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Photovoltaic cooker designs

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Last edited: 26 August 2024      
GoSun Fusion with solar charger, 1-12-19 copy

GoSun Fusion Solar Kitchen, Photo credit: The Spoon

  • Photovoltaic cooking in the context of this article addresses small scale off-grid applications, and not larger PV systems powering traditional electrical cooking appliances.

These small scale systems offer another approach to harvesting the sun to cook food. Instead of solely relying on the sun's direct radiation to cook, they use photovoltaic cells to create electricity to typically provide power to electric induction cooktops. The energy is usually stored in batteries for use when needed.

Research has also been undertaken to test the cooking potential of a simplified system incorporating an array of diodes connected directly to photovoltaic panels.

Although the induction heating elements efficiently use electricity to directly heat ferrous cooking pots, their efficiency can be increased when combined with a well-insulated solar thermal cooker, or with using insulated cook pots.

Evacuated tube solar cooker designs provide a platform well suited to this hybrid approach. With the availability of an chargeable battery or phase-change thermal storage, this type of cooker makes cooking possible after sunset or in the early morning.

News[]

Stan Wells PV hybrid box cooker

Adding PV powered resistance heating to a solar box cooker, Photo credit: Stan Wells

  • August 2024: Hybrid PV solar box oven: - Stan Wells continues to explore various ways of making solar cookers more powerful and efficient. He is testing adding PV powered direct resistance heating elements to his solar box cooker design. At the time of the photo, in somewhat cloudy conditions, he reports that the cooker was at 166 °C (331 °F) compared to its twin at just over 94 °C (201 °F) with solar thermal only. The solar electric heat can be controlled by the digital thermostat on the tracker or the mechanical thermostat on the cooker. When the cooker reaches the desired temperature the electric heaters switch off. They might stay off all day until the temperature drops below the setting. If we open the door to look at the food and lose some heat, the electric pads will come on for a short time to help restore the desired temperature.
  • September 2023: ECOCA pilot stove program: - Mercy Corps in partnership with the Danish company Pesitho, has initiated a pilot program at the Bidibidi Refugee Camp in Uganda to make PV-powered ECOCA induction stoves available to residents of the camp. The program will provide a pay-as-you-cook method of payment for residents. As in other refugee camps, the women are usually the most vulnerable, having to go the edges of the camp and beyond to gather what little firewood is available for cooking. This leaves them open to possibly becoming victims of violence. The new stoves will help relieve that stress. When fully charged, the ECOCA has enough energy to cook three meals a day. The need for time-intensive firewood gathering disappears, as does the carcinogenic smoke and pollution produced by wood fires. Women have more time to attend community meetings, socialize with friends, care for their families, or invest in income-generating opportunities. Read more...
GoSun Sport-E, 10-6-22

the GoSun Sport-E hybrid solar cooker concept, Photo credit: GoSun

  • July 2022: GoSun has created a KickStarter for a hybrid oven concept. It still incorporates their traditional evacuated tube design, but with an electrical heating element for back-up power and to be able to cooking in the evening. According to GoSun, the heating element only draws 80w, and can be powered by a variety of 12v devices. More information on their KickStarter link
ECOCA PV cooking package, 4-11-22

The ECOCA cooker is shown with the photovoltaic panel, Photo credit: Pesitho

  • April 2022: Danish company has developed a PV-induction cooking system - Pesitho, has designed the ECOCA, a compact, self-contained, multi-purpose home cooking unit. It is to be imagined as a fully working kitchen, which can provide an entire family in a rural area with food and electricity throughout the whole day. It consists of an electric base, which includes a battery pack, a solar panel array and a highly insulated cooking pot that can keep food warm for hours.
NITC engineers devlop PV-induction stove, 4-12-22

Indian researchers at NITC have designed, and developed, an eco-friendly smart solar stove. Photo credit: The Hindu Read more...

