Optical Evaluation of Tolokatzin-2020 High-Efficiency Solar Cooker
Abstract
In order to cook with solar energy, it is necessary to have a highly efficient solar cooker that captures a great portion of the diffuse radiation. More than 20 years ago, the first solar cookers called "Tolokatzin" (Náhuatl language name meaning "born in Toluca", the city in which they were created) were designed. Nowadays, the Tolokatzin solar cookers work with a three-dimensional multi-compounded solar concentrator based on non-imaging optics, using only mirrors of simple curvature. The original design consists of a concentrator with four pairs of optimally truncated mirrors that allow an excellent operational performance. A further advance has been made to reduce the losses by reflections, by changing the number of mirrors and the solar concentration, keeping only mirrors of simple curvature (very easy to manufacture); demonstrated by ray-tracing techniques.