About this Blog

This is the blog for Lincoln's EWB-UK placement in Ujire in Karnatica in Southern India. I am working for SELCO, a solar lighting social enterprise, on the development of a solar food dehydrator, a device used to increase the life of foods. The aim of the placement is to make it fully functional, more efficient and to conduct market research in order to help market the product to customers living in rural areas enabling them to break the poverty cycle.

Saturday, 24 July 2010

The New Dryer Prototype

I have now been able to put together the flat packed dryer and test its performance, obtaining temperature profiles when heated by the biomass stove. It seems like it has taken a long time to get to this stage, however every small problem normally requires a journey into the town to buy another component and this takes time.

The costs of the project have been about twice as high as expected, but switching certain components for cheaper ones and bulk producing it will significantly reduce the costs. Previous SELCO dryer designs have caused food to spoil by allowing smoke to enter the drying compartment this design does not. Dryers are certainly required in this area of very high rainfall. It has taken from Monday evening to today to get my clothes laundered – it takes a long time to dry clothes!

The project is well on track, and in a couple weeks the dryer will be ready to be tested by local community groups.


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