# Off grid dehydrating



## dirtman (Sep 15, 2011)

I believe my excaliber dehyrator uses 800 watts and I usually run it about 10 to 12 hours per load. Have any of you off gridders been able to use appliances like this without straining your systems too much?


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## PD-Riverman (May 24, 2007)

dirtman said:


> I believe my excaliber dehyrator uses 800 watts and I usually run it about 10 to 12 hours per load. Have any of you off gridders been able to use appliances like this without straining your systems too much?


800 watts for 12 hours would be a BIG draw. You might want to look into solar dehydrators if you are going to be using a dehydrator alot.


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## suzysurvivor (Apr 18, 2012)

another option would be to dry your veg/fruits on a window screen type dehydrator in the good ol' FREE sunshine.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
There are lots of solar food dehydrators:

Solar Cookers, Ovens, and Food Dryers

From the reports I hear they work well.

Gary


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Vehicles make great solar dehydrators. BTW


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## dirtman (Sep 15, 2011)

In this part of northern Michigan we get about 80 sunny days a year on average. A fact I didn't take into account when I built my passive solar house. (dumb as a bag of rocks) We are pretty close to the eastern shore of lake Michigan and get alot of wind.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

If you wait until fall you can dehydrate near your wood stove if you heat with wood. Just be careful to avoid high temps because I've been told that won't dry properly.


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

I made use of my car. Honestly it was not being used I cracke the window to let the moistior out.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

You don't really need sunshine to dry. Just dry weather, and wind helps.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Well, we used to set the dehydrators up in the greenhouse, it got real warm in there. Basically using both electricity AND sunlight to speed up the process. 
Dehydrating with the electric units does take quite a bit of power, each jar of dehydrated food probably has at least $1 of electric costs in it... so anything we can do to reduce that cost is helpful. 

Maybe go solar for the initial drying, then use the Excalibur for an hour to get rid of the remaining moisture...


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
I guess that the 800 watts that your dehydrator uses is mostly to drive a heating element that heats air that flows over the food that is being dried?

If so, for off-grid use, you might see if you can improvise a propane powered heat source to provide the heat to heat the air that is used for drying. That way, the only electrical draw would be for a fan if there is one.

800 watts would only be equivalent to burning 0.03 gallons of propane per hour, so a cylinder of propane would go a long ways.

You would have to work out some kind of sheet metal heat exchanger to get the heat from the propane flame to the dryer air, but that might not be too difficult.

Gary


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

You may want to rethink dehydrating. Depending on humidity, you don't need heat. Take a look at these Good Eats episodes on dehydrating:

Drying herbs (at about 13min mark):
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgui7PynCWc]Good Eats - Herbal Preservation [Full - HD quality] - YouTube[/ame]

Making Jerky:
Good Eats w/ Alton Brown - A cheap, simple, home food dehydtator

Dehydrating fruit:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjsOIcx4tFA]Good Eats S11E6 Whithering Bites (1/2) - YouTube[/ame] 

Alton Brown's take on dehydrating is that most home dehydrators are just cheap heaters with some trays that cook the food as much as they dehydrate it. He uses cellulose furnace filters to stack the food, and then a box fan to provide lots of air movement. For sticky stuf like strawberries, he uses the food grade plastic screen from home dehydrators, but not the heater.

To stop bacterial activity while the food is dehydrating, he talks about sulfur fumigation... but instead uses a dip in lemon juice.

Good luck

Michael


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## NVSmith (Aug 12, 2010)

-Dehydration is not the same thing as solar drying. With low temperatures and a fair amount of wind you may be in a good region for what we now call "freeze drying."
-I spent a fair amount of time in the Andes where folks have been laying out their harvests to the winter winds for thousands of years.
-I don't have access to my books right now but the Smitsonian Institution did a fascinating study on "lost" crops of the Americas which included some preservation information.


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

... and yet another off the wall idea. How about using a desiccant? Make a solar heater to renew the desiccant/drive off water. Get an air tight box that you put your food and the desiccant in, and have a fan to move air. Shut it, and let it run. The desiccant will keep the air dry, and pull the moisture out of the food. Use enough desiccant to draw out all the moisture, or replace the desiccant one or more times during the run. When you're done with the run, put the desiccant back in the solar heater to renew it for the next use.

This method will reproduce the cold dry atmosphere of the Andes.

Michael


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## Newlife (May 27, 2012)

artificer said:


> ... and yet another off the wall idea. How about using a desiccant? Make a solar heater to renew the desiccant/drive off water. Get an air tight box that you put your food and the desiccant in, and have a fan to move air. Shut it, and let it run. The desiccant will keep the air dry, and pull the moisture out of the food. Use enough desiccant to draw out all the moisture, or replace the desiccant one or more times during the run. When you're done with the run, put the desiccant back in the solar heater to renew it for the next use.
> 
> This method will reproduce the cold dry atmosphere of the Andes.
> 
> Michael


Actually, that might not be a bad idea. If you built an airtight box and put in a tray of the desiccant on the bottom it should pull out a good deal of moisture.


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## sss3 (Jul 15, 2007)

Have a 4 tray Excalibur. But, thought the fruit drying by Alton Brown was ingenious. May try that.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I've read that too much heat dries the outside of the food and seals it making it harder to dry the interior. That can lead to partially dried food that will mold.


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