CONTACT IN KERALA, INDIA
Hawazin S. Khaleel
Hawazin has been working on an ISEC simultaneously with us.
She is working with diodes as well.
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HER EXPERIENCE
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Challenges
a. Covid 19 pandemic - difficulty in getting components on time
b.Tropical climate of Kerala - took away my good testing days, with heavy rain and cloudy days.
c. Social distancing - halted me from the joy of working as a team.
Work & Failures
As a part of my work, I started off working with the heater nest model ( same as Alex). I tried 3 prototypes for heater nest, and are listed below
a. Resistive wire heater thermally anchored to the heater nest pot with Jb weld
Terrible failure! . Smokey fumes and a peculiar odor of Jb weld were observed.
Inference: Resistive heater got really very hot, due to the flow of fairly high current around 6A. And improper thermal anchoring resulted in the damage of Jb weld bond.
b. Diode chain ( with rounded diode as square diode were not available) heater thermally anchored to the heater nest pot with Jb weld
Managed it to be a mild failure- as I stopped flow of current way too early! . Similar issues with thermal anchoring. Current was high, around 6.5 A. So diodes and weld got heated up too much.
Currently working on proper thermal anchoring.
c. Resistive wire heater with cement mortar and fibre glass insulation.
Suggestions from Pete and Liam made me work on this one, as an experiment mostly. Here I used cement mortar to thermally anchor resistive wire to the heater nest pot.
I am not really confident about my design. Additionally I will be trying a different insulation this time, using fibre glass, which will be delivered soon!
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What's next
Aim is to cook something( may be rice, because that's our staple food or oatmeal , as Emin loves it!) with ISEC, with prototypes b or c.
ISEC projects in future
Broadly, I see two possibilities for ISEC in future endeavors.
1. To the communities with least access to cooking fuel - global poor, communities affected by natural calamities etc. Here ISEC comes with an added benefit of providing electricity as well.
2. As a "Lifestyle" sort of technology for those interested in renewable energy - coz ISEC does challenge conventional cooking methods. It gears for an overall shift in attitude. Makes you to choose saving fossil fuel energy over convenience.
Personal Interests
I would like to implement ISEC, on a medium or large scale, for a nedeed community here.
Plus, I would like to try the PCM model too!
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FIRST CHECK IN
The layout and overall design is made. Diode chain failed due to twisting. Need pliers to accomplish diode chain.Â
See the pictures below for reference.
SECOND CHECK IN
Tested ISEC for the first time. Terrible failure. Couldn't bring the food to a boil. It just got heated up that's all. System went all smokey and JB weld got damaged. Worst part though was, the heated up food had a JB weldish flavour!
See pictures below for reference.
THIRD CHECK IN
So since my resistive heater model failed, I am starting with diode chain model. I am using the rounded type diode. And anchoring to the pot with JB weld.
See pictures below for reference.
FOURTH CHECK IN
I tested third prototype - i.e resistive heater wire with cement mortar and fibre glass insulation ,on a partially sunny day.
Rice was partially cooked! PFA.
Could have done better on a sunny day I guess.
And no smoke this time!
See pictures below for reference.
