Latest in Solar Water Heating/Auracana and Silver Sebring Bantam Chickens

Our garden is booming right now.

Two members of our bantam flock: Auracana rooster on left, Silver Sebring on right. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Hot Water from the Sun I installed an outdoor solar-heated shower 12 years ago. It’s a large box with a black tank and double-wall plastic glazing. I never shower in the house any more. Each time I feel that hot water I’m amazed and excited and delighted to think that the heat is free energy (other than the cost of the materials of the box). Plus I swear the shower feels different. Molecules of hot water heated by the sun, like rice cooked on a wood stove.

There was an excellent article on the 2008 state-of-the-art of solar water heating by Scott Gibson in a recent Fine Homebuilding: Click here for PDF

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

2 Responses to Latest in Solar Water Heating/Auracana and Silver Sebring Bantam Chickens

  1. Hey ya!

    We are right there with you on that showing outside thing. Particularly fond of a wood deck underneath the bare toes.

    We just added 3 Banty hens to our (small) flock this week, having never had them before. They are really full of personality.

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