{"id":5567,"date":"2017-12-15T12:58:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T10:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tinosecolodge.gr\/?p=5567"},"modified":"2017-12-15T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T12:42:51","slug":"solar-herb-dryer-dehydrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tinosecolodge.gr\/fr\/news\/solar-herb-dryer-dehydrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Herb Dryer (Dehydrator) DIY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As the garden and the different herbs we planted are becoming bigger we felt the need of having a solar dryer to dehydrate and preserve more and more food. Here on Tinos island we have a lot of sun radiation and a generally warm climate which should give us optimal conditions for working with the solar dryer. The passive design fits nicely into our sustainability approach and goes hand in hand with permaculture practice.<\/p>\n

The design of the dehydrator is greatly inspired by the work of Dennis Scanlin from the Appalachian State University. While I was looking at the design it came to my mind that it would be great to use an old Solar heater panel as a heat trap. We discovered that it is fairly easy to find panels from old solar water heaters at recycling places or at you’re local plumper. They have everything you need inside: good insulation at the back, very good solar glass for optimal absorption of radiation and a really good copper heat absorber. So we changed the design a bit in order to fit everything to our panel. We increased the actual drying box a bit and switched to side opening doors. The benefit in this design lays in the recycling aspect and the lower amount of building effort.<\/p>\n

The initial design was made in order to build it at one of our permaculture seminars but we didn’t have the time this year. So we decided to build it now.<\/p>\n

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The over all Dimensions
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In our case the dimensions are bond to the heater panel we found. The panel is fairly big with 110 x 198 cm, which gives us a 2,2 sqm heat absorber surface.\u00a0 The actual drying box has a volume of 0,65 cubic meters. The angel at which the Panel stands is around 40 degree. Of course that can be changed if you change the Height of the Box. If you want to operate it mainly in summer, then choose a lower angel, if you want to optimise it for spring and autumn, choose a higher angel.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Basic Materials and Tools
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The Timber we used is standard rough construction softwood in order to get the price as low as possible. We sanded them down on site in order to give them a smooth touch and make the paint job easier. The beams are 2,5×4,5 and 4×6 which are standard sizes here in Greece. We used one sheet of outdoor plywood with 12mm thickness. The material for the frame can be any kind of mesh from plastic or metal like mosquito net, chicken wire. The important part is that the mesh is big enough in order for the warm air to circulate properly but small enough to hold the material you want to dry. If you want to take it to the next level get some material that has a food grade certificate just to make sure you dont and up contaminating your food with anything nasty leaking out of the material. You should have some basic wood working tools like sketched out below.<\/p>\n

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Explosion Drawing
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The explosion drawing gives you an basic overview of the pieces that are needed and the place where they will be placed. Also you see how they interact with each other. In the next picture where we show the parts with the dimensions and the amount you can read out where they are used.<\/p>\n

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Assembly<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In first cut all the wooden pieces that are described and sand them down. Then start with disassembling the solar panel. I think every panel will be a little bit different from the inside. Ours was actually consisting out of three parts, the metal sheet back plate, the insulation at the back, the heat absorber, the solar glass and the aluminum frame holding everything together. So we got rid of the insulation in order to free space in side the frame so that the warm air has room to flow upwards. Then we took out the absorber and cleaned it. Afterwards we cut the openings in the upper and lower part of the frame for the air inlet and outlet. Then we cut an extra piece of plywood in order to replace the old metal back plate. This is important to improve the overall insulation of the heater. The old metal back plate was then screwed to the new plywood back from the inside and on top we placed the copper heat absorber. Then we fitted everything back into the aluminum frame.<\/p>\n