Frugal Babe

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Painting, Solar Cooking, and Hot Water

June 29, 2008 By Frugal Babe

We spent today painting our house.   It’s starting to really come together and look nice.   We’re doing the same colors that were already there, but the new paint looks all shiny and fresh.   The sides that are finished look fantastic – the trim really makes it look great.   We should be able to finish it next weekend.

While we were working on the house, I cooked a big pot of brown rice in our solar oven.   It’s in the fridge now, ready for beans or stir fry this week.   We should have enough for about three meals, and it got cooked for free in the sun.   No heating up the house, no electricity used – love it.

Yesterday we turned down our hot water heater.   Don’t know why we’ve never done that before… We’ve lived in this house more than five years, and never checked the setting on the hot water heater.   My husband crawled under the house to check it, and it was nearly at the highest setting (it has “hot”, A, B, C, “very hot” and ours was set at “C”).   So he turned it down to the lowest setting – “hot” – and it’s been just fine.   I wonder how much energy that’s been wasting for the last five years? :(   But at least it’s fixed now.

In addition to the rice, yesterday I cooked a pan of oatmeal raisin bars in the solar oven.   I used a regular recipe and baked them for about 40 minutes at about 300 degrees.   Turned out fantastic – I am very sold on the solar oven.   I haven’t tried any yeast breads yet, but one of these days I will.

Filed Under: hobbies, home improvement, ways we save $$ 4 Comments

Comments

  1. Alissa says

    June 30, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Okay, you have me very intrigued about this whole solar oven business! I want one. :) May I ask how much you paid for it? I don’t know if we get enough sun where I live for it to be worth while, but I’m going to do some research. :)

    Reply
  2. Frugal Babe says

    June 30, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Alissa, We paid $150. Ours was new, still in its box – it had been a gift and the lady had never used it. It came with two pans, which was good, because none of our cookware is black. The retail price on this oven is $279. We’ve used ours every day since we got it – if you live somewhere sunny, it’s absolutely worth it.

    Reply
  3. Kaytee says

    December 19, 2008 at 11:54 am

    Careful not to turn down your hot water heater too much, below 140F is where the bacteria that causes legionnaires disease likes to live.

    Reply
  4. Solar Water Heater says

    December 8, 2011 at 12:07 am

    Buy & Use solar systems and get hot water 24 hours….

    Reply

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