Get off the grid, Stay off the grid! The urban guide to being self sufficient'ish. VIDEO: How To Make Fire… Using Ice! Please Share This Page: Google + stumbleupon tumblr reddit If you are a first-time visitor, please be sure to like us on Facebook and receive our exciting and innovative tutorials and info!
Here’s one of the more unusual ways to make fire – explained with an actual demonstration! It’s been known since ancient times that the power of sunlight, focused into a concentrated beam, can raise temperatures high enough to start fire. The potential of the sun, when harnessed in this way, is immense: There is an old legend that Archimedes created a weapon that was used in 212 BC to burn Roman warships in a battle. In modern times, the typical method of using the sun to start fire, known by all, is the use of a magnifying glass. Depending on the size of the glass, more of the sun’s power can be harnessed – and I have even seen solar welding using a Fresnel lens a few feet in diameter! Ok, here’s the video – let us know what you think! Ps. SolTech’s Gorgeous Glass Tiles Heat Your Home With Solar Energy.
Alternative energy is known to be a lot of things – cutting edge, earth-friendly and forward thinking – but sadly looking pretty isn’t one of them.
Well SolTech is changing all that with their gorgeous glass solar-thermal roof tiles. As if it’s not cool enough that these transparent shingles are able to heat your home by using a simple system to store energy from the sun, they also look like a million bucks! How To Turn A Beer Can Into The Only Camping Stove You'll Ever Need.
How To Open A Can Without A Can Opener (Amazing) How To Make An Amazing DIY Portable Stove. Please Share This Page: Google + stumbleupon tumblr reddit If you are a first-time visitor, please be sure to like us on Facebook and receive our exciting and innovative tutorials and info!
When you are in the mood for an inexpensive but satisfying outdoor pastime in some mountainous area, to experience nature’s wonders, a wise backpacker knows very well the value of every square inch of space inside his or her bag. Truth be told, carrying a backpack isn’t the most fascinating and thrilling experience on any trip, especially on your poor, would-be-strained back muscles, but it is “part of the deal” of camping, backpacking, or travelling outdoors. Avid campers, picnickers, backpackers, and the like appreciate a great deal of portability and tend to rationally avoid pointless bulkiness. How to Make a Solar Food Dehydrater From… Beer Cans! Please Share This Page: Google + stumbleupon tumblr.
How to make your Rocket Stove more rockety (rocket stoves forum at permies) Everything seems to be going nicely here.
I do want to make the point that rocket mass heaters were not designed to maximize "rocketyness" (meaning WHOOOOSH factor). They are designed to minimize the amount of fuel you need, and most particularly the amount of smoke you create, in order to get a comfortable and practical heat for most indoor purposes. A faster draft in the heat riser might lead to unburned smoke being pulled through too quickly, and incomplete combustion. It's better than a big woodstove chimney, but still iffy.
A larger fuel box means the burn tunnel becomes a bottleneck. The one in the video was a cool experiment, but the occupants are having some trouble now with smoke escaping from the woodstove when they go to feed it, and planning to replace it with a 'real' rocket mass heater. A similar hybrid run by a forester friend in southern Oregon works fine, so it may just be a problem of that particular woodstove or the way we set it up. -Erica. $10 DIY One Hour Upcycled Firepit. Happy weekend to you.
Yesterday Joe and I wanted to do a fun and quick project for the house. We thought a firepit would be fun but didn’t like the looks of the ones sold at Home Depot and this geometric firepit at DWR is out of our budget. Eventually, Joe will design his own and fabricate it himself but since that will take a fair amount of time and energy we decided to make something quick in the interim. A few years ago while on a trip to Joshua Tree Joe’s friend Jens introduced him to the washing machine drum firepit. It’s a super-easy project and the design of the washing machine drum is perfect for a fire. Materials we used: 1 Recycled Washing Machine Drum (we got ours at a used appliance store for $10) Angle grinder (optional) Cup wire brush, Cut-off wheel, and Flap-wheel sanding disc (for grinder, also optional) Safety Glasses Angle-stock and Flat-stock steel (optional) High heat black paint (optional) Step One: Strip the drum.
Step 2: Remove center spindle. Step 3: Cut off metal lip.