I’ve always been a little fascinated by the power of the sun for heating, power, and drying. The front door on our house faces South. We have a full glass door in front of the main door. In the winter ( well as close to winter that Alabama gets) the door handle heats up so much I can barely grab it to open the door. I while back I read some posts about solar dehydrators and the ability to dry food and keep it for later use.
I picked up a copy of The Solar Food Dryer by Eben Fodor. This book contained a bunch of information on different types and styles and some good, basic information. The book also explains step by step how to build a small solar dehydrator with a backup heater. Some basic woodworking skills and tools and a bit more time then I thought I put one together. One hint, the main piece is the glass and all the measurements are based around it. Instead of buying one built to the dimensions I picked up one that was close to a building supply store. A Habitat For Humanity Restore would be a great resource as well. The other hard to find piece is the metal heat absorber.
After I built the main box I headed to a local steel roof supplier and bought a flat piece of black roof metal. Once it was all assembled and ready to go I gave it a test run to heat out any possible fumes etc. When the sun hit the glass it was at 170F in minutes. This is why you should never leave your animals or kids in the car. The backup heater is actually two 200w light bulbs.
Due to the few hours of decent sun, we get in the winter I put a timer on the heater so it shuts off when the sun is on the glass. So far I am seeing times of about 24 hours to dry the two screens of items. I have dried tomatoes, apples, carrots, celery, peppers, and some bananas. The kids are slowly coming around to the idea that’s its kinda cool and I’m not too weird.
If you have any comments please post them below.
Play safe
Ken
