0.0589 0.867 ± 0.110
Mean Value of F ’ Ul =C 5.453 ± 0.463 6.258 ± 0.763
Mean Value of COR 0.147 ± 0.0027 0.138 ± 0.0011
Typical Value of Tfmax (C) 152.2 143.4
Typical Theoretical Value of thr (minutes) 26 22.4
Typical Experimental Value of thr (minutes) 29 24

value of thr is seen to be 26 min. on a typical experimental day at a 0.150 ± 0.003 respectively, with percentage standard deviation of
location. 6.73%, 6.95% and 1.88%, respectively. Table 3 depicts the comparison
of experimental results for the SBC using both the cooking pots
(MCP and CCP) and utilizing the heating tests (Sagade et al. [18]).
4.1. Heating tests for inter-cooker performance comparison
The mean value of COR for the SBC-MCP is compared with that one
for the SBC-CCP combination to gain an insight on the inter-cooker
In order to confirm the test results of open sun cooling tests and
performance (Table 3). From Table 3, it can be seen that the COR is
design change, the experiments were conducted using the heating
able to predict and confirm the design change precisely using
tests as reported earlier by Sagade et al., [18]. Although, an appre-
heating tests too, although the change in the mean value is small.
hension related to the heating tests was kept in the mind that the
The value of the COR, determined experimentally from the
solar cooker may not always reach the desired high temperature
heating tests is used to estimate the two COR dependent objective
stagnation in small window of three hours during the solar noon on
parameters, highest achievable load temperature (Tfmax) and
a typical experimental day at a location which is required for
Reference Temperature (tR) on a typical experimental day at a
determination of the COR for an intermediate temperature solar
location. These parameters are dependent on the meteorological
cookers (Sagade et al. [18]). Also, the impact of fluctuation in the
conditions of a location on a typical experimental day and seasonal
solar radiation level more than desirable due to cloud cover etc. for
variation is expected in their values. The details of theoretical
small the interval makes this case becomes realistic for any design
equations of Tfmax and tR and are given in Appendix A.
of a solar cooker while evaluating the TPP (i.e. COR) using the
The typical value of Tfmax (determined using equation (A.2)) for
heating tests. But it is expected that the COR may be able to identify
the SBC-MCP combination is 162.1
C. A percentage standard de-
and confirm the design change.
viation of 3.73% is seen in the typical values of Tfmax. Also, the
Fig. 3a and b shows the plots of the temperature of the test load
_” ðT T Þ theoretically determined (using equation (A.3)) and experimentally
(TGly) vs. Time and the corresponding linear fit of Q vs. mðGlyÞ a for
GT GT observed values of tR are seen to be 48 and 47 min, respectively at a
the heating tests. It is to be noted that the Y-axis of both Fig. 3a and
location on a typical experimental day. A percentage standard de-
b is set to offset (stack lines with constant) to avoid the overlapping
viation in the typical values of tR is seen to be 6.38% (theoretical)
of curves or lines. It is seen that the mean values of the parameters
and 9.51% (experimental), respectively. Thus, the heating test too
F ’ ho , F ’ Ul =C and COR for the SBC-MCP combination using the
confirms the improvement in the performance of the cooker with
heating test are estimated to be 0.254 ± 0.0171, 1.69 ± 0.118, and

170

160

150

140

130

120

110
T (oC)

100
Gly

90

80

70

60

50

40

30
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (minutes)

Fig. 3a. Plot of TGly vs. Time for SBC- HPC with Glass lid for heating tests.
1006 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009

+0.30

+0.25

+0.20

+0.15

+0.10

+0.05

0.00 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15

’’
Fig. 3b. Q_ =GT vs. ðT mðGlyÞ  T a Þ=GT plot for SBC- HPC with Glass Lid for heating tests.

Table 3
Results of the heating tests.

Parameter Results of the SBC using the Heating Tests

MCP with a Glass Lid CCP with a Metallic Lid (Sagade et al. [18])

