Here’s a fun and potentially productive project that anybody can do. For less than $50, you can make a good solar oven. You can easily save this much in power bills over the course of a sunny season, and if you make your oven with enough quality, you can use it most of the year. […]

If you use a lot of batteries, you can drastically cut back on battery costs by using rechargeable batteries in conjunction with a solar charger. And I’m not only talking about the standard household batteries, either. You can get solar chargers for vehicle batteries, notebook computer batteries, and small appliances. Using these devices gives you […]

Here’s the cheapest project you can possibly do with the sun. Put some tea bags and water in a big glass jar with a lid, and leave it in the sunshine for a few hours. By the middle of the afternoon, you’ll have refreshing sun tea. You don’t need to heat water on the stove […]

You can get a good solar fountain for under $100. The water will flow when the sky is sunny and cut back when it’s cloudy. You’ll be aware of how much sunshine you are receiving at any given time. You can build a large solar fountain for a little bit more if you do most […]

A lot of sunlight comes into your non-northern windows over the course of a hot day. This has two negative effects. First, the sunlight makes the room temperature hotter, and second, the bright light makes the room seem hotter (a psychological effect). It’s a fact that if two rooms are the same exact tem­perature, but […]

Portable showers are kind of silly, I’ll grant that. You fill a big plastic bag with water and set it in the sun. When the water heats up enough (to 105°F or so), you hang the bag from a tree, stand underneath it, open a small plastic valve, and voila, you have a shower au […]

This is probably the cheapest way to get started using solar power. You can install a single light in a strategic location and get a lot of effect. It takes five minutes and costs less than $10. You won’t get a jolt of electricity, and if the lights don’t illuminate an area exactly the way […]