Tiny Solar Solutions

By Hannah West

As we are better learning to harness the vast supply of energy that beams down on us every day, a wider range of solar powered products are becoming available. This is exciting news both for those who can’t afford a full solar power system in their home and those who already have one but are looking for additional solar solutions—basically for anyone passionate about conserving energy. As an added bonus, solar powered products are great for when you’re out and about, roadtripping, camping, or for when someone’s already claimed the last plug outlet at your favorite coffee shop. Here are a few that we at Modernize are particularly excited about:

Device Charger

Via Ubergizmo

A dead phone battery is merely inconvenient in some situations, but it can be dangerous in others. Whether you’re running errands or exploring wilderness, a solar charger is an amazing solution that almost feels too easy. That’s the beauty of solar power! There are plenty of solar chargers out there—like the Gomadic SunVolt above—that can power up a number of electronic devices, so do your research before settling on one that just charges your phone or laptop.

Oven

Via SolarTown

Solar ovens could not be more perfect for camping. Instead of hovering over food while it’s cooking on the fire, you can set it in the oven and let it sit for hours while you’re busy doing other fun activities. Solar ovens are portable and so simple that you can easily make your own.

Outdoor Lights

Via My Fancy House

Because solar lights don’t need electrical wiring, you can put them anywhere you want on your property. Just make sure they’re in an optimum spot to soak up the sunlight so they can illuminate your yard at night.

Backpack

Via Birksun

A backpack with a built-in lightweight solar panel and USB connections will prevent you from ever fearing that red battery signal again. Whether you’re a student or a world traveler, a solar powered backpack will take away the stumbling block of running out of juice in a fast-paced world.

Tent

Via Bang Bang Tents

Yet another solution to the pervasive problem of getting power into our portable devices, the solar tent will allow campers to use camping gear and devices without worrying about proximity to electrical hookups. While solar tents are not yet widely available, there’s no doubt they’ll be popular with the festival-going crowds as soon as they hit the markets!

Human Powered Fun

I've become involved in the human powered kinetic sculpture world. Many of the billions of people on Earth use their muscles to meet their everyday needs for water, food, and shelter. I get to use my muscles to make strange vehicles move upon the face of the Earth. Above, the Whittaker, a pedal powered paddlewheel water taxi, seen here at Rivertown Revival in Petaluma. Below, the SemiSide, the world's first side-by-side semi recumbent sociable tandem bicycle, as Dave Harris and I learn how to ride it.

I'm capturing some of this work over at Three Feet of Air.

EV Event at the Craneway

You're invited to join 3Prong Power at the Green Drive Expo this Saturday.

Normally the event is $10 per adult, but as an exhibitor at the expo 3Prong Power is able to offer you free admission to the expo. To print off a coupon for FREE admission go to http://greendriveexpo.com/greendriveexpocoupon and use the coupon code 3PRONG.

Green Drive Expo is a new consumer expo happening in the San Francisco Bay Area on Oct. 9. It's the first green car show of its kind in the Bay Area.

It's taking place in the Marina District of Richmond, right on the waterfront, at the Craneway Pavilion -- the location of a former Ford auto factory where the company built Model Ts and Model As. (The Craneway Pavilion is located at 1414 Harbour Drive, Richmond, CA. The Expo runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

At the expo will be exhibits, test drives, speakers and more! See Plug in Priuses and other Electric vehicles from major manufacturers including Nissan, Toyota and Ford.

Public programs include a session on the real-life experiences of EV drivers--including a Tesla owner who will be driving up from Southern California in his Roadster for the event.

Additional session topics include green car conversions, manufacturer's forums, consumer incentives, and bicycle commuting.

The keynote panel will be Chelsea Sexton, a long-time EV advocate and key figure in "Who Killed the Electric Car".

There will be activities throughout the day including opportunities for people to sign up as VIPs and show off their green vehicles. For more information visit the Green Drive Expo website atwww.GreenDriveExpo.com .

Electrically yours,

The 3Prong Power Team

Growing produce and protein in an urban setting

Many people are aware these days of how far their food travels, becoming less fresh and using up petroleum to get to their table. The Suncurve is a demonstration project growing produce and protein in a very small footprint. It could be integrated into the side of a multi-tenant residence in an urban center, providing fresh greens and berries and even legumes year-round in many parts of the United States.

Renewable solar and wind energy powers a pump to circulate water through the 1" thick biomat, bringing fishwastes to the roots of the plants. Some organic matter falls from the vertical bed into the fish pond, feeding the fish. A more robust system could even be imagined, processing human wastes back into food.

The engineer in me thrills at this system of massive intervention and resource allocation. The permaculturist in me recoils at the embodied energy this system represents. The urban permaculturist in me rejoices at how many "green" jobs this sort of infrastructure could create while leveraging our current relative abundance of resources into a system that ensures a steady supply of extremely local food for years and years.

My new job is... newer.

The folks who come out to your house and install solar panels are called "solar integrators." We design custom systems from modular components, to give rate-payers the best bang for their buck as they secure their energy future. 

Unfortunately for solar integrators, it's a real slim margin industry. It's tough to make ends meet as a small company where a single job's parts costs as much as the next four job's profit. The solution? Integrators are themselves integrating.