  • April 2022: PV-induction stove developed in India - Researchers at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NITC) have designed, and developed, an eco-friendly smart solar stove with zero operating cost for domestic and roadside eateries (thattukadas). Read more...
Nichrome wire heating element placed between two bricks, Craig Bergland, 4-7-21 inside oven

Nichrome wire heating element placed between two bricks, Photo credit: Craig Bergland

  • April 2021: Using nichrome wire as an assist to solar cooking, and as stand-alone cooker with (PV charged) batteries - Craig Bergland, a solar inventor living in Nevada, USA, has been experimenting heating nichrome wire to assist in raising the cooking temperature within solar box ovens, seeing raises of 27 - 38 °C (81 - 100 °F). He has managed to do this with relatively low cost components. Read about his results here on his personal page.
  • February 2021: Cooking directly from PV panel to heating element: - Bernhard Müller has shared his recent experiences. He initially used a 50w heating pad connected directly to a 50W PV panel, but discovered using a 40w pad was more efficient. He was able to have the heating pad reach 120 °C (248 °F). He recommends this approach can be used for most cooking, except for baking and frying. It is important to use a well-insulated cooking chamber and limit the length of the connecting cables, as cable resistance will limit output.
Segaran slow cooker, 2-3-21

Seggy Segaran heat retention cooker powered with a battery charged by PV panels. Photo credit: Seggy Segaran

  • February 2021: Jane and Seggy Segaran have been experimenting cooking with a 60 watt heating element powered by photovoltaic panels. They first charge a battery with the panels. This makes it possible to provide a more concentrated amount of power to the heating element than can be achieved directly from the PV panels. The food is cooked within a highly insulated assembly. They have found "A 100 W solar panel can provide a peak power of 70 to 80 Watts. If it is in a fixed orientation (and does not track the sun) then my estimate was 50 watts average power over a 6 hour period. 50 watts means a current of around 4 Amps going into a 12 V battery. So to fully charge a 75 Ah battery is going to take around 20 hours – or just over 3 days. So 3 days of charging will provide 10 hours of cooking." Read more...
PV comparative diode vs traditional output, Sciencedirect

Comparative simplicity of a diode vs an induction cooking system, ScienceDirect.com. Vol 4, 2019

  • March 2020: Research begins using thermal diode arrays for cooking - Cooking powered by photovoltaic panels appears to be developing rapidly. Early research involved cooking directly with induction heating elements. However the direct thermal output was low temperature, and researchers concluded induction systems worked more efficiently when included with battery storage, or a phase-change medium. The phase-change medium would be heated throughout the day, and be able to give back the heat at a higher rate to the induction element for cooking later in the day (See August 2019 news item). Recent development with incorporating thermal diodes arrays shows the possibility of using a simpler and less expensive system to generate heat for cooking. They do not require 12v charge controllers, voltage converter, batteries, and inverters of traditional PV systems, but they do not intrinsically have energy storage capabilities. They require a thermostatic switch to interrupt the circuit above a predetermined temperature. This research is in its infancy, and more detailed information can be found in: Hot diodes!: Dirt cheap cooking and electricity for the global poor? - Volume 4, 2019, 100044 ScienceDirect (See also the May 2020 video below produced by Pete Schwartz and his team cooking with this method in Ghana.)
Fuel cost comparison, 11-4-19
  • November 2019: Electric cooking starts to simmer in rural India - Following the success of the Saubhagya initiative and its announcement of 100 per cent rural household electrification, efficiency gains and cost reductions in solar panels and batteries are opening up a new market that has the potential to avoid using any solid or fossil fuel, with solar-powered electric cooking or e-cooking using pressure and rice cookers and induction stoves gaining traction. The winner of the 2017 challenge, IIT Bombay, has since conducted a project to convert the entire village of Bancha in Madhya Pradesh, India to solar panels and induction cookstoves instead of wood-burning or LPG stoves. With Rs 8.5 million provided by ONGC, all the 75 houses in Bancha now rely on solar-powered electric stoves to meet their cooking needs. Besides reducing air pollution, villagers no longer have to collect firewood from nearby forests, saving time and effort. More information...
  • August 2019: Cooking with PV and phase change materials in place of a battery - Pete Schwartz explains how his research group at Cal Poly, USA is using a relatively low power photovoltaic panel to produce electricity to run an induction heating element, which runs through a phase changing heat storage medium. The medium melts at 120 °C (248 °F) during exposure throughout the day. In the evening the medium is hot enough to cook a meal fairly quickly without the sun, stored battery power, or further input from the induction heating element.
Cooking_with_Phase_Change_Thermal_Storage_Chicken_Stew!_Pete_Schwartz,_Cal_Poly_Physics
GoSun Fusion with solar charger, 1-12-19 copy

