Poly brood box as solar melter?

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TryingToLetThemBee

TryingToLetThemBee

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Has anyone tried this: Googling it draws a blank but it seems like it should work well?

Spelling it out a bit: poly box of old brood frames: flip it bottom bars to the sun, a glass crownboard over and some foil, expanded polystyene, reticel etc at the other end. Not a perfect design I realise but does it work?
 
TryingToLetThemBee said:
Has anyone tried this: Googling it draws a blank but it seems like it should work well?

Spelling it out a bit: poly box of old brood frames: flip it bottom bars to the sun, a glass crownboard over and some foil, expanded polystyene, reticel etc at the other end. Not a perfect design I realise but does it work?
Click to expand...

I'm going to say that I doubt it would work - if used the way you describe.

However, arranged with a single frame that catches the sun, You could definitely melt it out.

One thing to note is that at British latitudes, one has to tilt the box considerably (like 45°) to allow the sun to shine into the box.
The deeper the box, the more critical this becomes.
 
Madge said:
Should do - a cooler box works. See here.
Click to expand...

Just because a solar something works just outside of Washington DC (which is as far South as Sicily! - both about 38° North of the equator) doesn't mean it would work equally well in the UK.

How impressed should we be by a really simple solar wax melter working amazingly well in Sicily? :)
 
TryingToLetThemBee said:
Has anyone tried this: Googling it draws a blank but it seems like it should work well?

Spelling it out a bit: poly box of old brood frames: flip it bottom bars to the sun, a glass crownboard over and some foil, expanded polystyene, reticel etc at the other end. Not a perfect design I realise but does it work?
Click to expand...

How are you planning to collect the wax? It sounds like it will just accumulate as a sticky mess around your bottom piece of expanded polystyrene/reticel
 
Thymallus said:
How are you planning to collect the wax? It sounds like it will just accumulate as a sticky mess around your bottom piece of expanded polystyrene/reticel
Click to expand...


Yes, the back end would need work and this is really just going to be an experiment at the design stage. But given a 45-ish degree slope, a v-shaped foil or other insert could be mde up fairly easily at the bottom rear edge. Filtration would have to come later; this would just be to melt down frames at the first stage of processing and mainly an experiment, as I said.
 
Actually...your idea should work well. It is not necessarily direct sun that melts the wax but the rise in temperature within the insulated box. If the box is put over a large foil Turkey pan...the melted wax will collect in it. You don't even need to tilt the frames. Just need to be in direct sunlight...if you have an oven temperature gauge...put it inside...you will be amazed how hot it gets.
 
51 degrees facing towards South South West works well here... not so far to the Actic Circle and a bit nearer to the Sicilian hills than S Wales!

Yeghes da
 
Tremyfro said:
Actually...your idea should work well. It is not necessarily direct sun that melts the wax but the rise in temperature within the insulated box. ...
Click to expand...

Yes, but only up to a point!

The problem is that hot air rises and the indirect heating is limited because with a full box not much of the frames is going to be
1/ exposed to direct sun - or -
2/ above the area exposed to the sun.
Relatively little of the heat is conducted downwards into the box.
The top may get quite hot, but unless the glazing insulation is very good, lots of that heat is going to escape before it gets conducted down into a "deep" box.


I think a poly super and one deep frame at a time is likely to be much more effective.
But try it your way and see.
The glazed lid and collector/floor should be easily transferrable across to a super if your full box should prove disappointing. :)
 
We use an inverted 30mm recticel cover that normally goes over a poly nuc . The cover is two sheets of glass with an air gap made with a loop of rope.
Problem is not a lack but a surfiet of heat.
Luckily recticel is good for 150c.
 
itma said:
Yes, but only up to a point!

The problem is that hot air rises and the indirect heating is limited because with a full box not much of the frames is going to be
1/ exposed to direct sun - or -
2/ above the area exposed to the sun.
Relatively little of the heat is conducted downwards into the box.
The top may get quite hot, but unless the glazing insulation is very good, lots of that heat is going to escape before it gets conducted down into a "deep" box.


I think a poly super and one deep frame at a time is likely to be much more effective.
But try it your way and see.
The glazed lid and collector/floor should be easily transferrable across to a super if your full box should prove disappointing. :)
Click to expand...

Ah yes; good point. Need the point of heat capture deep in the box. Inverting the frames would aim at that but yes I can see it's an issue. I'll experiment and report back.
 
For anyone catching this, I am abandoning this project at the concept stage. Some good objections above and the knockout was delivered by PM by derekm who pointed out that poly is not good for the temps involved. So it's back to plan A, a 2-skinned 3-or 6-mm ply box with PIR or maybe rockwool filling (watch the mice!). Having it double as an insulating roof is a cool solution to the storage issue; thanks to Derek for that too.
 
I use an old glass cupboard with a single glazed sliding door, works well enough. Metal tray with frame in and holes in one side and it all drips into a plastic tray. Cost me nothing.
E
 
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