Journal of the New Alchemists

April 25, 2014

Appropriate Technology, Aquaculture, Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Water and Power

“Six-Pack” Backyard Solar Greenhouse, 1975. Image: Journal of the New Alchemy. After reading an article by Paul Ehrlich, “Eco-Catastrophe!,” Nancy Todd turned to her husband John and said, “We must do something.” The year was 1969 and the Todds along with Bill McLarney went on to found the New Alchemy Institute. History repeats itself. What the New Alchemists did, in response to the 1970s era energy crisis and political instability, sounds a lot...

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Airing Our Dirty Laundry

Mr. Homegrown

November 5, 2006

Domesticus

3 Comments

...ng hot sun of Los Angeles, it makes perfect sense to use our region’s free solar power. So why air dry? Let’s do the math. Assuming our (gas powered) dryer uses an average of .22 therms of natural gas per load at our gas company Sempra Energy’s August rate of 59 cents per therm, by using our clothes line we achieve the admittedly not too impressive savings of 17 cents per load. If we had an electric dryer we figure that the cost would be about 44...

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Saturday Tweets: Cheap Heaters, Paper Airplanes and Lost Ornaments

Mr. Homegrown

November 7, 2015

Saturday Linkages

3 Comments

Solar-OSE: Solar concentrator for steam generation https://t.co/bj8QmXxG6t — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 6, 2015 Cheapest Heater In The World Version 2. Bigger, Better, Hotter . https://t.co/bTmzTutTWX — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 6, 2015 Citizen Maths: free/open adult math education for practical real-world numeracy https://t.co/n4IvJEytGn — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 3, 2015 Gorgeous book of paper airplanes collected by a...

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Saturday Linkages: Fire Plows, Kite Fishing and Roundup-Ready Turfgrass

Mr. Homegrown

February 15, 2014

Saturday Linkages

14 Comments

...d Forest: Clever Solution or Future Flop? by Evelyn Hadden http://feedly.com/e/6x1OCfMz Coming soon – Roundup-Ready Turfgrass | Garden Rant http://gardenrant.com/2014/02/coming-soon-round-up-ready-turfgrass.html … Author Builds Tiny Solar-Powered Off Grid Cabin for Under 2000 http://inhabitat.com/author-builds-tiny-solar-powered-off-grid-cabin-for-under-2000/lamar-alexander-off-grid-cabin-2/ … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitte...

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Bubble Wrap Your Windows

Mr. Homegrown

December 16, 2006

Domesticus

Photo by Nick Lowe From the remarkable folks at Build It Solar comes this heating conservation tip – bubble wrap your windows. Simply cut sheets of bubble wrap to fit your windows, apply some water with a spray bottle and before it dries stick the bubble wrap on the glass. While you can buy special bubble wrap designed for greenhouses, according to Build It Solar, regular bubble wrap will probably work just as well. If you number the pieces you u...

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