Dehydrator

[Whittler Kev]

Just a thought, I saw a demo of making a dehydrator out of a single kitchen cupboard, wire off a disposable BBQ and a 40w lightbulb for the heat (Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine founder - oops forgot his name ) at Ronnie Sunshines open day.
Question - With all of the low wattage, green bulbs coming in, will they still dry food as they run a lot cooler and "normal" bulbs are bieng fazed quickly out?
How about led lights - no heat?

 

[Mesquite]

I saw the same set up at Ronnies as well.

I asked the guy the same question about the bulbs being phased out and was told that despite being low energy bulbs they put out a similar amount of heat so you ought to be ok.

 

[British Red]

Not convinced that a low energy bulb would work myself. They only consume say 11W which is a miniscule amount of power to convert to heat ...and are 90% efficient...so say 1W of heat!

They are very possible to make as comploetely passive solar though......

Any low heat source (and preferably a fan like an old computer fan) will work though. Something like an aquarium heater would probably work....

 

[Toddy]

Y'know, that's a very good point..........if you could rig up a dehydrator powered by the heat and from a computer, there's the perfect excuse for sitting logged on

cheers,
Toddy

 

[British Red]

Y'know, that's a very good point..........if you could rig up a dehydrator powered by the heat and from a computer, there's the perfect excuse for sitting logged on

cheers,
Toddy

Needs a brand name though..........

If its beef it could be "surf & turf"

 

[Shewie]

What about using a candle/candles, raising the shelf and heating from below instead of above ?

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

what about a small fan heater? you can usually pick them up pretty cheap.

something like
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-2KW-U...1_12?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1255970870&sr=1-12

 

[forestwalker]

The low energy bulbs obviously does not work as well (possibly unless you go up to the same wattage...). I'll rebuild mine to use a small space heater for the next season.