Cooking is the major necessity for people all over the world. It accounts
for a major share of energy consumption in developing countries.
Therefore, solar cookers are commonly used in the domestic sector in
these countries. The advantages of the use of solar cookers would result
in the reduction of the release of CO2 in the environment. The present
work provides the different classification of solar cookers, heat transfer
mechanism of cooking, and thermal performance parameters of solar
cookers. A literature survey of the different experimental designs of the
various solar cookers as well as the different materials used in thermal
energy storage has been conducted to determine the thermal
performance parameters of each type of the solar cookers. Based on this
survey, box type solar cooker has been selected due to its simplicity of
handling and operation which coupled with vacuum tube collector.
Suitability and application of the present solar cooker system with
climate and geographic location of Taif City, Saudi Arabia will be
investigated in future research.