Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security
To improve energy security, we need to make infrastructures less reliable.
Low-tech solutions
Interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology.
High-tech has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is—more often than not—aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions.
There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society.
How to Build a Low-tech Website?
Our new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.
Ditch the Batteries: Off-Grid Compressed Air Energy Storage
Compressed air energy storage is the sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.
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?
How to Run the Economy on the Weather
Adjusting energy demand to supply would make switching to renewable energy much more realistic than it is today.
Could We Run Modern Society on Human Power Alone?
Unlike solar and wind energy, human power is always available, no matter the season or time of day.
Vietnam’s Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of Decay
Vietnam’s decentralised food system has low energy inputs and reduced food waste, giving us a glimpse of what an alternative food system might look like
Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution
Could we rethink and redesign office equipment, combining the best of mechanical and digital devices?
How to Get Your Apartment Off the Grid
Solar panels on window sills and balconies can supply more power than you would think.
Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power?
Directly coupling DC power sources with DC loads can result in a significantly cheaper and more sustainable solar system.
Reinventing the Greenhouse
Contrary to its fully glazed counterpart, a passive solar greenhouse is designed to retain as much warmth as possible.
How to Build a Low-tech Internet
If we want the internet to keep working in circumstances where access to energy is more limited, we can learn important lessons from alternative network technologies.
The 4G Mobile Internet That’s Already There
These days, so many households have a WiFi-router installed that sharing the signal of these devices could provide free mobile internet access across densely populated cities.
How to Keep Warm in a Cool House
If we are looking for quick and substantial energy savings for existing buildings, then local heating systems deserve our closest attention
Radiant & Conductive Heating Systems
Radiant and conductive heating systems make energy use independent of the size of a room or building.
The Revenge of the Circulating Fan
Cooling people by increasing local airflow is at least ten times more energy efficient than refrigerating the air in a given space.
If We Insulate Our Houses, Why Not Our Cooking Pots?
A fireless cooker doubles the efficiency of any type of cooking device because it shortens the time on the fire and limits heat transfer losses
Modular Cargo Cycles
Modular cargo cycles are cheap to build and easy to customize.
Heat Your Clothes, Not Your House
The arrival of compact lithium-ion batteries has increased the performance and diversity of electrically heated clothing.
Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower
The hydro power installations in use today are less energy efficient than those of earlier centuries.
How to Make Everything Ourselves: Open Modular Hardware
A modular system unites the advantages of standardisation (parts can be produced cheaply in large amounts) with the advantages of customisation (a large diversity of unique objects can be made with relatively few parts).
Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
About a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.
Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient (Part Two)
A car with a top speed of 270 km/h can be driven anywhere on Earth, while an electric velomobile with an electric assistance of up to 50 km/h is illegal is most countries.
Cargo Cyclists Replace Truck Drivers on European City Streets
A cargo cycle is at least as fast as a delivery van in the city - and much cheaper to use.
The Solar Envelope: How to Heat and Cool Cities without Fossil Fuels
Modern research, which combines ancient knowledge with fast computing techniques, shows that passive solar cities are a realistic option, allowing for surprisingly high population densities.
The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels
In order to ensure solar access and fresh air, many cities in Europe and in the United States enacted a variety of building codes between the 1850s and the 1930s.
The Solar Envelope: How to Heat and Cool Cities without Fossil Fuels
Solar access for all can be achieved with densities of up to 200 people per acre.
The Bright Future of Solar Thermal Powered Factories
To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy.
Pedal Powered Farms and Factories: The Forgotten Future of the Stationary Bicycle
The possibilities of pedal power largely exceed the use of the bicycle.
Insulation: First the Body, Then the Home
Modern thermal underclothing offers the possibility to turn the thermostat much lower without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal.
The Velomobile: High-tech Bike or Low-tech Car?
The human power required to achieve a speed of 30 km/h in a velomobile is only 79 watts, compared to 271 watts on a normal bicycle.
Recycling Animal and Human Dung is the Key to Sustainable Farming
Flushing the water closet wreaks ecological havoc, deprives agricultural soils of essential nutrients and makes food production dependent on fossil fuels.
Get Wired (Again): Trolleybuses and Trolleytrucks
Trolleybuses and trolleytrucks have all the advantages of electric cars — and none of their drawbacks.
Cargo ships, then and now
Time for a new age of sail.
Bring back the horses
Replacing tractors with real horse power could be the revolution that agriculture needs.