Kind of curious what tech people own, everything from small to big tech. Assuming solarpanels are a given for a lot of peeps here, or maybe will be in the future. But what other tech do you own that you’re happy with?
A stack of ewaste laptops I’m fixing up to give away, and this jailbroken Chromebook I reinstalled with Alpine Linux which has become my writing computer whenever I’m out and about.
Wow! Thanks for sharing! LOVE that logo you spray painted onto the laptop - a nice touch. Did you design the logo yourself too? It should totally be the logo for the Solarpunk Technology Community!
Thanks! I pulled it from one of the more popular solarpunk flags. Out of all the ones I’ve seen, many of which feature the sun-and-gear motif in some configuration, it’s my favorite symbol for the movement; It’s very simple and visually clear, and easy to render with one color.
Hell yeah, saving this for later use! :)
Also; had never heard of Movim before, seems like quite the cool project - am also planning on startin my own blog so this might be the perfect solution for me :)
Movim is awesome! PoVoq put a bunch of work into getting it set up and linked with Lemmy so if you have an account here, you can just start using the microblogging platform too! I use WordPress for my art and writing and Movim for my making-and-fixing-type projects, and I mostly prefer Movim - the interface is nice, it’s free, doesn’t spatter everything I write with gross ads, and it’s not corporate. I’d very much recommend it.
That’s interesting, thanks for sharing that platform. I’m in the process of setting up a plot of herbs for folks at the local community garden and I’d like to have a simple website for people to go to get information on each of the herbs for harvest/storage/recipes/etc, and am hitting a wall on what platform to use for this.
For longform blogs we host Movim (which is also a nice federated chat app for Jabber/XMPP) and in addition we have a Dokuwiki where community moderators can make a dedicated wiki. Both are integrated with our Lemmy instance here, so you can just use your existing account user and password to log in.
This is one of those situations where I wish you were local so I could give you produce and pickles & jams in exchange to pick your brain on this :)
On first glance: So I could hypothetically make a community here, eg. ‘the community herb plot,’ and direct people to posts on French Tarragon et. al. via links/QR codes in that community (instance? Is that the right term?)…? If people wanted to post a question they’d have to sign up, though, I imagine…?
I don’t think I need to have a long form blog on this; there’s probably 74 different herb societies that would have a page for French Tarragon that I could possibly link to, but it’d be nice for folks to be able to ask questions, share additional information, etc in the post containing that link.
Feel free to poke holes in this…or tell me to bugger off…or say “yes, but…” or whatever 🙂
Yes, for example there is /c/balconygardening here on the SLRPNK Lemmy and all the moderators of that community with an SLRPNK account can also edit the community specific wiki over here: https://wiki.slrpnk.net/balconygardening:start
These permisions are automatic and you can create as many wiki pages as you like under the specific wiki namespace.
Edit: Let me see if there is a nice QR code externsion for Dokuwiki that I can add. Edit: Ah: if you click on the menu and select “Export as PDF” the resulting PDF also includes a QR code to the page already.
Edit2: after reading your post again: yes you can of course also just link to external already existing website in a new Lemmy community that you create here.
whoa, thanks a bunch, I think this might be the way forward…plus one can’t underestimate the cool factor of having slrpnk.net/c/whatever I figure out to call it as a web address that a bunch of oldies are scanning/clicking on :D (semi /s implied - I might be able to breadpill a few)
Really appreciate your input ✊
Edit: behold, the initial beginnings: https://slrpnk.net/c/plot18 (I’m not overly creative when it comes to naming stuff)
- Renault EV hacked with OVMS and mostly running on locally produced electricity. Runs 80 km/h, seats two and always finds a parking spot.
- Kon-Tiki Oven to produce bio charcoal which we use a lot to make our soil somewhat less compact.
- Small Solar Power Roofs to keep the rain or the sun away when sitting on the bench (one can be seen behind the car).
- Total of about 50 kWp Solar, which we enjoy a lot - produces reasonable energy even during the Winter. Unfortunately, when the grid goes down, our own solar will go down also. People often underestimate the effort and investment needed to make a large solar system workable off-grid.
- New facade with about 25 cm of insulation made from wood fibre. All materials locally sourced, mostly from our own grounds. Keeps the building cool in summer and warm in winter.
