I just got done drying about eight pounds of jerky and have another eight on the oven racks. It takes at least 12 hours to dry it to a good chewy level at 180-190 deg. You can see that I cover each rack about 100% with the raw strips touching but not overlapping. The strips will shrink quite a bit and separate during the process.
I use a kit to cure 15 pound for chipolte jerky plus 1/3 of a peperoni jerky kit for the 20 pounds of raw meat that I started with. I also added a little salt, one quart of cherry preserves, some molasses, and a couple tablespoons of cayenne pepper flakes. My test piece, that I microwaved, tasted just right but after drying it seemed a bit mild. It tastes great but we like a bit more heat. My boy added another half pint of preserves, more salt, Worcestershire sauce and quite a bit of black pepper to the remaining 12 pounds of marinading meat.
In any case, to answer one of your questions, I can dry eight pounds of raw strips at once using just the two racks of our electric oven.
Edit- I cut 1/4" thick strips. If you go thinner, they will dry faster but you cannot do as much weight at once. The thicker seems to be a bit chewier to me and I like that.
