The Effects of Additional Solar Reflection on Increasing the Temperature in the Cooking Chamber of a Box Solar Cooker

Globally energy demand is expanding with rapid population growth. Almost 1.4billion people of our planet face daily shortage of energy. Therefore, the need for alternative source of energy for food preparation has given rise to the use of box type solar cooker for cooking. Though use of box solar cooker is not new and have even been commercialised in some countries like India there is still need for research to improve its cooking efficiency by increasing the temperature in the cooking chamber. To achieve this movable additional plane mirror reflector was introduced as an improvement to the system in addition to the one already attached to its side. Stagnation temperature test was carried out in the afternoon under solar radiation level of 1085W/m2 and ambient temperature of 35.7°C. Comparing the solar box cooker with that improved, the result showed that the average maximum temperature of 112.3°C was recorded from the unimproved box solar cooker while at the same time the improved cooker showed a temperature of 126 .2°C.That indicated a temperature increase of 13.9 oC hence justifying the improvement on this type of system.