Many individuals and families are choosing to install a home solar system.  Some choose this as a way to ‘go green’, others want to have the option of grid-free power.  It’s tempting to jump on this bandwagon because what could be cleaner or cheaper than energy from the sun? All those rebates and other alluring offers from power companies and the government make it tempting to jump into solar head-first.

There’s a very good reason, however, to approach a solar system with caution.  What most consumers don’t realize is that most solar systems are tied to the electrical grid. When the grid goes down, your solar power disappears.  Typically, when a solar system is installed, one of the last steps is to connect the solar panels to the building’s electrical panel. Yes, you will get “free” solar power on days when there’s enough sun to generate that power, and when there’s not, electricity will flow into your home from the power company, but either way, your solar panels are hooked up to the same power grid as your electrical system.

Is there an option?  Yes.  Michael Cox of Survival Solar Systems says, “It’s possible to have a solar system wired separately from the grid through an inverter/battery bank, if you will.  They do not need to be tied to the grid to function.  The panels may be wired in separately from the grid power through an inverter or charge controller, storing the electricity in a battery bank and thus be autonomous.  It’s also possible to have a stand-alone system to certain outlets only through an inverter, then the power can go off at will, and you will still retain your solar electricity.”

He goes on to say, “Some set-ups even have two sets of electrical outlets next to each other, one side for grid power and the other side for solar.  In either case, no matter what the grid does will not affect you.”

So why don’t more people go for an off-the-grid system?  All those enticing incentives that make solar more affordable apply only to the grid-tied systems!  Solar energy can be a thing of beauty.  Just be sure to thoroughly research any system you’re considering if being off the grid is important to you.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

In this world of modern day prepping, high-tech survival tools and gadgets are everywhere.  For example, the SteriPEN.  If you haven’t added one of these to your bug-out bag or camping gear, you really should check it out.  With the press of a button and a swirl of an ultraviolet-lit wand, you have water safe enough to drink!

image by Danny et Maryse

When you don’t want to carry around bleach for fear of leaks and don’t have time to boil water, the SteriPEN is worth the money.

Now, high-tech is great for some gadgets, but the Sun Oven is so low-tech, ya gotta love that, too.  Last week we traveled to Park City and beyond.  The Sun Oven was in the back of the Tahoe, and by the time we got home, it had been knocked around more than a few times.  All that abuse took its toll because yesterday I discovered that the glass door was slightly off center and unable to close completely.

Of course I panicked, but I shouldn’t have.  The Sun Oven’s very simple, very low-tech design allows the company to offer this warranty on their product:  fifteen years, based on daily use in third world countries.  I don’t think my little Sun Oven knows the first thing about abuse!  So, with a few quick twists of a screwdriver, that glass door was realigned, and my oven was as good as new.  Gotta love low-tech!

image by RJL20

So, which is better?  High-tech or low-tech?  I think they both have their place in survival and preparedness.  A tool like the SteriPEN simply makes the task of water purification easier than ever.  It would be a mistake to not have at least a couple of back-ups, but nevertheless, being able to purify water in thirty seconds is hard to beat.  A solar-battery charger would help insure its usefulness over the long haul.  If you’re more the mountain man type, don’t sneer too much at high-tech survival tools!  There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a really cool gadget that makes life easier.

Survival tools that are low-tech are usually more simple to maintain, use and repair, and are often less expensive.  I strongly recommend that every household have at least one way to cook food and heat water other than their kitchen stove.  The Sun Oven is useful for that purpose while having the advantages of solid construction and being easy to use.  When you’re thinking about survival, low-tech is the best choice as a back-up to your back-ups.

If survival and preparedness are your goals, high-tech and low-tech are all good.

© 2010 – 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

I’ve been using my Sun Oven for every day cooking but this last week wanted to really put it to the test.  The Sun Oven website claims it can be used to cook hard boiled eggs without using any water.  That was my first test.

On a sunny afternoon, I placed two raw eggs on the leveling tray in the oven.  The oven was hot, right at 350 degrees.  No directions were given regarding the length of cooking time, so I just figured I would break open an egg after 20 minutes to see if it was fully cooked.  To keep a short story short, the egg was perfectly cooked!  There

image by basykes

was no dark green ring around the yoke to indicate over-cooking, and the entire egg was soft but definitely hard boiled.  Impressive!

The second experiment involved a frozen chicken.  The president of Sun Oven, Paul Munsen, says that he puts a frozen chicken in his Sun Oven in the morning, along with some seasonings and vegetables, and the chicken slow cooks all day long until it’s perfectly finished by the end of the day.  Well, my chicken was well and truly frozen on the morning of the experiment.  I spread a bit of olive oil over the chicken with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, popped it in a covered baker and into the Sun Oven a little after 9 a.m.  I was running errands all day long, but when I checked on the chicken at 4:30 that afternoon, it was fully cooked and ultra moist.  Wow!

The Sun Oven passed both tests with flying colors.  (Did I mention what an awesome job it does with a pan of brownies??) 

