Solar e-cooking: Solar Home System Integrated Clean Cooking Using Solar PV

   In this paper we propose to use solar PV for clean cooking. With an efficiency of 18-19% for the commercially available PV panels, using solar PV as for cooking (heating) attracts immediate criticism that it is a highly... [ view full abstract ]

In this paper we propose to use solar PV for clean cooking. With an efficiency of 18-19% for the commercially available PV panels, using solar PV as for cooking (heating) attracts immediate criticism that it is a highly inefficient way of cooking.  Although this argument cannot be ignored, solar PV based cooking has its own merits, both technological and economic, if designed and integrated with PV systems properly. With the falling price of the solar PV, it looks more and more attractive to use solar PV as an energy source for clean cooking. To keep the cooking power low, it is important to keep the heat loss at a minimum level. We have shown that insulation of the stove (Fig.1) and the pans are important to keep the energy consumption low for cooking. We have also proposed insulated resting place for the pans after taking off from the stove (Fig.2) so that slow cooking may still continue. If the heat loss is contained properly, it is possible to cook with a low power source less than 500W. A slogan is adopted – ‘Heat does not cook, it is the temperature that cooks’ to attract attention to the fact that retaining temperature inside the cooker and the cooking pan is important for energy efficient cooking. A prototype solar e-cooker was designed, fabricated and tested by cooking different foods. An efficiency of 87% has been achieved in the prototype cooker and the water boiling results are presented in Table 1. Experimental results are presented to show that cooking is possible using much less energy than we usually think. A cost analysis is also presented to show that such a cooker can be cost effective, costing less than USD 10 per month, in off-grid areas if connected to a properly designed Solar Home System.