[Stoves] Solar energy for the non-cooking part of household energy

[Andrew Heggie]

Please find below post from rom Dale Andreatta I have had to strip the
attachment  as it was too large but will see if it can be shrunk
sufficiently to send to the list. Andrew :


In the developing world much of the household energy goes for cooking,
as we all know, but there are significant energy needs at lower
temperatures for which solar energy can be easily applied.  I’ve done
some work this summer to see how a very simple solar collector can be
used to:



Heat water for washing or bathing

Dry grain

Dry firewood

Preheat water to be used for cooking

Pasteurize drinking water

Heat water for space heating (8 20-liter buckets can provide
significant space heating if they are used properly)



The idea is that if people are currently using fuel to do any of these
tasks and can reduce that fuel use by using solar instead, that’s the
same as having a fuel efficient stove.  It is believed that about a
billion people currently boil their drinking water with fuel, on many
days they can use the sun to pasteurize it instead.



The device is basically a tent with a clear plastic top and a black
plastic floor, into which you put things to be heated or dried.   It
can perform several of the above functions at once, and the user would
decide which functions to use.



The wood drying application may be of special interest to stovers.  I
dried a piece of large wood, green off the tree, to about 18% moisture
in 3 days, much easier to burn.  The dry wood also releases more
energy as it burns since it’s not using its own energy to boil off its
own water.



You can see the device in the short youtube video at:



https://youtu.be/PlXmttxNeEs   (where the thing between the P and the
X is a lower case ell)



and the attached document has lots of technical details.



Dale Andreatta, Ph.D., P.E.