What Solarpunk changes have you made in your daily life?
I feel like I always think of solar punk as a macro thing where a lot has to change but there are still smaller wins we can implement, what have you been doing?
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Is taking an electric bus to the native plant gardens to take care of them solarpunk?
Absolutely!
Seems pretty solar punk to me.
I literally couldn't name many things more solarpunk than that
Lately, I've been teaching people how to repair their clothing! At least one guy has come to the conclusion that hand sewing is actually punk af, because knowing how to fix your shit is Sticking It To The Man.
'Thread Repair' is definitely less grandma-esque than 'sewing' or 'needle and stitch'.
Some youtuber somewhere is probably recording an introduction,
'Welcome to my thread repair lab. This is where we pull, push, and stretch fabric to the limit....'
It writes itself! Theres a whole youtube channel in this!
The need to de-centre women from traditionally female technologies, crafts and occupations in order to appeal and cater to men's interests, is kinda upsetting though.
I'm really torn on it because on one hand, if calling it Thread Repair could get more people (especially men) to participate, that's a good thing! I also just like the sound of thread repair XD On the other hand... maybe men should learn to be interested in things that aren't personally catered to their tiny baby feelings. Get over it and fix your damn socks.
I dunno. I'm also eternally torn between "men created toxic masculinity and they need to fix it themselves, not expect women to do it for them" and "men need the women in their lives to help them escape toxic masculinity because we're outside it (for the most part) and everyone needs help sometimes"
Yeah, interesting for me that you picked up the masculinity still.
In that comment I actually considered that because I had written something like 'inject masculinity' into it. But as I wrote, I thought its not just young men, but women as well, much like yourself. So I tried to de-masculine it and make it about dropping the old person connotations.
I suppose I's not very successful in that. I think its the faux quote at the end that just reads so much like every male teenfluencer ever. 😆
Yeah, fuck all the female dominated histories of all the various textile cultures around the world, someone on the internet told me it was men who probably did it first, and women obviously just copied them! So if men want to get into textiles again now they have every right to push out any reminder of women ever being involved!
Just to be clear, the above paragraph is sarcasm. Exasperated but unsurprised, sarcasm.
On the other hand, the SciShow episode about knitting was so upsettingly wrong that Hank Green took it down, so I'm not particularly inclined to trust him on this topic. He angered the entire fiber art community by talking about how nobody understood knitting until scientists looked at it, which is actually pretty sexist.
@faythofdragons @Capitanmaroon
Good for them for realizing the truth, because It *IS* punk af.
And also awesome.
@faythofdragons @Capitanmaroon plus you can sew on punk patches 🤔
@faythofdragons @Capitanmaroon
Knowing how to fix your stuff should be something people focus on way more than we do these days.
I'm in no way proficient at all, but I made sure to know how to:
- hand stitch fallen buttons
- hand stitch rips in jeans, etc, so they at least stop growing :D
- operate a (foot powered)sewing machine (last thing I "fixed" was a sleeping bag whose lining was ripping and the fluff inside was all loose. Ugly, but functional again. Punk!)
- knit (both with needles, and those knitting looms. Don't ask me to make anything other than scarfs/hats :D)
I also love the "analog" sewing machine we bought from an old couple and that I brought with us when moving hundreds of km away. We don't use it much, but even the machine itself is a work of art!
As someone else said: "knitting is manly as fuck. It's like welding, but for your clothes"
I do a lot more food related DIY stuff, like balcony gardening, food preservation (bought from local farmers directly), planning to grow mushrooms etc.
Oh mushrooms, I wish I had time to get back to those!
I bought a mushroom log last year that was sprouting so I harvested it. I haven't got anything else from it since last spring. I'm bummed because I love mushrooms
Some mushrooms can be shocked into fruiting by dropping the log into a bucket of cold water for a few hours. Probably worth having a search to see if that's relevant for the mushrooms you have.
Good idea!! I they grow in colder weather so I will have to wait. I think the log dried out maybe
Where goblincore swamp and solarpunk forest meet, where the sacred grove is being tended, the bog creature has been up to this:
Love ALL of this! LoL, just starting to make friends in the GoblinCore. <3
I hear you on the joyful creative work. I am only recently starting to write again after all the energy and joy was sapped out of me by survival. Here's to finding ourselves again <3
Moving my technological dependencies from big tech companies to self-hosted, open source solutions, running Linux on my machines etc.
