Contents of the workshops
Our workshops can be focused on building small-scale solar systems, a bike generator, or both of them. In all cases, we also give attention to the modification of electric appliances so that they can operate on the low voltage power that solar panels and bike generators produce.
The workshops start with a short introduction outlining the philosophy behind the systems we are going to build. Low voltage power systems that combine solar and human power are very energy efficient. Frugal households or individuals can use them to go off-the-grid even in an urban context. We then move on to the systems themselves, answering questions such as:
- what components do you need?
- how to size the components?
- how to wire the system?
- how to build a control panel?
- do you need energy storage or not?
- do you need an inverter or not?
- how to add measuring instruments?
- how to build supporting structures?
- how to convert appliances to low voltage?
Following our explanation, the workshop participants either build their own system or perform a specific task as part of the collective. Typical builds are:
- building a control panel to split electricity using buck and boost converters
- hacking an appliance so that it works on low voltage.
- calculating the gear ratio for a bike generator.
- adding a generator to a stationary bike.
The participants are provided with dozens of images and diagrams to help them build their systems.
We have given several workshops about small-scale solar systems where we also brought a bike generator. We use it to operate power tools and solder the components of the solar systems.
For interested workshop participants
We organize a few workshops per year in Barcelona, Spain. These are given in Spanish and English. From May 2024, we organize a few workshops per year in Belgium, which will be given in Dutch, French and/or English. We also organize workshops when we are invited to do so. All workshops will be listed in advance on our events page.
For interested workshop organizers
We have organized several workshops on assignment. Our clients were “BiciHub” (Barcelona), “UOC” (Barcelona), “Transitiefestival” (Antwerp), and “Huis van de Toekomst” (Rotterdam). If you are interested in hosting one of our workshops, please contact us at solar@lowtechmagazine.com.
Images Bike Generator Workshop Rotterdam (October 2023)
From 10 to 14 October, Low-tech Magazine held a free workshop where we built a bicycle generator together. The workshop took place on behalf of the “House of the Future”, a spinoff of the Human Power Plant project.
Images Solar Workshop Antwerp (September 2023)
In September 2023, Low-tech Magazine organized a workshop about solar power at the “Transitiefestival” in Deurne (Antwerp), Belgium. We used a bike generator to solder components.
Images Solar Workshop Barcelona (June 2023)
In June 2023, Low-tech Magazine did a workshop on solar power for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). We brought a bike generator to solder the components.
