EcoRenovator - View Single Post

AC_Hacker · 06-19-15, 10:55 AM

When I was traveling through Turkey, I was struck by the fact that in the countryside, nearly all houses had flat roofs, and that the locals took advantage of the flat roofs to dry fruit.

They didn't build a solar food dryer, they put fruit on the roof to dry. Worked great, the practice is VERY wide spread there.

[EDIT: I just remembered that you are in Mississippi... what is your typical RH?]

I can understand why you wouldn't want your food dryer to heat up the house too much. Why have the food dryer inside at all? I can see it in the cooler season, you could use the heat to help heat your house.

Also, why are you so interested in finding the smallest compressor? That part is not clear to me.

Do you know how many watts of resistant heating is required to dry your food?

If you knew that, you could divide that number by 3 and you would have a good approximation for the compressor that you would need.

As to tiny refrigerator compressors, I'm not convinced that their efficiency is very high. I was interested in building a tiny compressor for experimental use, just a water-in-water-out kind of thing. Seemed like it could find uses around the house. I looked into tiny compressors from those free-standing water coolers. They must he horrible, I see a constant flood them turning up in the thrift stores, all the time. I got one, and was in the process of disemboweling it, so as to re-arrange the parts for my project. and I looked up the energy efficiency rating of the compressor, and as I recall, it was barely over COP = 1. Which is far better than Peltier, but not up to the standard that I would need, to make the project worthwhile. So eventually, the parts made it to the scrap metal recyclers.

I would look for the smallest dehumidifier you can find. I know that 20 pint per day units exist, and that is what I would seek. I think they are about 350 Watts.

If you can't locate a compressor that can give you COP = 2.0 minimum, you might be better with incandescent using light bulbs.

Maybe paint your food dryer black, leave it out in the sun... use a cheap thermostat so that the sun's heat plus your bulb's heat would give you the temp you want. When the sun was not shining, the bulbs would take over the heating job. Fan running constantly, of course.

Are incandescent bulbs still being made?

-AC

06-19-15, 10:55 AM	#8
AC_Hacker Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 4,004 Thanks: 303 Thanked 723 Times in 534 Posts	When I was traveling through Turkey, I was struck by the fact that in the countryside, nearly all houses had flat roofs, and that the locals took advantage of the flat roofs to dry fruit. They didn't build a solar food dryer, they put fruit on the roof to dry. Worked great, the practice is VERY wide spread there. [EDIT: I just remembered that you are in Mississippi... what is your typical RH?] I can understand why you wouldn't want your food dryer to heat up the house too much. Why have the food dryer inside at all? I can see it in the cooler season, you could use the heat to help heat your house. Also, why are you so interested in finding the smallest compressor? That part is not clear to me. Do you know how many watts of resistant heating is required to dry your food? If you knew that, you could divide that number by 3 and you would have a good approximation for the compressor that you would need. As to tiny refrigerator compressors, I'm not convinced that their efficiency is very high. I was interested in building a tiny compressor for experimental use, just a water-in-water-out kind of thing. Seemed like it could find uses around the house. I looked into tiny compressors from those free-standing water coolers. They must he horrible, I see a constant flood them turning up in the thrift stores, all the time. I got one, and was in the process of disemboweling it, so as to re-arrange the parts for my project. and I looked up the energy efficiency rating of the compressor, and as I recall, it was barely over COP = 1. Which is far better than Peltier, but not up to the standard that I would need, to make the project worthwhile. So eventually, the parts made it to the scrap metal recyclers. I would look for the smallest dehumidifier you can find. I know that 20 pint per day units exist, and that is what I would seek. I think they are about 350 Watts. If you can't locate a compressor that can give you COP = 2.0 minimum, you might be better with incandescent using light bulbs. Maybe paint your food dryer black, leave it out in the sun... use a cheap thermostat so that the sun's heat plus your bulb's heat would give you the temp you want. When the sun was not shining, the bulbs would take over the heating job. Fan running constantly, of course. Are incandescent bulbs still being made? -AC __________________ I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker...