Power Controller for Insulated Solar Electric Cooker
- Authors
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2024
- Source
- DigitalCommons@CalPoly
- Keywords
- License
- Unknown
- External links
Abstract
Insulated Solar Electric Cookers, or ISECookers, are devices created to aid those in impoverished regions improve safety, sustainability, and quality of life regarding their cooking practices. ISECookers present an alternative to traditional biofuel/biomass energy sources and provide a closed-loop, self-sustaining system that can be used in a variety of environments. These devices present solutions to widespread issues such as pollution, deforestation, and hazardous emissions as a result of traditional cooking in developing regions around the world. A notable obstacle of these devices is power delivery. Given the varying conditions experienced by a solar panel (inclement weather, irradiance irregularities, etc.), it is crucial to optimize the power delivered to the resistive heating element. To optimize power delivery from a photovoltaic panel to the resistive heating element of the ISECooker, two distinct approaches were designed and analyzed. A cost-effective solution was developed using comparator logic to modulate the operating point of the load, and a more efficient system was presented in the form of a boost converter and analog control system. The two approaches presented unique benefits and tradeoffs - notably, the comparator switching circuit has a much-lower per-build cost than the boost converter approach, while the latter provides greater optimization of power delivery and higher power delivery across all irradiance ranges. In this report, the design, development, construction, and results of both approaches are outlined and compared through a tradeoff analysis to determine which of the methods is more beneficial to the client, both at the current stage of the project lifecycle and in future implementations.
