If you like dehydrated food, you would surely like to know how to make it at home. Drying your food can be very useful as it will help you preserve it for a longer period. You can also make lots of delicious and healthy snacks by using this technique, for instance drying all sorts of fruits. So if you want to try this at home, we recommend you to build your own solar dehydrator. Those that run on electricity will cost you a lot, so solar powered ones are a cheap and efficient option. The next tutorial will teach you how to make your own solar powered food dehydrator out of recycled materials. Such a great and useful tutorial!
Materials:
Thin Ply Wood (Body)
4 2.5′ Long 2″ x 4″s
10 feet of 2″ x 2″ wood (Braces and drying shelf support)
A Window (20″ x 23 1/8″) or a suitable slab of clear plastic.
Screen (For covering vents)
Stretchable Cloth/Material. We used stalkings. (For drying rack)
2 Hinges
Screws
Staples
Thermometer
A Hook & String (To fasten the rear door)
Caulk (For perfectionists)
Can you please update your article with information how this dehydrator works to dehydrate food? Judging from the pictures alone it’s hard to tell how the end construction achieves the goal.
IR heat from the sun is able to enter the box but the glass prevent the heat to get out.
I’m very interested make a solar food dehydrator, I’ll do it in the future
How does it work?
It works by virtue of solar heat and convection. Top that off with moisture sapping wood construction and you have a good food drier. The main thing is to let it breathe while keeping bugs out.
Sorry, this was a school project, so we didn’t follow up. We used it a couple times and then donated it to the sustainability department.
Height of Back not given.
Can’t tell where the vents are.