Travel paperwork for Guatemala

We have been going about the process for getting the funding for the Guatemala trip.  The paperwork has been signed and turned in for a mini-grant and we have turned in the paperwork to get the travel funding for the trip.  I have worked at the college for 30 years but have never had a reason to go about this process. I have traveled but was sent on work trips.  This is the first time I have actually requested money for a trip.  As  staff member that punches the time clock I always hear that the college has money and they can spend it what ever they want, blah, blah, blah.  The college does have money and it can be spent but you should do have to have a lot of people sign off on the expense and the process does take some time and many different meetings.  I have found the whole thing to be interesting.  You have to write up your request, submit it, have the committee members review it, have the committee meet and vote to approve or reject your request.   If it is approved then you have to go through the process of getting the money and documenting how you spent it.  It is not easy but then I guess it really shouldn't be.  It is an interesting process.

Cat bench more pictures

We hope to sell this cat bench for 150 dollars and use the money to buy supplies for the Guatemala Coffee project.  It is made of heavy steel and has redwood on the seats and back.  It should supply years of service in any ones garden area.  We have several projects to work on in Guatemala.  We are going to develop the soda can solar heater, try and build a solar hot water heater, install some indoor lighting that will help save electricity during the day, and see if we can burn used vegetable oil in the coffee furnace.  There are a lot of things to try and do in a short time.  I am still trying to find an old fuel oil heater so we can experiment on the vegetable oil and how well it will burn in a 50/50 mix, half vegetable oil and half fuel oil.  If that will work OK we can cut the fuel cost in half and then have money to do other things.  I have some funding that I will use to buy tools so we have what we need to do the work we need to do when we get to Guatemala.  I have to see how much the stuff we weigh and then see what we can pack in our suitcases.

One solar greenhouse ready to test

Last night after work I finished the solar greenhouse coffee dryer.   I had to install the roof, add more wood to cover the staples, install the photovoltaic panel and fan, and run the duct work from the solar soda can collector to the greenhouse.  Today the free heat from the sun should be dumping inside the greenhouse and the sun should power the small fan that will keep the air moving through the greenhouse.   We will just have to see how will it will work and document the temperatures readings.  Last week on a partly cloudy day the temperature leaving the soda can solar collector was 125 degrees.  I think the soda can solar collector is a device that will do some good.  We just have to figure out how best to hook it to a drying rack and what is the best type of drying rack to build.  But we have something to test now.
I am also trying to find what we always called a Salamander, a small portable oil heater.  I would like to borrow or buy a used one to experiment with trying to burn vegetable oil and fuel oil mixtures.  They use a lot of vegetable oil in Guatemala and if we can burn it mixed with fuel oil then we can cut the cost of the fuel in half.  That would save a lot of money and if we use soda can solar collectors during the day and fuel oil/ vegetable oil mix heaters a night, then they can save even more.  But we don't want to experiment on their only heater and screw it up.  ooops.  I will keep looking for a Salamander and hope that I can find one.  Little by little the project is coming along.

Solar event that hope to attend.

Discovering the Future of Food and Energy: what this means, how it will affect our lives, and what we can do to support a positive change in energy and food production.

Wednesday, November 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Bradley University Hillel

1532 Fredonia Ave., Peoria, IL 61606

Guest Speaker: Dr. Peter Schwartzman

Dr. Peter Schwartzman, Alderman in Galesburg's 5th Ward, is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at Knox College. He is a trained climatologist with interests in a wide variety of environmental areas. His most recent publication is entitled; A solar transition is possible, which was published by the Institute for Policy Research & Development. Peter has run the Mound Community Farm in Galesburg since 2010. He is also a board member of the Knox Prairie Community Kitchen. Peter is married and has two children. He and his wife serve as coaches for the Silas Willard Geography Bowl team. Peter's academic degrees include a Bachelor of Science in physics at Harvey Mudd College, a Masters of Science in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia.

For additional information contact The Jewish Federation of Peoria-

309-689-0063.  No charge to attend.

Event sponsored by Congregation Anshai Emeth and the Jewish Federation of Peoria.

