Solar Food Dehydrator

There are many designs for solar food dehydrators and we decided to use the design by Eben Fodor in his book: The Solar Food Dryer.  Here is a website about this book.

There are a lot of steps to making this so I decided to not include the detailed instructions and pictures with each step.  If you are interested in the details and specific dimensions, borrow the book from your library (like we did) or purchase it.  We used an old window from when we had our windows replaced, so we modified the dimensions.  Our dryer is: 35.5" by 27.5"

Here's a breakdown of pricing:
4x8 sheet of birch plywood: $32.17  (we only used about half of it)
3 Food grade safe screens: $29.90 including shipping (purchased from the book's website)
Screws: $1.25
Hinges: $5.04
Sheet Metal: 11.78
Weatherstripping: $3.49
Wood for legs, shelves, etc: Free
Thermometer: Free
Window: Free

We wish all of the materials could have been reused from other projects, but we don't have large sheets of wood lying around.  Purchasing and transporting the wood was an adventure.  The plywood we purchased was FSC Certified and therefore cost $7.00 more than other non-FSC plywood which looked a lot nicer.  It was one of those moral dilemmas in the hardware store.  FSC means the wood came from responsibly managed forests.  Transporting this large sheet of plywood was quite the experience.  With the help of our cargo bicycle trailer, we propped the 4x8 sheet of plywood on it.  I walked behind the trailer holding the board steady, while Jon steered the bicycle.  We only had one mile to walk this thing---a brisk 15 minute walk with a lot of questionable stares from onlookers.  I planned to take a picture of our caravan, but it started to sprinkle the remaining .25 mile (of course!) so the wood went in the garage asap.  With only a '98 Honda Accord, we are creative in our transportation options.  We have yet to find a really good reason to have a truck or SUV.  A small car meets our needs; and when it doesn't, we use our bicycles and legs or borrow a truck.  (The benefits to living in the city.)

(Jon putting together the shelf supports.)

(The dehydrator almost finished...)

(Dehydrator finished!)

(Back door and heat vent open.)

(Close-up view of the inside.)

(If you click on the picture, it will enlarge.  The thermometer has a reading of 130 degrees which is quite warm considering there were some clouds in the sky and the outside temperature was only 75 degrees.  It only took 2 hours to reach this temperature.  In the picture, you can see the back vent completely open to help regulate the temperature inside the dehydrator.) 

(Attaching the screen to the frame.  The screen is food-grade safe.  I would recommend spending the extra money for these because you don't want plastic chemicals like BPA in your food.)

(Our first test was drying herbs.  In these two pictures, Oregano is drying.)

(This is a close-up of the metal clasps we used to secure the window and weatherstripping to the dehydrator frame.  These clasps were found in our "junk drawer" in the garage.  I think they were used to hang curtains?)