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LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

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DIY

How to Build a Practical Household Bike Generator

We built a pedal-powered generator and controller, which is practical to use as an energy source and exercise machine in a household – and which you can integrate into a solar PV system. We provide detailed plans to build your own, using basic skills and common hand tools.

How to Build a Low-tech Solar Panel?

George Cove, a forgotten solar power pioneer, may have built a highly efficient photovoltaic panel 40 years before Bell Labs engineers invented silicon cells. If proven to work, his design could lead to less complex and more sustainable solar panels.

How and Why I Stopped Buying New Laptops

As a freelance journalist – or an office worker if you wish – I have always believed that I should regularly buy a new laptop. But older machines offer more quality for much less money.

Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire

The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known.

Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?

The water and energy use of the mist shower is so low that the bathroom could be taken off-grid and off-pipe even in an urban context.

How to Build a Low-tech Website?

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

The Messy World of Fermentation

When modernity meets its end-point and creates a world where everything is sterile, controlled, and known, there will be little space for fermentation.

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.

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.

Modular Cargo Cycles

Modular cargo cycles are cheap to build and easy to customize.

How Sustainable is Digital Fabrication?

Automation is more energy-intensive than mechanisation.