Sun-dried tomatoes, apples, and other fruits and vegetables are delicious, but they’re not always cheap. A dehydrator can help you save money when you preserve your garden’s bounty. Solar dehydrators work best in strong sunlight and low humidity. First, harvest ripe, blemish-free fruits and veggies. Wash and peel them, if needed; and slice them uniformly. Most foods must be pre-treated to prevent darkening or stop the enzyme action that causes color and flavor changes. For specific instructions, contact your county extension service or visit the online National Center for Home Food Preservation. Begin by constructing the cross members for the dehydrator. Measure and mark each of the 11 ½” long 2” X 2” at 4 ¼” and use your square to create a line. Join two of the 2” x 2” together using a 17” long 2” x 4” with the 2” screws. Attach the plywood back panel to the bottom of the cross members using 2” screws. If you like, you can paint the “inside” face of the back panel black prior to attaching it.
The inside of the dehydrator will be painted entirely black to aid in heating. Before attaching the side panels, the shelf supports need to be added. The supports are made from the 3/8” balsa dowels and are cut into eight 14” lengths. NOTE: depending on the size and number of shelves you want, adjust as needed. Since the finished dehydrator will rest at an angle, the shelf supports are installed at a 45° angle. Measure across the board 4” and mark, then use the rafter square to draw a 45° guide line. Measure and create three more guides spaced 5” apart. With the guide lines drawn, mark 1” down each line to indicate the placement of the dowel. Secure the dowels with a bead of wood glue and 5/8” nails. Repeat for opposite side panel, remembering to mirror the dimensions. With the shelf supports in place, connect the side panels to the cross members and back panel by hammering the 1-¼” nails along its edge. For the shelves we used pre-made adjustable aluminum screens.
First, separate each screen by removing one half from the other. This will give you two separate screen shelves. Think ahead about what you’ll be drying; these screens work great as lightweight drying shelves for fruits, but heavier loads like meats may require building a shelf from scratch. The top and bottom panels require holes to allow air to enter and exit the dehydrator. The bottom panel of the dehydrator will have two more holes than the top; this is to let a greater amount of air be drawn in while controlling how much is allowed out. Starting with the top panel, mark the location for the holes by measuring in 7” from each side, and then up from that point 2” and drill with hole saw. For the bottom panel, allow for two additional holes located at 3 ½” from the edge. To protect drying foods from animals and insects, before you place the panels on the dehydrator, line them with screen using a staple gun. Attach to bottom and top panels of the dehydrator using 1 ¼” nails.
NOTE: depending on your local climate, you may need more or fewer holes. A good rule of thumb is to start with a few. Check results and adjust as needed. To build the frame for the dehydrator door, miter cut the ends of each of the 1” x 4” to opposing 45° (the angles face away from one another on each board), and check the fit. Join the frame pieces together using a combination of wood glue and the 1 ¼” nails hammered into the joints. If you have access to a finishing nailer or a frame jig, feel free to use those instead. When working on a frame, repeatedly check to make sure it’s even by using a square or triangle. Once the frame is together, measure from the outside in and draw a 2” thick border. This will help define the placement of the acrylic sheet. Slowly drill through the acrylic sheet using a bit slightly larger than the screw you plan to secure the sheet with. Once all the holes are drilled (about three per edge), run a bead of silicone along the inner border of the frame.
Carefully place the sheet and tighten the screws. Lastly, apply weather-stripping around the perimeter of the acrylic sheet. The drying chamber and door of the dehydrator are now complete. Now the legs can be attached. Starting on the right side of the dehydrator, measure along back edge 4” (bottom edge in image) and use the square to draw a 45° line back towards the top measure along this line 2 ½” and mark. Next draw another 45° line from the bottom corner, measure along it 6”, and mark. The marks on the angled line note where the top of the leg should be. Attach legs with wood glue and 2” screws. Repeat for left side. To place the door hinges measure along the side of the dehydrator from both the top and bottom edges exactly 6 1/2″ and mark. The marks will help you evenly place the upper and lower hinge. Trace the outline of the hinge onto the dehydrator, then place and center the door and trace the hinge unto the underside of the door frame. Drive in the hinge screws and check to make sure the door opens easily.
To complete the dehydrator, paint or stain it as desired.I posed the question to three residential energy specialists, and in the process learned some tricks — a few of which will also help apartment dwellers, who usually have no worries about foundation cracks or attic insulation. My panel included Kelly Parker, a board member of the Residential Energy Services Network, an association of firms that rate home energy efficiency; Michael David, lead technician for New England Conservation Services, which performs energy audits and upgrades; and Bob Gfeller, a senior vice president at Lowe’s.Finding a leak is easy, they said. Get a blower door, which depressurizes a house so that even the tiniest drafts blow like a stiff wind. They cost a mere $2,900. Second choice: a Black & Decker laser thermal leak detector ($42, at Lowe’s), which will identify the cold spots that coincide with leaks.The most cost-effective sleuthing device, though, is even cheaper and may already be in your home — a stick of incense.
