Design and development of a solar-based cooker with a mechanical sun tracking system

ABSTRACT

This research paper proposes the design and development of a solar-based cooker with a mechanical parabolic trough sun tracking system. This novel design uses a typical mechanical clock system for the sun tracking. The automated solar tracking system is achieved by a water float linked through a tow pulley to the gearbox. The gearbox is connected to a pulley on the shaft that connected to the dish. The driving weight required by the solar tracking collector system has been estimated. The value of the summation of all loads chosen as the driving load is 1.5 kg with a force of 14.7 N. Experiments have been conducted to measure the temperature at the centre of the parabolic trough for cooking applications, bread baking in particular.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar
• cooker
• parabolic
• mechanical
• tracking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.