Building a greenhouse at Dirksen Hall

We are soon running out of time for Rufino Caniz to be in the USA.  He will return to Gautemala in mid-November.  The heavy rains that hit his home town did a lot of damage to some of his property and I know he wants to return home to his wife and help fix his property.  International travel is a lot of fun until something happens and you realize just how far away you are and how helpless you feel.  Friday after work, Steve Flinn and I worked on adding a few boards and the visqueen to the framework of the solar greenhouse and if we can move the solar soda can collector to Dirksen, get some steel posts in the ground to support it, and run some duct work in the greenhouse, hook up the PVpanels to run the small fans, we are ready to gather some data and see how well it will dry some corn.  That work should go pretty fast.  I do have some people that can help. We just have to see how it is going to work and how well it will hold up to the elements.  We can learn from our mistakes and make improvements.  More important, by having something built we can gather ideas from others.  I already had a faculty member suggest that we try and construct a rotating drum to see if that can speed up the drying process and cut down the space we need.  He had a good idea for one.  We can see how that will work later.
As for the greenhouse project, a week ago it looked like this.

The frame work had been built and everything was loaded in my van.  Under the pile of metal and wood is another coffee dryer model that we will put together as soon as we get the larger green house model up and running. 
Friday, with the help of Steve Flinn, this pile of steel and wood turned in to this.

This is the side facing south and the left side of this panel is the door to enter.  It is just two flaps of visqueen held shut by welding magnets.  On the right side we will place the solar soda can collector and that heat exchanger will dump hot air into the greenhouse at the top corner.  We will probably run a small PV (photovoltaic) fan to help move the air.  We will see if we need to do that once everything is in place.  We will also have a PV fan at the back opposite corner to move air so the green house does not get to hot.
I have some more pictures to add but for some strange reason the open file is just rotating and I am not able to do that at this time.

solar dryer ready to build

I have this model for a solar coffee dryer built and ready to move to the ICC East Peoria Campus.  I will need to add the visqueen to the frame and then we can hook the solar soda can heat exchanger to the frame and see what kind of temperatures we will get out of this.   I have this built and marked and I will tear it down and load it in the truck.  If this model will work in Guatemala it can be moved and put together.  I am looking at what can be built and moved and how difficult it is to do that.  Everything I make I always think about how I can get it from my garage to where it needs to go.  I can not move this dryer unless it is easy to tear down and then easy to put back together. 

Right now I have two solar coffee bean dryers in my van.  I hope to have at least one of them on the campus and start collecting the temperature data.  We also need to see how the dryers will stand up to the wind and the elements.  I will also run a small photovoltaic fan to help move some air.  The next few weeks will be interesting.

Building a green house type coffee dryer

I took a day off of work and started on the greenhouse type of solar coffee dryer.  Rufino found this dryer on the internet and thought it would work in Guatemala.  It is a six foot by 7 and a half foot greenhouse.  I made it seven foot tall sloping down to six foot in the back.  The door way is two foot wide and five foot high.  All I need to do tomorrow is drill the holes for the conduit rafters and attach some extra wood to staple on the visqueen.  I think it will work OK and we can place the soda can solar heater to the front of it.  Then all we need to do is to take the temperature readings and see how well it works and how well it can take the weather.  I will try and get a picture but it will not look to good until it is outside and the visqueen is on it.  But we now have three models to use for test purposes as well as the soda can heat exchanger that I am interesting in.  The information I have on the soda can heat exchanger is that it works quite well, is cheap, easy to build, and it does not look that bad.  It does not look like you put bales of straw around the bottom of your trailer, if you catch my drift. We are getting closer to have some information and data on how to dry coffee.
What I need to do now is to research how to burn vegetable oil in a oil furnace.  I understand that in the resort village they fry a lot of food and the waste vegetable oil is a problem.  If we can burn it to help dry the coffee we can eliminate one type of garbage.  It is still not like using the free heat of the sun and it does pollute the air, although not as bad as fuel oil.  If you can burn free waste vegetable oil in a 50/50 mixture with the fuel oil then you have cut your cost in half and you have more money to invest in better solar devices.  I am going to check the HVAC department and see if we can find a fuel oil furnace to play with.   We could get the vegetable oil from the school cafeteria.  Then we can see how well it will burn and what we need to do.  I started today at 9 am and stopped at 7 pm so I am ready to relax a little.