Greetings Friends:
I have found the following technique useful when trying to process larger batches of material, say more than a few hundred grammes or material which is particularly bulky/fresh, using less water. It applies mainly to the water-acid extraction part of an A/B extraction tek and can be used with any material which is being extracted by this process.
I find that it is a particularly good method for those of us who have limited energy resources available (or alternatively, are choosing to reduce their energy consumption) to run large amounts of electricity or gas, say because they are off grid and have limited solar available or getting butane/propane requires a monumental effort and many kilometers of travel on dirt roads.
It is clear by searching the forums that most of us are aware that in order to perform a good extraction it is necessary to increase the surface area and make repeated soak/extract cycles preferably with hot water/acid +/- boiling. Multiple freezing/thawing cycles if using fresh material is also useful. I would like to share this method which tries to optimise all of these components and attempts to combine them in a way which uses up less energy overall. I did not come up with this myself and would like to acknowledge the source: the wonderful workers at an Ayurvedic apothecary in Kerala where I apprenticed twenty-five years ago.