How to Make a Solar Dehydrator
October 27, 2008 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under Eco Simplicity
Here is the solar dehydrator I made. As you can see, it is nothing fancy. Just some boxes, some Styrofoam, mesh, a grate, plastic and a black garbage bag.
It generated a fantastic amount of heat and the stuff was drying nicely during daylight hours, but there was so much dew on the box in the morning and it all kind of re-hydrated itself some. After a few days of this, it was obvious that I have too much humidity and not enough light for this solar model where I live.
I think a solar fan would improve things enormously, but I didn’t have one laying around. If you happen to have one, I’d try putting it at the bottom of the heat collector and circulating the air to cut down the humidity and push the heat into the drying rack area faster.
I think you could also use the solar collector part of the dehydrator as a solar heater for a room with a sunny window. I actually burned myself several times de-assembling the dehydrator.
If you want to experiment with solar dehydrators, these were the links I used:
Next experiment – an electric homemade model
Technorati Tags: solar dehydrator,make a dehydrator with cardboard boxes
All photos by me (Like anyone else would want to take credit for this set!)
Thanks for the links…I think I will have to try this this summer (I am in AZ), so pretty much no moisture then
I will let you know how it goes next summer!