Development of a household solar box cooker

Abstract

About 60 - 80% Nigerians live in the rural areas and rely heavily on firewood as the main household energy source. A solar cooker or solar oven that uses direct sunlight, the cheapest and the most sustainable source of energy could be introduced in rural communities to help reduce the amount of firewood used by rural households. A simple solar box cooker was developed and test run at the Samaru College of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Maximum temperatures of 75 and 42oC were attained by the solar heated water and the sun heated water samples, respectively. The solar box cooker accumulated a temperature difference of 33oC over the ambient conditions within two hours (11:15 am to 1:20 pm) of heating test. The two maximum temperatures of the solar heated water and the open- sun heated water samples confirm that for solar cooking, food will cook faster in the two hours before and after the local solar noon than in either early morning or late afternoon of the day.

Keywords: Solar energy, cooker, water heating, firewood