Solar Cooker

a domestic solar-powered device for the preparation of food. The principal component of a solar cooker is a concentrating solar collector. Most often a paraboloidal reflector, the collector focuses the sun’s rays on the surface of a radiation receiver, such as a pot or a teakettle. In general, the concentrating collectors used in solar cookers do not provide a very high accuracy of focusing, since a high energy density on the receiver’s surface would make the cooker difficult to use. The relative increase in radiant flux density in a solar cooker usually does not exceed 250. The concentrating collector is turned by hand to follow the apparent motion of the sun. The efficiency of solar cookers reaches 55–60 percent. In the USSR, solar cookers are passing from the experimental stage into lot production.