Archive for the 'Appropriate Technology' Category

Solar Balloons - The Sky’s the Limit

Published
by
Larry
on May 16, 2008
in Appropriate Technology, Emergency Power Systems and Solar
. 0 Comments

Solar Balloons can power remote areas and quickly provide emergency power in disasters. Joseph Cory, of Geotectura.com, and Pini Gurfil, his research partner in the Haifa Technion, Haifa, Israel, are developing the balloons. Helium balloons floating above the trees or tethered to the roofs of buildings, can provide more power in less space and at lower cost than roof mounted or ground mounted systems. They can also be deployed very quickly in an emergency.

Where conventional PV Solar installations are two dimensional, these are three dimensional.

Initial research, using computer models and a prototype, shows that a 10 foot diameter PV Solar balloon provides the energy of a 269 square foot PV Solar surface. The cost of the balloon is targeted at $4000. The cost of a comparable surface mounted system is estimated to $10,000.

I read about this on Pinkus Javits’ SustainabiliTank blog, Gizmundo, and Israel 21C.

Waterstudio - water-friendly, resilient architecture

Published
by
Jon
on December 12, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Architecture, Best Practices and Flooding
. 0 Comments

From Jill Fehrenbacher and Sarah Rich at Inhabitat, we learned about Waterstudio:

In the months following Katrina, one of the most interesting design solutions we found for dealing with rising water levels was the amphibious architecture of Dutch firm Waterstudio. Architect Koen Olthius specializes in a unique technology that allows land-based buildings to detach from the ground and float under rising water conditions. Olthius’ claim to fame is that he focuses exclusively on aqueous design - design for building in, on and at the water - in a country where water dominates the landscape.

Link to Inhabitat’s post.

This design - if a flood-prone city grid were designed around having, say, 10% of its building stock built this way - would provide precious evacuation time - and since these structures are might well survive serious flooding - they’re the avant-garde of the recovery. Once the water recedes - these structures won’t need to be rebuilt.

Sustainable Housing

Published
by
Larry
on October 22, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Clean Energy, Energy, Green household, GreenTechnology, Solar and innovation
. 0 Comments

If each of the 28 panels in the Sean Godsell’s Future Shack, click here for Jon’s post, was a 160 to 200 watt Photo Voltaic solar module, of the type manufactured or used by Akeena Solar, Evergreen Solar, First Solar, SunPower, World Water & Solar, etc. etc., the structure would be rated at 4.480 to 5.6 kW. In other words, it would be sufficient to power a small house - say your typical 1800 sq ft 3 bedroom single family home anywhere in the US (except the Pacific North-West).

Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster

Published
by
Jon
on October 22, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Housing and Shelter
. 1 Comment

Jenna Wortham has a piece on Wired.com - “Slideshow: Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster.”  futureshack.jpg

Above is an image of “FutureShack,” designed by Sean Godsell.  There are eleven others, some familiar to us, others not.  We’ll try to get  more of these up - but if you have time, look at Jenna Wortham’s piece on Wired. (Wortham hs been doing excellent pieces like this, on other appropriate technology, great pieces on RFID issues - and she’s also, apparenly, Wired’s editor in charge of evaluating haggis and other things that at least some people have trouble thinking about eating. Are we missing a connection here?

Weaving Batteries into Clothes - A new machine that makes nanostructured fibers could turn soldiers’ uniforms into power supplies.

Published
by
Jon
on October 22, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Emergency Power Systems, Materials and uniforms
. 0 Comments

From “Weaving Batteries into Clothes,” by Kevin Bullis, in TechnologyReview.com:

A novel machine that makes nanostructured fibers could be the key to a new generation of military uniforms that take on active functions such as generating and storing energy.

The fibers can be made of up to three different materials, arranged in regular, nanoscale patterns visible in cross section. The machine, manufactured by Hills, of West Melbourne, FL, is one of only two in the world capable of producing such fibers, says Stephen Fossey, a researcher at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, in Natick, MA. The machine is scheduled to be delivered early next year to the Natick facility, where it will serve as the centerpiece of a program geared to making multifunctional uniforms.

Among the machine’s many potential uses is assembling fibers that act as rechargeable batteries. Angela Belcher, a professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering at MIT, says that some of the sample structures the device has made could be useful for combining positive and negative battery electrodes and electrolytes into individual threads. Such threads could be woven into uniforms and paired with threads that act as fuel cells or photovoltaics.

The machine was featured last week as part of a workshop on wearable power held at the United States Army Research Laboratory, outside of Washington, DC. The workshop was part of a major push to develop better alternatives to today’s batteries as foot soldiers come to depend more on electronic devices, from night-vision goggles and laser range finders to advanced radios and networked computers. Today, a typical platoon requires almost 900 batteries of up to seven different types for a five-day mission, says Charlene Mello, a member of the macromolecular-science team at the Natick soldier center. Besides being cumbersome to manage and carry, the batteries don’t last very long, which could put soldiers in the position of having to change them in the middle of a fight.

What’s needed are ways to store energy in less space and relieve soldiers of logistical burdens so that they can concentrate on their jobs, says Dave Schimmel, a project manager at the Natick facility who works with experimental technologies that are close to being tested in the field.

Via Danger Room.

