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LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

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Written by

Kris De Decker

Low-tech Magazine: The Printed Website

Read Low-tech Magazine with no access to a computer, a power supply, or the internet.

Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill

Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system.

Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security

To improve energy security, we need to make infrastructures less reliable.

How Circular is the Circular Economy?

As long as we keep accumulating raw materials, the closing of the material life cycle remains an illusion, even for materials that are, in principle, recyclable.

How to Build a Low-tech Website?

Our new website is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.

Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?

For centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?

We Can't Do It Ourselves

How to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action.

Ditch the Batteries: Off-Grid Compressed Air Energy Storage

Compressed air energy storage is a sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.

History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy

Historical compressed air systems hold the key to the design of a low-tech, low-cost, robust, sustainable and relatively energy efficient energy storage medium.

How Much Energy Do We Need?

Researchers have calculated minimum levels of energy use needed to live a decent life, but what about maximum levels?

Energy labels oblige frugal homeowners to make unsustainable investments

How energy-efficient a home is depends not only on the energy label but also on the lifestyle.

Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency

To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable.