From the Neolithic to the beginning of the twentieth century, coppiced woodlands, pollarded trees, and hedgerows provided people with a sustainable supply of energy, materials, and food.
Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Soviet citrologists grew (sub)tropical plants in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius – outdoors, and without the use of glass or any fossil fuel-powered assistance.
We present our website’s energy and uptime data, calculate the embodied energy of our configuration, consider the optimal balance between sustainability and server uptime, and outline possible improvements.
During the last months we have been working on transforming Low-tech Magazine into a multilingual publication.
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known.
The second volume features a third of the web articles published in the earlier years, carefully selected for their continued relevance and interest today.
The water and energy use of the mist shower is so low that the bathroom could be taken off-grid and off-pipe even in an urban context.
A wooden rotor and tower greatly increase the net energy output over the lifetime of a small wind turbine.
If we build them out of wood, large wind turbines could become a textbook example of the circular economy.
Read Low-tech Magazine with no access to a computer, a power supply, or the internet.
Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system.