Solar Nut Roaster

Dr Srinivasan Nenmeli-K

Introduction
Here is a short description of my design of a simple solar nut
roaster, that can be used for roasting peanuts, almonds, cashew
nuts and so on.
My motivation was to build a solar device for roasting to
save energy and to prepare roasted nuts under hygienic
conditions.
The construction is of Box type solar cooker, but much simplified.
I have used a special design for insulating the bottom of the
cooker to reduce heat loss from the tray that holds the nuts.

Construction details

The nut roaster is based on a small aluminum tray, with 10in x 8

inches. It is a shallow tray with depth of only one inch. Shallow
trays work best for such applications.
I line the tray at the bottom and sides with black construction paper
available in any kid’s stationery store.

A cardboard box is taken [dim: 9” x 12” x 8”]and its sides are cut
to make a sloping roof. I am located in Bangalore with latitude of
13 degrees north from the equator. So, the angle of the slope is
nearly 20 deg.

I use a picture-frame with glass cover as glazing. Its dimensions

are 9in x 12 in….a standard size available in any photo store or
drug store.
I line the sides of the box with heavy-duty Reynolds aluminum
foil as reflector. I also attach a back panel—a cardboard sheet with
aluminum foil of size: 5in x 12 in. to increase the heat input.

Insulation: The depth of the box is initially 8 in. But after cutting
the sloping roof , it decreases to 5.5” in the front. I fill the bottom
of the box with newspaper layers interspersed with newspaper
shreds.
Then I place a cardboard with aluminum foil on the top,with
shining side facing the top.
Over this foil, I place four small plastic studs of height 0.75 in. The
aluminum tray sits on the four studs.
The air gap between the tray and the aluminum foil provides
excellent insulation. Further the aluminum foil reflects back the
heat trays from the bottom of the tray. The bottom surface of the
tray is lightly polished.
Note that this method of insulation is light weight, least expensive
and easy to make.!

Trials: I tried using this raoster on clear days in dec 2010. The
tray was loaded with 75 or 100 grams of peanuts.
Keeping the roaster facing the sun, the heating was studied with an
oven thermometer of ‘Good-Cook’ brand. The temperature rose to
115 deg C [250 F] in about 20 minutes. The maximum recorded
around 2 PM was 260 F or 127 C.
The roasting time was about 40 minutes.
The roaster requires positioning to face the sun every hour .

An great bonus besides saving energy from other sources , is that

the roasted peanuts have a great taste! Try for yourself.
The roaster was tried with other nuts with similar results.

Further trials: 31st Dec 2010

I wanted to raise the maximum temperature attained in my roaster.
I increased the area of the back reflector. I pasted another
cardboard sheet with aluminum foil to the back reflector, with
dimension 5in x 12 in. The back reflector area is now doubled. I
loaded the tray with 75 grams of peanuts. The performance was
excellent: The roaster reached 275 F [135 C] in about an hour at
11.30 AM. The roasting time was reduced to almost 50 mins.
It is obvious that with increasing heat input with additional
reflector area, we can reach higher temperatures in a box cooker.
Well, this is not a new result; this has been mentioned by the Solar
Box Cooker [SBC] pioneer ,Barbara Kerr many years ago. But it is
essential to keep this in mind.
There is, however, a max temperature that we would like to attain
in a roaster ; too high a temperature may overdo or char these
products.
I intend to try this cooker in Chennai, same latitude as Bangalore,
but at sea level, a coastal city. It gets very ,very hot in summer.!

Contact: nksrinivasan@hotmail.com