rigorousintuition.ca

I've always felt like I must have been a sun worshopper in a previous life, so I suppose it's only natural that I believe that solar is the real alternative energy way to go. It looks like solar is moving forward, as this company, which is marketing to utility plants, would seem to indicate. I hope they come out with products for individual consumers in the future.

http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/2007/12/ ... st-panels/

Woodn't it be nice if I could spel beter?

Hey, anybody have any homemade solar ideas?

chiggerbit wrote:Hey, anybody have any homemade solar ideas?

I designed and built a passive solar home with most of the windows (except a few for light) on the south side which heats my house on sunny days and is built into the side of a hill and with the foundation surrounded by hay bales sealed/wrapped in plastic bags.

As time goes on I am learning how to capture the heat from the sun as much as possible with dark tiles and rugs and I heat with wood, gas and oil (depending on the time of day and cloudiness).

I want to mention that when I was in Israel about a decade ago practically every single Israeli house had a solar water heater/rain collector on the roof.

Simple hay bale and passive solar designs can create small and large structures fairly simply and inexpensively with just a little know how.

Ovens are available commercially but I'm going to make my own and practice using it. Better to know how to do it before the grid goes down and not afterwards

Solar cooking looks like it has a lot of potential.

solar cooking archive

another good site

Solar Oven Society

Yahoo solar cooking links directory

nevermind

You might consider the use of patio doors, available for free, if you're lucky and look hard enough, in most metropolitan areas.

Most patio doors are made of dual-pane, insulated glass sheets, usually about 36x80 (a perfect fit for small trucks and vans) and are ideal for applications such as south-facing trombe walls and greenhouses. Their light transmission rates are excellent and they last 'forever'.

There are plans on the 'Net.

http://www.jshow.com/y2k/listings/35.html


For a little extra inspiration, you might look at this...



I have about eight of them leaning against my studio presently, ready for the cold weather.