- This web site has been created entirely with solar and wind power -


- full screen image -

BUILDING PROJECTS - listen to our "theme song"
- NEW STRAW BALE HOUSE
- 1200 square foot greenhouse
- RETROFITTING AN OLD TIN SHED INTO A GUEST HOUSE
- plastering with lime stucco
- STAINING PLASTER WITH FERROUS SULFATE
- building a simple straw bale storage room
- MAKING WALL PARTITIONS WITH CLAY AND CHOPPED STRAW (COB)
- installing radiant floor heating in both the straw bale house and mobile home
- INSULATING AND STUCCOING OUR MOBILE HOME
- new polyurethane foam roof for our mobile home
- SUGGESTED PLANS FOR A SMALL "STARTER" STRAW BALE HOUSE OR GUEST HOUSE
- Photo Gallery of House Construction

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS
- solar electric (PV) system
- RAIN WATER HARVESTING
- wind generator
- SOLAR COOKING and MINDY'S MUNCHABLES
- solar hot water system with hot water radiant heating

IDEAS
- GOOD BOOKS AND MAGAZINES
- "How to Achieve Self-sufficiency"
- SAVING ENERGY - TIPS FROM MINDY
- some great environmental quotes

 

BUDGET
- OVERALL COSTS
- COSTS OF INDIVIDUAL BUILDING PROJECTS

GRAB BAG
- JIM'S RECORDER MUSIC LISTENING PAGE
- our African Pygmy Goats - meet Vern and Raven
- SONORAN DESERT WILDLIFE
- killer views from Solar Haven
- PROBLEMS TO AVOID IN BUILDING YOUR OWN HOUSE
- articles by Jim Phypers
- COMMANDER GHOST'S VERY OWN HOME PAGE
- just "for fun" foto album
- RETROFITTING AN RV WITH A HOT-WATER HEATING SYSTEM

WHO WE ARE
- A LITTLE ABOUT US
- our three minutes on the soap box
- MEET OUR VOLUNTEERS - A PICTURE GALLERY
- comments in the media about Solar Haven
- JIM AND MINDY IN VERACRUZ, MEXICO: 2008 VIDEO BLOGS, 2007 BLOGS, 2006 TEOCELO BLOGS

A MAJOR CHANGE IN DIRECTION:
For reasons primarily related to Jim's health but also for financial reasons,
Jim and Mindy Phypers have moved to Veracruz, Mexico.
Solar Haven has now been sold.

We are making videos of our life in the small rural town in Mexico where we live.
Please visit our channel on YouTube to view them:

 

The Phypers Family

Jim and Mindy



"Ty" (German Shepherd-Great Dane mix - guessing)

"Commander Ghost"
Here's what I do when on duty at the
"Solar Haven Desert Pack Rat Patrol"

Would I a house for happiness erect,
Nature alone should be my architect,
She'd build it more convenient than great,
And doubtless in the country choose her seat.
- Horace, 20 B.C.

---

Try using the search engine below to find specific things you are looking for...
our site contains 90 separate web pages,
approximately 400 photographs and diagrams,
and considerable technical information.

Custom Search

---

First we purchased four acres in the Sonoran Desert foothills west of Tucson.
There was no house and also no road or water or power,
but incomparable natural beauty, quiet, and peacefulness.

.

At the same time...
we worked toward self-sufficiency and independence from conventional utilities...
(err... it would have been better had we not tried to do all these projects at once),

Perhaps the best part of all ...
was the remarkable beauty of our
Sonoran Desert home.

1 - Generates electricity to light our house and run its many gadgets
(stereo, computer, coffee maker, microwave, vacuum cleaner, power tools, etc.)

2 - Powers our S.L.C.D.D. ("Solar Linear Clothes Drying Device" -- patent pending)




3 - Keeps the air warm in our greenhouse to grow vegetables and herbs year round


4 - Heats water in our "Thermomax" Hot Water Heating Unit to provide all the domestic hot water we need and also all the water needed for the radiant heating system in the floors to heat our house

5 - Cooks our food using a "Global SunOven"




6 - Heats water in the portable "solar shower"


7 - Our friend the Sun also saves us a lot of money each month as we have no electric bills or gas bills.

 

8 - And makes us happy!

Post script...

"For eighteen years now we have been enjoying cooking our dinners
with the power of the sun..."

Visit Mindy's solar cooking web site:

" Sun Ovens Are Wonderful"

At the end of the day, and in the morning too,
the Arizona desert puts on a show like nothing we have ever seen.

- enlarge -


Monsoon rain storms
during July and August are awesome.


- enlarge -

THANKS !
To the special folks who have helped with Solar Haven: