What are the climatic conditions during the harvest (and drying) season?
Climatic conditions (solar radiation, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind, etc.) should be considered in determining what kind of dryer is best suited for a particular application. Figure 10 will help you to visualize the factors that must be considered here. If the occurrence of sunshine is low–say, 50 percent or less–then it may be wise to add an auxiliary heat source to enable drying to continue on cloudy days or even through the night. Dry climates with hot or moderate temperatures are well suited for solar food dryers. Cold climates or humid climates pose the problem of making it more difficult to obtain the necessary quantity of warm, dry air to dry foods effectively before spoilage can occur. Such weather conditions may limit the use of direct dryers to preserving only small quantities of food that must be dried in a short time (one or two days). Indirect dryers have the advantage over direct dryers in that they are capable of concentrating solar energy. Enlarging the collec
