Renewable Energy Is The Future

[Isaac Zachary]

I remember a guy that had a geodesic house in South Park with a sunroom. He said he could leave his house with the heat off all winter and not have to worry about anything freezing inside.

[freebeard]

The dome I lived in was half a duplex with a connecting room. Open both doors and my stereo just sounded mono in the house in front. It was at a time when everybody liked The Tractors Baby Likes to Rock It so it was okay. A dome with an igloo-style entry (hyperbolic paraboloid, if you please) is a good start on a neighborhood musical instrument.

Wooden wind turbines. Are they really a sustainable alternative?

They're still working on the blades. But why? The single-curved plywood they are forming just needs to be compound curved.

[Piotrsko]

Compound curving plywood without stout steam pressure molds is a pita, even using 1/16 aircraft ply. Much ewsier to Hughes process the plywood on a buck form

[redpoint5]

Perfect timing now that plywood is $100 sheet.

[freebeard]

I took this picture myself, years ago when I could travel as far as McMinnville.



I believe aerohead has used a concrete female form to make aerocaps (or something).

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm particular to a spiral staircase wrapped around a pneumatic elevator.

A spiral staircase would most likely be my choice if I were building a house, yet it wouldn't leave room for storage below it (or even to make a Harry Potter-themed bedroom for some guest ).

[freebeard]

Even if the spiral is around a 18" pipe one could have a dumbwaiter inside it. My parent's house had a dumbwaiter in the downstairs bathroom to the laundry on the second floor.

The pneumatic elevator is cool because if you use an accumulator It doesn't take a noisy fan to recharge it. (30 gallon steel drums buried under a concrete slab for air storage)

[Piotrsko]

But lift is equal to diameter and pressure, so you either lift small/light things or have a big higher pressure reservoirs. Not a bad idea however, if I ever get a multistory.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

The pneumatic elevator is cool because if you use an accumulator It doesn't take a noisy fan to recharge it. (30 gallon steel drums buried under a concrete slab for air storage)

Enabling some remote fitment of the fan in a less noise-sensitive part of the house would be interesting, and maybe also become easier to recharge the accumulator either when energy is cheaper or when there is a peak generation considering an off-the-grid house. Sure I would be willing to experiment with either solar or wind power generations, maybe even both, if I were already living in a house instead of an apartment.

[freebeard]

The pneumatic elevator has some advantage in installation, no pit for an hydraulic ram underneath or chainhouse above it. And having the available air facilitates double side-sliding doors as in Star Trek.

Sure I would be willing to experiment with either solar or wind power generations, maybe even both, if I were already living in a house instead of an apartment.

Think about it before. The process of putting yourself in a house will suck you back into the main stream if you're not resisting every step of the way.