Category: Renewable Energy

35 Years Ago I Thought Our Economy Would Collapse Within 20 Years | Why Hasn’t It?

During my college years learning about environmental problems it seemed unlikely our economy would survive another 20 years given predictions about environmental problems like climate change and the fact that we were dependent on finite fossil fuels that were predicted to decline within a short time. 20 years have come and gone and Americans live pretty much as they always have, consuming vast amounts of resources and gasoline, excepting the recent spike in price because of trumps failed war on Iran, is cheaper than it’s ever been. So why didn’t collapse happen?

This is testimony from someone who knew about all the problems decades ago, predicted collapse, and has watched the decades fly by without a sliver of sacrifice being required of the American public. And the American public seems more oblivious of the problems than ever.

But the problems have progressed much as predicted. Despite a massive increase in climate change denial, climate change has gotten worse and the real affects are now something not even the rich can avoid, seeing as wildfires and supercharged hurricanes are wiping out their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th homes. I guess climate change doesn’t really care if people believe in it or not. So though they haven’t changed their lifestyles, the lives of Americans have been forever changed by the effects of climate change.

#Collapse #EconomicCollapse #EndofOil #ClimateChange

This Cheap, Easy Solar Power System Cut My Electric Bill A LOT

I recently decided to expand my solar power system because I’ve begun implementing more electric appliances in my house to get me off of propane, the only fossil fuel I use in the home. The system I used was super easy and incorporated a microinverter, which allows a connection without a charge controller and some of the expensive components required for a traditional power system. For about $500 I was able to add 810W to my system. As of the posting of this video I’d already made back about $100 of that investment in utility bill savings.

I have a tiny power system compared to most, but that’s because I live simply and sustainably in a small house in an ecovillage. But this system can be upscaled for any application anywhere. The benefits are that all you need to buy is the panels, a microinverter, wiring, and fuses. It’s basically plug and play, as I demonstrate in this video.

#solarpower #microinverter #easysolarpower #offgridsolar

Incredible Rusty Wood Stove Transformation and Renewal

Throughout last summer, my wood stove was inexplicably getting rustier and rustier. It was only about 4 years old, but it was starting to look like it was 20. I decided to make it a late summer project and with a little elbow grease the rusty wood stove underwent a transformation and renewal to almost like new. Here’s how I did it. #woodstove #woodheat #castironstove

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Amazing Timberframe Strawbale House with Castle-like Interior

This amazing strawbale house located at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is one of my favorites in the village. There is so much to it and the design is so unique. It features beautiful timberframe with strawbale for wall structure and insulation. Lime plaster exterior and earthen interior makes for a pleasant aesthetic and some natural organic shapes. The earthen plaster interior and framing have been designed in places to create an almost castle-like look in some of the rooms. The earthen plaster interior walls are inlaid in places with glass shard mosaics.

But not only does the house have a unique beauty, it has many sustainable systems for providing for basic needs like running hot water from a cook stove or evacuated solar tubes, radiant floor heating, rainwater catchment, wood and passive solar heating.

#StrawbaleBuilding #NaturalBuilding #SustainableLiving

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How Sustainable Living Prepared Me for a Pandemic

I return to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for this video to talk about what awaited me on my return and how I was appreciating sustainable living systems I have set up because they have also prepared me in many ways for a pandemic. I have rainwater catchment, solar power, perennial fruit plants, seed supplies, renewable fuels, lots of food stores, some I grew myself and some purchased, and of course TP.

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An EARTHSHIP Like None You’ve Ever Seen

Last winter I had the chance to visit an earthship like none I’d ever seen before. Earthships are living buildings that are adapted to their environment to make use of climate, water, and waste products. When people think of earthships, they usually think of the desert southwest of the US, because that’s where they originated and where many of them are built. In this video we visit an unusual version of an earthship, still off grid, still adapted to its environment, but very different from what you normally envision when you think of an earthship.