110—Lancaster Farming; Saturday, February 3 r 1978
Solar grain drying systems
By LAUREL SCHAEFFER
Staff Correspondent
LEESPORT - “Heat does
not dry grain!” stated Ike
Steinhauer of Bernville. It’s
the relative humidity
coupled with the tem
perature that most
significantly affects the
costs and time required in
grain drying, he related.
Steinhauer was one of
several speakers addressing
a group of approximately 50
area farmers interested
enough to brave the
torrential rains of January
24th to attend a meeting on
solar grain drying. The
meeting, sponsored by the
ASC committee and
Cooperative Extension
Service of Berks County,
featured Joseph McCurdy,
agricultural engineering
specialist, Penn State
University; Ivan Z. Martin,
representative of Martin
Distributors, Lebanon; and
Elwood Steinhauer 111, hauer. ♦
Berks County Fanner. Whlle reviewing the
Steinhauer had in- various ways grain is dried,
vestigated the costs and McCurdy immediately
practicality of setting up a eliminated the use of solar
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solar grain drying system
for his own use and related
his findings to the interested
gathering of farmers. Mc-
Curdy ‘ discussed and
evaluated the various ways
solar energy has been ap
plied to a grain drying
system, and Martin related
some of his practical ex
periences with using solar
energy in grain drying
systems and presented
slides of several systems in
use.
All men agreed that using
this method to drv grain is
the most aim no one
should attempt it unless they
know what they are doing.
Martin also mentioned that a
back-up system should also
be available to anyone at
tempting to use. solar
energy. “When you need the
solar energy the most is
when the system is working
the least ef
ficiently,” explained Stem-
energy in high speed-high
temperature grain drying. A
collector the size of an acre
would be needed for even a
moderately sizes system, he
said. This would be very
expensive and a back-up
source of heat or energy
storage facility would be
needed.
However, solar energy
grain drying can be fitted
into an in-storage drying
system. Here, air flow is the
key to the drying process.
Low temperatures are
maintained and the grain is
either dried in layers, or m
full bins over a longer period
of time, usually 4 to 10
weeks.
Safe storage time has to be
watched carefully with this
type of system however,
cautioned McCurdy as he
m
exhibited a chart showing
various time intervals com
can be stored when it is at
certain moisture levels and
temperatures. At fifty
degrees Fahrenheit, for
example, com at 22 per cent
moisture can only be stored
about 30 days before mold
could be expected to start
growing, but at 15 per cent
moisture the com could be
safely stored for 492 days
before there was any sign of
mold.
In this type of system
McCurdy advised the use of 1
cubic foot of air movement
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evaluated
per minute for every bushel
of corn at 20 per cent
moisture. But accompanied
with a small amount of heat,
which could be derived from
a solar "energy system, the
natural air flow could be
reduced by 10 to 15 per cent.
A solar grain drying
system of this nature where
low temperature rises are
used would only require
simple inexpensive
collectors. The grain would
supply the energy storage
for nights and cloudy days,
McCurdy said.
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energy collectors were
described aqd shown from
slides by the Penn State
specialist. They mcludedf
collectors built onto two-'
thirds or three-fourths of the
bin sides, leaving the north
side empty since the sun
would not reach collectors
there.
Placing collectors on the
roofs of adjacent buildings x
such as a poultry house or
machine shed and using the
attic space asa collector was
another method discussed.
Here, the air from the attic is
(turn to Page 112)