After more than a year of talking about it, we have finally completed and put in service our solar wax melter. This device uses the sun’s heat and gravity to warm filter our raw wax. We have tested it with the cappings from this years harvest and have found it to an efficient way to make clean wax with very little mess and loss.
The standard melter is simply a box with a glass cover with some sort of strainer and a collection vessel inside. Because Steve is an engineer and cannot ever leave well enough alone, our wax melter has a larger glass top than box to increase energy collection; a reflective insulation covering on the inside; and a thermometer so we can monitor heat levels inside the box.
Here are some pictures of it in action:
