How to Make an Adult Soapbox Kart

March 5, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: DIY, Gravity Powered Machines, Low-tech cars, Racing, Random

adult soapbox cart

“This guide will teach you the basic aspects you’ll need to consider to make yourself a road-worthy gravity-powered vehicle. Full suspension on gokart wheels, driver restraints, a ridgid frame with roll bar, and balanced drum brakes are features of the example kart I’ve built that weighs in at under 100lb.”

Of course, this thing only works downhill and is useless as a practical means of transport. But could we please get rid of the Indy 500 and the Formula One circus and race these karts instead? Seems like a lot more fun to me. Previously: DIY replicas of 1930s race cars.

Environmental Impacts of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

March 5, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: LEDs, Lighting, Random

leds environmental impact

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are advertised as environmentally friendly because they are energy efficient and mercury free. However, the material content of the LEDs, which generally include group III-V semiconductors, presents its own set of potential environmental impacts. The rapid growth in the LED industry implies that, ultimately, LEDs will contribute to the solid waste stream, and could impact resource availability, human health, and ecosystems in much the same way as generic electronic waste (e-waste) from computers and cell phones has generated concern in recent years.

Potential Environmental Impacts of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs): Metallic Resources, Toxicity, and Hazardous Waste Classification (pdf).

[Read more…]

DIY Book Scanning

March 3, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Books, DIY, Photography

Diy book scanner “Do-It-Yourself Book Scanning is using cheap, compact cameras and free software to scan books quickly and efficiently. DIY Book Scanners can be as simple as a camera and a piece of glass [PDF] or as involved as the Instructable that brought our community together [PDF / Vimeo]. We’ve come a long way since then. We have GPL-licensed laser cut designs, aluminum designs, and detailed instructions for beginners. We have built hundreds of scanners and freely shared thousands of design improvements.”

More at the DIY Book Scanning Community, a group of over 300 DIY’ers who believe that the future of digital books is too important to be decided solely by corporate interests. Related: DIY Book Binding & Kite Aerial Photography.

You Can’t Live With or Without Them: Clothes

March 3, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Air conditioning, Clothes, Heating appliances

Carl_Larsson_Model_writing_postcards_1906 Winter: Save on heating by insulating your body.
Summer: Save on AC by going naked.

A Second Skin for Bananas

March 3, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Bananas, Plastic, Trash

“Bananas come in the perfect package already, a disposable, compostable skin that doubles as a handy banana holder and instigator of vaudeville humor. But that’s not good enough for Del Monte.”

The Receding Horizons of Renewable Energy

March 3, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Solar, Wind turbines

Giant windmill 1 “Widespread installed renewable electricity capacity would be a very good resource to have available in an era of financial austerity at the peak of global oil production, but the mechanisms that have been chosen to achieve this are clearly problematic. They plug into, and depend on, a growth model that not longer functions. If we are going to work towards a future with greater reliance on renewable energy, there are a number of factors we must consider. These are not typically addressed in the simplistic subsidy programmes that are now running into trouble worldwide.

We have power systems built on a central station model, which assumes that we should build large power station distant from demand, on the grounds of economic efficiency, which favours large-scale installations. This really does not fit with the potential that renewable power offers. The central station model introduces a grid-dependence that renewable power should be able to avoid, revealing an often acute disparity between resource intensity, demand and grid capacity. Renewable power (used in the small-scale decentralized manner it is best suited for) should decrease grid dependence, but we employ it in such a way as to increase our vulnerability to socioeconomic complexity.

Giant windmill 2 Renewable energy is best used in situ, adjacent to demand. It is best used in conjunction with a storage component which would insulate consumers from supply disruption, but Feed-In Tariff (FIT) programmes typically prohibit this explicitly. Generators are expected to sell all their production to the grid and buy back their own demand. This leaves them every bit as vulnerable to supply disruption as anyone who does not have their own generation capacity. This turns renewable generation into a personal money generating machine with critical vulnerabilities. It is no longer about the energy, which should be the focus of any pubicly funded energy programme.

FIT programmes typically remunerate a wealthy few who install renewables in private applications for their own benefit, and who may well have done so in the absence of public subsidies. If renewables are to do anything at all to help run our societies in the future, we need to move from publicly-funded private applications towards public applications benefitting the collective. We do not have an established model for this at present, and we do not have time to waste. Maximizing renewable energy penetration takes a lot of time and a lot of money, both of which will be in short supply in the near future. The inevitable global austerity measures are not going to make this task any easier.”

Read more at The Automatic Earth. Pictures credit.