Calculating The Efficiency of Steam

[@skm9420]

I really do like your sense of humor

[@OakandSpore]

Cheers mate!

[@MrGazdread]

This is absolute gold! Thank you so much for sharing your research and time 🙌

[@OakandSpore]

No worries mate!

[@fennarios]

I love this channel

[@OakandSpore]

I love your support!

[@havealooke]

Hi ..very nice job as always.. One question, I will apreciate the answer as I've got the same "problem" here at home.. How do you transfert your blocks from the sterilizer to your flow hood for inoculation? Your sterilizer stay outside I guess..no problems of contaminations when you move your block outside from your sterilizer to your flow hood for inoculation?

[@johngrady1755]

You said it correctly under the video, but mis-spoke in the video. I have seen many people think they can use a steamer for spawn oppose to substrate because the distinction between sterilization and pasteurization is often not made clear when steam units are referred to as sterilizers. As a teacher I believe it is highly important to be precise in our terms. I do appreciate your content.

[@OakandSpore]

The problem is it isn't pasturisation, its an incomplete sterilization. If I ran an autoclave for half its intended cycle, do you call it pasturisation? No. It's just an incomplete sterilisation. You can sterilize at lower temperatures, it just takes longer. Thermal death time is all that matters.

[@neogeo8267]

EXCELLENT. Really appreciate the methodology and details, especially equations. Great idea measuring the water output.

[@OakandSpore]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Droluk_]

This takes me back to my thermodynamics days.

[@bettabgood]

If you ran the vent of the vessel through a heat exchanger for the water inlet could increase efficiency.

[@CMZneu]

Can't wait to see the new boiler! btw that's some fast healing on your arm there jk.

[@OakandSpore]

Some say wolvering was loosley based on me... Nah this video was one of two videos I shot prior the injury. It's going to be harder going forward! The boiler is ready to go, but need to put it together and film. It looks great!

[@themyceliumnetwork]

@@OakandSpore I hope you are typing with your good arm only !!

[@DothisDothat-qw9wv]

@@OakandSpore Pumped to see the new rig mate!! I'll be putting my neighbour to work once I see your design. Thanks for your posts, so informative and inspirational. Hope the arm is on the mend. Cheers Dave

[@mohdnizamzakaria2623]

Have you thought about having the boiler inside the tank? That way you don't need to insulate the boiler as all the heat generated is already inside the tank. Just focus on insulating the tank to get higher efficiency.

[@joeby5438]

You might regain the heating energy from your substrate blocks by compostation of residues, a biogas facility and a biogas driven heater! :D Thanks for the insides!

[@brucekidd6133]

Your pipe from the boiler to the tank needs to be shortened. Just long enough to reach the tank. That pipe also needs a drastic size increase. Its like a very thirsty incredible hulk using a straw to drink water. 2 elements work better than one. Add an off switch when it gets up to temp. So you just run one element to maintain. It will reduce run time. Great job love your boiler ideas.

[@neogeo8267]

What do you do with the hot condensate water?

[@warmflatsprite]

You haven't mentioned much about the new boiler yet, but have you considered making it from a less thermally conductive material? Or alternatively including some thermally resistive components in key areas to act as thermal breaks? As an aside, I was gutted to see your video about your injury. If you need a spare set of hands on the weekend let me know - would be happy to work for some knowledge sharing and maybe a bag or two in trade :-)

[@OakandSpore]

The material doesn't matter, as long as you insulate it well. Thanks for the offer of help! I have family who are prepared to help me create bags, so I think i will manage.. so long as they hurry up with my surgery!

[@frankbangham3257]

Your videos are awesome. Learning a lot. Cheers.

[@OakandSpore]

Glad to hear it!

[@themyceliumnetwork]

Holy Mathematics Batman !! (somebody call Leonard Susskind) why wouldn't you buy a black 30 metre garden hose & lay it out in the sun while you are using the steamer, the sun would warm up the water to over 20c as it travels or sits in the 30 metres or longer of hose under that roasting hot new Zealand sun. you can also add a second heating element to the boiler tank or even use a two part expanding heat resistant foam around the boiler tank.

[@OakandSpore]

This is totally possible, a a VERY good idea! You would aim to heat the water up to close to 100c prior entering the boiler, that way the energy spends less on heating water, and more on the phase change to steam. I might toy with this idea...

[@davidherber7096]

@@OakandSpore Here in Arizona we use this very technique and it speeds the entire process up considerably. We also use water heated this way for making the fruiting blocks prior to pasteurization. We find the substrate absorbs warm water much quicker and when the blocks go into the tub their internal temperature is already reasonably high, once again reducing the time needed to reach optimum range.

[@OakandSpore]

Well arent you full of good ideas! Using warm water to preheat the blocks is genius...