Mean Value of F ’ ho 0.254 ± 0.0171 0.316 ± 0.030

Mean Value of F ’ Ul =C 1.696 ± 0.118 2.112 ± 0.220
Mean Value of COR 0.150 ± 0.003 0.148 ± 0.0015
Typical Value of Tfmax (C) 162.9 157.3
Typical Theoretical Value of tR (minutes) 48 51
Typical Experimental Value of tR (minutes) 47 49

proposed design modification in the cooking pot. It can be seen metal lid combination. This may be due to property of glass which
from the typical values of objective parameters Tfmax and tR given in blocks the longer wavelength re-radiation from the cooking pot.
Table 3. The typical values of tR and Tfmax are less in the case of the Moreover, a glass lid reduces the convective and conduction loss
SBC-MCP combination as compared to SBC-CCP combination. Thus, from the pot. The CCP with the metal lid absorbs a complete range
the heating tests confirm the results of open sun cooling tests and of the spectrum, but has high conductivity, thus having more mean
able to predict the inter-cooker performance comparison with value of the F ’ Ul =C than that for MCP with the glass lid.
reasonable accuracy. Interestingly, contrary to expectation, an opposite picture is
seen in the case of the F ’ ho . It is less in the case of the SBC-HPC
5. Comparison of inter-cooker performance of the SBC combination as compared to the SBC-CCP combination using both
heating and cooling tests. It may be ascribed to the glass top of MCP
The present results of SBC - MCP combination are compared which transmits only the shorter wavelength solar radiation to pot.
with the results of the SBC-CCP combination tested previously But low value of the F ’ Ul =C in MCP with the glass lid more than
(Sagade et al. [18] and Sagade et al. [19]). The values of different compensates the loss in the F ’ ho .
experimental parameters, F ’ ho , F ’ Ul =C, COR, Tfmax, tR and thr The small improvement in the performance of the cooker with
determined for the SBC e MCP (present work) and the SBC - CCP proposed design modification in the pot can be seen from the three
with the metallic lid combination (Sagade et al. [18,19]) are objective parameters given in Table 2 and 3. The typical value of the
compared to reach the conclusions on the inter-cooker perfor- reference time, tR is less in the case of the SBC-MCP combination as
mance comparison of the SBC. compared to the SBC-CCP combination. The impact of a lower value
From the analysis and comparison of the results of the cooling of the F ’ Ul =C is clearly visible for both the heating and the cooling
tests (Table 2) and the heating tests (Table 3), it is seen that the tests. But the F ’ ho has minimum effect on the performance of the
mean value of F ’ Ul =C is lowered in the case of the SBC - MCP with cooker in comparison to F ’ Ul =C. It has a positive impact on heat
the glass lid combination as compared to the SBC - CCP with the retention time (thr) also. Tfmax is also higher in the SBC - MCP
 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009 1007

Fig. 4. Sample combined linear fit of heating and cooling test for the SBC with MCP.

combination. As shown in Tables 2 and 3, the mean value of the COR able to provide sufficient information on inter-cooker performance
for the SBC- MCP with the glass lid is higher as compared to the SBC comparison of SBC with two different pots i.e. MCP and CCP.
- CCP with the metal lid for the heating as well as the cooling tests.
Interestingly, the value of COR for the SBC-MCP combination uti-
lizing the heating and the cooling tests is seen to approximately 6. Conclusions
equal. It may be because of the lowered value of the F ’ Ul = C. Hence
COR seems to be sufficient to reflect small design intervention in a The new pot design shows marked improvement in the per-
solar cooker and able to predict the inter-cooker performance formance of the SBC. The efficient thermal barrier between the
comparison as well. glass lid of the cooking pot and the surface above the test load in
the pot obstructs the heat rejection through the glass lid from the
5.1. Significance of combined linear fit of heating and open sun pot interior. This is useful for the MCP having a glass lid as the heat
cooling tests in the case of SBC-MCP combination loss is reduced. Even with very high test load temperatures the
major factor is the low test load-glass temperature difference.
The linear fit (Fig. 2b) plotted from the experimental data of the Although a high test load temperature leads to higher evaporation,
cooling test yields the higher values of F ’ ho in the present case too. the low temperature difference results in a significantly reduced
Thus the sample combined linear fit plot of the heating and open total energy transfer. Total energy transfer from the MCP may be
sun cooling tests is plotted as suggested by Sagade et al. [19] to gain further reduced by decreasing the value of thermal conductance of
an insight on this issue. Fig. 4 depicts the sample combined linear fit air in between the glass, but the combined effects of radiative and
plot for the SBC-MCP combination. From this plot the mean values convective heat transfer across the air gap make it almost the same.
of the parameters F ’ ho , F ’ Ul =C and COR are estimated to be This may be the reason which improves the performance of the
0.288 ± 0.011, 2.142 ± 0.010 and 0.134 ± 0.0034, respectively, for the cooker using the MCP.
SBC-MCP combination. The detailed analysis of combined linear fit Thus, two important conclusions may be drawn. One with
was described earlier [19], hence avoided in the present case. It can regards to cooker performance improvement due to the pot lid
be seen that the resultant mean values of the COR estimated from design and another capability of the both test procedures (heating
the combined linear fit plot and cooling tests for the SBC-MCP re- and cooling tests) and TPP to respond to design change; a)
mains within an acceptable deviation of 10.66%. The resultant improvement in the performance of the cooker using MCP with
values of the parameter set F ’ ho and F ’ Ul =C are also reasonably glass lid is demonstrated; b) both heating and open sun cooling
within an acceptable limit and near to that one with the heating tests has been successfully used to unambiguously and explicitly
tests (Table 3). It clearly indicate that the combined linear fit en- quantify the improvement in cooker performance due to
ables the realistic solution to the higher values of F ’ ho derived from improvement in design of one of the components of the cooker.
the cooling test in the present case too. Also, the mean values of the These experiments provided some additional important infor-
COR estimated from combined linear fit plots in the present case mation such as i) A glass lid may improve the performance of other
(COR ¼ 0.134 ± 0.0034 (SBC-MCP)) and earlier one such designs of the solar cookers as well; ii) Heating and cooling
(COR ¼ 0.129 ± 0.0011 (Sagade et al. [19])) are compared in order to tests and the COR as a TPP may be used for the purpose of carrying
gain an insight on the inter-cooker performance. It can be seen that out and studying the design modification in the solar cookers and
the both the values of COR satisfactorily differs from each other and the inter-cooker performance comparison.
1008 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009

