Thursday I spent trying to get the ideas I had for the solar dryer out of my head and onto paper. The problems I have identified with the previous dryer designs are: they are all heavy and immoveable, they do not work well in biomass mode because of a lack of thermal energy storage, the flow of air through the dryer (and across the food) is insufficient.
My solution to these problems is to make it flat packed, add an aluminium heat exchanger and add a chimney.
Yesterday, I created a model of my new design of dryer in Google SketchUp. I tried to understand the construction materials available by speaking to one of the interns who speaks the local language. Several hours later I had a model of a new dryer, however only now was I able to speak to the local carpenter who would be making the design. The preferred measurement system for the carpenter is inches. My design was in millimeters, and I had even got the widths of the plywood wrong!
Hopefully on Monday I will be able to get the design made by the local carpenter so it can be assembled, but I am not getting my hopes up as it takes a long time to get anything done here.
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