Health Pot

In Oz, in most survival scenarios potable water will be available eg. a pot hole dug into a river bed with sand filtration, or even a spare jerry can for backup water, but there will be some cases where water needs to be pasteurized, which has been a focus on my TLUD stove research. In many places around the world, water needs to be pasteurized before it is potable to kill pathogenic bacteria, and may even need additional pre-filtration to remove harmful chemicals and heavy metals, which can be done with biochar using the gravity fed 'Permafilter 3 bucket' (see 'Permafilter 20L' page) eg. using 3 x 5L food grade plastic buckets: Bucket 1 (top) - stones->sand->cheesecloth; Bucket 2 (middle) - unmilled biochar pellets (from the 'Adapt')->milled biochar pellets->cheesecloth; Bucket 3 (bottom) - water collection.

The Navigator 'Adapt' V2 (see 'Navigator 'Adapt' TLUD' page) is great for small batches of water pasteurization eg.Tatonka Kettle 2.5L. There are some scenarios though where an 'Adapt' can complement an electric kettle. A few days ago I discovered the device category called 'Health Pots' that are mainly manufactured in China.

For eg. a 1.3L volume, programmable to 71 degrees Celsius for water pasteurisation (more energy efficient than boiling) and perfect for different teas, coffee and instant noodles, plugged into a solar generator/solar panel with A/C 230V (for Oz compliant appliances). The one I purchased was 600W (2.6A) which I haven't tested yet and has a dual purpose for running off the mains as well (when there's no sun to power my grid-connected rooftop PVs as I don't have a home battery), with half the power consumption of my existing kettle and I always use a thermos to store excess heated water. I don't have 'natural gas'/'unnatural methane'. I'm also hoping that the 600W rating is for maximum power consumption and that there is variable power demand below this threshold based on the temperature program. The 'keep warm' feature is probably energy inefficient (needs more research).

- The solar generator
Inverter efficiency varies with load. Most inverters achieve peak efficiency at 50-70% of their rated capacity
- 600W (my Health Pot)/1000W (my inverter rated capacity) is 60% load (optimized). 
I also have a pure sine wave inverter. Pure sine wave inverters: 90-98% efficiency, typically 95-97%. Also safer to run at lower ampage but overall wattage is higher compared to 12/24V or even 48V (but couldn't find 48V appliances) which could mean more juice from the battery storage/less energy efficient (I only have a 12V/10A output - a 24V output would be a better idea, or possibly could be achieved using an adapter) BUT faster pasteurization (if needed). The power inefficiency is not that significant in my opinion if there is solar available to charge the generator (BUT power cannot be discharged during charging). More cycles on the battery though which in my case is only Li ion. I'm looking forward to the day when Carbon based MOF's are used for energy storage with fast charging, high capacity and slow discharging.

Here are some scenarios where this combination of the 'Adapt' and a 'Health Pot' could be handy:   
            1. during a power outage or off-grid, I'd suggest using the C negative 'Adapt'  or 'Health Pot'  
            2. If the biomass pellets run out the 'Health Pot' is good.   
            3. if it's a total fire ban day with a power outage I'd suggest use the 'Health Pot'. Important to keep the battery topped up for this scenario   
            4. If the battery runs out of juice and not enough sunlight to charge it AND/OR  the electronics fail, the 'Adapt' won't - unless it's a total fire ban day then?? Eg. Spare safe water and food that doesn't need cooking...  
            - you will need a power rating (W) lower than your power bank max inverter power rating (W)  
            - if you can't read Chinese, the pot interface needs to be in English. Didn't see any other languages   
           

Some compact kettles have inbuilt Li ion rechargeable batteries but are only small capacity eg. 2750mAh and need regular charging eg.over USB C and are slow to pasteurize and generally have volumes less than 500mL. The batteries will also degrade quickly over time.

The programmable 12/24V kettles I looked at generally have smaller volumes eg.500mL or even less, although I did find one with 1.3L but less granular temperature control eg.80degsC setting (less efficient than 71degsC) and no time programming. Possibly a long pasteurization time but probably not an issue if driving while pasteurizing.

If using a car battery while stationary it could drain the battery.

Another scenario could be using a standalone car battery eg.Lead-acid, bootstrapping it to a solar panel and using a cable to connect the battery to a 12V kettle.

I also looked at using 'Power Delivery' eg.65W, 100W etc. feature on some more portable power banks and connecting a 'trigger' cable to a 12V kettle. But, I imagine this will quickly drain the battery, which generally need A/C to charge them anyway, or in some cases can use solar panels but these do not charge as quickly as a larger wattage solar panel connected to a solar generator.

Biomass

I should also mention that the biomass pellets eg.wood, rice husk, sorghum etc. need to be calibrated for burn time since there are differences between energy density and moisture content from every supplier or if you need a lot of them, an electric pelletiser could make a good long-term investment (though pretty exxy to justify if pellet production is low). After calibration, you know pretty accurately how much fuel is needed and how long it will take to pasteurize a given volume of water or even cook food.

The 'Adapt' is probably the most flexible, cheapest and least complicated option and can use environmental fuel (as well as biomass pellets) in an emergency.

Any ideas please contact me on the 'Contact' page.