CRediT author statement lower) reference temperatures under sudden uncontrolled reduc-
tion in clearness and radiation at the location. It characterizes the
Atul A. Sagade: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, heat retention and storage capacity of a particular design of solar
validation, formal analysis, Writing- Original draft preparation. cooker in terms of duration of heat retention between the defined
S.K.Samdarshi: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, temperature ranges for ensured cooking.
formal analysis, Writing- Reviewing and Editing. The Heat Retention Time (thr ) of the typical design of solar
P.J. Lahkar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, cooker can expressed using equation (A.4) (Lahkar et al. [21],
formal analysis, Data curation. Sagade et al. [19],)
Narayani A. Sagade: Visualization, Investigation, Writing- 2 3

’
Reviewing and Editing, Data curation. Mf Cpf Tref :Upper  T a
6GD  7
 COR  ln6 7
f
thr ¼ 4
COR
(A.4)
Ap F ’ ho Tref :Lower  T a 5
Declaration of competing interest GD  COR

We have no conflict of interest to declare.

Appendix - A
References

Definition of Cooker Opto-Thermal Ratio (COR) [1] M. Grupp, P. Montagne, M. Wackernagel, A novel advanced box-type solar
cooker, Sol. Energy 47 (1991) 107e113.
[2] A.K. Bínark, N. Türkmen, Modelling of a hot box solar cooker, Energy Convers.
COR is defined as a ratio of product of optical efficiency and
Manag. (1996).
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Mf Cpf 6GT  Tf 1 T a
7
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 COR  ln6 COR 7
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Heat retention time (thr ):
Nomenclature and abbreviations:
Heat retention time (thr ) is the duration for which temperature
of the test load/food item is maintained between two (upper and Q_ ’’ : Rate of heat gain/loss per unit aperture area of SBC (W/m2)
 A.A. Sagade et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1001e1009 1009

GT : Average total solar irradiance (W/m2) C: Concentration ratio of the SBC

GD : Average diffuse solar irradiance (W/m2) ðMf Cpf Þ’f : Sum of the heat capacity of the test load and the cooking pot
ho : Optical efficiency tR : Reference Time (minutes)
F ’ : Heat exchange efficiency factor thr : Heat retention time (minutes)
Dt: Time interval (seconds) (unless otherwise specified)
T a : Average ambient air temperature  (C) Abbreviations
Tm(GLY): Mean temperature of Glycerin  (C)
Tfmax: Highest achievable load temperature  (C)
Tf1: Initial temperature of test load or food item (C) SBC: Solar Box Cooker
Tf2: Final temperature of test load or food item  (C) COR: Cooker Opto-Thermal Ratio
Mf: Mass of test load (kg) ECR: Effective Concentration Ratio
Cpf: Specific heat of test load (J/kgK) MCP: Modified Cooking Pot (with the glass lid)
Ap: Effective inclined aperture area of SBC (m2) CCP: Conventional Cooking Pot (with the metallic lid)
Apot: Area of cooking pot (m2)