Day 2: Solar cooking and Dehydrator

Dehydrator:

Purpose: to dehydrate food in order to preserve it. Through  heating, the pathogens are killed and the water goes out.

Methods: We built a wooden box which we painted black on the inside. Additionally, we installed 3 inox screen shelves  inside to put the food on.

Then we constructed the door with some transparent layers like bakingfoil in the front to keep the air inside.

The legs of the box were made out of wooden poles angled to position the box at about a 45 degree angle, pointed to the sun.

It heats up to 80 degrees inside, but the food should not be heated to more than 65 degrees. So there are holes below and above to regulate the temperature inside. A thermical system is created, where the cold air streams from below, heats up inside and transports the moisture of the food out of the box.

Solar-Cooker/Oven:

We constructed a solar cooker out of cardboard and reflective lifeguard blankets. We cut the cardbord in similar rectangular pieces and glued the blankets to it. They were folded at special angles to form a collector-structure which can be pointed into the sun directly, and reflect the rays to a single point inside the cooker.

In this central part of the cooker, we can place a black cooking-pot covered or wrapped with a special plastic foil to keep the sun radiation inside of the plastic. The air-gas inside heats up and cooks the food.

Inside the possible temperature is up to 130 degrees. Depending on the angle of the sunlight, the solar cooker can be moved, so it can collect the sunlight in the most effective way.

Open space method:

4 rules:

1.The people who are here, are the right people.

2. Anytime we start is the right time.

3. Anytime we stop is the right time.

4. Anything that happens is the ony thing that could happen.

The law of two feet: If you are in a situation where you don't learn or contribute, choose a different one.