GoSun Fusion Solar Kitchen, Photo credit: The Spoon

Hybrid PV soalr cooker, Seggy T Segaran, 5-30-18

A 100w photovoltaic panels provides additional cooking power with a heating pad located inside of the adjacent solar box cooker. Photo credit: Seggy T Segaran

Modified commercial pot for TES 2018

Using a modified commercial electric cooker with erythritol as a storage medium

  • March 2016: Antonia Lecouna Neumann reports: "We use erythritol as heat storage material, cheap, durable, edible and has a melting heat similar to ice. We found it superior to other alternatives although long term durability is still an issue." Read more...

Documents[]

Articles in the media[]

Audio and video[]

  • May 2024: Larry Schlussler- Insulated Solar Electric Cooking
Larry_Schlussler-_Insulated_Solar_Electric_Cooking,_Vacuum_Tubes,_Solar_Dryers,_and_More-2

Larry Schlussler- Insulated Solar Electric Cooking, Vacuum Tubes, Solar Dryers, and More-2

Video credit: Luther Krueger

  • April 2024: Solar Everything on the Living Energy Farm
Alexis_Zeigler-_Solar_Everything_on_the_Living_Energy_Farm-2

Alexis Zeigler- Solar Everything on the Living Energy Farm-2

Video credit: Luther Krueger

  • April 2024: Compact 12v oven can cook directly from PV panels
12V_Toaster_Oven_Build!_DIY_144_Watts_Under_$50_solar_powered_efficient_portable_cooking_Dash_Mini-2

12V Toaster Oven Build! DIY 144 Watts Under $50 solar powered efficient portable cooking Dash Mini-2

  • July 2023: Photovoltaic solar pressure cooking evaluated in Kenya and Rwanda as a Long-term Europe-Africa Partnership on Renewable Energy (LEAP-RE) project
S3B5_Teresa_Simoes_et_al._(Portugal-Kenya)--2

S3B5 Teresa Simoes et al. (Portugal-Kenya)--2

  • July 2023: Photovoltaic solar cooking without batteries or controllers
S2A1b_Jean_Boubour_(France)-_Photovoltaic_solar_cooking_with_PTC_ceramic_heaters_without_batteries..-2

S2A1b Jean Boubour (France)- Photovoltaic solar cooking with PTC ceramic heaters without batteries..-2

  • June 2023:
Makerere_University_unveils_solar_electric_cooker

Makerere University unveils solar electric cooker

Video credit: Makerere University

  • February 2023:
Pete_Schwartz-_All_In_With_Insulated_Solar_Electric_Cooking-2

Pete Schwartz- All In With Insulated Solar Electric Cooking-2

Video credit: Big Blue Museum

  • April 2022:
Sarah_Feldes,_Stan_Miller,_Jill_Elsner-_PV-to-Induction_and_Rocket_Stoves-2

Sarah Feldes, Stan Miller, Jill Elsner- PV-to-Induction and Rocket Stoves-2

Video credit: Big Blue Museum

  • March 2022:
Doug_Danley_-_SunSpotPV-_Banking_on_PV-to-Induction_Cookers_and_More-2

Doug Danley - SunSpotPV- Banking on PV-to-Induction Cookers and More-2

Video credit: Big Blue Museum

  • March 2022:
Chetan_Singh_Solanki-_The_Solar_University-2

Chetan Singh Solanki- The Solar University-2

  • June 2021:
Insulated_Solar_Electric_Cooking_with_Thermal_Storage,_EWB_Sweden,_Pete_Schwartz,_Cal_Poly_Physics-2

