Overview
Food dehydration is both a desirable and appropriate technology for many reasons which include increasing the preservability of food without having to use refrigeration, and reducing product size which can maximize storage space. Also, the process of dehydration is used to enhance foodstuffs directly (i.e. jerky, fruit leather) and indirectly (i.e. spices).
The main principle behind food dehydration is simple: to remove an ample quantity, or the majority (depending on the desired product), of water content from food products. Since the water content of foods is high, 80-95% in many fruits/vegetables and 75% or less in meats, the product weighs much less, and its volume is reduced. Also, without water, the food becomes an unfavorable medium for the growth of bacteria or fungi. If dehydrated when ripe, determined from a nutritional standpoint, the maximum quantity of nutrients can be preserved.
Food dehydration has traditionally been done by simply laying food out in the sun to dry, climate/weather permitting. With the right food, in the right climate, there may be little need to improve upon this simple setup. However, there are a handful of reasons people have sought other ways to dehydrate their food. Some practical reasons include avoiding the risk of exposing the food to animals which could take and eat the food, or insects which may want to lay eggs in it. A more scientific reason would be to avoid nutrient degradation that would occur from prolonged exposure to the sunlight. In addition, there exists the potential of wrongly interpreting/predicting the weather and having spoilage from rain or lack of sun.
To answers these concerns, the modern food dehydrator is designed to produce hot air and distribute it equally inside a lightless chamber or cabinet. Included in this design is the control of the air's temperature and the duration of hot air distribution. As a result, many modern food dehydrators rely on other sources of energy than the Sun to create and distribute this hot air in a uniform and uniterrupted fashion.
The Plan/Design
The idea of creating a hybrid, solar food dehydrator, that also adhered to as many of the principles of modern food dehydration as possible sounded excellent to me. The potential of using this old system in new ways can save both power and materials.
Could I construct something that would do this with the limited knowledge I have about solar design? The designs on the Internet gave me confidence that I could...