Category: cooking, domestic hot water

  • How to build a simple solar thermal water collector

    In august, during the “Do It Yourself 2.0” workshops set up by Cohabitat, I ran a workshop in which I taught how to build a simple and affordable solar thermal collector that is suitable for domestic hot water. Of course I made a lot of video and photos so that I could edit it all […]

  • My off-grid homestead ideas (2): heating, ventillation and domestic hot water

    Last week I wrote here how I plan my off-grid house to be built. Today I will explain in more details my ideas on how to supply heat to the house, how to ventillate it and how to make domestic hot water. In my climate the most of the energy our houses use goes to […]

  • Using propane is not off-grid!

    Couple of days ago I heard that many people who want to live off-grid simply move away from the gas supply network and get their gas from another source. They substitute their natural gas (used in furnaces, hot water heaters and kitchen stoves) with propane or buthane (or LPG). That’s weird, ’cause if you use […]

  • History of Solar Energy Usage

    We often think that modern societies were the first to use solar energy. Not true! Early cave dwellers preferred caves that had openings facing southeasterly that allowed the morning sun to warm them up without overheating in the warm months.  Native Americans in the Southwest oriented their pueblo dwellings.  So the low winter sun would […]

  • Peak Oil Survival – review

    Today I read the last page of the book Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash, another Amazon purchase. Since I planned to post here every week, it’s a great I have something to write about. The book’s title indicates that it’s about preparing for living after the electrical grid crashes. It’s not a […]