[@ricks2907]

Good content I just subscribed thanks again Ricky 💃🏼🕺🏼🎸🍄☕️🐈‍⬛

[@OakandSpore]

Thanks for the sub!

[@danielparker5709]

Even if you had a gate valve on top to let pressure out till it gets up to temp

[@R-Rpt]

I'm very confused, I need to make a system like this, the barrel is not efficient.

[@lachlanmorrison5326]

Sweet upgrade! What kind of connection is on the end of the steam hose my dude?

[@neogeo8267]

One thing to point out: at atmospheric pressure and low pressures, steam is lighter than air of the same temperature:. Your cooker will have air trapped in the bottom. I propose a tube that leads from the lid to the bottom. As the container fills with steam from the top down, the air will be pushed out.

[@OakandSpore]

Why have I not thought about this! My autoclave literally does the same thing! But I do think convection would get rid of low humidity air pretty fast. it wont take long for all that air to become saturated with steam, especially since the steam enters from the bottom.

[@neogeo8267]

@@OakandSpore remember high humidity air is not steam. Steam collapses entirely to a drop of water leaving in its place a vacuum which draws in more steam. High humidity air doesn't. Get rid of the air to maximize thermal efficiency. This will transfer heat to your blocks faster. Doooo itttt 😅 think like the steam. Be the steam lol hope you feel better man. Wish I was there to help

[@rangefighter4038]

what is the type of plastic bag used

[@Ipolo0000I]

Very interesting thank you! I don't know if is possible but produce steam is very energy consuming. It's not possible to sterilize by immersing the bags of substrate in 95°C water? It would be possible to save 85% of energy!!! My grandmother does like this to sterilize her jars of beans.

[@Arbulatov]

Why sterilize if you can just use pasteurization method? Wouldn't that be enough? P.S. I'm an amateur.

[@crazysteve8088]

Have u thought about wrapping the boiler in 20mm (or thicker) polystyrene sheeting and then applying another layer of that camping mat over the top? The first layer will stop the polystyrene from melting and the last layer should keep in any remianing heat. Might be a cheaper option that the PIR board you have at the bottom.

[@OakandSpore]

I dont like polystyrene, it makes a mess and is pretty much bad for everything.

[@crazysteve8088]

@@OakandSpore true. I just have the camping mat on my barrel just lile your old one. It does well but it still wastes a lot of heat. Cant wait to see the new boiler. Sorry to hear about your arm. I hope surgery goes well.

[@crazysteve8088]

@@OakandSpore also, this isnt realted to this video, but is there a reason why u decided to build out your garage to a grow room rather than just using tents?

[@OakandSpore]

No reason, its just what I did at the time. The concrete floor makes it easy to clean though

[@crazysteve8088]

@@OakandSpore your videos got me into the game. From high paid wage slave to now a backyard mushroom farmer. I dont know if i could ever work in an office again. This game is so much fun. Love the videos.

[@janemackinnon1592]

youre forgeting the huge loss of efficiency by having your steam box outside on a christchurch night

[@OakandSpore]

I'm trying to heat christchurch...

[@FortunaZKat]

Wouldn't it make more sense to build a steam generator inside the bottom of your sterilization box? No energy loss except for what you would have anyway with the box. Maybe use steel drums with banded lids for the sterilizer. These can be had cheap and are made to seal well to the point that you may have to make so sort of vent so they don't build to much pressure. Also, any condensed steam would drain back into the boiler section further increasing efficiency as less cold water would need to be heated to produce steam.

[@OakandSpore]

I originally did this, but damaged it bad when I had a water problem. basically all the wood started to over cook and burn. But It is the most efficient way, yes.

[@FortunaZKat]

@@OakandSpore Redundant systems. Put in two float valves if that was a problem. Pay for itself in electrical savings.

[@curiositeconstante404]

Could you make the arriving water in the boiler spiralling alround the boiler before getting in ? This way the incoming water catch heat before being heated inside. I don't know if I formulate myself correctly, thanks you for your calcul, it will help à lot. Cheers

[@OakandSpore]

Doing that wouldn't make a difference. it still uses the same energy from the element to heat it up.

[@curiositeconstante404]

@@OakandSpore It will be good to find a passive way to preheated the water, the water getting in my disturb the production of steam constantly right?

[@muzzasmsmadness1081]

Maybe save on energy by preheating the water with a solar heater

[@OakandSpore]

Thats very close to what I am looking at doing at the moment, except I am using water as a battery for heat.

[@ehbarooo]

A modified pressure cooker could be a good boiler without leaks

[@tobinh230]

PU foam gives better thermal isulation performance than your PE foam.

[@annabellavetra]

Why don't you use propane?

[@OakandSpore]

It's not really that much cheaper here in NZ. Allmost all our electricity is renewables. All hydroelectric.

[@coreym491]

Yeet

[@orangesunshine6460]

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[@OakandSpore]

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