An experimental study on an evaporative cooler for hot rural areas
Abstract: In developing countries about 40 % of the food-waste is due to post-harvest losses, such as improper storage. The Zeer-pot is an evaporative cooler, which cools the inside by convective heat transfer, and can be used to keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer. This is typically convenient in hot rural areas without access to electricity and is more efficient in non-humid areas. This study will investigate if there is a correlation between the temperature decrease inside the pot and the wind velocity, how the efficiency of the Zeer-pot is affected by hanging it in the air to additionally expose the underside to the airflow and also how the efficiency is affected from glazing of the inner pot, to prevent the food from getting damaged from high humidity. It will also consider the feasibility of combining the Zeer-pot with a solar dryer, also to improve its efficiency. The evaporation is increased by higher wind velocity due to forced convection. A solar dryer can create an airflow when the heated air rises along the surface of the solar collector and creates a temperature difference between the upper and the lower part. A design for a solar dryer that could be appropriately integrated with a Zeer-pot to achieve a greater airflow around it is modelled in CAD and presented. The tests on the pots took place in a climate chamber where the ambient temperature was controllable. In the climate chamber a fan and a dehumidifier was installed in order to create wanted conditions. One pot was tested only for wind velocities and the other only for the cases of the pot hanging in the air and being glazed on the inside. A reference case was designed and tested for the second pot in order to compare the glazed and hanging pot in the same conditions. The relative humidity was not controllable in this setup, and thereof a way to compare these results was to calculate the final temperature the pot achieved relative to the lowest possible theoretical temperature, the wet bulb temperature. For the first pot an almost linear correlation between the time it took to reach the final temperature depending on the wind velocities could be observed, apart from two values. A rather nice coherent curve, also apart from two values, was found for how close to the wet bulb temperature the final temperature was depending on the wind velocity. For the second pot the cooling capacity was enhanced for both the hanging construction and the glazed pot. For the hanging pot this was expected, but for the glazed one it was not. If a solar dryer is combined with the Zeer-pot, a wind velocity around 3-3.5 m/s is guaranteed to improve the Zeer-pots cooling capacity. A lower wind velocity could probably make a large difference too, but the experiments in this study is insufficient to make any conclusions.
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