How does solar cooker functions?
By its very name, a Solar Cooker would mean cooking meals with solar energy without any conventional fuel. The cooker is so simple that after buying the required material from the market, any carpenter can fabricate it. Materials include mirror, cooking pots, glass sheets (two) with half distance in parallel, glass sheet frame and a blackened
aluminium tray, a wooden box, handle, thumb nut and lunged adjustor and guide. Besides the above, insulating material (glass wool) is filled in the space between a wooden box and aluminium tray all round. There is also a castor wheel fitted on one side for easy handling.
The sun’s rays enter through glass sheets inside the box. The black surface area absorbs solar radiation which is transformed into thermal radiation, and cannot be easily re-radiated out of the glass sheets. The loss of heat through conduction and convection is minimised by insulating space and making the box air tight. This is why the temperature inside the Solar Cooker can be as high % as 125° to 160° centigrade.
In Solar Cooker, food is cooked by the heat absorbed from solar rays; food is, therefore, cooked during daytime only when the whole place is drenched in sunlight.