I’m testing the efficiency of direct heating ISEC compared to battery powered ISEC when cooking in sunny day.
For a meal we called Ayimolou, that is a boiled beans mixed with rice, it takes less than 2h to cure with direct heating. Battery powered ISEC takes 2h and half.
These experiments where repeated 5 sunny days by using 100Wpx2(200Wp) in parallèle.Direct cooking ISEC output is almost 18V and 6A from 11 am to 1pm.
The battery powered ISEC output is regulated to 12V accordingly to the battery volatage(12 volts 200A battery) and we noticed that the highest current draw by the heating element from the battery powered system is 5.4A
We concluded that direct heating ISEC perform than battery one in sunny day.
We will build in coming days an ISEC that have option to be connected directly or through battery.
Note that the battery case cooked slowly because the ISEC was operated at lower voltage and lower power. When you operate an ISEC at a different voltage, the ISEC design should be adjusted to operate optimally at the new voltage.
In Malawi, we are pursuing the strategy of customizing the battery and the ISEC to operate optimally with the solar panel and each other. We are also making our batteries out of Lithium Titanate pouch cells which can last much longer than other types of batteries.
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