PV Cooking Pot, Circuit To Control Input Voltage To Maintain Power Point

This five component circuit will fake a buck or boost converter into ramping down the output voltage when the input voltage goes below a set voltage. There are many variations of this circuit using TL431, op-amp, transistor and microprocessor.

[@opera5714]

This five component circuit will fake a buck or boost converter into ramping down the output voltage when the input voltage goes below a set voltage. There are many variations of this circuit using TL431, op-amp, transistor and microprocessor.
Reducing the FET pull up resistor to 3K from 10K fixed the problem of the boost converter not turning off when the input voltage dropped to 10V. I was in a rush to do the test and see how many WH it took to get a typical meal up to temperature. Rain was predicted the next day and it was already after 10am on an east facing panel. The response was predictable from the math.

[@unionse7en]

put the circuit underneath the heater of the pot , get some of the eff. back lol

[@TheTubejunky]

Couldn't a super cap hold the voltage to a stable voltage without the need for this circuit?

[@opera5714]

No, some capacitor is needed to store energy for short periods. A circuit is needed to only draw enough power to keep the panel at power point. Without that the capacitor will discharge to a point where voltage is stable and not necessarily be the most energy efficient transfer. Most videos on PV cooking are just click bait and don't function well at all.