What’s the Best Solar Food Dryer?

June 10, 2014

Food, Food Preservation, Solar, Water and Power

...oisson indirect dryer. In an article in Permaculture Activist, “Evaluating Solar Food Dryers: Stocking Up with Solar Power,” Scanlin says, The Appalachian indirect dryer produced higher temperatures than the other two dryers and also removed more moisture from the tomatoes drying inside each day. In one test, the Appalachian dryer removed 32 oz. (0.95 L) of water during ta day, while the Brace direct dryer removed only 20 oz/ (0.59 L), and the Poi...

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Waxed Cloth Food Wrap (Made in a solar oven for bonus self-righteousness points)

Mrs. Homegrown

June 2, 2016

Domesticus, Food, How-to, Solar Oven Summer

8 Comments

...is something I’ll play with if I decide to make more. What’s next for the solar oven? My next crafty project with the sun oven is going to be infusing oil with herbs, and perhaps drying herbs as well. And for those of you who were following our solar cooking initiative, it has been on hiatus because our weather this May was dominated by a heavy marine layer which kept the skies overcast until mid-afternoon. I love this weather, personally, but it...

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Searching for Energy Vampires

Mr. Homegrown

April 27, 2017

Water and Power

13 Comments

...e a small amount of power (empty space in the freezer or fridge takes more energy to cool). The fridge is often full of way too many condiments on their way to becoming compost, but this also probably saves a small amount of energy. And it’s a smallish fridge. Joining the radical fridge-free partisans of the homesteading movement would knock the power bill way down but I’m just not in the mood to give up my cushy first world lifestyle. The modem/w...

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DIY Solar Space Heating

Mr. Homegrown

October 9, 2013

Solar, Water and Power

6 Comments

...thern hemisphere it’s time to consider heating. The always useful Build-It Solar blog has a detailed link to a DIY solar space heating system in Virginia (pdf). Collector panels mounted on the roof heat a reservoir which is circulated through a floor-based radiant heating system. It even has an Arduino based data acquisition component that tracks performance. There should be a DIY Nobel Prize for this project! If you live in a place that’s both co...

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On the 100th Birthday of Our House: The Past and Future of Housing in the U.S.

Mr. Homegrown

January 8, 2020

Design

10 Comments

...onnie Maas Morrison points out in a paper, “Ninety Years of U.S. Household Energy History,” household energy savings have been more than offset by increases in consumption elsewhere in our lives. Think of the conveniences required for today’s dual-earner, single-parent/multi-job holding households. Think of the eating-out phenomenon, think of the pre-packaged, pre-prepared meals (from freezer, to micro-wave, to table, to garbage can, all in one co...

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