- OpenWB EV charging of EV only when we have excess solar production.
- Rain water is not sent into the city collection system but kept on the grounds and further down is collected in a little lake.
- Cheap Solar Lights with motion detectors. Help a lot to not tip over during the night - even works reasonable during winter when the days are very short.
- Home-grown power management system: In winter we use excess energy to heat up the workshop ensuring it does not freeze during the night (if that’s not enough, and it cools down below 1 C we automatically use grid power to keep it from freezing.
- The fridge for the drinks is only run on excess power.
- Well insulated workshop build beside the house, providing additional insulation to the living quarters.
- Reactivated the old well, added a manual frost resistant water pump
- We are looking into using solar power to fill the reservoir from the well on demand. But this will need some trench digging.
- AirPods Pro or any other good noise-cancelling equipment to avoid getting def and dumb by roaring farm machinery.
- We have a shepherd’s wagon without any electricity. Basic services like warmth, light, coffee and pizza can be provided by fossil means.
- We have something like a tiny house completely running on off-grid on solar: electric stove, baking oven, warm water, floor heating, etc. Works very well for 10 years now.
Holy shit, username checks out! You’re absolutely mad (in the best possible way) 😅. Thanks for sharing this extensive list. A lot of neat projects you’ve got going on, am quite jelous 😊
do you happen to know if buying an old twizy around 1500euros is a bad deal? for having to change battery for example
Unless the thing is seriously broken 1500€ sounds cheap. Most twizys have rented batteries - Renault rents you the battery for 50€/month.
I’m working on powering more and more of my apartment with solar. Doing the little I can with my fre hours of sunlight every day.
6W at best trickles into my batteries. I try to expand this as best as I can.
A folding solar panel to charge electronics using USB.
A small radio+torch+USB port that can be charged with a spinner and a solar panel.
An air-to-water heat-pump and a solar-thermal (vacuum tubes) hot water heater combination.
A wrench, hammer, screwdriver set, and pliers.
I’ve got a few bicycles and a tree in my backyard that produces edible nuts.
Nice, you rocking e-bikes or classic analog bikes :D ? Also what kinda tree we talking?
It’s a black walnut tree. The bikes are analog, lol. I prefer the warmer sound.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing :)
Needle and thread.
I’m not sure this counts, but the best upgrade I ever made for my home was having new windows installed 20 years ago. I couldn’t open the old ones.
During the summer, most days I can avoid air conditioning just by opening the windows and getting a cross breeze. I hear my neighbors’ airco turning on, while I am smug with the knowledge that I made a long-term frugal and green investment.
I’m so jealous :( we just got new windows to improve the insulation rating. I’d love to open them and do the same but I legit start having medical issues over 73° which we hit most days in the summer.
I’m so sorry you have that problem. The window insulation should still help, though.
Shanks’ pony
My phone, a cheap Moto, has survived probably around 50 drops and falling into a tub. After years it still holds charge fine and I’ve made and sorted through (probably) hundreds of thousands of files of content with it. My current computer has also survived a lot and lasted longer than more expensive ones I’ve had previously. It’s a cheap HP. I don’t know if this is exactly “solarpunk” but it’s technically low-footprint (comparative to industry standards) just because the tech lasts, even through hardship. I’ve also kept all my old tech and plan to recycle it after I’ve retrieved the data. Recycling is solarpunk, I think. I also have a vibrator that’s lasted years, takes only one triple A battery, still works great. I intend to get rechargeable batteries soon. Battery waste is icky and battery recycling is tricky (because they’re made of such hazardous materials). I’m hoping to get a solar roof installed but that’s gonna take quite a bit of time especially since my country doesn’t exactly have the greatest subsidies for residential solar.
I have a solar powered tomato plant
Would love to see a picture of this one!
I have a pocket-sized solar panel I bought intending to charge my phone on the go. When it arrived and I tried it out I remembered that I live in bloody Auckland, New Zealand, where we’ve never actually seen the sun, so that was a bust.
Hahhaha that is unfortunate. Had always imagined New Zealand with amazing weather myself tbh!
It’s the palm trees. They’ll fool ya.
A rain barrel, fruit and but trees, guerrilla gardening knowledge
Edit: guess which word was autocorrected
Solar powered calculator.
