Archive for the 'Energy' Category
(Chronologically Listed)
- Larry’s Next Generation Solar Water Heater |
Posted by e4 on May 27 2008
Photo courtesy of Larry Halpern How Larry preheats his water before boiling it on his rocket stove... Photo courtesy of rocketstoves.org --
- Pedal Power! |
Posted by e4 on Jan 03 2008
David Butcher is a man on a mission. He built a pedal-power generator, with a huge particleboard flywheel for maximum efficiency. His design has powered electric items such as a television, a washing machine, and a bread machine. But he's also able to use it for tasks suited to direct ...
- The over-engineered clothesline |
Posted by e4 on Dec 27 2007
So Feliz Navidad or whatever. Bonne Année too, as long as we're here. Okay... I know it's winter. But there's no snow, and it's not even all that cold, so I haven't really made the transition yet. So I'm talking about clotheslines. That's just how I am. Our original clothesline, installed earlier ...
- Super-efficient “chest fridge” (with pictures) |
Posted by e4 on Dec 19 2007
Okay, since this keeps coming up, I thought I'd explain how we converted an old chest freezer into an amazingly efficient refrigerator. Now just to be clear, this was not my idea originally. I can take zero credit for any part of this concept. I'm just following in the footsteps ...
- Personal Peak Prep - Heat & Energy |
Posted by e4 on Dec 05 2007
This guest post is about the personal activities and preparations of someone who’s name you might recognize, but who wishes to remain nameless here. I’ve separated it into multiple posts based on topic. -- Heat: We bought a corn-burning furnace at an auction and got it working this year. We found a (fairly) ...
- Cheap and easy supplemental heating |
Posted by e4 on Nov 22 2007
Here's a very low-tech space heater that doesn't require any power: Easy FREE Home Heat! - video powered by Metacafe I would think that this design could easily be modified to take advantage of whatever materials you have on hand. --
- The Heating Question |
Posted by e4 on Nov 14 2007
Fossil fuels are very good at heating. Unfortunately, as most of us realize, they also have a lot of baggage - greenhouse gases, finite supply, rising costs, pollutants - you know the list. Making your home heating environmentally friendly can be a challenge. Climate control is an energy-intensive task, and most ...
- The Four R’s |
Posted by e4 on Nov 12 2007
[ This is a guest post from Larry Halpern, one of the speakers at the Community Solution conference last month. Just for a little background, Larry reduced his year-over-year electricity consumption from 700+ kWh in a month down to 36 kWh. Larry just had his fridge carted away because he's ...
- Better batteries |
Posted by e4 on Nov 08 2007
Rechargeable batteries are a great idea. One less thing to have to buy, one less thing to dump in the landfill. But the reality of rechargeable batteries for general use leaves something to be desired. I mean, if you're like me, you don't know the batteries in your CD player ...
- Next on my project list… |
Posted by e4 on Nov 06 2007
I had planned on waiting until I complete a project before I post about it, but I thought it might be more fun to discuss planned or in-progress projects too. One of the things I'm (slowly but surely) working on is a rocket stove. I've got a piece of the exhaust ...