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Reclaiming the heat. It's mine and I want it back.
KramE
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Posted on 04/22/2016 12:40 AM
I'd like to add heat reclamation to my roaster so I can hit 1 pound batches regardless of what time of year I roast.

My current setup:

farm9.staticflickr.com/8708/17159665739_f7518fe043.jpg20150502_140402

I don't have access to fabrication, so everything has to be store bought.

Could it be as simple as using a second vac hose close to the top exhaust to increase air intake temperature? Or will it have to be something more elaborate like using a hood directly over the top of the rc? If that's the case, would I hard plumb the vac intake into the hood with a valve to mix the roaster exhaust with atmospheric air?

Does anybody know what the actual exhaust temp above the rc comes out to be? If it's greater than the tolerances of pvc, could I use ducting made for stoves and reduce it down to a size I can couple it with the vac intake?

A final piggy back question; with reclaiming the roster heat, would it be possible to roast a 1 pound charge with a heating element small enough to run with the vac on the same 20 amp circuit?

Thanks everyone!
 
oldgearhead
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Posted on 04/22/2016 7:52 AM
I use an open-to-atmosphere box located above the roast chamber to re-claim hot air. I set the wattage of my heat gun element based on the ambient air temperature (lower ambient temperature higher wattage). In other words if it's 22F, I run it at 1475 watts, This week it was 80F in my un-heated garage so I ran it at 1000 watts. I adjust the blower speed to control the bean temperature. My blower inlet air temperature runs 100-120F
My roaster has been in operation for almost 5 years with no failures.
I typically roast 440 gram loads in 12 minutes. More than 440g will overflow a one quart Mason jar.
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No oil on my beans...
 
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