How to Build a Low-tech Internet
If we want the internet to keep working in circumstances where access to energy is more limited, we can learn important lessons from alternative network technologies.
Picture: A node in the Scottish Tegola Network
Wireless internet access is on the rise in both modern consumer societies and in...
Reinventing the Greenhouse
Contrary to its fully glazed counterpart, a passive solar greenhouse is designed to retain as much warmth as possible.
A Chinese greenhouse. Picture: Chris Buhler, Indoor Garden HQ
Low-tech Magazine: Kindle version.
The modern glass greenhouse requires massive inputs of energy to grow crops...
Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.
Picture: fruit walls in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris.
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We are being told to eat...
Power Water Networks
Hydraulic power transmission is very efficient compared to electricity when it is used to operate powerful but infrequently used machines.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, water motors were widely used in Europe and America. These small water turbines were connected to the tap a...
Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power?
Directly coupling DC power sources with DC loads can result in a significantly cheaper and more sustainable solar system.
Picture: Brighton Electric Light Station, 1887. Stationary steam engines drive DC generators by means of leather belts. Source.
In today's solar photovoltaic systems, dire...
How to get your apartment off the grid
Solar panels on window sills and balconies can supply more power than you would think.
Low-tech Magazine: Kindle version.
The typical solar PV power installation requires access to a private roof and a big budget. However, wouldn't it be possible to get around these obstacles by installing sm...
The Curse of the Modern Office
The information society promises to dematerialise society and make it more sustainable, but modern office and knowledge work has itself become a large and rapidly growing consumer of energy and other resources.
The information society promises to dematerialise society and make it more sustainable...
Ditch the batteries: Off-grid Compressed Air Storage
Compressed air energy storage is the sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.
Going off-grid? Think twice before you invest in a battery system. Compressed air energy storage...
Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution
Could we rethink and redesign office equipment, combining the best of mechanical and digital devices?
The Olivetti Sottsass mechanical typewriter, 1969. Source: eBay.
Digital equipment is one of the main drivers behind the quickly growing energy use of modern office work. Could we rethink...
Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
The heat storage hypocaust could keep a room warm for days with just one firing of the furnace.
Hot air vents in the floor of the Maulbronn monastery. Source: "Das Kloster Maulbronn. Geschichte und Baugeschichte.", Ulrick Knapp, 1997 / Via Spiegel 2016.
The Romans are credited with the inventi...
How to Run the Economy on the Weather
Adjusting energy demand to supply would make switching to renewable energy much more realistic than it is today.
Image: Stoneferry (detail), a painting by John Ward of Hull.
Before the Industrial Revolution, people adjusted their energy demand to a variable energy supply. Our global trade and...
Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency
To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable.
To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable. However, transforming present ways of life is key to mitigating climate change and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels.
Energy effic
...How Much Energy Do We Need?
Researchers have calculated minimum levels of energy use needed to live a decent life, but what about maximum levels?
Image: Azuri Technologies
Because energy fuels both human development and environmental damage, policies that encourage energy demand reduction can run counter to policies for...
History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy
Historical compressed air systems hold the key to the design of a low-tech, low-cost, robust, sustainable and relatively energy efficient energy storage medium.
Hiscox straight line air compressor
Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is considered to be an important component of a renewable pow...
High-tech Problems
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Low-tech Solutions
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Obsolete Technology
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How Sustainable is High-tech Health Care?
Categories:
[High-tech Problems]
Can we make modern health care carbon-neutral and maintain the levels of care, pain relief, and longevity that we have come to take for granted?
The surgeon, a painting by David Teniers, 1670s.
The environmental footprint of the health care sector
Health care is one of the most important econ...
Archive
Sub-Pages:
- How to Build a Low-tech Internet
- Reinventing the Greenhouse
- Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s
- Power Water Networks
- Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power?
- How to get your apartment off the grid
- The Curse of the Modern Office
- Ditch the batteries: Off-grid Compressed Air Storage
- Why the Office Needs a Typewriter Revolution
- Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
- How to Run the Economy on the Weather
- Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency
- How Much Energy Do We Need?
- History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy
- High-tech Problems
- Low-tech Solutions
- Obsolete Technology
- How Sustainable is High-tech Health Care?
- Archive
- About
- How to Build a Low-tech Website?
- Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill
- How to Make Wind Power Sustainable Again
- Reinventing the Small Wind Turbine
- How to Make Biomass Energy Sustainable Again
- Vertical Farming Does Not Save Space
- Thermo-electric Stoves: Ditch the Solar Panels?
- Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire
- Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?
- Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security
- Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?
- We Can't Do It Ourselves
About
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How to Build a Low-tech Website?
Our new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.
First prototype of the solar powered server that runs the new website. The solar charge controller (on the right) is powering the server (on the left) through a USB-cable.
Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill
Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system.
Image: Illustration by Rona Binay for Low-tech Magazine.
Renewable energy production is almost entirely aimed at the generation of electricity. However, we u...
How to Make Wind Power Sustainable Again
If we build them out of wood, large wind turbines could become a textbook example of the circular economy.
Illustration: Eva Miquel for Low-tech Magazine.
For more than two thousand years, windmills were built from recyclable or reusable materials: wood, stone, brick, canvas, metal. When – ele...
Reinventing the Small Wind Turbine
A wooden rotor and tower greatly increase the net energy output over the lifetime of a small wind turbine.
A small wind turbine with blades and tower made from wood. Image: InnoVentum.
Many commercially available small wind turbines with plastic blades and steel towers are infamous for their lo...
How to Make Biomass Energy Sustainable Again
Categories:
[Obsolete Technology]
From the Neolithic to the beginning of the twentieth century, coppiced woodlands, pollarded trees, and hedgerows provided people with a sustainable supply of energy, materials, and food.
Image: Pollarded trees in Germany. Image: René Schröder (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How is Cutting Down Trees Sustainabl
...Vertical Farming Does Not Save Space
Categories:
[High-tech Problems]
Urban agriculture in vertical, indoor “farms” is on the rise. Electric lights allow the crops to be grown in layers above each other year-round. Proponents argue that growers can save a lot of agricultural land in this way. Additional advantages are that less energy is needed to transport food (mo...
Thermo-electric Stoves: Ditch the Solar Panels?
Categories:
[Low-tech Solutions]
Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels.
Illustration: Diego Marmolejo.
If the 2,000 year old windmill is the predecessor of today’s wind turbines, the fireplace and...
Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire
Categories:
[Obsolete Technology]
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known.
Illustration: Diego Marmolejo.
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and...
Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?
Categories:
[Low-tech Solutions]
The water and energy use of the mist shower is so low that the bathroom could be taken off-grid and off-pipe even in an urban context.
Image: Mist Shower Hack Kit. Jonas Görgen.
The daily shower would be hard to sustain in a world without fossil fuels. The mist shower, a satisfying but forgotte...
Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security
Categories:
[Low-tech Solutions]
To improve energy security, we need to make infrastructures less reliable.
Maintaining a steady supply of something that’s finite is impossible. Image: Camilla MP.
As a society depends more on energy sources for its daily functioning, it becomes more vulnerable if the supply of energy is inte...
Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?
Categories:
[Obsolete Technology]
For centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?
1699 scale model of a scratcher rigged with sails. Image: Maritiem Digitaal
The dredging industry has been the backbone of the Dutch economy for centuri...
We Can't Do It Ourselves
How to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action.
Illustration by Diego Marmolejo.
How to live a more sustainable life? This question generates a...