Gardening on my balcony. I am growing tomatoes, broad beans, peppers (chilis, bell) and an assortment of salads and herbs. I am mostly self-sufficient on herbs, during growing season I am fully self-sufficient on salads. Pretty far from it on tomatoes and peppers, and especially on beans as they are not fruiting :(
In general getting more in touch with local flora. I've been photographing flowering plants in my neighborhood lately and identifying them, trying to learn what grows around here. Goal is to be quite well-versed in local flora, including what is edible (and how to use it) and not
Contributing to OpenStreetMap, both in my neighborhood and also through tasks.hotosm.org where I help trace missing buildings in disaster-struck places for first-responders to use (and in preparation for possible disasters in the future). This kind of collaborative project I find to be very solarpunky.
Living in a rented apartment, there is only so much I can make changes here. There was an initiative to install solar panels, but it was voted down for some reason - not being an owner, I am not involved in those discussions. Dream is to find a small house outside the city to expand my garden and to become as off-grid as possible.
I'd never heard of OpenStreetMap and I've gone down the rabbit hole since last night - this is cool as hell, thank you for introducing me!!
Nice, cool to hear!
I have two favorite navigational applications that utilizes OSM-data: Organic Maps/CoMaps (there's a lot of drama here that you can read up on if it interests you, but CoMaps was forked from Organic Maps after some mismanagement of funds was uncovered) for a clean, simple and quick navigation experience and OsmAnd~ for a very tailored experience that takes some time to get into, but gives you a way to set up different profiles for walking, hiking, cycling, public transport, driving etc. The premium version with a full feature set (~) can be purchased in Apple Store and Google Play Store, but is offered for free through F-Droid on Android.
I mentioned tasks.hotosm.org. Here is a cool writeup of the project which introduced me to it just some weeks ago, which was posted somewhere on Lemmy: https://sheets.works/data-viz/strangers-draw-maps
I also use StreetComplete to solve some outstanding questions about features in the neighborhoods I walk in, such as the quality of the road surfaces, whether a street is lit or not and speed limits. Organized as small tasks that show up as icons on the map. Kinda like a Pokémon Go-experience, as [email protected] described it as. There's another one called Every Door that is supposed to be better for adding information about points of interests (shops, restaurants, monuments, drinking fountains, etc. etc.). I have not tried that yet. I also have Verspucci installed that is a more full-fledged editor for Android, for when I want to make more detailed edits. A bit steeper learning curve. I have not used it that much yet, but I did update some very out-of-date restaurants in a city I visited earlier this Summer.
I use it a little like Pokémon Go. Just download an app and complete the map!
Who throws out a kitchen aid mixer? That shit is expensive and fancy
I know, right?!
It doesn't run, but I haven't dug into it yet to figure out what's actually wrong with it. (First world problems: we've already got a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, so getting it working isn't particularly urgent. This bowl-lift one would be a slight upgrade from our Artisan, though.)
Still, I'm pretty sure these things are a holdover from back when things were designed for repairability instead of planned obsolescence, so I have little doubt that it's fixable for a lot less than the cost to replace it.
I know the motors are supposedly super high quality. I wouldn't know how to fix one but I am sure it's going to be worth the effort. Especially if you sell it as used afterwards
I was thinking of custom-painting it (like Alton Brown did to his mixer) and keeping it.
Even better
I looooove curb shopping. Ninety percent of my house is furnished with curb finds (the rest is thrifting finds)
° Eating plant-based & living vegan
° Going car-free while using an e-bike
° Reducing consumption habits while lowering waste production & plastic use
° Long-term goal of owning land & building off-grid, renewables-powered tiny home ♡
Out of genuine curiosity, do you carry around feces mixed with water in your car or is there another method?
Let's see...
Nothing else I can think of off the top of my head
I like your mini bike repair service!
Its fun! And I show the kids and parents what I'm doing, which tools I need to do it, etc. Its mostly simple stuff too, like adjusting tension on a brake, set screw for the limit on the derailleur, or patching a tube and pointing out to not forget to check the tire before you put the tube back in. More annoying tubes (or if I'm out of patches) I pop into a small bin to patch later, I have a couple spares for 20" (kid size), including the ones I patched up since the last time.
I also really like that everyone kind of learns that these tubes are for everyone, you won't necessarily get the same one back, and it really doesn't matter because you've still got a working tire again. Good for the kids to learn that it doesn't matter, and honestly good for some of the parents to learn that too.
Since I started doing it another dad has been learning too, and started doing the same thing. Though anything he's not sure about he tells them to ask me.
Plus a really good way to meet a lot of the people in the area, I like doing it
Whatt it even inspired a copy-cat? That’s some wholesome community building and a good use of little league hours too
We were at the playground and one of the other parents asked me about my bike because my wife told her how much I liked bikes.
He said he'd need to ask me some questions because of a problem, I told him it was easy and described it and said I could bring my tools by (the playground is like two blocks from me, his house is like 4), and he got excited and asked if I knew what sizes he needed and that he would do it.
He just kind of got into it after fixing his son's bike, bought a set of on the go tools to take with him when they all went for a ride, and he just... Kept going with it lol
So if I'm there doing my thing and another kid needs help he gets his tools out and helps too.
This community has always been really friendly, and I think things like the portable bike repair just adds onto it! I'm hoping to see more stuff like this happen, though I'm not sure what just yet.
We did see a few little libraries put in around town at the parks recently, and I've been chatting with others about natural lawns, so we'll see where it goes next!
Potato IS Life! LoL
Electrification is a big topic. But you can always start with little things like changing to an electric mower instead of a gasoline powered one. Community work is also important, but I honestly don't know where to start...
May I share a post recently from our own slrpnk.net? @Pencilnoob shared a bunch of info about volunteering with local fire squads that I found really insightful! Turns out it's not all about running into burning buildings c: https://slrpnk.net/post/40223075
Organic gardening including composting
Shop the Co-Op and Farmer's Market - diet is mostly organic vegetarian
Ride Bikes
Drive an EV when needed + solar panels on the roof - It's like riding on sunshine!
I avoid un-neccessary travel.
Enjoy "The Great Outdoors"
Connect with my like minded community (getting off corporate social media is a piece of this)
I've just come across the term Solar Punk in the past year or so. A lot of SP has been what I've felt was the best way to live harmoniously on the Earth. I'm still learning, and hope to continue.
All of this sounds great, especially +1 for avoiding unnecessary travel! A lot of people start to drive more once they get an EV, as it's "more eco-friendly", in the worst case creating a rebound-effect. It takes willpower and thoughtfulness not to fall into that behaviour
An EV is never going to be more efficient than a bike or walking. My EV's mass is enormous compared to my bike or a pair of sneakers. I don't know about willpower, for me, as bikes are so fun to ride.
I was thinking I haven't made much progress but writing it down, I have a few going right now.
So I am making some progress but plently to go. I want to try to reduce my food waste but I haven't gotten in the practice of saving or drying things when getting low.
If you've got a young'n:
It takes something like 500 years for a store bought disposable diaper to decompose in a landfill, and we use billions of them every year.
If one can use cloth, I say one should.
We did use some disposables throughout (mostly for logistical reasons) but we still saved 5,000+ diapers fron landfill.
Our daughter is 10 months so we're just starting looking for bikes. I was thinking about getting a long tail because that's what people around us seem to be using.
I know cloth diapers are better for the environment I just can't.
Cloth diapers can definitely be hard if you dont have on-site laundry. We were lucky enough to live somewhere with a diaper service when we didn't have laundry.
We have on site laundry but I already do so much laundry.
I'd like to tell you it gets better...
With laundry? Or everything? Let me keep the surprise
Do you have any resources for the herbalism practice? That sounds extremely cool
Of course. I have done most of my learning via books and trial and error. The first book I got was The Healing Garden which is written by an herbalists who does an online classes which I haven't done except the free ones. The book is beautiful and totally worth owning and will go over everything from organic herbal hardening, wildcrafting best practices, creating medicines and species highlights. Most books have the same categories as well.
I also recommend anything and everything by Rosemary Gladstar. She is a giant in the field and has lots of small densely packed books. I have her Medicinal Herbs and Herbal Healing for me both of which are great. Her herbal healing for men is the only men specific herbalism book I've seen.
If you need to buy herbs see if you have a local shop. They are usually listed as metaphysical stores which contains Tarot decks, crystals etc. some are good for herbs and some are bad. You will have to check them out yourself. Online Mountain Rose Herbs is amazing. Be careful elsewhere because some online shops are sketchy and are not giving you good herbs or worst of all something completely different. The best is growing it yourself or buying high quality culinary herbs. (A lot of culinary herbs have medicinal qualities usually at higher doses but can still be part of a dish).
All the books have more resources and there's tons of ways to go. All the books are modern Western herbalists which combine multiple historical traditions which is typical. But you can deep dive into specific traditions as well (Chinese medicine, ayurvedic, traditional European herbs, indigenous etc.). Follow the references.
The only watch out I will give you is this. A herbalist should never use only essential oils for treatments. That is a scam and usually a MLM. Full plants are preferred and essential oils are usually just used for smells. Second, they should be a supplement to standard Western medicine and not a replacement. It covers gaps within that system (chronic issues, preventative medicine, quality of life, etc.) and should still be used. Most herbalists think of that as hero medicine for the big things while herbs do the rest.
Have fun!!!!
Cheers to using the library!! I don't go often but I do love my Libby app
A lot of our life has been trending solarpunk for decades; we just finished processing the early crop of cooking apples, from two trees, and gave away the surplus, for instance.
But notably utopian design stuff: we're building a bathroom with a composting toilet and greywater drainage.
Heating in the bathroom will be by on-demand infrared panel, and the small multipurpose building with the bathroom is getting a heat pump. Construction is mostly new materials but we did manage to reuse a lot of salvage.
I've been reducing my technology dependence and usage. Does that count?
absolutely!!
I already had a professionally installed solar system on my roof, but the capacity isn’t great (12 years old) and adding to it isn’t feasible. I do have a pergola over my backyard patio, so I bought 4 new (and large) panels, an off-grid inverter, and 5kWh battery. I put the panels on the pergola, ran wiring into the garage, and hooked up the inverter and battery in there. I then wired one of my level 1 chargers to the inverter. I use it to help charge my cars. I try to plug the charger in during the day as much as we can to charge the cars directly, but the 5 kWh server rack battery is there to soak up electrons when the cars are in use.
I thought about skipping the server rack battery for a cheaper setup, but it’s been worth it considering how often a car isn’t available to charge directly. It’s not integrated into the house circuits, so no permit needed.
My wife’s family has property out in the forest (Navajo reservation) with a house that doesn’t have running water or power, so we’re going to start fixing it up for her mom to live there (she recently retired) and will be setting up an off-grid power solution and water system soon. We’ll have to haul water from the nearest chapter house, but there’s a program to provide and install a 1200 gallon storage tank underground that we’ll use. Probably augment that with a rainwater catchment setup. Maybe even start raising sheep again, no one in her family has used their grazing rights for years, since her grandmother passed away. My wife spent many summers at that property. Used to be summer only due to the snow and dirt roads, but thanks to global warming, it’s a viable year-round housing site now.
Buying secondhand over new. I love thrifting so that's a bonus for me! Also using what I have, repairing what I can, or just going without something versus buying something in the first place.
Eating less meat, and prioritizing locally grown veg when possible.
Taking public transit, walking, or biking everywhere. If going long distance, I try to take ground transportation (trains, buses) over flying.
Reducing energy use eg turning off lights when I'm not in the room. You'd be surprised how many people still don't do that, haha!
I'm still building the habit of turning lights off when leaving a room hehe. I've learned a lot about those little things recently - turning the lights off, stopping the dishwasher before the dry cycle, and someone below said that a computer uses less energy when the screen brightness is down so I'm doing that now too c:
Also seconding on thrifting, it's so much fun!! I also love repairing.
Besides gardening? I built a low-power, right-sized server out of an ancient phone. It draws around a watt of power, less when idle.
Any DIY links that you have found are useful for this (before I start re’searching’. )
I don't have any handy "start to finish" guides for this. I suppose I should start a blog, or something :)
Basic steps:
nmtuito enter your WiFi password.Now this is something I haven't done, but you could - hook it up to a solar panel. Rely on solar during the day, and on the phone battery until it lasts. Write a shell script / cronjob / systemd unit to suspend the phone when battery level gets low. It'll get a wakeup event from hardware, when solar comes back (hopefully).
What are you using it for?
Offsite monitoring. It runs Prometheus, Grafana, etc, and watches the rest of my selfhostables. Sends me alerts when stuff goes down.
I purchase as much of my produce as possible from a farm co-op
I try to walk for errands as much as possible rather than drive
I’m slowly learning basic electronics repair
I have a small hydroponic garden that just about meets my salad needs
@Capitanmaroon we replaced our front lawn with raised garden beds a few years ago. Do we grow a lot? No. Are we especially good at gardening? Gosh no. But tonight I went outside, picked a cucumber and a handful of tomatoes, and really enjoyed my dinner. Planning on setting up a little table soon so we can give away any tomatoes beyond what we can use.
This is me, but instead of eating my delicious peppercinis a bunch of hornwoms devour the whole goddamn plant.
I had a squash borer absolutely decimate my pie pumpkins and cucumbers. Ot was awful T.T
that's so cool!! I would much rather have tomatoes than a lawn. Also very cool that you're giving away your tomatoes - I think I'll try something like that with my basil!
I picked up an old used SFF (Small Form Factor) office PC a couple years ago to use as my daily driver instead of my gaming PC. Based on a Kill-o-watt power usage meter, my gaming PC would idle at around 40w, while the office PC (with a fairly power efficient i7-7700 and integrated graphics) idles at 10w, so 3x more efficient. Now I only ever boot up the gaming PC when I actually need its performance. As a side bonus, the DDR3 RAM it uses is still very affordable on the used market. It browses the web and plays videos really well, and even plays most games I'm interested in nowadays :)
For anyone else interested in doing that, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are the big makers of those SFF PC's, and they can generally be had pretty cheaply on eBay, but you can also sometimes find them locally at recycling facilities or the local dump drop-off area. You may want to avoid anything older than the 6000 series of Intel CPU's, since the older ones don't support modern video codecs (meaning they'll use more power playing youtube videos, decoding them on the CPU itself instead of the build-in decoder), and they aren't as power efficient overall.
I also found that reducing your monitor's brightness to around 50 to 60% reduces power usage significantly, though that may not be viable if you are in a room that gets very bright.
I reduced power usage significantly by running a small e-ink monitor for reading/writing and office tasks. It uses so little energy that I can't even notice a difference in the power meter.
Also, for the people that keep the pc on most of the time, you're probably going to have the same overall experience if you activate auto suspend
Never thought to use an e-ink display as a monitor, great idea!
Also 100% worth using auto suspend :D
I've been lucky enough to be able to get a rooftop solar set up and battery for my house. I absolutely love it. We've barely used the grid since it's gone up, only our electric shower draws too much for the inverter/ battery to provide it all, everything else runs off solar. It's been especially good in the UK recently with the weather because it means I can run my (also recently purchased) portable aircon without feeling guilty. Makes me feel happy every time the sun is shining.
I keep thinking about getting a ground rod installed so I can run totally off grid.
We're trying to eat less meat and having at least a couple meals per week with veggies or fish as the main. We've reduced how much landfill waste we produce and are recycling more.
I'm also from the UK. Could I ask for a recommendation and price range for your panels? I love the idea of it and know the upfront costs are high but haven't actually looked into it.
Of course. We have been with Octopus for a while now for our energy and went with them for solar because of good offers and finance deals. The price dropped quite a lot in the year or so we were looking. In March this year we got 10 panels a 10kW battery and a 5kW inverter for a little over £9k. We also picked a finance deal which worked out about £300 a month so it was affordable for us, that's not including the electric buy back or the fact we don't have an electric bill currently so it's actually cheaper. For comparison we looked about 8 months before and they had 10 panels a 5kW battery and a smaller inverter for £13k admittedly on an interest free finance deal, our current one is not interest free. So the prices keep coming down.
Boycotting big business/unethical anti competitive practices. Businesses that lobby or have lobbied (aka legal bribery) for Republican officials or AIPAC democrats.
Easier said than done when you live in a rural area that only has a Walmart :-/
I try to be mindful of my purchases as much as possible but sometimes your only option is Walmart and that's okay!
I ride a bike to work, compost, recycle, repair wherever possible, have a small solar panel array and battery bank with plans to expand, and grow some food. I also have a semi-wild yard (there's some grass, but mostly it's clovers and edible stuff) and am pretty big on nature in general.
I find it odd that legally it seems to be easier to live in a van than it is to buy some woodland and live there. You can buy the woodland and build a cabin just fine but its living in it that is near impossible to do legally.
I've put solar panels everywhere.
On my house, on my tent, even on my hat.
