solar food dehydrator / dryer w bio-track! how to tutorial

[hamid4222]

green homes

[ShonitaMG]

Genius! That's amazing! Would painting the entire thing flat black perhaps keep in the heat throughout it longer? Since heat naturally rises would it be more efficient to vent it from the bottom instead of letting it flow from the top? Wonderful use of recycling and repurposing! Love your video!

[Hamish121212]

Ok I think I get it now. Would be great if you could draw a diagram of the way the air circulates.

[Hamish121212]

Wouldn't it be better for the hot air to enter at the bottom and rise through the trays then exhaust out the top? Hot air wants to rise not fall.

[paulwheaton12]

@Hamish121212 true. And while it is inside, it is not being heated.

[tmomof6]

@Hamish121212 the natural movement of rising hot air is in the black screen door 'heater" it exits the screen door at the top of the unit, then AS IT COOLS a warm air flow is created to blow across the food. The exhaust pipe is also utilizing the natural rising motion of heated air to create a draw at the bottom of the unit. Too much heat is cooking not dehydrating.

[cornishman1987]

nice idea . how did u do the symbols in the glass?

[dick117]

OMG! Were you dehydrating a possum? Just kidding, cool project.

[zacharymichael1]

This is so awesome. as earthflow said, I might be a little wary of the plastics heating up on the inside, but beside that, this is just damn smart.

[TheDarjeelingZen]

Oh wow! I never thought about using a fridge like that! That's a great idea! That's another project to add to my list!

[brotherjupiter]

No shortage of free fridge's . :-)

[fundude53]

the simplest ideas allways work the best well done dude

[iwantosavemoney]

nice idea i repurposted a chest freezer to make a solar hot water heater it works great

the cheap guy

[chickenbonewatt]

Sweetness. I just snagged a broken Washing machine and am using the shell to make a solar oven, (inner tubs going to be used for planters). Now I will be hunting an old fridge for this!!!

[vention4wh]

That truly rocks! I would have built the box out of plywood and sunk more money into the materials without even realizing that I could use an old refrigerator. Duh.

I just paid off my condo last Thursday. Now I'm going to start saving for some rural property where I can do this sort of thing.

Oh, much better sound, thanks. The new camera is just what the doctor ordered.

[earthflow]

Great 9idea...but i am wondering if the plastic inside the fridge can get hot enough to cause problems?

[paulwheaton12]

Excellent point!

[philaheen]

@earthflow I was thinking the same thing about the plastic. I was going to try it with an oven. Interesting design.

[dmacosta1]

Thanks

[9anda1f]

This is a great idea! Couldn't figure out exactly what was going on till we "walked" around back of the unit to see the collector ... a little built-in suspense!  Kudos to Brian for his well thought out implementation. Can't wait to see the rocket stove addition. = )

[woodswoman783]

This is really interesting. I'm wondering if you were to use a pop can solar heater if that would work as well. My cousin has one of these on his chicken coop and it can send out pretty hot air. I'll have to keep my eye out for an old upright freezer and give this a go. Thanks for the video and for giving me some ideas.

[ahnamay]

Brian has amazing projects and workshops at Inspiration Farm - be sure to see the video about the 500 showers from a compost pile, too.