Pedal Powered Hack Saw
I love gadgets that use bicycles, this one seems less useful but still awesome!
DIY Beer Can Solar Heater
Human beings love beer, and we love the sun, and increasingly many of us would like to be around to enjoy both well into the future. With that in mind I present the DIY Beer Can Solar Heater. An awesome convergence of recycling, reusing, DIY solar technology, and well…beer. What more could you possibly want?
Seriously check out this great site, they have all the instructions, here is a taste.
The goals of the project were twofold:
Design a passive solar unit which could provide some useful measure of auxiliary heat.
Design something relatively simple and affordable to construct.
The solar heater essentially consists of two main parts - the solar heater box and the solar heater collection unit (found inside the solar heater box.) The solar heater box acts as a frame to hold the entire device together and to contain heat. It is basically a rectangular box consisting of wood sides, a wood back, and a glass top - very minimal construction needed here. The solar heater collection unit is a series of aluminum cans (in this case a few soda cans and plenty of Milwaukee’s Best Light beer cans), aligned in rows/columns and secured in place. In addition to the two things mentioned above, you also need some sunshine. This venture doesn’t work in the dark.
Anyhow, our project began at the transfer station metal pile (where all quality home improvement projects start.) Here we found a single double paned glass slider door. The door was obviously once part of a normal two-door slider, the rubber trim/gaskets were torn but the frame and glass were in great shape. This particular door was quite heavy and measured 36″ x 80″. Despite its weight and lack of gaskets, it was the perfect unit to create our solar heater box - mainly because it was free.
Gadget Review: NatureMill Home Indoor Composting System
Editors note: This is a guest post by Dan Harrison
Eco-friendly gadgets are a huge growth area at the moment. Granted, there are many products being designed that are just a marketing ploy. However, there are some genuinely interesting and useful eco gadgets too.
The NatureMill Indoor composter is an ideal gadget for any green warrior without a garden. The indoor composter allows you to recycle your waste food easily and quickly without a garden and without a specialised food waste collection service. The composter is capable of breaking down around 120 lbs (55kg) of food waste every month. That’s a quite a bit being saved from landfill.
The composter adds moisture, then heats and mixes the waste. This physical processing encourages rapid breakdown of the food matter. Once the food waste has broken down, you can then retrieve the compost from the bottom container of the composter.
If you live in an flat (or apartment as you call them in the US), then the NatureMill Indoor composter is a perfect way to reduce your landfill waste without a garden. The composter is small enough to fit in a kitchen cupboard, or could be stored in your garage if you have one. You can use the newly created soil to top-up your indoor plants with some natural fertilizer. You could also give the compost away to friends and family if you don’t have any pot plants.
The heat kills nasty bacteria and destroys the majority of smells. If you do smell anything from the composter, the worst you’d smell would be damp straw or mushrooms. The carbon filter inside the composter helps with the odours and only needs replacing every 5 years. Although the composter is always switched on, it only uses 5kWh a month, which costs very little in real money. Just pence really.
And here’s the best bit about the composter. Due to the way the waste is mixed and aerated, the decomposing material releases no methane into the atmosphere. This means you can do your bit to help reduce greenhouse gasses too!
This guest article about the NatureMill indoor composter was written by Dan Harrison. Dan has a passion for all kinds of eco-friendly gadgets. Dan is very keen on green innovation that actually benefits the environment, rather than products that exist purely for the sake of being labelled “eco-friendly”.
New Breakthrough Allows For More Efficient Use Of Solar Power
Freescale Semiconductor is demonstrating a breakthrough in power conversion technology for photovoltaic (PV) applications this week at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).
Freescale has developed advanced, ultra-low-voltage DC-to-DC converter technology that enables operating performance and efficiency at levels as low as 0.32 volts, as well as operation down to 0.25 V. Most IC (integrated circuits the things in your cell phones and car and whatnot that run the electronics) cannot start up at voltages less than the typical turn-on voltage of a transistor (approximately 0.7 V) without external assistance. This limitation reduces system design options and increases the complexity of power conversion (more complexity means more parts which means more carbon footprint) and energy recovery applications involving ultra-low voltages.
Freescale’s power conversion technology enables IC startup thresholds to be reduced to 0.32 V and efficiencies of nearly 90 percent. This technology breakthrough can enable practical and cost-effective ways to develop a wide range of single-cell solar power systems and other energy-harvesting applications, such as thermoelectric and mechanical scavenging systems. Potential applications include solar-powered battery chargers, trickle chargers for automotive systems, chargers for cell phones and laptops, remote data acquisition and industrial HVAC systems, PV-based traffic signals, solar-powered home and commercial lighting products, and self-powered wireless transponders.
Using a low-cost single solar cell, Freescale’s power conversion technology is engineered to charge a Li-Ion battery cell at 100mA. Present charging systems require multiple solar cells in series, which drives up cost, reduces efficiency, and increases sensitivity to shading and cell mismatches.
“We see no IC solutions currently available approaching the ultra-low-voltage capability and power conversion efficiency of our analog technology demonstrated at APEC,” said Arman Naghavi, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Analog, Mixed-Signal and Power Division. “Freescale has demonstrated a single-chip solution that addresses one of the most difficult technological and practical challenges of extracting power from a single solar cell. This breakthrough can be used to help reduce the cost and streamline the development of innovative solar chargers, energy-harvesting systems and other low-voltage energy sources.”
Overall this is just a small advancement in the overall efficiency of solar power. With a continued stream of advancements like this we could be seeing solar cells basically integrated into everything in years to come.
Google Makes Inroads Into Smart Grid Tech
It seems Google, has once again seen the writing on the wall and wants to be involved with some of the newest and most promising technologies. I wrote before about how they are promoting green tech, and now they are moving into smart grid technology.
People love to tinker. When the Prius came out with it’s real time MPG data displays people immediately began to find ways to maximize their millage, and hypermiling became a huge thing. With the advent of smart meters, people will be able to see exactly what parts of their home are using the most energy. I figure it is only a matter of time before having homes with super low energy usage (Hyperusage, or hyperhomeing or ultraefficent or whatever they want to call it) becomes a trend.
Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their home electricity use. We’re tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We’ve been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a “smart grid,” to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called “smart meters.” There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.(via)
This is not just about smart meters, what Google is proposing is a full integration of open standards that will let everything in your home talk with any smart meter. In this way the toaster tells your home energy system how much it is using as does your computer your dryer, everything. Once all these appliances are talking to the system you will right away know what is going on and what thing is using the most juice. Perhaps this will spur appliances to attempt to use the least amount of electricity possible…do you really want to be the toaster that uses as much energy as 100 light bulbs? We can only hope that efficient is the new sleek desirable quality of home gizmos.
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