Scott Patrik

So aluminum cans increases contact area and therefore heats up more air, therefore faster movement... Is that the theory? The Black panel is made of steel, secured to the silver aluminum backing.

Would creating a loop not just make the overall air very humid and unable to release the moisture in the air. The dryers main purpose is to dry super absorbent cloth nappies that take up to 2 hours to dry in the electric dryer. My concern would be that creating a loop would create flow but not dry the clothes. I have definately wanted to utilize it as a food dehydrator, just not sure of it's food gradeness with silocone, liquid nails and "non-toxic" expanding foam stuff.

Iniatially I thought the battery was unneccersary too. So all I need to do is to connect the solar photovoltaic panel straight to the fans? or do I need to go via a regulator / controller? I have a regulator / controller that I can use... would you recommend putting the fans at the top of the chamber pointing down, or at the bottom of the chamber at the threshold, which would theorectically evacuate the air and hopefully draw hot moist air down and out, creating a draw for the hot air coming out of the solar panel. how likely is this to happen?

Cheers for all the info...

Hey Nathan,

I have just bought a solar panel from a friend, some fans to do what you have suggested, just need to did a second hand car battery to power it now... I sure the carnivorous dogs that we have would enjoy the meat jerky, but their herbivore owners are very unlikely to be dehydrating the stuff ...

Any Ideas on how to increae draw of the chimney?

Notice the particular shake in the camera as I "miss" one of the stairs.

Try this one....

Hey all,

I have recently built a solar dryer unit in an attempt to overcome the use of the electric Dryer. I mainly tried to make it very similar to the last one featured in Pauls 3 solar dehydrators.

I made a short youtube that gives an overview of what it looks like.
The solar panel is from an old solar hot water service. The issue is that the air is just not drawing through the chamber. The hot humid air stays up the top and doesn't draw through....

The chimmney is made of stainless steel painted black, but only gets hot where the the sun shines on it. The Solar panel seems to be doing a great job of putting hot air into the top of the chamber, not sure about the speed of the air movement. I Hid in it with a full set of wet nappies on a sunny day and couldn't feel the air drawing out into the chimmny like it did in the last of the 3 solar dehydrators videos. At this stage I am open to all suggestions. My idea is to put fans hooked up to a solar panel on the threshold of the chamber / chimmney that would suck the hot air down and out, hopefully creating the draw on the solar panel and getting some consistent air movement. Other ideas was to increase chimmney height and increase contact area through the chimmney.

Let me know what you guys think.

Cheers

Hi all,

I am thinking of making a equivalent to a solar dehydrator, but a compact outside drying room. I am in aust and the dryer gets used ( cloth napping a 13month old) a bit in winter. Was thinking if the same design features of the solar dehydrator that has the hot air going to the top and then second passive of condensation, the back up a black chimney. I remember watching one of pauls videos and the draw on the dehydrator was amazing, thought that this would work wonders for the colder months. I was thinking of having it 1.5/2 times the solar dehydrator size and putting possibly either rope or dowell as the things to hang the clothes on. Thinking that I should be able to source all the goods second hand for Around $50, emphasis being on having the main section air tight....

Any thoughts / hints / advice?