As the others have said, it's not so much the heat you need, but the ventilation. Laying out the apricots on a window screen in the sun will dry them faster at 80 degrees than in a closed solar cooker at 350! I have yet to build a solar oven or solar dehydrator, so I use the window screen method. Depending on the weather and the particular food, this takes a few to several days. Your setup should work well if you provide some vents that you can open in the bottom and top of the oven. This will vent out the moisture and prevent the fruits from cooking.

Yikes! Not only did I misspell "reverse" but there are those "Ã" thingies in the text . . . I can't explain it either David. Notice that the researcher says, "The funnel is directed at the dark night sky. It should not 'see' any buildings or even trees. (The thermal radiation from walls, trees, or even clouds will diminish the cooling effect.)." It is apparently common for some small orchardists to cover a shed with burlap bags and place a sprinkler on top. They can place boxes of fruit in the shed, turn on the sprinkler and get a lot of cooling from water evaporation during hot, sunny weather. I can just get my head around this by understanding that evaporation "pulls" energy (heat) from the shed. So, the inside temperature drops below that of the ambient air around it. This I can understand and I also know that a depression in the land (kind of like the bottom of a funnel) will cool markedly from the ground and air around it. I believe that this depression (swale, cave, whatever) needs to be of some size and shape before there's an effect. Perhaps this is what is happening with the much smaller solar funnel. Maybe we can think of it as a celestial funnel . . . digitS' where is our CNetter when we need her?

I'm still using my Tulsi after 7-years and have purchased two other solar ovens - a Sun Oven and a Hot Pot Solar Cooker. They each lend themselves to different uses. I like the electric back-up of the Tulsi so the food will maintain a food safe temperature, which is important if you have intermittent clouds in the area or you can't refocus it as often. The Tulsi has more cooking space, so I can make a number of things at the same time. Loaves of bread bake best in the Sun Oven because there is more height in that oven than the Tulsi. The Hot Pot Solar Cooker is basically a big bowl with a glass lid, so it's great for soup, chili, stew, or cooking a whole chicken.... I recently added the dehydrating, preparedness, and turkey roasting package for the Sun Oven to extend the use beyond what I was already using it for. About the only thing I would caution using a solar oven is to purchase 2 heat resistant 5-fingered gloves, like Ove Gloves, in order to have better control when opening and closing the units, than using hot pads or oven mitts. I also wear sun glasses when getting in and out of the ovens. Reflection of the sun could damage your eyes. When you move food from the oven to the house, sit it on a tray or a rimmed cookie sheet. Spilled hot liquid will fall into the tray or cookie sheet. Check your local public library and see if there are any books on Solar Ovens for more information. I've never heard of one catching on fire, but I suppose anything is possible no matter how unlikely. You need to move it every 20-40 minutes to track the sun, so it's not left unattended for long periods of time. I place my units on a Craftsman metal rolling tool cart and lock the wheels when in use. I use bungie cords to secure it to the top. This will up and out of the way and should help to keep curious pets or wildlife away, and if it's a windy day will help keep it on the cart. Lots of hints and tips since I first posted: -Bake small whole potatoes in a thin black sock. Make sure the potatoes are more-or-less the same size so they cook evenly. I bought black socks for this exact purpose. -Sprinkle a small amount of sugar or brush on a little honey/water on chicken to help it brown. Otherwise it's a little "anemic" looking since it won't brown in a Solar Oven. A sprinkle of paprika or herbs will also improve the "look". -Food cooks faster when the humidity is low, and slower when humidity is high. -ALWAYS preheat your solar oven before adding food. -You can make a whole pan of hard cooked eggs WITHOUT water. Place the eggs in a black enamel pan (no water) and place a lid on the pan. Put in a preheated oven and "cook" for 30-minutes for large eggs, or 35-minutes for extra-large. -Avoid cooking broccoli, cabbage, and sprouts in your solar oven. They develop an awful odor. -In the winter when it's a little more difficult to attain baking temperatures, you can add a few bricks to the oven when pre-heating to help heating and to maintain the heat. -To aid in browning the tops of loaves of bread and to lessen condensation in the oven, buy dark bread pans. Buy them in sets of 2. Use one upside-down as a cover. Secure it over the other pan with binder clips. -If what you are cooking requires constant high heat, refocus the unit to track the sun every 15-minutes. -When using it in the winter, add a layer of insulation on the outside of the unit. -I painted the outside of quart canning jars (which are made of tempered glass) with heat-resistant spray paint (the kind you can use on a bbq grill). I can use them for cooking a variety of foods - grains, legumes, soup, etc. - or use them for heating water in the Sun Oven. You can secure a sheet of foil over the top with some holes punched in it so steam can vent. You can also spray paint a canning lid and ring with the same paint. Punch some holes in the canning lid so steam can vent, and just loosely place the ring over the lid to keep it in place. -Grainlady

Here is a question for those pro. plant propagators out there: I tried something new to sterilize my used propagation mix (80% perlite, 20 % peat). I read that adding 1 tbs of Hydrogen Peroxide to a qt. of water and pouring that over the media will kill most pathogens. I tried it, but don't think my cuttings like it. Some of their leaves are browning up earlier then normal. I checked into solar sterilization and found out that you only need about 160 for a few hrs to kill the pathogens. He are my thoughts.. I have a 12x16 small green house which I can't use in the summer because of the extreme heat. Could this be used as a solar oven. A few minutes ago, when I dared to walk into it, the temp was 188 when the sky was partly cloudy. I think that if I left my propagation media in there and only pulled it out when I needed it, it would be OK. What are your thoughts on this???