Dmitry Orlov is at his cheery best again, writing an article called “Social Collapse Best Practices“. In it he describes the grim future awaiting America if Obama’s administration continmue to try and resuscitate Business as Usual.
What should their realistic new objectives be? Well, here they are: food, shelter, transportation, and security. Their task is to [...]
Archive for February, 2009
17 Feb
A dark post-economic-crash moment
15 Feb
Energy Efficient Ecolectric Toaster
Not electricity-free, but apparently 34% less electricity than other toasters – not a bad start!
Made by Morphy Richards, it seems to be available almost everywhere for around £34-35. You can get one from the Good Energy shop, which would seem to be an ethical way to buy.
15 Feb
Get paid for your Solar Hot Water
This sounds a bit too strange to be true, but it does appear to be above board. I’ve emailed them to check and we’ll see what the response is.
Anyway, what am I talking about? Good Energy – suppliers of 100% renewable electricity – are just starting to roll-out a Renewable Heat Incentive. On this programme [...]
12 Feb
Shopping List – latest update
Steadily firming up the shopping list for our new house – here’s the latest list, with links.
Kitchen
Multi-fuel or Wood-Fired Range (possibly with Back Boiler), will need to be smokeless
Various non-powered kitchen gadgets: Mouli, Hand-Powered Blender, Thermos Slow Cooker,
Low-voltage (LED or Fluorescent) under-cabinet lighting
Water Purifier
Large Pantry, pref double-sided
DC Fridge or Brownout Protector
Equipment for Waxing Cheese
Dining Room
Expandable table
Playroom
Instant-heat to stand in front of [...]
11 Feb
Reducing our Water Charges
Having been looking at increasing our resilience and reducing our impact by using rainwater internally from a large Rainwater Tank, one thing to note is that it can also save us money. Firstly we need to get a meter fitted, so that we’ll only pay our standing charge plus actual water usage. If we’re not using [...]
10 Feb
Using a Wood-Burning Stove in a Smoke-Control Area
This is something we need to work out – our new house will be in a smoke control area. To check whether you’re in a smoke control area look up your local authority here. If you are then the only wood or multi-fuel burning stoves you can fit are listed on the exempt appliances list. [...]
10 Feb
Rainwater tanks
As promised in my previous post about drinking water, here are my thoughts on our rainwater storage. In our current home town of Brisbane, Australia, the dams that supply our drinking water recently bottomed out at around 14% capacity. The severe water restrictions that we’ve had for years have meant that even in our inner-city suburb about half [...]
8 Feb
Wood-Fired Ranges in a PassivHaus
In my PassivHaus Renovation post I said that:
Any non-solar water heating to be Gas Condensing boiler or CHP – wood fired stoves are not permitted (this conflicts with my peak-oil resilience planning)
In return I got a comment posted by Andy Simmonds at the AECB stating:
The AECB standards do not proscribe wood stoves, nor does the german [...]
4 Feb
How are you coping with the snow?
Whether you’re out building snowmen or huddling around a radiator, now is a good time to reflect on how prepared you are for these type of events. If you can’t get your car out, then consider how much food you have stored. How long can you stay at home without getting hungry? There are a [...]
2 Feb
Insulation: Understanding R and U values
The more I get into looking at insulating our house, the more I need to learn! At the moment I’m fighting off a swarm of mismatched R, U, and k values. All I want to know is what type of insulation we need to come close to the PassivHaus standards but everything I see is quoting [...]
