Wood Fired, Arduino Controlled Food Dehydrator Idea

This is just an idea I dreamt up in my head. I've been pondering ways to make food dehydrators that don't require tons of electricity. Solar dehydrators are of course the first go-to in this case. The designs I've seen for some solar dehydrators have been fantastic! But what about drying meat? Namely beef jerky, or sausage. Can the solar dehydrators reach 165 degrees F and stay there? I don't know.

So I thought, what about a wood fire powered dehydrator? Sure, why not? There's always plenty of small sticks and branches around that could power something like this; it doesn't take much. Think: rocket stove on steroids with a large clamber on top to house foodstuffs.

It would work like this. On the bottom, a metal combustion camber. It's designed to easily add more sticks and scrap wood randomly throughout the drying process. The camber is under the drying box. The drying box is full of racks to place food items on. The exhaust from the fire is channeled through a metal pipe that goes through the drying box, towards the back so it's not in the way of the drying racks. Heat from the exhaust is convected through the metal tube and it warms up the drying box. The smoke from the exhaust just vents out the top (from the same tube it's always been in). Perhaps the metal pipe could be a linear straight shot from the burner into and out of the drying box venting into the open air. Maybe it would need a few heatsinks to make sure the thermal energy goes into the drying box as well. The smoke doesn't actually contact the food, although that could be arranged with a valve if you wanted this thing to be a convertible smoke/dryer. Inside the drying box is a series of simply fans to keep air moving and help with the evaporation process.

So, how do you regulate temperature? You obviously don't want it that hot when drying a load of fresh herbs. Well. We have fans already. Why not add more fans and make them Arduino controlled? This set of fans would push in new outside air, on demand, instead of just mindlessly circulating inside air. My idea is this. You fire up the oven. Turn the Arduino on, and set the desired temperature with buttons and an LCD. The Arduino then monitors air temp and when it gets too hot, it kicks on a outside-air fan or two to cool off the drying box. This also circulates air at the same time.

Also, why not add a cheap humidity sensor too? I think it would be interesting to note the current humidity and if it makes progress.

Also also, why not make this a hybrid solar AND stove dehydrator? I don't see why you can't have both. Solar for when the sun is good, and stove for quicker drying, meats or when the sun don't shine.

Have feedback on how to make this idea better?