GENOMICON

This is possibly quite a neat idea

It’s a kindof consumer-union for would be solar-buyers. They get to buy in bulk and advise on local conditions / best setups etc.

I’m quite interested in the retrofitting of green-tech into urban environments – and this could well be a good way of going… because as far as I can see, our various governments are utterly in thrall to the existing systems. Which suck.

Neologism of the day : Junkstrapping – which is like bootstrapping, but using junk rather than off-the-shelf components.

And here it is:

The design philosophy is something like:

- made out of bits you can find pretty much anywhere for free-ish.
- no permanent attachments – no glue, staples, nails etc so you can experiment/swap bits
- avoid big bits of stuff – because they can be hard to find.
- flexible design so it can be built round the hardest to find bit – the glass.

So there it is. It’s
- 3 layers of cardboard box cardboard,
- a couple of bits of polystyrene
- a window pane
- a load of beercans cut in half and crimped together
- a bit of copper tube at the top
- all connected together with bicycle inner tube.

All of which I scrounged from local businesses – the most beneficial aspect of which is that you get to talk to and befriend local business peeps… apart from the beer cans which I was forced to buy and drink myself. I also put tape around the edge of the glass because its sharp etc.

So there you go. I’m going to go through a bit of an experimental phase… I think double glazing it would be a good idea, and it will need to be water-proofed. I’d like to get away without using polystyrene if I can as well.

But there it is… a reasonably overcastish sort of day, but bright enough to cast a shadow…

… and the bit of pipe sticking out the side is too hot to touch.

I’ll make an instructable or something once I’ve gone through a few more iterations. I’ll need to get some more beer cans as well probably.

If you go to any high place on the planet that isn’t a desert of some sort, and look out at the view, chances are you’ll see a lot of green… still. As far as the eye can see, it will be mostly green.

That green is a million billion illion willion squillion leaves, and each one is almost certainly a little flat thing that’s been specially evolved and angled to aim at the sun, and quite a lot of them follow the sun across the sky. This is not an accident, and it’s not Mother Nature trying to tell us something… although…

This turned up on the TED rss a couple of days ago:

It’s Bill Gross going on about a couple of things for which I have a tangential fascination – genetic algorithms and Stirling Engines … and solar energy obviously. Everyone loves solar energy. Except amature nuke shill morons who are probably suffering from some sort of authority-worship/obedience complex. I blame the parents.

Unfortunately it’s from 2003, and the only things I can find that point to which direction this thing went in, are boring looking arrays of mirrors and fresnel lenses… though I daresay they’re still better than I could do. They’ve gone for the money. They’ve gone for centralisation.

Still, if it works…

I do like the initial design though – and the philosophy… something decentralised and cheap enough for anyone.

Other than that of course… this thing just looks… right.

It is it’s own built in marketing. Sometimes something just looks so cool, you’ve got to get one whether it works 100% or not.