Insulated Solar Electric Cooking with Thermal Storage, EWB Sweden, Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics-2

Pete Schwartz presents his team's latest findings, as they develop different approaches to insulated solar electric cooking. He predicts an eventual decline in the use of phase change materials (PCMs) to retain the heat for cooking, as batteries become a more efficient and less expensive way to store energy. This may happen in the next ten years. In the meantime, a solid block of aluminum is showing promise as a simpler way to store heat compared with PCMs.

  • February 2021:
Alternative_ISEC_Manual_Walkthrough

Alternative ISEC Manual Walkthrough

Presentation by Alexis Ziegler of the Living Energy Farm (http://livingenergyfarm.org/) about their alternative construction manual for Insulated Solar Electric Cookers

  • January 2021:
Insulated_Solar_Electric_Cooker-_Progress_for_ETHOS_2021,_Pete_Schwartz,_Cal_Poly_Physics

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker- Progress for ETHOS 2021, Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics

  • October 2020:
International_Physics_Webinar_54

International Physics Webinar 54

Pete Schwartz gives a half hour webinar about ISEC (Insulated Solar Electric Cooking), and the plan to disseminate the open-source technology via a global learning community. -Cal Poly Solar Cooking (skip first six minute bio. of Pete if desired)

  • May 2020: 
Solar_Electric_Cooking_in_Ghana_With_Phase_Change_Thermal_Storage,_Pete_Schwartz,_Cal_Poly_Physics-0

Solar Electric Cooking in Ghana With Phase Change Thermal Storage, Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics-0

August, 2019, Pete Schwartz and his team spent 3 weeks in Ghana. They made Solar Electric Cookers with Phase Change Thermal Storage with our newly made friends and colleagues, introducing this cooking method in a small village without electricity. Erythritol, with a melting point of 120 °C (248 °F), was used as the heat storage medium. - Cal Poly Solar Cooking

  • June 2019: 
Bancha_The_First_Solar_Kitchen_Only_Village_in_India

Bancha The First Solar Kitchen Only Village in India

  • January 2019: 
GoSun_Debuts_The_'Solar_Kitchen',_Including_a_Solar_Powered_Mini-Fridge
  • December 2018: 
Partner_Webinar_The_Clean,_Sustainable_Cooking_Solution_Solar_Thermal-0

Partner Webinar The Clean, Sustainable Cooking Solution Solar Thermal-0

Dr. Alan Bigelow, SCI Science Director, discusses his experiences with hybrid solar and electric induction cooking from 14:45-20:30 of this video

  • October 2018: 
Solar_Electric_Cooking_and_Uganda,_Pete_Schwartz,_Cal_Poly_Physics
Seggy Segaran solar cooker-PV hybrid, 8-13-18

Seggy Segaran solar cooker-PV hybrid Photo credit: Michael Bonke


  • June 2018: 
SolaCooka

SolaCooka

The SolaCooka stores energy in the ground in a phase change material. The concept has been tested with success, and now there is an effort to get it to mass production in India and similar countries where self-install kits are to be distributed, some for a price and some for free. Quotes have been obtained for 80W PV solar panels, which can be built for USD 10, making this practical and affordable. There is a plan to employ people living in the slums to put together the kits for people to install.

  • April 2018: 
IIT_Bombay_students_invent_solar_stove

IIT Bombay students invent solar stove

Students of IIT Bombay have invented solar stove. Watch to know more.

Schwartz_Photovoltaic_Solar_Cooking-0

Schwartz Photovoltaic Solar Cooking-0

Electric cooking is convenient and widely adopted globally, while photovoltaic cells are ideal for small-scale electricity generation in many areas. Assuming the continuing decrease in photovoltaic prices, when might we expect PV solar cooking systems to be cost competitive?

External links[]

See also[]

All construction plans[]

All designs[]

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