Passive Solar Energy House Projects: DIY Solar Oven, Solar Water Distillation, Passive Solar Home Design, & No HVAC Air Conditioning Earth Tubes Copyright © 2019 Sharon Cornet SunStar Solutions, Publisher El Paso, TX www.sunstar-solutions.com All rights reserved. Version 2, amended and retitled. ISBN-13: 9781083088796 Printed in the United States of America AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Sharon Cornet My background in solar energy projects really started when I was flipping through the yellow pages one late summer day in El Paso, Texas at age 19. I came across the ‘solar energy’ section and happened to see the El Paso Solar Energy Association (EPSEA) listed there. To my excitement, EPSEA (epsea.org), which was and is the longest running solar association in the United States, had monthly meetings with special speakers on various topics at the time, which was free to attend at UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso). I suddenly had exposure to people who had built steam cars, or solar room heaters out of used materials, learned how to make solar ovens for cooking food, built solar water distillers, made designs of solar homes, and heard how others built homes out of alternative construction materials such as adobe, rammed earth, rock, cob, or even log homes. I was speedily asked to become a volunteer and later to join as one of the members on the Board of Directors. By the following year I was voted in as Secretary and also wrote articles on solar topics as I learned about them. I was to stay in that Secretarial position for another two and a half years before moving away to Nebraska to build my own passive solar home. Because corn and wheat fields were abundant, I decided to build indigenously with local materials—a straw bale house. I joined SBAN (Straw Bale Association of Nebraska) and became the Library Committee member. I signed up for The Last Straw Journal (excellent resource out of Colorado at thelaststraw.org) and learned everything I could about how to build a house out of bales. The house was passive solar in design, and utilized mostly used/recycled materials. We built a composting toilet, had a greywater system, and made earthtubes for natural passive cooling. By 1999 we sold the house and moved back to El Paso, Texas. I rejoined the Board of Directors for EPSEA and in 2001 was voted in as Vice-President, newsletter editor, and by 2001 was both the EPSEA President and Project Manager for two bi-national mini-grants ($10,000 each) and a $100,000 EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) grant to install solar water distillers in local and rural unincorporated communities (called “colonias,” which means colonies) along the US-Mexico border, including west Texas, southern New Mexico, and Mexico. By 2002 I dropped the fancy titles and sat on the Board of Directors before phasing out of my non-profit endeavors, opting for selling small e-books and booklets on how-to topics. I went back to school at UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) in 2004 for cultural anthropology. I also worked on grant writing and as the Organizing Assistant for the non-profit organization, Border Interfaith (borderinterfaith.org) where my community surveys and associated report (the Canutillo Water Project) helped the local colonia get city water due to their contaminated shallow wells. In 2008 I transferred my studies to Ashford University, and in 2010 I graduated with a BA in Social Science, with an Anthropology specialization, followed with a move to the greater Seattle, Washington area. I have found that solar energy, alternative construction, and natural living have phased in and out of my life, but always seems to come back. In 2012 I compiled my small six solar energy related e-books (how to make a solar distiller, solar oven, passive solar home design, intro to photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy, hurricane and tornado resistant homes, and earthtubes for cooling) into one single book and published it on Amazon and Kindle as Passive Solar Energy House Projects: A How-To Guide. In 2019 I decided that the original book needed updating so I chose to pull out the most popular books (solar ovens, solar water distillers, passive solar homes, & air conditioning earth tubes) and so greatly expanded them here in version 2. I hope you enjoy it! CONTENTS AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY HOW TO MAKE A SOLAR OVEN DEDICATION INTRODUCTION WHAT IS A SOLAR OVEN? The Box Design BOX MATERIALS Exterior Box Materials Inside the Cooker Interior Box Materials TYPES OF SOLAR OVENS Box Cookers Panel Cookers Paabolic & Paraboloid Cookers Hybrid Ovens CARDBOARD SOLAR OVENS The Simple Box Cooker Panel-Box Cooker SOLAR COOKERS FOR KIDS Pizza Box Cooker Pringles Can Cooker Bernard Solar Panel Cooker PARABOLIC/PARABOLOID COOKERS The Parabolic Cooker TIPS FOR YOUR SOLAR OVEN Tips for Cooking Solar Water Pasteurization Recipe Ideas HOW TO DESIGN A SOLAR WATER DISTILLER DEDICATION INTRODUCTION SOLAR DISTILLER BASICS What is a Solar Distiller/Still? How Does it Work? Solar Distiller Plans Where do I Place it? Finding Solar South HOW SOLAR STILLS WORK How Good is the Water? Storing Distilled Water Beware of Bottled Water The Superior Solar Still WHERE STILLS ARE USED EPSEA Solar Still Projects Colonias and Developing Nations IS CITY WATER SAFE? SOLAR WATER DISINFECTION Solar Ovens for Solar Water Pasteurization MATERIALS & TIPS Materials Materials to Avoid Mistakes People Make THE CHEAP SOLAR STILL