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Question submitted by Elizabeth Long

There are lots of gadgets out there now that operate on solar power. My new favorite is the Everlite Solar Headlamp with the optional USB Charger. Those are going in our car bags. This will let us each have a headlamp and a way to recharge our cell phones so we can continue to access all our survival apps, as well as text and make calls.  We also have some new solar lanterns, but I haven’t had a chance to try those yet.

So, what’s YOUR favorite solar powered gadget?

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

People have to eat and water has to be safe to drink no matter what.  A lot of preppers are planning to use propane, butane, and kerosene fuels for these uses in case of emergencies, natural disasters or the end of the world, and that’s smart.  Longer term planning, though, raises the question, “What do I do when the fuel runs out?”  It’s very easy to imagine shortages of all fuels, including gasoline and diesel, even as a temporary condition.  As another alternative, I suggest giving some thought to how you’ll prepare food and heat water without any liquid or gas fuel whatsoever. 

One option is a solar oven.  A solar oven can be as simple as a box lined with aluminum foil or, my preference, the Global Sun Oven.  If you’re like me, anything that is overly complicated or inconvenient is rarely used, and that is why I love the Sun Oven.  It’s portable enough to be taken on camping trips, light enough for my kids to carry, and the set-up takes less than a minute.  As long as there is sunshine, this baby can cook anything from hard boiled eggs to roasted chicken to casseroles and cookies.  I learned that I can make homemade chicken soup with a simple combination of noodles, veggies, water, and raw chicken.  Yep, raw chicken.  As the soup heats up and cooks, the chicken and water create a rich broth, so I don’t have to use canned broth or bouillon cubes for flavor.

You can even pasteurize water in a solar oven.  Water actually pasteurizes at temperatures below boiling, and yesterday I discovered a terrific low-tech method to determine when water is safe to drink.  The Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) is a simple, small polycarbonate tube that contains a small amount of wax.  This wax melts at the same temperature required for pasteurization of water and milk.  Dangle the WAPI into a container of water, and when the wax is melted, you know the water is safe to drink!  When the WAPI is removed from the water, the wax hardens, and it’s ready to use again and again.  Brilliant!

With solar ovens, you never have to worry about fuel, and this is a big advantage.  The cooking process may take a bit more time, depending on the type of oven you use and how much sunlight is available at the time.  You can help the oven cook faster by refocusing it toward the sun every half hour or so.  This is just a simple process of angling the oven in the direction of the sun, taking no more than a minute or so.

On overcast days, a solar oven isn’t going to work, but there are other options for grid-free and fuel-free cooking.  Take a look at stoves that require very small amounts of charcoal or wood.  Although wood is technically a fuel, it isn’t something you normally have to purchase or rely upon an outside source to provide.  The Stove Tec Rocket Stove  is an example of this type of stove.  It’s small and portable, and as long as you know how to start a small fire using tinder and small sticks, you’re good to go.  Along with a stove of this type, you’ll need a few pieces of cookware that can be used over an open flame, and then plenty of practice! 

Cooking off the grid is a challenge but one that is worthwhile, whether you use your knowledge on camping trips, during a power outage or all-out TEOTWAWKI.

© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

By Christalyn Trimble

We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries here at TheSurvivalMom about the Sun Oven.  If you’ve read our FAQ and Lisa’s information here, you might be thinking, “Sun Oven cooking, huh?  How out there do you have to be to put that shiny thing out there for all the neighbors to see?  Some of them will probably think, “Is she trying to signal UFOs?”  I got some really weird looks when I first started using it.  That’s for sure.  So, that’s what the back yard is for!

I’ve owned a Sun Oven for about one year, but have only started cooking in it  the last few months.  I love it!  I’m consistent with having home-cooked dinners every night at our house, but during the Arizona summers, all that baking would heat up my oven and my house along with it.  To keep my family happy, I would do it anyway.  Sure, you can get away with a crock-pot meal or a pasta salad here and there, but I only have so many recipes for those.  So, I was thrilled when Paul Munsen from Sun Oven International came to Phoenix to teach several classes on solar cooking.  I learned so much during those classes and it took away some of my hesitation in using my Sun Oven.  So, I began to bake.  And bake and bake!

I now use the Sun Oven for about 60% percent of all my baking and for even some stove top dishes.  It has made a huge difference in how my house feels on those hot days, and I still feel great about what I am feeding my family.  I’ve made cookies, bread (lots of it), cobblers, casseroles, rice, pasta, (still perfecting those last two), an amazing roast, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, a cream chicken sauce, rolls, and I’ve even dehydrated some cherries.

So, let’s say you’re a beginner.  Where should you start?  First you’ve got to have some type of solar oven, or at least be friends with someone who does. We recommend the Sun Oven for all the reasons listed in the FAQ and from our own personal experiences with it.  Bread is great to begin with.  You can make it really easy on yourself by buying frozen bread dough from the store, or you can use my recipe below and have fresh whole wheat bread, or white bread. Your pick.  You can bake two full size loaves side by side in your Sun Oven.  I baked one loaf of whole wheat bread and a mini loaf of banana bread the other day.  Both turned out great.  The banana bread took a little long to bake than the whole wheat bread but was devoured more quickly.  Just follow the instructions here  for setting it up. 

