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Comparative tests of solar box cookers

Boiling Point
Front cover of Boiling Point issue 36
Issue 36 (1995) Solar Energy in the Home
ArticleComparative tests of solar box cookers
AuthorEuropean Committee for Solar Cooking Research?


Solar cookers on the market are very different in size, type, performance and user friendliness and until now comparative data has not been available. To give full information, tests have to be conducted within specific user contexts. However, before going into such field tests there are some important features of solar cookers which can be tested independently of a specific user context:

· thermal performance - how quickly does a cooker heat up, what temperature does it reach in given conditions?

· user friendliness - is the cooker safe, how easy is it to use, to assemble, to transport?

These and other features were studied in the tests conducted at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria by the ECSCR in Spain in 1994. The tests were performed by the Zentrum fur Sonnenenergie and Wasserstoff-Forschung of Germany, and funded by the German Research Ministry. A total of 13 solar box cookers from eight different countries, (France, Germany, Ghana, India, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and USA) were tested.

They were tested around noon during a clear day, for speed of heat-up (heat-up time) to 80°C and to boiling minus 3°C. Where possible, cookers were realigned to the sun every half hour, although they can be used all day without tracking and just one realignment.

Table 1 shows, as an example, the test results for two of the stoves described in this edition of Boiling Point and Table 2, the results for two others. Results of all the tests on the box and concentrator stoves (25) tested are given in the Summary of Results, June 1994 available from ECSCR.

The European Committee for Solar Cooking Research (ECSCR) was founded in 1991. It has set out to improve the situation in solar cooking before the end of the century.

Its philosophy is to bring together users on one side, and individuals and institutions active in solar cooking research and development on the other side; to put solar cooking efforts on a more objective basis; to tackle the problem by a parallel procedure of development of better cookers and a better understanding of the user situation.

Table 1
Table 1
Table 2
Table 2


[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 36: Solar Energy in the Home

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Parameters for a Solar Cooker Programme - The Sunstove Solar Box Cooker - Sunstoves in the Republic of South Africa - Gaining Ground in Solar Box Cooking in Kenya - Solar Cookers - A Cause Worth Promoting - Free Energy from the Sun - A Solar Box Cooker with a Reflecting Lining - The Solar Puddle - A New Water Pasteurization Technique - Renewable Energy - A World Bank View - ESMAP study points toward village-level management of woodfuel resources in Chad - Burning Charcoal Issues - A Dangerous Trade - Saving Wood by Burning Coal - Haitis Domestic Fuel Project - Coal briquetting and clays for Zambian stoves - Improving the three-stone fire - Comparative tests of solar box cookers - Parabolic Solar Reflector and Heat Storage Cooker - An Affordable Parabolic Solar Cooker



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