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(DAILY_WILDCAT)

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By Greg Clark
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 22, 1997

Sun powers alternative exhibits


[Picture]

Katherine K. Gardiner
Arizona Daily Wildcat

Five year old Delaney Gould gets a surprise as a water stream comes out of a laminar flow fountain in the oasis area at the UA Environmental Research Lab Saturday during the second annual Solar and Renewable Resource Adventure Day.


A brief morning downpour sent visitors running for cover, but Toby Schneider, who was demonstrating solar cooking in three solar ovens he built, remained undaunted.

The sun was still shining.

"As long as the sun is out, it will heat up in there," Schneider said as he looked at a casserole plate filled with chicken breasts and mixed vegetables at Saturday's second annual Solar and Renewable Resource Adventure Day.

The all-day public event was hosted by the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Lab near the Tucson International Airport.

It featured demonstrations of solar energy use, alternative building methods, and rides in the new General Motors electric car, the EV1.

Schneider, whose Tucson company Solar Works builds solar ovens and hot water heaters, was cooking oatmeal bars in one of his ovens and red chile beef with soy and Worcestershire sauce in another. The insulated glass-topped boxes heat to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and can cook a plate of two dozen enchiladas in about three hours, Schneider said.

Event organizer Martin Yoklic, a research planner at the UA College of Architecture, said the day of exhibits and lectures was meant to showcase environmentally sensitive design.

"We want to provide an opportunity for the community at large to see the possibilities of living in a more environmentally sensitive way in the desert," Yoklic said.

"We have a facility here that is available to the public, and to show it off, we decided to invite other organizations with similar interests to show the wide community of activity here," Yoklic said.

The Environmental Research Lab, operated by the UA Department of Soil, Water & Environmental Science is a complex of greenhouses, outdoor gardens and houses designed to save energy.

Houses are designed to stay cool in the summer and take advantage of sunlight to stay warm in the winter. Wide pathways wind under native mesquite trees, past ponds and fountains to outdoor gathering places kept cool by shade and by cooling towers.

"This oasis was designed to show people that you can make comfortable outdoor places in the desert that are not closed-up and air-conditioned. Even though the surrounding desert is hot, it is very comfortable here," Yoklic said.

Nearby, exhibitors demonstrated the use of straw bales for building highly efficient, energy saving homes.

Kacey Carleton, of Design & Building Consultants Inc., a local firm that designs rammed-earth, adobe and straw bale homes, sat in front of a straw bale wall covered with mud plaster.

"Because it is such a good insulator, the utility costs for a straw bale house drop way down," Carleton said. "Plus, it is an agricultural by-product, so it is a sustainable material."

Other building techniques were on exhibit at the event. Members of Women Build Houses showed how to build a compacted earth floor.

Other exhibitors demonstrated how to recycle wastes by composting and purify water using a solar distiller.


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