Steps Towards Sustainable Community, Winter 2005

Sun Frost

Sun Frost makes home-use refrigerators and freezers, vaccine storage refrigerators, home and commercial compost bins, and composting toilets. "Sun Frost was started in 1986 by a group of solar pioneers," explains co-founder Larry Schlussler. "We wanted to make super-efficient refrigerators. I had been interested in this area since I was a student 20 years ago. We have been at the same location since 1988."

The refrigerators, made out of all new materials, require about 1/2 kilowatt per day versus 3 kilowatts for a typical refrigerator in a California home. Although Sun Frost does not make solar panels, they do sell the refrigerators to people who will connect them to photovoltaic systems.

For home use, the unit composts in an insulated area in the center of a used wine barrel. A layer of soil for growing plants is between the composting area and the barrel. A clear dome collects sunlight and helps heat the compost. Condensation flows on the inside of the dome and transfers moisture from wet food scraps to the plants on the perimeter.

Sun Frost also makes a larger, less aesthetic version for restaurant composting. Constructed from 85-gallon drums, the units are covered and vented. One is located at Hole in the Wall Sandwiches (590 G Street); it was purchased by the City of Arcata as part of an effort to support restaurant composting. Both home and commercial barrels come with a stainless steel corkscrew for inserting into the compost and turning to aerate and mix it.

A Sun Frost composting toilet is in use at the Arcata Educational Farm (www.humboldt.edu/~farm), a two-acre community supported agriculture project in city-owned Bayside Park, 930 Old Arcata Road. The toilet is made of a reused 55-gallon drum covered with insulation on the outside to facilitate heating and has a screen at the base. The toilet seat is on top of the drum. Liquids collect at the bottom and can be pumped up to the top through a hose that runs along the inside of the barrel to a hand pump at the top. Schlussler explains that the urine is mixed back in so that its nutrients stay in the compost. The composting toilets also use the stainless steel turning device to facilitate aeration.

"There are a lot of failing septic systems in Humboldt County," Schlussler notes. "But still people aren’t thinking about composting toilets which both take care of the waste and produce nutrients for the soil. When properly composed, the waste has no pathogens and can safely be used on plants, as is done in much of the world."

Contact information:
Sun Frost
Larry Schlussler
824 L Street
Arcata, CA 95521
(707) 822-9095
Fax (707) 822-6213
info@sunfrost.com
www.sunfrost.com

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Last updated: August 01, 2008