Design for the other 90%

Published
by
Jon
on October 19, 2007
in Access to Tools, Appropriate Technology, Emergency Housing, Emergency Lighting, Emergency Power Systems, GreenTechnology and Pricing
. 0 Comments

Design for the other 90% The show we missed at the Cooper-Hewitt, the museum with the highest ration of cool-to-anonymity in New York City. Perhaps it’s actually a secret, classified facility - an “undisclosed cultural location.” Here’s what Design for the other 90% is about:

Of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion, 5.8 billion people, or 90%, have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted; in fact, nearly half do not have regular access to food, clean water, or shelter. Design for the Other 90% explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for this “other 90%.” Through partnerships both local and global, individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world’s poor and marginalized.

Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them. And an increasing number of initiatives are providing solutions for underserved populations in developed countries such as the United States.

This movement has its roots in the 1960s and 1970s, when economists and designers looked to find simple, low-cost solutions to combat poverty. More recently, designers are working directly with end users of their products, emphasizing co-creation to respond to their needs. Many of these projects employ market principles for income generation as a way out of poverty. Poor rural farmers become micro-entrepreneurs, while cottage industries emerge in more urban areas. Some designs are patented to control the quality of their important breakthroughs, while others are open source in nature to allow for easier dissemination and adaptation, locally and internationally.

Encompassing a broad set of modern social and economic concerns, these design innovations often support responsible, sustainable economic policy. They help, rather than exploit, poorer economies; minimize environmental impact; increase social inclusion; improve healthcare at all levels; and advance the quality and accessibility of education. These designers’ voices are passionate, and their points of view range widely on how best to address these important issues. Each object on display tells a story, and provides a window through which we can observe this expanding field. Design for the Other 90% demonstrates how design can be a dynamic force in saving and transforming lives, at home and around the world.

They’ve got a promising blog - which is particularly cool - we take as a sign that the Cooper-Hewitt means to keep this dialogue going notwithstanding the closing of the physical exhibit.

We’ve got the crack Popular Logistics “fixers” trying to persuade the press office at the Cooper-Hewitt that just because we’re a blog, we’re still part of the “press” for purpooses of showing our readers some images along with further posts about Design for the other 90%. Stay tuned for more.

Table converts to shelter and stretcher

Published
by
Jon
on October 6, 2007
in Access to Tools, Appropriate Technology, Litters, Shelter, Stretchers, Stretchers Litters and Gurneys, all-hazards and hurricanes
. 0 Comments

This table - in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, design by Thom Faulders of BeigeDesign and Anna Rainer, has, as far as well can tell, never been put into production. This one seems like it should have had at least a couple of production runs large enough to see how they work out and hold up:

Link to “Undercover Table” (1999).

Concrete-Canvas shelter - 12-hour

Published
by
Jon
on September 20, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Emergency Housing and Shelter
. 0 Comments

Transmaterial reports that

The Concrete Canvas Shelter is a rapidly deployable hardened shelter that requires only water and air for erection. It can be deployed by two people without any training in approximately thirty minutes and is ready to use in twelve hours. The shelter consists of a cement-impregnated fabric (Concrete Cloth) bonded to the outer surface of an inflatable plastic inner structure.


concrete_canvas-strip-745548.gif
Prior to construction, the shelter is delivered folded in a sealed plastic sack. Once the sack is positioned and filled with water, the fiber matrix wicks water into the cement, naturally controlling the water-to-cement ratio. The sack is cut open after hydration, and a battery-driven fan inflates the inner plastic lining, causing the structure to lift. After a duration of twelve hours, the concrete will have set sufficiently for use.

The fibers of the Concrete Canvas fabric form a coherent matrix within the concrete, providing tensile reinforcement and helping prevent crack propagation. If desired, the shelter can be buried with over 0.5 meters of sand on the roof in order to provide increased insulation and protection.

This system comes from Peter Brown at Concrete Canvas in Northampton, UK.

Thanks to Ryan Lanham at Identity Unknown for this.

STANDARRD - with an extra “R”

Published
by
Jon
on September 14, 2007
in Access to Tools, Appropriate Technology, Emergency Housing, GreenTechnology, Katrina, Logistics and Shelter
. 0 Comments

S ustainable
T echnologies
A cceleration
N etwork for
D evelopment
A ssistance and
R apid
R elief
D eployment

STANDARRD Blog here.  This is, I gather, the product of Vinay Gupta, who invented the Hexayurt (Appropropedia entry here)

The Hexayurt, I understand, did good service in Hancock, Mississippi during Katrina. (Citation to be supplied).

Shear Thickening Fluids (STF) - nanotech “liquid”

Published
by
admin
on June 12, 2007
in Appropriate Technology, Hats and Helmets, Materials and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

STF’s developed by Professor Norman Wagner of the University of Delaware, as - if I’ve got the names right a joint project between Delaware Center for Composite Materials and the Army Research Lab. are already in use. (Professor Wagner seems a bit shy, but very proud of his students. The website for his research group is filled with photos of his colleagues, graduate students and undergraduates - but what should be his personal page on the University of Delaware site is a dead link). STFs are added to Kevlar, making ballistic armor more effective;

D30 Labs has been making STF’s available to the civilian market. The Swiss Company RibCap has been making what look like normal knit caps - soft until subjected to a sudden force - at which time they behave like crash helmets:

03_redding_rinny_low.jpg

At the moment not, apparently, available in the United States - but they’re available via some Canadian and British stores - and an American web outlet is apparently underway - for the meantime, that website directs customers to sales at ribcap dash usa dot com.

We’d like to know more - and see test data - but if effective, these soft hats should be in every go-bag - and worn by every emergency responder who’s not already wearing protective headgear.

Via Wired (body armor) and CoolTools (RibCap).