Selfsufficientish.com

great, thanks for all the replies

Hi folks, Can I put my live Christmas tree onto my (small) domestic-sized compost bin? I would presume the main trunk will be too solid to compost down without being shredded first. But can I put the branches and needles in my compost bin? And is there any reason why I shouldn't burn the trunk in a ...

Here's a link for a discussion on Stirling engines... including a link to a 1kW Stirling engine that will be available in the UK in 2007!

http://navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=150.0

Wow, thanks loads for all the replies. I'm always very impressed with the replies I get from this site!

Hmmm... I've got to say that I'm going off the idea of using solar to power a steam turbine... my current obsession is Stirling engines... I'll write more in a little while...

Here's the deal: PhotoVoltaic solar panels are expensive and inefficient. Evacuated tube solar hot water panels are pretty efficient and are capable of reaching very high temperatures. So - would it be possible to generate electricty by using evacuated tube solar hot water panels to boil water (or p...

I don't really get the aricon thing - not in the UK, anyway. Open a window. Wear cool clothing. Use sunblinds. Buy a fan. Sure, I take your point. And yes, I can survive without air conditioning. But my little home office here in muggy London gets really hot. I run a little film production / editin...

Hmmm... actually... this PDF describes (in far more technical detail than I can understand!) a 4.4kW solar cooling system. Here's a quote: Experiments with the half-effect system have been performed under several operating conditions. The maximum cooling capacity was 4.36 kW, 44% of the original des...

Hmm... bother... it looks like domestic solar absorption chillers aren't yet available... it seems that it's no easy feet to make these coolers less than about 100 tonnes! Ooops.

Back to the drawing board???

Yes, it is hot, isn't it! I've done some Google searches and yes, it looks like it is possible to use solar power to cool down your home / office. From my quick skim-reading, it looks like the best technology is "absorption refridgeration". If I understand it correctly, you should be able ...

Hi folks, Loving this forum... loads of handy tips. It's hot here in London and it's due to get hotter this summer. Does anyone have any bright ideas about how to run air conditioning in the most energy-efficient way? Is the only option to put lots of (very expensive) PV cells on my roof and run &qu...

Wow - loads of replies since my last visit! Thanks loads for all your help.

Thanks,
Jack

Hi,

That's great - yes, please do keep us abreast of your progress... I'm very interested in building my own solar water heater although I wont be able to start work on mine for several months to come.

Thanks,
Jack

Morning. I was very pleased to hear two separate articles about alternative / de-centralised energy on the "Today Programme" this morning on BBC Radio 4. You can get access to them over the web: 1) An article about off-grid living: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/science/energy_2...

I went to the Ideal Home Show today. It was quite interesting but not hugely valuable. There was a worryingly small focus on the sort of things we're interested in on this forum. There was one stand for solar water heaters and two for spray-on insulating foam for lofts. There was also a small sectio...

hehe... surprisingly, the origin of my nick name has nothing to do with "Jack Daniels"! But I guess the "Jack Daniels" thing helped to make the nickname stick.