I love reusing old electronics I find! It's pretty fun.
Solarpunk
The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.
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I'm super close to my neighbours. We help each other out constantly. We also managed to plant several fruit trees next to the building, so we make cakes and jelly relatively often with the fruit, spending the afternoon together while they simmer. Also, we have a Signal group, and that's cool.
I have a fold up solar panel and power station so I can play games on my modular entertainment system all day.
Eventually I'd like an upgrade of a self charging vehicle like the concept of aptera, although not sure when it will be available.
For the future, I want to help bring about system level change in addition to the things I can do in my personal life. There is too much power concentrated in the hands of too few people. I would like to run software on my smartphone to help build an open source and decentralized global platform for digital democracy.
I make biodiesel for my farm and have as many solar panels hooked to the grid as allowed. I'm also learning how to do my own seed saving.
How do you make Biodiesel?!
..
How expensive is the equipment?
https://www.instructables.com/Make-Your-Own-Biodiesel-Processor/
It's not very difficult, but sourcing larger quantities of vegetable oil cheaply isn't easy these days.
I don't really know how much it would cost today to build a reactor. If you're technical, you can build a reactor out of scrap. If you can weld, you can make a better one. I think the hardest part is just sourcing reliable used fryer oil from restaurants.
Unfortunately, all the best resources online are dead now and the remaining ones are bad. How the hell is Journey to Forever still up, but Biodiesel.infopop.cc is down? You can probably still get all the info from Waybackmachine.
Tried the wayback machine.
'This account has been suspended'.
Wtf is going on here?
Works for me. I'm not even logged into Internet Archive.
Are you using a VPN? Maybe it was one used in that DoS attack from last year?
May be: I own a FrameWork laptop (bought the older generation new, because it is fast enough for me, but I want to support them). Also I self host a couple of web services myself (music streaming, file storage, RSS). I also live in a shared flat (although I could afford my own appartment) and take the bike to go everywhere in the city.
I dont know if that counts as solar punk. However, I think that many of the comments are very inspiring :D
The front of my house faces southwest. On a sunny afternoon, when it is freezing outside, my house is well enough insulated that the sunlight entering through my front windows and storm door can raise the temperature inside by several degrees Fahrenheit. By closing the prime front door, and covering my windows with insulated plugs, it takes several hours to lose those degrees of heat.
I live in the most sustainable city on the planet, Gothenburg, Sweden. And one of the most environmentally friendly apartment buildings in that city. The building is a special project where they test new sustainability stuff and other cool tech and things. Not sure I'm comfortable linking to a page about the building, as it shows photos and the exact location, but I wrote more extensively about it a couple of months back so I'll go find that comment as soon as I have time and add it here.
Other than that, I'm vegan, only buy second hand clothes, furniture, kitchenware etc. I only walk, bike and use trams. Most devices I get secondhand and use till they're unrepairable (or at least would cost more to repair than get another secondhand one) and if I ever find like a phone real cheap before my current one is dead I give it away to family or friends that need it. There's a lot more minor things, and probably stuff I'm forgetting.
I've had and have a hard life where I can't do most of the things I want due to anxiety, so I'm extremely proud to have gotten to where I am with all the stuff above.
I live in the most sustainable city on the planet, Gothenburg, Sweden.
This sounds like Glenn-propaganda if I ever heard it!
On a more serious note, where did Göteborg get this award?
That's super cool and I hadn't heard of that city before. I'll look into it more. Congratulations on living life on your terms!
Remote working from the countryside, taking my electric car (second hand, cheap, low range but recharged daily) to the fablab to discuss our current projects:
- A solarpunk video game (in discussion)
- A publicly funded research program about automating small scale production of several intermediate vehicles, focusing on Vhélio, an electric cargo bike. (ongoing, funded)
- A plastic press for making plastic sheets our of recycled plastic (done with 2 industrial partners, currently suspended but funded and started)
Last weekend I went to a local non-profit event of resistance against the far-right. Yesterday I got a call to help form a citizen's list for the next municipal elections.
To think that I went as far as rural Japan to find the things that I was looking for and that they were waiting for me in my native country (France), just next to where my parents live.
We live in a small village with a bakery and a local farmer store at walking distance from the house.
I'm working remotely in a repurposed train station. The whole station had been turned into a third space last year and quite a lot of events are happening there.
Today there was a presentation of different initiatives happening in the valley, i found two initiatives particularly interesting.
The first one is a cooperative ISP provider, I'll change my provider to join them.
