Posts by — lilac

LED sales mushroom

The electric light bulb has been in existence for 131 years, but its dominance may be drawing to an end.
We have often written in the past about the lightemitting diode (LED), which can end the darkness for poor villages in the third world, slash energy consumption in the wealthiest parts of the West and give you long-life illumination for very little energy consumption if you are off-grid.
In truth, the light bulb was a great idea but never a very good technology(except for manufacturers of light bulbs who made billions). Worldwide about 20% of all electricity generated is used for lighting. Now several studies reckon that LEDs could eventually cut that amount in half. (more…)

Author Jaine and friend

If all you want to know is how to build a bread oven, then you might find this book a bit too erudite, historical, playful, wordy, epicurean, and perhaps not discursive enough around the technical issues.

But if you don’t mind a meander around the aesthetics of bread and baking, then you’ll enjoy author Tom Jaine’s style. One of his other books is about bread making, and contains some highly praised recipes, – so it is a bonus that he gives a basic bread recipe in this book, which acts as an extra incentive to the reader to finally get up and make their own oven. It is the combination of recipe and oven instructions, that he says will give you bread that tastes like it used to.

Buy book from Amazon UK…….….Or from Amazon US
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Coffee table camp sites

Camping and caravanning in the UK has never been more popular, or more fashionable which is not the same thing. Here are four books that cover every kind of camping from cool to not so cool (click on the titles to buy the books):

Cool Camping: England

Cade’s Camping, Touring and Motor Caravan Site Guide 2006

Alan Rogers Britain and Ireland: Quality Camping and Caravanning Parks 2006

Camping and Caravanning Club Big Sites Book (recommended but not available online) Reviews follow on the next page. (more…)

Not the best charger

Energizer, the battery company is launching portable chargers for cell phones, iPods, and handheld gaming devices, but they are designed to be opimized using its e2 lithiumAA batteries.

The chargers can also use any alkaline batteries, but won’t charge as quickly or as effectively with those, Kelvin Belle, senior product manager for Energizer, told Red Herring Magazine.

Of course the chargers will cause a mild stir amongst the off-grid community, but they are no match for solar trickle-chargers for example. I don’t see it taking over, said Sara Bradford, analyst at the Frost & Sullivan consultancy. (more…)

Uglification

While in Door County, Wisconsin recently, I picked up a real estate guide the size and heft of a Sears catalogue. Recovering from the resultant backstrain, I paged through the offerings. One, above all others, caught my eye.

“Exclusive private island . . . a true paradise for the selective buyer . . . a true sampling of all Door County is meant to be . . . the home has been meticulously planned and lovingly hand-crafted . . . a private pier provides easy access to the amphibious auto, which is included. . . .”

But as you can tell from the photo – this is the most crass new dwelling – designed like a mock colonial mansion, to feed the need for status with no thought to the environment nor energy saving issues, nor design. Vast expanses of red brick waste the opportunity for new high tech materials, that are better and cheaper. I was suprised the property was not sold together with one of those “Lordships” you can buy on the Internet. (more…)

Humboldt student dorm pedal generator
One Sunday a few weeks ago Linda Parkinson in Humboldt County, California did what few homeowners in this storm-battered region could: She turned on the television, reports the San Francisco Chronicle in a breathless article about the rise of off-grid living all across America.

While most residents were reeling from power outages left by devastating rains, Parkinson had electricity provider to spare. She cooked a feast for a dozen people, took hot showers and threw video-game parties for her 15-year-old son’s classmates.

For 24 years, Parkinson, 49, has lived completely off the electric grid, drawing energy exclusively from solar, propane and other renewable fuels on-site power sources.

She isn’t alone. There are some 180,000 American homeowners live off-grid, according to Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power magazine,. Approximately a quarter live in California, and each year the national number grows 33 percent, according to the publisher’s database of known off-gridders and estimates of those unreported.

“California is the hotbed of off-grid systems,” he said. (more…)

Pearson – here to help

Building an off-grid home can seem like a colossal task. But we are here to help and guide you through it.
David Pearson is an internationally renowned architect and planner. He has agreed to come on this site to answer questions from readers trying to build their own off-grid homes. Send your questions to news@off-grid.net, and we will run a live session to get his answers in January.

Pearson has been involved in inner city and community housing for most of his working life both in Britain and the USA. He has published books on eco-architecture and natural home design. (Click “more” for further details.)

Designing Your Natural Home – buy it from Amazon US
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Nick Rosen, 50

Christmas, the time for peace, harmony, generosity….. oh, and stress over-eating and relentless retail mania. Adopting some trees for Christmas might be a way out of the seasonal gift dilemma.

Film-maker Barney Snow and photographer Bridget Smith just gave Off-Grid Editor, Nick Rosen, 50 trees in Honduras from www.oxfamunwrapped.com for his birthday present, and now he says he is re-gifting them to all his relatives, one tree at a time, “with enough left over for next year.” As he says: “Christmas tree sorted. Christmas sorted.”

We are not talking the non-drop, fir variety here, of course, but Rainforest hardwood. This is not an appeal to buy mahogany toilet seats for Christmas presents either. But wouldn’t all other presents pale in comparison if you gave someone a 60m high, ancient hardwood tree?

A tree costs all of £1, and purchased trees are protected from being chopped down forever (they claim) (more…)