Solar Ovens & Cooking, woodstoves

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The Dirt Cheap Builder

Low cost ideas for off the grid,
solar cooking, gardening and living!

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Solar Cooking and Plans for Building
Your Own Oven/Cooker

Imagine having a functional, off the grid kitchen and using a solar oven for effortless cooking. Plus using the sun to make plenty of hot water, to dry and preserve foods naturally, and practical, easy solar methods for making safe, drinkable water. **
And solar box ovens can be used to pasteurize milk, and sanitize dishes, utensils, cookware and much more. The books here will show you the many old ideas which are newly rediscovered for people planning sustainable and energy conscious living. Canning fruits and vegetables in a solar box cooker is easy!

Did you know you can pasteurize water in about 4 hours in a solar cooker, or 25 minutes in a solar reflective cooker? Make safer drinking water in an emergency. (Sunlight kills many bacteria, but won't remove chemicals or crypto- solar distillation alone will do that.)

Build a Solar Wall Oven
(Photo: Barbara with her solar oven cookies) Barbara Kerr didn't begin solar cooking until she was 50, and now at 79 is an expert and inventor for solar methods. She patented her unique solar wall oven design, and continues to teach solar and low-fuel methods (Rocket stove cooking ala' Dr. Larry Winiarski's design) to this day in Snowflake AZ.
This small booklet is a step by step on how to build and use a permanent (plywood or wood) solar box cooker that can be mounted through a wall in a kitchen, barn, shed, even bathroom or hallway to make hot water, sterilize baby clothing, and cleaning cloths (dairy and animal) warm chicks, seedlings, and of course to COOK. Prepare everything from cassaroles, desserts, meat, fish, and fowl, to sanitizing water for safe drinking (and heating it for coffee and tea).
Barbara built her solar oven through her kitchen wall which allows effortless solar cooking, no burning, and no fuel needed.
These solar box ovens can be pre made and used on site while building a house at a remote location, and used to cook meals, warm foods, and heat water for washing up for workers, then installed into the kitchen.
Any south facing wall- for the northern hemisphere :) --can be utilized- even in travel trailers and mobile homes. Or cook ovens can be left outside mounted on a rotating table to track the sun for optimum efficiency.
5"x7" booklet teaches how to make and use. Published 1999.
#5008... $7.00...Order here

VIDEO The Sustainable Living Center Tour

The Sustainable Home Tour- This delightful hour-long video takes you on a tour with Barbara Kerr in her home, the Sustainable Living Center in Arizona. In the high desert she has experimented with and field-tested many solar designs. Many of these are shown and features explained. You see her unique solar wall oven that she built through her kitchen wall which allows effortless solar cooking from inside the home. Barbara is completely off the grid with solar photovoltaic panels providing electricity for all her needs including lighting, computer and printer, radios, small hand tools, refrigerator/freezer, and recharger for small batteries. She shows solar heating of water with recycled tanks (which gives her plenty of hot water), and growing salads in her greenhouse. Her efficient solar downdraft food dehydrator design is clearly detailed along with how to dry and preserve foods in small or large volume. With her friend and partner, Sherry Cole, they take you through the process of creating a very comfortable, livable home for very little money. 59 minutes. #5008...$18.00 (or rental $5.00)

Cooking with the Sun, How to build and use solar cookers. by beth and Dan halcy. A simple oven that reaches 400°F can be built for $20. in materials, and this book shows how to design a solar hotplate to reach 600°F, plus 100 recipes designed especially for solar cooking: solar stew, Texas biscuits, enchilada casserole and more! 7x10 , 116 pages , 27 b&w photographs. #5006...$10.00

Earth Ovens...

Here's an idea for people in climates where the clouds come over, and change your solar cooking plans. An earth oven is an outdoor 'retained heat' oven. Start a small fire in the morning, place bread loaves and meals inside at noon, and enjoy a delicious dinner at night. And, on sunny mornings,use a solar box cooker to start cooking, and then transfer pots to your earth oven and you can have fully cooked meals, delicious in flavor, with no burning or watching over pots. Also great for vegetarian and 'many-bean' recipes.

