Grainswest - Tech 2023

Tech 2023 Grains West 16 PERSON PLACE & THING “ I’m not interested in telling anyone they can’t build it ” the roof if they can produce enough power to drive my fan. Then the fuel source becomes less expensive. GW: It could potentially become net zero. RB: That’s why I thought why aren’t people interested in this approach? Maybe because most farmers want to buy a ready- made solution. GW: It’s an elegantly simple system. RB: It’s really easy. I don’t have to move a fan to go to the different bins if I’m heat- ing or cooling grain. I just open and close gates. In the aluminum pipes, on a sunny day, the air temperature is raised about 15 degrees before entering the bin and about five to 10 degrees on a cloudy day. I open a door on the intake side to bypass the heating pipes when cold air is desired. GW: How many times have you rebuilt the system? RB: The first time it wasn’t big enough, and I was getting more bins. I made sure it worked and then I built a bigger system. But the connections weren’t good, and I had to redo it. I built again and enclosed the plywood ducting in plastic and irri- gation canvas and then more plywood. I added metal tubes to compensate for the shifting of the bins. That last renovation was about three years ago. GW: How do weather conditions affect the efficiency of the system? RB: We’ve never had a problem. When it’s very cloudy, they don’t heat up much. But with light cloud cover, they’ll still do the job. You wouldn’t get a lot of drying in November, but we’ve often dried in Oc- tober. Two bins block the sun later in the day, but I don’t worry about that because it’s what I’ve got. GW: What sort of regular maintenance does the system require? RB: Weed control around the perimeter and between the pipes and bins is neces- sary probably twice a year. GW: Have you made modifications over the years? RB: As the system has improved, we now use 90 pipes rather than 20, but 60 is probably enough. People have asked if I should have painted the pipes black. I tried that once, but it doesn’t stick well to aluminum. I also found the air heats up only so much and then that’s it. So black paint might make you need fewer tubes, but with the number I have out there, it didn’t change anything. The bare aluminum conducts heat quickly. On a sunny day, you can’t walk on those pipes. I use an infrared gun and they get to over 50 ° C. Rob Baerg's elegantly simple solar grain dryer pulls air through sun-heated irrigation pipes and manifold systemwith a gate at each bin intake.