Though the title may mislead you, I’m not talking about a Solarium used for tanning…

Late in the evening and I am sitting here writing a press piece about the new Solarium/Solar Kiln at the factory in Suva. And it strikes me again that this is SUCH a simple, yet clever, idea!

How does it work? (And why don’t we just line dry the old-fashioned way???)

The Solar Kiln focuses the sunlight and reduces the air humidity inside the kiln – meaning that the air inside the kiln is hot, hot, hot, bone-dry with almost zero humidity!

Which dramatically reduces the drying time of items within the kiln – especially compared to drying in the normally very humid air that blesses our Fiji Islands.

All of our staff in the factory and spa have two sets of uniforms provided by Pure Fiji. Staff get changed into their normal clothes in the locker room before going home for the day, so we wash and dry their uniforms for them.

Pure Fiji Factory in Suva, Fiji

The kiln at the Pure Fiji factory in Suva has primarily been built to reduce the drying time for staff uniforms and spa linens, as well as reducing the factory’s reliance on its tumble dryer – which makes the entire Pure Fiji laundry much more environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

Additionally, the solar dryer is put to good use drying local herbal leaves for our hydrosol extractions!

The Solar Kiln Dryer/Solarium at the factory is so effective, I am actually starting to eye off a corner of my garden – I may need a small home version of this kiln for drying clothes on cold or rainy days. No huge electricity costs from my tumble dryer! Yay!

A similar set up is used by some of our raw ingredient producers to dry nuts before cold-pressing them and a similar set up is also used by the Pure Fiji Paper Makers to dry sheets of their beautiful paper quickly and and efficiently – wouldn’t it be interesting to see how many other applications can be found for this very sustainable drying process…

I will try and upload some photos of this great little kiln in action as soon as possible.

Sophia

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