“Imagine if your hot water heater could generate enough electricity to power your entire house, while still heating your water. That’s the promise of Nirvana’s Home Energy System. Using clean natural gas that’s already running to your house, our combined heat and power (CHP) system generates electricity, hot water and heat (for radiator-based home heating).
“Chelle Lindahl, who lives in an off-grid home near Canton, NY, speaks about the rocket mass heater she uses to heat her home. She also discusses other aspects of how she tries to have a low-impact lifestyle. Rocket mass heaters (RMH) are low-cost, high-efficiency wood-burning stoves that typically consume a fraction of traditional stoves. Chelle’s … Read more
We have just published a book about my and my wife Zana’s experiences, over four decades, of living in a variety of vehicular based homes. In fact when we first met I was living in a school bus I had converted to a quaint home that was parked near the mouth of the Russian River on the Pacific Coast. It was a romantic time holding many fond memories.
Rolling Shelter: Vehicles We Have Called Home is the first of a series of several books about all of the building that I have done over these many years. The others will be about remodeling existing homes and about earthbag building. The general theme of all of these books is how to provide shelter in an ecological and economical way, and I am using my own experience as an example for this.
“As the solar steamer is using steam as heat transfer medium, it is an indirect cooking system. This allows the design of a split system where the thermal solar collector can be placed at some distance (e.g. on the roof) apart from the place of cooking (e.g. in the kitchen). The cook is not exposed to the sunshine and can use the steam at whatever height or location is convenient and culturally acceptable.
“Gasifier uses wood pellets to create flammable mixture that a generator can run on without gasoline. This video shows how it was constructed, how it works, and how to use it from start to finish. Great project for anyone looking for alternative energy or wanting to live off the grid.”
Video demonstrates a “water heater out of used parts and a Stovetec Rocket stove to start the thermo siphoning process.” Obviously you could make your own rocket stove for practically free. You could also use a sawdust stove like we discussed the other day.