Solar Honey

N.B. This wiki needs a spring clean and the information on this page may be (considerably) out of date.

Temperature

Spoke to a scientist (Gianluca Memoli) who did research on Honey, as I had heard about temperature being an issue. So if we heat up the honey on the greenhouse we need to make sure it drops quickly to a deposit that is cool. Or find a way to cool the space passively if the temperature gets too hot (a metal bimorph like those in kettles to open up an air line?).

  "...for long periods" There are 2 reasons: 1) to be sold on any EU market, honey must have a certain chemical below a certain level and the longer you heat honey, the more this chemical goes up 2) according to the conosseurs, the flavour of honey is lost when he gets heated up. After a certain time any honey tastes like the cheap runny one you buy at Tesco (which is in fact produced by heating at ge 60 deg for 1 min) 45 deg is the temperature used by producers to melt honey to preserve flavour...barrels are kept in hot rooms, for long time.

Dean Forbes:

I am open to correction but from memory if you heat it above   37-40 degrees centigrade some of the enzymes start to beak down. This is the temperature that the bees maintain the hive at. Bees wax melts at 65 and starts to break down at 85

References

http://www.michiganbees.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Solar-Wax-Melter_20100727.pdf

http://simonrees.com/2012/01/solar-wax-extractor/

https://beekeepingafloat.com/2016/05/12/solar-wax-extractor/

https://www.milkwood.net/2013/07/01/researching-solar-powered-beeswax-extractors/