Solarious - stumbling away from the grid

Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Grid-Crash

Just the name alone drew me to the book. Of course I want to know how to live after the bottom inevitably drops out from under us. The book was really a quick read. It looked much more dense textually than it turned out to be. But there was a lot of good information here, centered mostly upon three areas of expertise: Finding and preserving clean water, finding and making light, and heating and cooling of both environment and food.

The chapters are very short, and each show a few different ways to achieve the stated goal, depending upon your location and particular circumstance. Neither bending toward warm or cold weathers in bias, the book has something to offer for everyone. The one thing this book ISN’T is a handbook for surviving in the wilderness. Most of the projects use salvaged materials from a more populated locale than the wilderness affords. No, this is just what it says. How to make soda can shingles and dig an outhouse when Home Depot goes under and you no longer have city water running through the pipes.

I enjoyed reading the book, and found I came out with a fair understanding of most of the topics covered, especially the importance of water in a person’s chances for long-term survival. If you’re smart, you’ll put many of the ideas in here to practice long before the arrival of grid-crash. The only thing I felt missing was a solid discussion of making shelters, as I suppose it flew too far toward the wilderness for their intended audience. If they eventually write a companion guide to cover that enormous topic, I’ll gladly be in line to buy it.

If the intricacies of setting up a home solar solution have you flummoxed, you may be looking for an out-of-the-box solution for your energy needs.  It’s not exactly portable (unless you own a forklift!), but the PowerCube 600 Energy system is just that… a box that you simply open and start harvesting light energy.  Visit the PowerCube site for pictures of the cube being set up to appreciate how easy it really is. The site and technology appear to be young, but the promise of a standalone power system in a box can hardly be overstated.

From what I can see, the box has a variety of power outs so that you can hook up various devices to the unit. And the site claims that you can increase your energy output by daisy chaining multiple units together, providing enough for off-grid applications and primary power-source situations. I like the box design, it looks sturdy and easy to ship, given its size, and it seems like a good fit for programs that offer solar power to remote communities across the globe. I haven’t been able to access the spec sheet yet, but the maker’s site, a yacht building company, shows the product in more operative detail.  All from Reluminati, an eco-concious design lab that sports several lines of solar powered products.  Be the first on your block to sever your ties to the grid when the PowerCube rolls off the assembly line this summer.

National Geographic article on Solar plastics

Sargent Group - Inventors of Solar Plastic

Ted Sargent’s Home Page (the inventor, a globally recognized young innovator)

So this article is from 2005, not exactly hot-off-the-presses.   But it’s an interesting look at a new technology: solar cells that absorb both the visible and infrared spectrums of light and process them into usable energy.  Not only that, they’re based in a spray solution for ease of application across a variety of surfaces.  A spray-on plastic coating that could charge your car while driving or your cell-phone while walking are great ideas, with a billion more applications to be dreamed up along the way.  I’m now going to search for more information on this technology, and will report whatever I find to you as it comes in. 

Even now, I’m envisioning spray-painting a backyard deck/patio with a plastic coating that weather proofs it, and makes it more attractive, all while powering solar evening lamps or CMOS security sensors around a property’s perimeter, perhaps also powering a sensor-activated automatic watering system for garden plantings.  Or, on a less serious tack, maybe creating a line of ultra-mod swimwear that uses solar plastics and a closed system of lighting to create light-up fashions?  How cool would that look underwater?  What do you see in your solar dreams?

Now that’s a good idea! Anyone tried one?

Nice. No, really, everything about this concept is nice, from the idea, to the execution and the website. So nice that you’d better go check out the website for yourself, so I’m only going to provide one chart here as a teaser.

This house does it all. Collects water, uses high-capacity solar, makes its own compost, and looks amazing while doing it through your laptop. And you can construct one in under a weekend. How’s that for simple? It’s certainly inspiring.

I so need one of these!  Oh, wait, no grass to mow.  But you probably have some, and just look at this beauty!  At $4,000, it’s no yard-sale find, but with built-in sensors that detect yard obstacles, it reduces the amount of work you have to do down to simply setting the thing out and turning it on.  Swimming devotees will recognize this approach as like that of the pool Simon, and it also falls close to the Roomba technology.   And of course, like many products featured here, it’s totally powered by the sun.  With one of these and a few free hours to watch it wander, you might actually be HAPPY when your spouse tells you to mow the lawn!

Wow! That’s all I can think when viewing pictures of the first building planned to grace zero waste, zero carbon emission Masdar City, in the United Arab Emirates. It’s beautiful! And, most importantly, its enormous solar roof will generate more energy than the building uses… enough to power the construction of the rest of the building! The building is designed by Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill (AS + GG). Click the link above for more details.

Large-scale projects like this are what it’s going to take to get solar design into the mainstream of architecture.

Click on the banner ad below to buy one today! (yeah, I don’t usually advertise like this, but your purchases will help me support this blog.)

clipped from www.plasmaled.com

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Trev Two-Seat Lithium ion Electric Travel for 2¢ a Mile (story here)

“Staff and students at the University of South Australia have designed and built an amazing vehicle called the Trev. Its features include:

* two comfortable seats, since more than 90% of urban trips have only one or two people in the car;
* enough luggage space for at least two overnight bags;
* 300 kg mass—because using a 2.5 tonne vehicle for commuting is ridiculous;
* energy-efficient tyres, brakes and suspension;
* a clean, quiet and efficient electric drive system;
* compliance with road safety and worthiness regulations;
* good performance, with a top speed of 120 km/h; and
* 150 km of city driving before the car must be recharged.

Most importantly, it uses less than 1/5 of the energy required by a conventional car, and can be recharged using electricity from clean, renewable sources such as solar and wind.”

I’d love to see this car next to a standard commuter vehicle. It’s like a tofu dog on wheels in a world of burgers. Nice though.

It’s always encouraging, when sitting down to tackle a problem, to have a little advice or inspiration from someone who’s been in your shoes before. For a really nice example of a program that “walks the walk” when it comes to solar living, check out Greenstar.org.

This program constructs solar community centers, which become a place for local people to meet and create art together. In fact, you’ll find a nice selection of music on their site from around the globe… and all recorded with solar power! Here’s a sample from Jamaica: Like A Dove.mp3

The Greenstar system includes a truly impressive array of functions for user communities. Water purification and storage, satellite internet access, cellular phone services, a solar-powered vaccine cooler, an e-commerce business server, computer-based language translation, and a public-access touchscreen to access the web. Wow! I was especially pleased to discover that these creative philanthropists are based right here in Los Angeles. You can be sure I’ll be taking a field trip to pick their brains as this experiment progresses.

If they can do all of this within a little hut, imagine what you can do with whatever space you control!