Design, Fabrication, and Performance Evaluation of Four-reflector Solar Baking Oven

Traditional cooking methods using fuel woods can pose very serious challenges of local and regional air pollution and land degradation. These methods are inefficient, unsustainable and have serious implications to the environment. To overcome these challenges, a novel four reflectors solar baking oven has been designed and tested for application in rural areas. The solar baking oven consists of four reflectors made from plane mirrors which reflect the Sun’s rays to the absorber plate placed at the baking chamber. The four reflectors intensify the incoming solar radiation into the baking chamber and increase the thermal properties and efficiency of the oven thereby resulting in shorter cooking time. The result obtained from the study showed that the oven can attain high temperature values. The temperature values are higher when the oven is loaded compared to when the oven is unloaded. When the oven is unloaded, the highest temperature attained by the four reflector solar baking oven is 128.6oC at 13:00 pm, as compared to 133oC at 13:00 pm, when the oven is loaded.