Sheetal pot

without

is a refrigeration device exclusively made of clay, which keeps food fresh made consuming electricity, working on

the principle of evaporation. It is a terracotta pot, evaporation which is porous in nature. It has a round canal at the top provided to occupy water. This water gets seeped through the pores of the wall and the pot gets wet.When water evaporates from the surface When of a body, it takes away the heat from the surrounding, this results in cooling effect. The cooling effect reduces the inside temperature of the pot thus enabling things kept inside to nabling remain fresh. Sheetal pot is one modern device developed through a UNDP UNDP-KVIC sponsored project.

Since the principle behind the device has been known for centuries, many designs have been evolved. One of the traditional models of cooling device working on similar principle has pot he in pot system.A small pot is kept in a larger pot and then covered with lid. The cavity so .A formed between two pots is filled with

water.The inner container functions as storage porosity ity for food and other items. The
35

of outer pot helps in the

Degree Celsius

30 25 20 15 10 5 15.30 21.00 6.00 10.00 15.30 TIME Sheetal Pot Khanapur Bhadravati Manamadurai

circulation of air, which in term keeps the inner cavity cool. Due to this cooling process the food gets preserved for a longer time.A comparative study was A conducted to determine the cooling

capacity of sheetal pot in comparison with pot in pot models made at

Khanapur(Karnataka),

Bhadrawati

(Maharashtra) and Manamadurai(Tamilnadu). The chart shows the study of cooling capacity of different products. The seepage of water depends upon porosity. During experiment itwas water observed that a sheetal pot with 40% of porosity gives the right seepage, thus giving the

optimum cooling effect. It was observed that sheetal pot has maximum cooling capacity compared to pot in pot model.

Pot in pot model

Designer model of Sheetal pot

Advantages: - Protects food against sun light, heat, dirt and animals or insects. - 100 % ecological materials. - Shelf-life of produce can be extended up to 10 times longer than without cooling. - Scalable size to different requirements. - Just use water for cooling. - Replicatable and worldwide well known technology of manufacturing. - The lid covers are stackable for efficient storage and transport. - New jobs can be created with local production. - Reduction of electric energy consumption.

The concept and invention of sheetal pot is fully functional and field tested. It can be used as a tool to protect the environment for the sake of present inhabitants and future generation. Any social entrepreneur having vision to solve social and ecological problems in an economic and efficient manner, can adopt this product. But here is the challenge, these grass root inventions dont scale up. 120. Indeed, most rural innovation like Sheetal pot, however 350.0 impressive they may be, are sadly limited to their 350.0 impact to a local and regional market of a few hundred 260.0 customers, and end up employing no more than a dozen workers in the local community. What is missing 285.0 is the mechanism to cross- pollinate and scale up these bright ideas among Indias 250-million strong agriculture community which lives scattered across 270.0 more than 6000000 villages.

By S.Laxmikant, Social Worker Send Your comments to laxmikant.msw@rediffmail.com You are welcome to my blog http://socialactivistlaxmikant.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002416882742 and feel free to comment on my social work activities.