This project is part of Cal Poly's Appropriate Technology Class, Spring 2024, taught by Prof. Pete Schwartz.
We will be working with Salma from Togo, in developing a solar dehydrator to be used on his demo farm. You can learn more about Salma and his farm here: https://appropriatetech.wixsite.com/togo-demo-farm/about-6. (This website was developed in Winter 2024 by PSC 391 students Abby and Isa.)
Link to current class: https://canvas.calpoly.edu/courses/132032
Links to past classes: 392 S2021, 391 W2024.
Pete's blog from November 2023: see blog.
After deliberating with Salma, we decided to shift the focus of our project to developing a solar dryer. Salma mentioned that he would be interested in one so his produce does not go bad immediately and would last longer. (IE: Preventing post-harvest losses see photo to the right) We think this is a good opportunity to help increase the quality of life and importantly the income of Salma and his Demo Farm; after reading Lauren Wilcox's Designing New Technologies for a Better Life, we learned that technologies should most importantly enable their owner to increase their income and that increasing income is what alleviates poverty sustainably.
We believe that a well-designed solar dryer could have numerous positive effects on the Demo Farm to help it develop sustainably by ensuring produce doesn't go bad as quickly:
Food grown at the Demo Farm does not go bad as quickly, so it can be consumed and the resources it took to grow it are not wasted
Demo Farm produces more food than it can sell
Opportunity to grow more produce at the Demo Farm
Farther reach of sellable produce
Opportunity to grow more different types of produce and diversify the diets of people at the Demo Farm
l
We started our draft designs for the solar dryer during the shop period of Week 4 (4/22), which we received feedback on during our presentation that week. Our original design was inspired by many existing solar dryers, including:
Written resources:
https://energypedia.info/wiki/Solar_Drying
Video resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0f0jew8Whw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2mHaTbpNr0
As we have moved through the design process, we have adjusted our design to better reflect both our/Salma's goals, parameters, and material availability. The ultimate goal for the project is to provide quality documentation of our project to Salma so he can develop a dryer himself and the ability to recommend a successful and accessible heat trap.
Our collaborator, Salma, is interested in concrete construction. We are not sure what he means by concrete construction yet, but we speculate that he could be talking about the top frame of the ISEC, the ISEC itself, or the insulation. After having worked with ISECs last quarter, we could potentially focus our project on the top frame by experimenting with concrete for Salma (if he expresses interest), figuring out how to measure heat level, add a phone charger, or to make the design cleaner. (04/07/2024).