Global Sun Solar Oven - up to 400 degrees for less than 300 dollars

Solar Cooking has come a long way. 
During the sun hours of the day, the food is cooked in the same amount of time as a regular oven. And it has become the preferred way of cooking lots of meals because of how it cooks the food. Solar cooking allows many of the natural flavors of food, which get baked out in conventional ovens, to remain. The slow, even rise in temperatures in a Global Sun Oven gives the complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars allowing subtle natural flavors to emerge. Sun baked foods stay moist, the natural internal juices do not bake out, resulting in a superior, moist taste and much less shrinkage. 

• Cooks Any Kind of Food with the Power of the Sun - No Fuel Needed!
• Reaches Temperatures of 360 to 400 Degrees Fahrenheit!
• Totally Safe - No Danger of Fire!
• Used Daily in 126 Countries Around the World! Ruggedly Built
• As Portable as a Small Suitcase! 22 pounds
• Dimensions: 9 in x 12 in. With the shallowest point from the glass at 5 in.

Integral Passive Water Heater Solutions

Heating up water and your home is expensive. 

Using a Passive Solar Water Heater can save money by pre heating the water for yoru traditional water heater or even heat enough to forgoe a water heater all together. 

It depends on yrou location, solar access, and what you want to do with the heated water. 

There are many type of designs that can be used to heat the water. 

There are two basic categories of active solar water heating systems - direct or open loop systems and indirect or closed loop systems

For a few hundred dollars and a weekend of labor, you can build one of these solar water heaters.  It will pay back its initial cost in a year or two.   One of these water heaters can save about 4000 KWH in a year. 

Download the integral passive solar water heater book. 

http://builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/ISPWH/IPSWH.pdf

Written by David Bainbridge

Here is a basic overview of the passive solar systems. http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/HeatCool.html

A unique way to heat your home is to have a radiant heating system under the floor using a passive solar heater. The solar heated water is pumped through distribution piping located in the floor of the home. Lower temperatures are used in this type of system (the slab is not heated above 80 degrees in most cases). The auxiliary heat can be connected in series with the solar system's heated output water or it can be connected to the solar tank to provide a minimum temperature.

A passive solar water heating system uses household water pressure to circulate water through a solar collector to a storage tank or to the point of use. Active systems employ pumps and controllers to regulate and circulate water. Although passive system are generally less efficient than active systems, the passive approach is simple and economical.

Passive water heating systems must follow the same parameters for installations as active systems - south facing unshaded location with the collector tilted at the angle to achieve maximum sun from 9 am to 4 pm.  Since the storage tank and collector are together, roof structural capacities must accommodate the extra weight which can be 300 pounds or more.

Here is a cheap 500 dollar Kit increating your own batch Water Heater Kit. 

0 gallon glass lined steel tank covered by our 1-1/2" thick Sun-Lite® solar collector cover panel. The kit is designed to pre-heat water going to your conventional water heater or in southern climates could supply all your hot water. This kit provides an excellent dollar per BTU ratio!

To get your own plans go here. 

Solar energy prices, roughl estimate

Learning to live on and off the grid is a question of economics and solar position. 

This is a good article on your initial planning steps. 

It does not factor in the current rebates offered by local andnational governments. 

The size of your system and battery bank will depend on how much sun your location receives (sola insolation) and how many consecutive days overcast conditions may keep your system from producing energy. More than likely, you will want to add a backup engine-generator to your system rather than having to size your battery bank to meet the worst-case scenario. A generator will also help you maintain the health of your battery bank, safeguarding a large part of your investment.

Here is a basic idea on what to factor in for using solar. 

System Type 2 kW 5 kW 10 kw

(small/average) (average/big) gigantic

Off-grid $20,800 $52,000 $104,000

Grid-intertied $16,000 $40,000 $80,000

This does not include passive solar systems which heat up the water so that the water heater does not have to work so hard. These systems are known as integral Passive Solar Water Heaters. 

This is a cheap solar cabin that provides the basic electricity with some great pictures on how to rig a simple solar electrical system with a generator. The apparent cost was less than 3,000 dollars. This will be able to provide Light, Computer power, charges, small appliances but not heavy amp users. 

Read more about this inspired cabin setup here.