Light Energy Systems has just been acquired by publicly traded Lonestar, and combined with another integrator as Acro Energy. We'll be learning each other's strengths, and teaching better practices as we discover each other's weaknesses. The end result will be better pricing and service for our clients.

I'm pretty glad about this, because now there's a learning curve for me again. And that's when I'm happiest.

If It Gets Easier, Am I Still Doing It Right?

When I wonder if I'm still following my calling (as it becomes easier, and familiar, I have to find a compass other than "is this the most uncomfortable, growth-filled thing I can be doing right now?"), I'll catalog activities over a couple of days and assess them.

Karl made an amazing barbecue over the fire pit for dinner. Much of the food was local. Then we had our weekly community meeting, but outside, around the fire. Hank took notes on his laptop, and we had illumination from fire, solar-power lights and regular electric-grid tied lights. Urban permaculture rating: people care, earth care, fair share, stacked functions, integrate, small slow solutions, use edges and margins, observe and interact, produce no waste... yeah, that one ranked pretty high.

At work I tried to explain PG&E's TOU (Time of Use) E7 rate to a client, and I measured how much sun shine falls on his roof. I quoted a 4kW system to another client. As much as Right Livelihood fits into urban permaculture, this activity fits: especially as I consider fair share, observing and interacting, planning to obtain a yield, catch and store energy, design from pattern to details, use edges (specifically, the "edge" of a roof and the sky, a place currently barren on most dwellings).

I helped Ingrid Severson install a rain catchment system at her cute cottage. She gave me coconut oil from the barrels we were converting and fed me. Earth care, people care, fair share, catch and store energy, apply self-regulation and accept feedback, small slow solutions, obtain a yield, use edges and value the marginal, creatively adapt to change... another multi-point score!

In no particular order: I also had a sauerkraut party. Not as much fun as the last, but it was spread over both Saturday and Sunday as people dropped in and out. I got invited to two presentations, but I already had plans. I also played, with family and housemates, a version of Sorry!® in which you hold 5 cards and plan your strategy. I comforted a child who was feeling hurt, chauffeured parents to collect their child from the YMCA, and shared our one car back and forth with my wife.

I courageously called a friend when I was feeling down and shared my sorrow, and she listened and I felt better and no longer stewed in my juices.

Well, how about that. So many delicious, delightful activities in my life in the last few days, and all of them supporting and supported by the dense interconnected web that is urban permaculture.

I suppose I'm still on the right path.

Frosty Belongs Outside

The big pay-off of getting the forced air heat re-routed? Comfort inside when it's very chilly outside. Last night, open water in the backyard froze to a depth of 1/8th inch. I'm not asking for and I don't expect empathy from anyone whose power got knocked out last week from an ice storm.

This is just me, rejoicing about realizing a goal held for several years. Living in Sandra's drafty old Victorian in Alameda we had very few choices about how to manage the heat. She had a furnace that was big enough, but the layout of the house meant all the heat whooshed right up two flights of stairs past the door to the attic and out. Moving to this house resulted in using electric heaters for two winters. That's about the most expensive use of electricity available to a consumer. I'd laid plans for how to solve the distribution of warm air two years ago, but it took until this past fall before we had the resources to do the project.

I am so grateful to finally, finally be comfortable in the house when it's freezing outside. This reward of home ownership is precious to me. I delight in frosty mornings, and my joy is even stronger now that there isn't an emotional hill to climb to get there.

Heating and Energy Use

Last year we had housemates running electric heaters in 4 and 5 rooms. The electric bill was $800 per month. And still no-one felt very warm.

"This house is so cold!"

"Wear a hat. That's the number one thing you can do for the environment to keep from heating your house too much."

"We have to have heat!"

There is a forced air furnace, here; unfortunately it was installed to heat 3, southwest facing, upper story rooms. And that's all. Those three rooms got plenty warm from sunlight alone, while bottom floor, northern rooms stayed cold.

I'm changing that.

Liz asked me this morning, "Did you make holes into the inside of the house? Am I breathing stuff from inside the walls?"

"Yes, I did. No, you're not," I told her.

"It's just that last night I heard some crazy stuff like right through the walls and that big duct you put in."

"Oh, that was me working."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Yeah, I sorta lost track of time. I knew it was late, but I didn't know it was midnight." I had cut holes in walls for ducts until possibly 11 pm with a battery-powered saws-all. It was really noisy. Then I pulled ducts through walls, taped them up, and finally fired up the system and set off a smoke detector, probably because I'd dropped sawdust down into the fire chamber. I owe everybody an apology for making so much racket past bedtime.

"Geez," She said. "Well, are you done?"

"No, I still have to go through two more walls and a floor to get heat into your room."

"Is that hard? Will it damage the value of the house?

"It's hard, but it won't damage the house."

"I have some of that plastic film to go over windows, too. That would help my room stay warm, wouldn't it?"

"Yep."

Once again I find myself at the intersection of using the existing infrastructure while also trying to minimize consumption of non-renewable resources. Natural gas is a way better choice for heating than electricity, and in this north-south oriented home I can't retrofit a passive solar heating system into it. But I can certainly eliminate 15 to 20 kWh of electricity used for running heaters!

I'm aiming to have a household of 11 people using about 18kWh per day. Or less.