Solar e-Cooking: A Proposition for Solar Home System Integrated Clean Cooking

Simon Batchelor, Md. Arifur Rahman Talukder, Md. Raihan Uddin, Sandip Kumar Mondal, Shemim Islam, Rezwanul Karim Redoy, Rebecca Hanlin and M. Rezwan Khan
Additional contact information
Simon Batchelor: Gamos Limited, Reading RG1 4LS, UK
Md. Arifur Rahman Talukder: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Md. Raihan Uddin: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Sandip Kumar Mondal: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Shemim Islam: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Rezwanul Karim Redoy: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Rebecca Hanlin: African Centre for Technology Studies, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
M. Rezwan Khan: Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: This paper presents the feasibility of using solar photovoltaics (Solar PV) as the energy source for cooking with special focus on the loss mechanisms and possible remedial measures. If the heat loss is minimized, to reduce the temperature losses, it is possible to cook with a low power source less than 500 W. A slogan has been adopted by the researchers—‘It is temperature that cooks food not heat’, meaning that it is not the flow of energy that cooks food, but rather, that food is cooked when held at a key temperature for a time. The slogan draws attention to the core concept that if heat loss is minimized, maintaining the temperature inside the cooker and the cooking pan, then the cooking process becomes very energy efficient. The paper considers ways to maintain temperature, but with due reference to the ‘art of cooking’, those all-important cultural processes that determine how meals are made. A prototype solar home system e-cooker was designed, fabricated and tested for cooking different foods in Bangladesh. Experimental results are presented to show that cooking is possible using much less power and energy than is commonly thought. A cost analysis is also presented to show that such a cooker can be cost effective in off-grid areas if connected to a properly designed Solar Home System.

Keywords: clean cooking; solar e-cooker; Solar Home System; science and art of cooking; energy loss in cooking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/2933/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/2933/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:11:p:2933-:d:178666

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().