Solar food drying Preserving food can be done in several ways, one of which is to dehydrate it so that it won t rot. This is common with foods such as fruits, vegetables and herbs - dried apricots, for example. Dehydration is often done using an electric dehydrator, but these can use large amounts of energy to evaporate the water content of the food. The sun is another choice for food drying. A solar food dryer costs nothing to run and produces no greenhouse gas while running.
Many people also find that sun-dried food tastes better than other dehydrated foods.
Solar dryers are quite simple. They usually consist of a ventilated container, often box-like in shape, covered by clear plastic or glass. The sun s rays are trapped by the clear cover and gently warm the food, thus drying it out. As the air in the dryer heats up, it flows out of vents to be replaced by cooler, dryer air from outside. Solar dryers are very simple to make, and some very impressive commercial-sized examples have been constructed, such as the 18 metre long unit seen above, which can dry up to 300kg of food at one time.