Solar Food Dehydrator

[PrepperMum]

Hi all,

Has anyone made one?

I am thinking this would be a good starter project. Although can only be used for some months of the year (in SW of England).

This looks to be a good tutorial: https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar- ... tor-Dryer/

[Arzosah]

I researched it, and I still think it could be valid for herbs like rosemary that you hang up in the kitchen under a paper cone, but not for vegetables or fruit. I bought a dehydrator - it runs on the leccy, and electricity is my big prepping project this year. I did use offcuts as the instructables project describes, of a wooden window, some flooring vinyl, insulation oblongs out of a skip, and a roll of reflective insulation, but I used it all to make a haybox. Ahem, which isn't quite finished ...

[PreppingPingu]

I have a plug in dehydrator but I wonder about the running costs of it as you have to keep it going for hours. I wonder if the costs of running something like that vs buying pre dehydrated food. Course its good to have the ability to dehydrate stuff that's gone past its prime so you aren't wasting it. Getting the balance of environmental/cost/prepping does make my mind boggle at times. An efficient solar one would be good. I tend to dry bunches of herbs in my airing cupboard but to be able to dry other produce without it costing or using leccy would be good. We do get a fair amount of strong sun down here in the south.

[PrepperMum]

Thank you for the responses. Great points to consider.

I have read that you can dry food out in the solar dryer, like Apple rings, bananas, etc to be stored for later.

It will be interesting to see the results. I will post a pic once I have built it, could be a few months though