DIY Solar Dehydrator

Everybody likes dehydrated foods, right? They help manage harvest gluts, store for a long time, super light weight, and are a backbone to a serious food storage plan. And what’s better than dehydrated food? Free dehydrated food of course!

So, I’ve been trying to make a new solar dehydrator, slimmer and more scaled down than a lot of what’s out there. What follows is the recording of the building and design process. I’ll finish it this winter and put it through its paces next summer. Y’all can follow along, and maybe find the motivation to start your own solar dehydrator! Or a solar cooker, or a solar water heater, or a solar air heater….

That was just to get you in the right mood. I’m not building that. I’m starting with one of the windows I have in storage from a window replacement. I picked one that was 2′x4′ because those were nice round numbers that worked well with the materials I had around.

So now, I need a black surface for the sunlight to heat up, under the glass. I used one 2′x4′ plywood sheet, spray painted black.  The hot air needs a way to get to the food below, so I took my drill and with the largest bit I had, I drilled holes along the top and along the bottom of the plywood. (This setup will have an up and a down slant to it, so I’m hoping that convection currents form. ) There’s a trick here, to get proper air flow, without letting too much light through. This is the back of this solar collecting top piece. You can see some of my air holes and some of the screws connecting it to the wooden frame. Careful connecting the two, don’t crack your window glass!

I screwed that black plywood sheet to the back side of the window, the lightest colored side (since we want the dark side up. collecting heat.) So now the black side of the plywood and the dark side of the window frame are both facing the same way.  This will form my solar collection top/lid. I’ll need a handle, to lift it up to get to the food underneath.

And a frame for it to rest on.

Can you see the general shape I’m aiming for? Stay tuned, I’ll get the bottom half knocked together this weekend and we’ll see how the two halves come together.

Do we have any veteran users of the solar dehydrators? Who’s inspired to build?

- Calamity Jane