The second one is another cooperative that is installing renewable energy and offering "collective self consumption". To simplify it: when my neighbor's solar panels are overproducing I can buy it directly from him. The rest of the time I'm using electricity from my regular provider.
Except that in this case it's organized in the scale of several villages.
I work on a wind farm and I'm preparing to build an earthship home. I have an electric bike and I'm also a raging democratic socialist.
- I am trying to do self hosted services and storage at home for my digital stuff. This helps minimize e-waste since I follow a model of upgrade my primary device, then deprecate the previous system to hosting duty
- we do composting and try to do as much zero waste food as possible
- I garden for polinators and vegetables in the free space around our house. I have some grass for the kids/dog but we use no chemicals on any of our plants/yard
- 2 50 gallon rain barrels
- goal for next year is partial solar and additional waste reduction.
- I also started a job that is ~1 mile from home vs 37 each way so my fuel consumption basically dropped to 0
I am living my life in such a way that I mostly get to choose to use my time to do what I want, in ways that work for my bodymind. I participate in my community with my chosen family. I don't buy things that I don't actually need, I try to make due with what I have, and fix things that need fixing and mend things that need mending as much as possible. I write and create and share knowledge and skills freely and help others, especially for causes that are life-affirming and nourishing of people and planet. I live in a walkable community connected with electric trains. I cook and eat fresh, healthy, mostly locally sourced foods. I strive to move through the world in ways that spread hope, joy, beauty, love, connection, and awareness.
I am fortunate to be able to live in a country where all of this is more possible than the country I came from. I want more people to be able to experience this life (and to be able to maintain it myself, which is admittedly looking a bit dicey these days.) I want this more slow, mindful, and convivial way of life to be normalized as the "good life."
We have solar panels, battery backup and a plug in hybrid car. It gets us just about anywhere locally we need to go without needing gas. We just got a 3d printer and I'm already thinking of dozens of things around the house I can fabricate now. We have a VR I can use to work out downstairs (beat saber!). Not to mention this cool miniature computer with internet access I can use anywhere I go.
Hoping to add a garden in the next year or so to grow herbs, fruits and veggies.
That's super cool and I someday wish to live a life like that.
I would really like to reduce my reliance on the electrical grid and have solar panels and a rainwater collection system. I also wanna have a bigger archive of music albums and movies.
My clothes last me an unusual amount of time when compared with most people I think (15 year old tshirts) and don't really buy clothes at all unless something is at the limit of repairability or looking very bad.
I want to ride my bike more. I work from home so I use it mostly to go the gym but I want to use for more things. Like shopping and stuff like that. I'm thinking of buying an electric one to help out since I live in a city with steep hills and an electric one would make it more likely to use.
I really wanna get to the point where I don't have to buy new clothes. How do you find stuff that lasts that long?
[https://lemm.ee/post/52726909] This Post about a site called freesewing.org seems relevant
If you live in or have a neighboring town that is middle or upper class (does not apply to super rich geographies) the second hand stores often have really nice quality clothes for dirt cheap. Church charity shops in the same geographies are a good resource too. I find that you ‘know it when ~~see~~ feel it’ in terms of which clothing items will last a long time. Better fabrics are usually a bit thicker and sturdier feeling.
Not ideal for undergarments or socks though.
I don't know. I think I got lucky with a few pieces of clothing and mostly try to focus on quality long lasting stuff. But like I said I don't really buy much. My jeans are all pure denim and my tshirts tend to be heavier. And I think that's it. The only thing I notice that doesn't hold up very well is knitted sweaters. They tend to stretch over time.
Given the state of the textile industry... make them yourself 🤷♂️
But you can get relatively far by repairing and patching stuff. Especially patches can make for nice upcycling of older or second hand clothes very much in the punk tradition.
There are also a few things you can buy from the outdoor industry that will last a while longer, but with a high upfront cost.
I do have a few things that are from outdoor brands so possiblity it impacts how long they last.
Isn't the fabric that you buy also apart of the textile industry?
Well, yes, but there at least you can still find some better quality I think.
Edit: You can also go buy quite high quality stuff in those "work cloth" / "worker safety" shops, but they do look the part, so I don't think many people would want to walk around those normally. Not cheap either.
Well, I'm in the process of internally overboarding with 50mm PIR sheets for added insulation, added 200mm fibreglass into each floor of my house, and 150mm PIR on top of my flat roofs.
And have just had a heat pump installed, frustratingly, still haven't quite worked out how to properly drive the thing yet so am rather cold currently.