My Little Solar System

Just in time for World Environment Day and my upcoming birthday, a dream of mine has been realised... On 31 May 2012 we had two solar panels installed on our roof! The fact that I was able to achieve this is proof that renewable energy solutions are becoming more attainable. I earn a meager income every month but have managed to save up enough money to have this installation done. Okay, so it is not powering my whole house, but it will be powering most of my office operations. I've now only worked one day on the new system, but it was a sunny day and I managed to go through the whole day without resorting to grid power. Currently just my computer and monitor is plugged in. The system is set up in such a way that when my batteries are discharged to a certain level, the grid power takes over (it is not good for the batteries to discharge entirely). Basically, I now have a 'green plug' in my office. From next week I will also plug my printer in to this connection and will monitor to see how things go from there. Because I don't use my pc over the weekend, on sunny weekends (like this one), I can charge my laptop and my cellphone on the green plug, not to mention other things in the house such as rechargeable batteries for our remote, toothbrush, etc.

I've had some people say that it will take a long time for me to recover what I spent on the system in electricity savings. To me, getting this system installed is about soooo much more than that! My business and home is now greener and I am no longer 100% reliant on Eskom. I can also rest assured that the amount I spent on this installation would be 100% recovered in an increase of the value of our home if we decided to sell with the system included. Also, this is just the start of my plans for expanding on the system when finances allow. To top it off, no monetary value can be placed on the satisfaction I get out of knowing I am receiving clean and renewable power direct from the sun.

From here on, it is only going to get cheaper to do such installations. As for me, I cannot get over how AWESOME it is to FINALLY have my own little solar system! :)

Thank you to Peter Burden of Solarsells for helping my dream become a reality!

Solar-nic

How's this for a picnic? Last Sunday, a wintery but sunny day, my hubby and I had a solar cooker picnic in the backyard. We made toasted cheese sandwiches. It was after 3pm and shadows were long and it was cool, but despite this we made some awesome toasties that came out golden brown on the outside and steaming hot on the inside (just as hot as if we had done it on a conventional stove top). We made two batches and it took us only 40mins and all the while we enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. So here is to the start of a solar picnic ("Solarnic") revolution in SA! :)

Old music records and CDs

Today at the Meerendal Farmer's market a bumped into a lady who was selling old records and cds which she had upcycled to make into clocks, coasters and bowls.  Here is a pic of her table full of her products. What a great idea to re-use records and cds instead of sending them to the landfill.

Solar Soup for the Soul

Thanks to a donation received from Keren in Hong Kong, FLOE has been able to purchase a solar cooker to experiment with and demonstrate at fairs/markets we participate in.  Crosby from Sunfire Solutions generously offered to provide us with a cooker at a very special price.

I could not wait to get the cooker assembled and bravely tackled the task on my own.  It was not too complicated and I only needed a little extra guidance about 3/4  of the way through the process. The whole process took about 45 minutes but I reckon someone more technically minded can get it done in 20mins or less.

The very first chance I got, we set the cooker up outside in a sunny spot and I quickly prepared some ingredients for our first test run.

At first I was worried about what we would use to cook the food in because, from what I heard, suitable (non-aluminium) black pots are hard to come by and a friend of mine who had a solar cooker managed to only find a small black aluminium camping pot which cost R700! I was not prepared to spend any money so decided to start digging around in my kitchen cupboards.  I came across my old broken "Sunbeam"  wok (think the name is a coincidence?!).  This thing broke on me after about the 5th use (electrical connection problem) and this after I already had it replaced once before due to the same fault. The wok 'dish' part was still in perfect nik and luckily I hadn't thrown it out. I turned the pot upside down, unscrewed the plastic base and was left with a great "solar wok pot"! :)  The only little issue was the electrical prods that stuck out of the side of the base.  Although this made the pot stand slightly skew on the solar cooker base, it was secure enough to work (I'll figure out how to remove those prods later).

So, the wok pot is now on the solar cooker base and my sunglasses are on (a word of warning, never look directly at the sun's glare from any reflective surface as this could damage your eyes).  We now positioned the cooker so that it faced the sun and the focal point of the sun reflection was situated underneath the pot.   

In goes my chopped veg, veg stock, water and other ingredients. As the Cape Doctor would have it, there was a bit of a breeze blowing, but I made sure everthing was secure.  I put the lid on and took note of the time.  It was 10h20. 
So, I went back to my work.  When I checked on the pot about 20 mins later, I noticed that the sun's reflection was no longer pointed directly underneath the pot so I repositioned the cooker.  15 mins later and again the cooker had shifted.  I finally realised that the wind was moving the cooker 'face' from side to side.  It turned out that we had forgotten to fit the knob which allows you to tighten the setting to prevent this side to side movement.  So now, about 45 mins later, we have the cooker properly set up.  The contents of the pot had warmed significantly by this point and was already steaming and tiny bubbles were forming. Not even 10mins later, the contents started to boil.  For the next 2 hours and a bit, while the pot simmered, I checked on it about every 20 to 30 minutes and would slightly adjust the settings to the movement of the sun when needed.  I also stirred the pot from time to time and added other ingredients when and as needed. 
At 13h30, I carefully took the very hot pot off the cooker and brought it inside my kitchen. I then moved the solar cooker into a spot safely away from the sun.  I went back inside and opened the lid to a steaming hot pot of delicious sun cooked soup.  I served the soup immediately and actually had to blow on it to prevent myself from burning my tongue!  The veggies were cooked to perfection!

So, on our first try, perfect solar soup in 3 hours and that included the 45mins in which we did not have the cooker set up properly.

Day 2 - I decided to try and boil 1.5 litres of cold tap water at 08h30 in the morning.  It was a sunny day and there was no wind.  At 09h03 the pot was boiling!  The pot was not even black! It was a standard silver pot with a glass lid.
Immediately afterwards I decided to try and cook some brown rice.  1 cup of brown rice with 2 cups of cold tap water.  Start time 09h10, finish time 10h20.  Cooked to perfection in 70mins!!

I was getting so excited that I decided to make our brunch, a standard breakfast fry-up, at 12h30 using the solar cooker.  It was ready in 20mins!    

What a fun and exciting experience! I could not believe how well this cooker worked and came to the realisation of just how powerful the sun is.    I can't wait to get cooking again, so will keep you posted regarding how my other solar meals go and will also report back about the successes and possible failures during the winter months to come.

[Note: Although a lot of fun, solar cookers are not toys and should be treated with a similar level of caution and respect as one has when operating a conventional stove/oven.]