New Edition, expanded to 100 pages, color photos! Building Your Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer. Learn how easy and practical an outdoor baking oven is to build and use. The design is a two layer retained heat oven, and can be built with onsite materials such as earth and sand, and uses a brick base-floor, or even an earthen floor. These ovens burn a small amount of wood, get very hot, and allow you to bake breads and meals slowly after the coals have been raked out. Kiko sculpts his ovens with wonderful animal and nature shapes. Imagine a huge Phoenix bird, its belly the oven, the flue its throat, with smoke escaping from the upturned beak! Children can help build these ovens, and play with earth at the same time. Complete instructions, 100 pages, 8.5x7, line drawings, and wonderful COLOR oven photographs of frog, squirrel, and Phoenix bird oven-bench, plus B&W of a snail and other fanciful ovens. #1003... $15.00.. Order Here

Build A Rocket Stove Cooker

..Shows how to make a portable, emergency stove - A hot, fast burning mini stove for boiling water, and cooking food. Made from inexpensive metal cans, needs only scrap paper, twigs, small wood pieces. (Folks I have made these with coffee cans and boy do they work! If you can punch a hole in a can, and follow the simple directions you can boil water, fry eggs and burgers, saute, steam, and cook just about anything.) Shows four different metal can designs, and a clay stove design which needs no tools to construct, and uses local clay and sand. Lots of photos and clear directions. You'll be amazed at how well these little stoves work. 12 page booklet #5012..$5.00
Order Here
Jump to the Off the Grid page to see a photo of the rocket stove in use.

Capturing Heat

Shows how to make a LARGE rocket stove using a 5 gallon metal container, Plus three other designs good for emergency and long term cooking, (one is solar) and covers Haybox cooker design and use, a well done booklet. #7575...$7.50 36 pages, from Aprovecho research center.

Safe Rainwater Collection

compiled and whiten by Charmaine Taylor. Designed for typical American ( traditional housing, not third world ) collection, with tips and information on storage, testing, purifying, filters, chemicals to use and avoid, garden use, and use of rainwater and runoff. Extensive information for solar pasteurization and NON electrical purification and filtering for rural, homesteading or off the grid needs. Covers systems, tools and supplies need, and more, for low cost home collection. #7560...$12.00

How to make a Rope and Washer Pump

This handy booklet will teach you how to build a water wheel pump from tires and pipes which can lift water over 90 feet from a well or stream. Clear direction for building and using the manual pump, made from very low cost materials. #7576...$14.00

Functional Kitchen Books.......

Home Storage of Fruits and Vegetables Good information on the indoor/outdoor/underground and cool-box method of storing food. Many simple, economical plans and ideas for adapting areas in the home for cold storage. This book contains detailed information on food characteristics, optimum storage conditions and harvesting methods, 28 pages, illustrated. #5016...$10.00 Order Here

Solar Energy for hot water and more.....

Cascade Solar Water Heating Plansby Bob larson. Easy to follow do-it-yourself plans for custom designing and building a passive "batch type" solar water heating system. The CASCADE SYSTEM can be built in or on your roof and made to look like a skylight. The CASCADE SYSTEM integrates solar collection and storage and can be baked up with wood or electric heat. #5020...$10.00

How To Live Without Electricity -And Like It! by Anita Evangelista. There's no need to be dependent on commercial electrical systems for your home's comforts and security. Describes dozens of alternative methods that can help the individual become more self-reliant and free from utility companies. Tells: How to calculate your actual power usage * Employ alternate light sources, including candles, oil, kerosene, gas, and solar-powered lamps * Obtain, pump and store potable water * Cook with gas, wood, and solar heat * Heat and cool your home effectively * Refrigerate food without electricity * Maintain radio communications * Generate power and recharge batteries * And much, much more! Numerous illustrations and photographs, listings for the best mail-order sources for the products depicted. This is a complete sourcebook for those who wish to both simplify and improve their lives.1997, 5x8, 168 pages, illustrated, soft cover. #5013...$15.00Order Here

Woodstove Cookery-At Home on The Range -by Jane Cooper. You'll learn how to buy a stove, new or used, how to set it up, how to fuel it for various uses, how to keep it clean and in peak operating condition. In a woodstove hot air bakes from all four sides of the oven creating an even cooking environment. Dozens of recipe best adapted to the kitchen range -baking breads that smell heavenly, stews that gain goodness in hours on the back of the stove, roasting meats, and more. 208 pages, 6 x 9, *paperback. #5030...$13.00