Evaluating the international standard procedure for testing solar cookers and reporting performance

The international standard procedure for testing solar cookers and reportin g performance was proposed at the Third World Conference on Solar Cooking ( Avinashilingam University, Coimbatore, India, 6-10 January, 1997) and revis ed by the committee over the following months. The standard sets limits for environmental conditions, specifies test procedures and calls for performa nce to be reported in terms of cooking power (W). While this value, like th e fuel economy rating of an automobile, is not a guarantee of performance, it does provide a useful tool for comparison. The entire standard is presen ted in this paper. It was evaluated both by using ii to analyze data previo usly collected and by using it to test one of the solar cookers in the hist orical data set. The rest standard cooking power curve clearly distinguishe s between solar cookers of differing design. Estimates of solar cooker perf ormance for different locations and dates are fairly consistent when the te st standard is employed. The criteria of being easy to use and presenting d ata predictive of thermal performance are also satisfied. Published by Else vier Science Ltd.