Nothing beats getting free energy from the sun. Found some cheap solar power banks that I repurpose for all kinds of things.
Talk to me about these cheap power banks - what kind of cheap are we looking at here?
20€ for 3 solar panels and a powerbank.
https://www.conrad.com/en/p/voltcraft-solar-charger-5w-powerbank-capacity-mah-ah-4000-mah-2127239.html
The powerbank itself isn't that big. But it charges fully in 4 hours and it is really easy to cut them up and extend the cables to put the solar panels wherever you want. And it powers every USB device.
You could also theoretically solder the panels in parallel to charge even faster. But I just connected 2 of the powerbanks with a USB splitter to get 1 USB output.
They also charge the powerbank with the slightest of light. Even just a light bulb is enough for it to start charging, lol.
Is it worth it to have panels without direct sun in your opinion? I would like to test one of these plug-n-play offgrid balcony kit but I'm not sure.
It will charge for sure, just not optimally.
For low power applications or where you have plenty of time it is totally fine.
When it relies on only indirect sunlight, you can still get 50% of the power generation.
About ten years ago, when I built my house, I decided that solar power would suffice. It did not - got a grid connection last year - but solar power is giving me the biggest part, so my grid connection is a laughable 3 x 6 amps. :)
Around 2009 or so, a fellow anarchist linked an ecological footprint calculator in a forum. I ran it, and found out that 60% of my footprint came from driving a lot (I don't fly, except for flying drones), and most of that from buying fuel. So I built an electric moped-car. But I built it wrong and had to dismantle it, sell the metal for scrap and build another. It lasted a few years, then I was forced to switch to a temporary gas-powered microvan. When the microvan broke down, I spotted an auction: someone was selling an electric microcar which the social ministry had crashed. So I got it, managed to fix it, and finally I could produce my own fuel for driving. The road here has obviously been steep and littered with failed projects, but now I can even support other folks who drive that kind of stupidly made microcars, while I bide my time to build a proper electric moped-car.
I am working on the part of communications - not being a passive consumer but giving some and getting some in return. Found out that some folks have started experimenting with MeshCore and MeshTastic in my town, so I intend to join those nets and see if they're usable for chatting with a friend.
I am also working on other kinds of communications (agile ultra wideband frequency hopping with SDR) but sadly, this is less solarpunk and more like miltech.
Also check out Reticulum, while there.
I compost, dumpster dive, and collect manure to the point of weirdness at work. I'm trying to garden. I've got a bunch of chickens and a few goats. I take people in when they're in bad situations. I'm trying to get solar and an EV. Sold my diesel pickup. (I really did need it for my last job. But not anymore.) Now I'm carless except for a work truck I'm not allowed to use for personal business. I do have an ebike. My career is in renewable energy. I'm stockpiling material I've collected to try and build an earthship in the next year or so.
Thank you for being a good person!
For me I admit not as much as I'd like.
I was unable to get solar panels for my house, due to the city's rulings. My house being a dome lacks a traditional roof for solar panels, and the city has a lot of strict rulings against solar panels not on roofs, mostly because the city council hates solar energy. Of course, I have small solar panels with power stations in the yard.
The house also is specifically one that is efficient for such purposes, and we practice dressing it up during the year. Currently we have blackout curtains over the windows that get hotter during the day-time barring the south-facing in my office, where I simply close that door. We also have curtains over hallways. While we have to use a rolling air conditioner due to the house's setup, we focus on only cooling the room that we are in or sleep in during the day-time, and during the night even if it is still 70s to 80s outside, we do what we can do to cool the rest of the house.
I have my own garden I grow vegetables and herbs in, as well as having an indoor garden in a south-facing window with a trellis shelf I built. I am able to grow plants year round. I pickle, dehydrate, and similar methods for everything I grow for the purposes of usage throughout the year, including using the brine from pickling for recipes. Also we make stuff during the night-time and put it to cool, making it able to be eaten several meals instead of every meal-time turning on a stove and cooking.
My spouse and I both have knowledge on repair, both around the house but also clothing, adding our own bits of charm when needed. I also have experience with repairing my bicycle as well as repairing my car, having been a mechanic in the past.
To add about the dressing house up or down,
During the last winter even when it was snowing and in the single-digits outside, we didn't have to turn on the heating for the house using the boiler. By dressing the house up, and ourselves dressing up a bit, the house was plenty warm and comfortable.
