Testing

From Solar Cooking

Not everyone agrees on how best to test solar cooker variations and how to report the results of these tests. Some argue for some standardized test with standard measurements and some way to report absolute results. Others take a more low-tech, practical approach and suggest the following method of testing and reporting:

• Heat a liter of water simultaneously in two cookers, one with the modification to be tested and one without.
• After a time (before the water boils in either cooker), measure the temperature of the water in both cookers.
• Use these measurements to determine how many degrees each cooker raised the temperature of the water.
• Calculate the percentage difference between these two temperature changes and report this along with a description of the modification that you tested.

Solar cooking expert Barbara Kerr uses a variation of this method:

• With the cookers side-by-side on a sunny day, put 1/4 cup rice and 1/2 cup water in identical, black-colored "soup" cans covered with a small piece of clear glass, and place one in each cooker.
• Without opening the cookers (or bag in panel cookers), watch for rice rising to the surface of the water.
• The first one to rise is the hottest.

[edit] See also

• Thesis on Solar Cooking Testing Standards - Shawn Shaw
• Parabolic solar cooker standards
• ASAE solar cooker performance testing standards
• Thermometers

[edit] External links

• International Standards for Testing Solar Cookers - Dr. Paul Funk
• Instrumentation error analysis of a box-type solar cooker - Ishan Purohita and Pallav Purohit