Investigating the effect of sensible and latent heat storage materials on the performance of a single basin solar still during winter days

•Weather conditions of winter days (sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy, warm, cold) significantly impact the yield of solar still.•Temperature gradients are mainly negligible inside the brackish water, the absorber and also within the storage materials.•Latent heat storage mode allows storing a huge amount of heat (> 1 MJ).•Utilization of heat storage system (sand and paraffin wax) increases daily efficiency respectively by 152.8% and 223.09% compared to conventional solar still.