I prefer to heat up the oven about a half hour before the bread is ready to go in.  If you’re making homemade bread, that pre-heating time is about the same amount of time your bread needs to do its’ final rise.  With the oven temperature at 350 degrees, it will take about 45 minutes to bake.  I’ve been using my bread machine to mix up a batch of bread dough each morning.  Then I take out the dough, shape it, and place it in my pan to rise.  While it’s rising, I set up my Sun Oven and preheat it.  Once the bread is finished rising, I pop it into the Oven.  I love have fresh bread and a cool house to go with it.

The main thing to remember about the Sun Oven is that it’s an oven!  It gets hot!  This has a sealed chamber that gets much hotter than other solar cookers.  Mine stays steady at 350 degrees if I track the sun.  If you just set it out there in the morning and face it south it will act like a crock pot.  In fact, I used my crockpot liner to make my roast in.  It was actually done before I was ready for it, and the roast was the best!

Check the Sun Oven tab above for more information and visit the official Sun Oven website.  You’ll be able to purchase your Sun Oven right here at TheSurvivalMom blog for just $225, which includes FREE shipping.  Ordering information will be available by the end of the month, so check back often! 

As an added bonus for you, our readers, here is one of my very favorite bread recipes.

Chrystalyn Trimble’s Whole-Wheat Bread Then enjoy.

1 1/4 c hot water
1 tsp salt
3 TBL oil
3 TBL honey
3 TBL powdered milk
3 TBL vital wheat gluten
3 c whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Place ingredients in a bread maching in order given.  Select dough cycle.  After it’s mixed for five minutes, the dough should be soft, but not too sticky.  If it’s too sticky, just add a little more flour.  When bread machine is done, take out dough and form into a loaf.  Place in greased bread pan and let rise for about 30 minutes.  Preheat Sun Oven.  When oven temperature has reached 350 degrees and the bread has risen about 2 inches above the bread pan, quickly place it inside the Sun Oven on the tray.  Bake about 45 minutes, adjusting once to capture the best sun.  When finished cool on cooling rack.

© 2009, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

UPDATE:  For more information, check out the Sun Oven FAQ.

With a husband in the construction industry, I have been hearing a lot about the new surge in solar energy.  Technology has vastly improved, costs are coming down, and great rebates are available from electric companies and federal and state governments.  What I didn’t know is that I could be using solar energy every single day, saving money on my electric bill, and keeping my kitchen cool at the same time!

Last week I had the opportunity to sample homemade bread and a fabulous peach cobbler, both baked in a solar Sun Oven.  I was thoroughly impressed and ran home to tell the Paranoid Dad that we simply must own one of these contraptions!  Here’s what appealed to me the most.

First, seasonal electric bills can be sky high.   With new government regulations looming on the horizon, they will likely only get higher.  According to my resident expert, the Paranoid Dad, the typical home would recoup the price of the oven via savings in their electric bill in eight to nine months.  With the Sun Oven, my baking is virtually free and I won’t use even an ounce of fossil fuel!

I love saving money, but I love the idea of self-sufficiency even more.  I have been a little nervous about my food storage because a lot of it requires a heating source, either gas or electricity, to prepare.  Should our city experience black-outs or if there was a failure of our vulnerable electrical grid, I’ll still be able to keep my family well fed using a solar oven.  I like the idea of having that extra “safety net”.

There’s virtually nothing that can’t be baked in a solar oven.  I can even use it to hard boil eggs!  Cookies, casseroles, steamed veggies, and roasted chicken are just a few examples of its’ versatility.  Add a solar cookbook or two, and we’ll never miss our traditional oven.  Heck, I might even be inspired to cook more often!

I’ve spent a lot of time on the official Sun Oven website, scoured their list of recipes, and am pretty impressed with the product.  In fact, I used one recently to bake a loaf of bread.  Have you used a solar oven?  What are your own hits and misses?

Stay tuned to my blog because my friend, Chrystalyn, sells the Sun Oven at the lowest price I’ve seen anywhere.  I’ll let you know how to order directly from her with the oven shipped to your front door.

© 2009 – 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Solar energy is a huge trend right now.  Not only does the federal government give tax credits for installing solar power systems on homes, but many local energy companies are handing out rebates.  Although the cost has come down and efficiency has gone up, the upfront costs are quite high. On the other hand, using solar energy decreases our dependence on electric and gas and increases our self-sufficiency.

I found two great articles today over at solarhome.org and AlternatePower.org, which detail the advantages and disadvantages of switching over to solar power.  Most preppers and survival minded people desire to be as self-sufficient as possible and going solar is a great way to achieve that goal.

© 2009, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.