Can you solder? You could probably go that route if you don't mind losing your round(?) dome aesthetics. I've seen some adaptations where regular rails were put in place and then additional supports soldered into the structure to lift it up and fit into irregular areas
Soldering alone wouldn't work. The house is a monolithic dome, so it has over 20 inches of concrete for the outer most dome layer. I'd have to drill with masonry bolts and risk cracking the concrete of the house for it.
Only real thing is I have become an EV enjoyer since february. Buying a brand new EV felt intense but I am happy I did. Sending a strong signal to the market, to the utilities and to society is important imo.
I can't think of small things which probably means I should look for them.
I'm most proud of the balcony garden, if we're being honest. I've never gardened a single time before but my tomato plants are apparently growing me some tomatoes and that's insane. Truthfully, most of what I've grown (tomatoes) isn't offsetting what I'd buy, but learning about the natural world has been really special given that my disabilities mean I can't really go foraging or hiking or anything like that. It's also given me the opportunity to say hi to my neighbors when they're outside!
Does it count if I already did it? Could say being car free, I suppose I am by choice now.
I bought a portable solar panel and used it for like 2 days, before I stopped due to theft risk. Might start again, once we have the new camera around.
While I'm not a very community focused person, finally grokking that everyone I see around where I live are real people that I'm in community with, has changed not just how I think of them but how I treat them.
Especially people I might not agree with, or my addict or unhoused neighbours. It's pretty cool how just being genuine and open with people will change in turn their entire demeanor towards you.
I don't know if I'd really call these solar punk, but here's a few things I've done.
My yard is clover, not grass. I barely mow it. I know it so little the city "politely" informs me when it's time. (Pro tip: Don't use red clover. Use white clover.) I also leave my leaves in place, the most I do is mow them to chop 'em up. The bees love the flowers. The lightning bugs seem to love it as well, I've noticed more. I attribute this to the leaves.
I replaced my water heater last year because it broke. It was electric. My new one is a heat pump. It's cheaper to run. Plus, as a free side effect, it cools off and dehumidifies the basement. I'm not sure how much cooling and dehumidifying it really accomplishes, but I generally have a dehumidifier running down there anyways to help combat humidity.
So far I've mostly changed how I do stuff, rather than what i do. Electric car instead of ICE, Bike and train for commuting, Solarpanels and 20kWh batteries for most of my summer time energy needs.
At work I have more possibility to make a difference, though. So far I've had batteries introduced (solar was already norm) as an accessory to "our" buildings, I've gotten 2 thermal batteries (sand) built and are currently investigating building mounted small scale wind power. Among other things.
Could you please talk a little about the sand battery? What is that?
It is basically an isolated heat trap for excess electricity/heat during the summer to be used during winter. It is rather like ground heat except for a few notable differences:
The cons are obvious:
The pros:
Cost wise, for the tenants, it's no difference, as the lower running costs of the battery is predicted to out weight the extra cost of capital, but in an emergency the house will be much easier to keep light and warm. The plan is to fit the house with batterier and V2G EV-chargers.
Thanks for this!
Planted some native plants in my garden, been taking care of that more, growing my own veggies and helping in a community garden, donating old clothes I don't need any more and repairing clothing and apparel, sharing plants with friends.
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@Capitanmaroon
Plant based diet, because growing crops and eating them is way more efficient (around 10x on a per calorie basis) than growing crops, feeding them to animals and eating the animals or their eggs/milk. Although the real reason I started down that path was first developing an appreciation for shelf stable vegan ingredients while I had an untrustworthy refrigerator, and then a pet rat dying in my arms and thinning the veil for me where bodies are concerned.
Trying to garden but so far we're just helping the local rabbits develop a more refined palette XD so I pivoted to removing the invasive bamboo as the main project for the rest of the summer. Hoping to put in some native bushes to help hold the hillside together with the bamboo gone, and then grow flowers so my wife and I can give each other flowers that haven't been shipped long distances.
Filling more of my "very specific thing" situations from used or no longer in production stuff on ebay, and less specific things from thrifting.
@Capitanmaroon Or in one case the recycle bin; I've been Dissatisfied with the watering cans we have, and my wife's drinking lots of lemonade that comes in gallon jugs, so I asked her to save jugs for me and now I have a gallon watering can each for the porch and the garage. Will probably try to replace yearly so the plastic leeching doesn't get too crazy.