Pick a breezy day and pass the burning stick near any seam in your house, and the smoke will reveal where the leak is.I took a lighted incense stick around my doors and windows, and the technique worked fairly well, even if I grew completely sick of the smell after a while.But Mr. David and his colleagues later found that I’d missed some spots I hadn’t even thought to check, like the seam between my fireplace and the wall, and my baseboard heaters. My two biggest omissions were the attic and the basement.“If your attic access is inside the house, that’s a big one to watch for,” Mr. Parker said. “If it’s not well sealed, it’s like leaving a big door open.”At some point in the last few years, I lost a bolt that secured one of the two big springs in my drop-down attic ladder, leaving one corner sagging about a half-inch from the ceiling. I never considered the effect that sag might have on my budget until I envisioned air streaming through the gap.As for the basement, “Check the places where all your piping is coming and going,” Mr. Gfeller said.
“Sometimes things happen, like your house might settle, and it’ll open a pretty good-sized crack.” To spot those leaks, try this: Go to the basement in the daytime, but keep the lights turned off. Depending on the angle of the sun, you may detect cracks from the daylight shining through the foundation.For me, this exercise actually solved two mysteries. The pipes to my outside water spigots apparently travel through holes big enough to accommodate much airflow — and many mice. (Stay tuned for a column on rodent removal.)Basement doors are another area of vulnerability, since people often pay little attention to how well they’re constructed or maintained. In my case, the frame was surrounded with gaps that had probably been there the entire decade we’ve lived in the house.If you have a fireplace, don’t even bother checking it.“They all leak,” Mr. David said. “Even if you have the flue closed.”Doesn’t my fancy hearth cover help?““Those all leak, too.”Last, a word to those with central air or central heat: try the incense trick around the seams of the ductwork.
Even a small gap can allow costly leaks.Now on to Job No. 2 — plugging the leaks. You’ll need to spend some cash — except in one area, that is.Every place I’ve ever lived has had a front door draft, and just about every front door nowadays has a threshold with three big screws. But those screws don’t simply keep the threshold in place. Turn them counterclockwise and the threshold rises, closing out the source of a nagging draft. When the weather turns warm and humid, you can reverse the process if the door is too tight to close.Thus ends the cost-free portion of this process.If your doorway lacks adjustable thresholds, install a rubber door sweep (about $7 at Home Depot). Weatherstripping, is also a must, for doors and windows. Mr. Gfeller prefers stripping of various thicknesses (the labels say whether they’re designed for doorways or windows); Frost King’s cost about $4 to $7 a package. Mr. David prefers V-shaped stripping (about $4 from Frost King); this type, he said, breaks down less easily than foam.
If you have an unheated section of basement, be sure the door to that section is firmly sealed — unlike mine, which has a hole for a cat door cut into it. (We plan to install the door pronto.)To seal molding and window frames, Mr. David said, steer clear of $2, all-purpose caulk and buy long-lasting 100 percent silicone caulk (General Electric’s is about $8 a tube).For bigger holes, he said, like those around baseboard heater pipes, use Great Stuff (about $4 to $6 for 12 ounces), an expanding, foam spray insulation.This step isn’t necessary for people with central heating systems, but they may face bigger challenges. If the system’s air ducts are leaky, Mr. Parker said, the best solution is to budget about 20 hours to apply a liquid seal to the seams. (He recommended Mastic, about $25 a gallon.) Otherwise, he said, contractors will charge $300 to $500 for the job.Speaking of bigger projects, my attic had about 6 inches of old fiberglass insulation, which is roughly half what it should be for a home in Connecticut.
(The federal government’s energy Web site, energystar.gov, has insulation recommendations.) R-30 insulation (about $13.50 for a 31.25-square-foot roll at Lowe’s) brought my attic to the top of the site’s recommended levels.What about those leaky fireplaces? It might help to fill the chimney with an inflatable plug (about $50 at Home Depot). Mr. Gfeller recommended electric outlet sealers, which are essentially gaskets, for other often-drafty spots: switch plates and outlet covers. The sealers cost around $2 for a package of four.Finally, my panelists agreed on the value of a programmable thermostat — so you can lower the heat at night, during vacations or at other opportune times. “As long as you really use it,” Mr. Parker cautioned, noting that many people who buy the devices never program them. A Honeywell model offers one-week programming and costs $80. Now back to the question of how I learned how much air my home exhales.I called my electric company, Connecticut Light & Power.
Like many public utilities, mine will send an independent contractor to your home for an energy audit. My cost was $75.For my audit, Mr. David and two colleagues arrived at 9 a.m. and spent two hours finding all the leaks I’d missed. They used a blower door, not incense, and it was with the blower that they calculated my home’s hourly exhalation rate of 75 percent. Then the team spent about two hours caulking and sealing the remaining leaks, all included in the $75 price.Most utility-sponsored energy audits won’t include this second step. Some charge more, some less. But even at a higher price, and without the additional work, it would have been worth the expert diagnosis. By the time Mr. David and his colleagues departed, my home’s air expulsion rate had dropped from 75 percent per hour to around 40 percent per hour, likely saving me around $160 in heating oil annually, Mr. David said, and the house feels less drafty. His team — again, at no extra charge — also installed a shower head, $100 worth of low-energy light bulbs and other items that will likely drop my electric bill by around $150 per year.