Note: The yellow line in this graph illustrates how the “ideal” curve would look like is this would have been a rather cloudless day with full sunshine. The curve used as a baseline for the other days is based on the data collected on December 23, the day with the most boiled water cycles during the testing period.
The World Meteorological Organization defines sunshine as direct irradiance from the Sun. “Solarirradiance” measures the amount of solar energy that arrives at a specific area at a specific time. A pyranometer, the SDL-1 Solar Data Logger was used to determine how much solar power could be produced from the available sunlight (solar insolation) at the test site every day. With the SDL-1 data is logged as solar irradiance in watts per square meter and cumulative incident solar energy in kilowatt hours per square meter.
In plain English: When it is cloudy the curve drops and when the sun comes out the curve goes way up.
SOLAR COOKER TESTING: DECEMBER 18, 2008
Setting: Heating 1 liter of vegetable oil (soy bean) all day in all 4 cookers. All temperatures are measured in degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature was measured at 15-minute intervals.
Goal: To test highest temperature achievement and heat retention of all 4 cookers all day long
Time frame: Testing (data collection): 9:10h to 16:45h
Charts: Y-axis: The charts below show the temperature of the vegetable oil heated constantly in degrees Fahrenheit for each cooker tested.
X-axis: Indicated the time when peak temperature was reached.
Highest Temperature
Time
Last reading of the day
SK 14
307˚F/152.8˚C
15:00
149˚F/65˚C
17:15
BlazingTube
406˚F/207.8˚C
15:15
296˚F/146.7˚C
17:47
SunOven
379˚F/192.8˚C
14:30
164˚F/73.3˚C
17:15
CooKit
224˚F/106.7˚C
14:00
113˚F/45˚C
17:15
CONCLUSIONS: Although solar conditions were not ideal, the BlazingTubeSolarAppliance unit surpassed the other three and exhibited a consistent temperature rise throughout most of the day reaching a maximum temperature of 406˚F/207.8˚C.
Note: If you are interested in a full report of the testing procedures and results as a pdf file please write to us at: Info
In case you check and send your email on-line, e.g from yahoo or gmail, please copy the email address and paste it into your "to:" filed. Our email address is: info(at)blazingtubesolar.com
The pdf file of the research results is rather large (4MB). It contains all nine days testing data in detail.
