Lesson III: Innovations for Living Off of the Grid
Objective
In this unit, my students will learn that producing one's own electricity necessitates the need for conservation. Otherwise, adding extra PV cells and storage batteries will become cost prohibitive. For those still living on the grid, using less energy is cost efficient and lessens the carbon footprint. This lesson will introduce students to various gadgets and devices that can lesson the energy load. The students will produce persuasive brochures and/or billboards to advertise these items and their benefits to society.
Materials
Computer lab and library
Posters and art supplies
Activity
For this activity, students may work individually or in pairs. They will be assigned an item, such as those described below, and develop an advertising brochure and/or billboard. Time will be allowed for research in the computer lab and library. Examples of products (and companies) to be researched and presented are underlined in the following paragraphs. Not all of the items are specifically solar, but they all provide alternatives to contemporary energy usage. I have provided a brief description. Websites for several of the items are included in the Bibliography.
William H. Kemp, in his book The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living, provides an extensive list of items to be used when living off-grid or attempting to conserve energy. Shaken LED flashlights can provide approximately 20 minutes of light without the use of batteries. Radios and televisions operate off of sunlight or from hand cranked electrical generation. The Spheral Solar company produces lightweight photovoltaic panels that can be used to charge the batteries of a GPS, an MP3 player and other devices such as cell phones.
The Solar Cooker looks like a box with shiny flaps facing up to reflect solar energy. It needs no fossil fuel for cooking. Kemp calls it the "ecologically friendly version of the barbeque". The Sunpipe is basically a very small, tube like skylight that provides light to dimly lit areas without the heat loss of a regular skylight.
Solarwall is a narrow metal box with tiny perforations which allow the air on the
interior to heat up. It attaches to the outside of a house. As the air rises, it is taken into the house for heating. This Solarwall and the following Consolair are easy and practical retrogrades for existing structures. Consolair is a heat collector about the size of a sheet of plywood. It installs on the roof or south side of a house and provides solar heat gain.
Cell phones provide phone service to millions of people world-wide who did not previously have access. But even cell phones do not always provide service to remote or mountainous areas. Students should look for alternatives such as Fixed Cell Systems, Phone Service Extenders, Fixed-Point Broadband (Digital) Wireless Service, Radio Telephone Service and Satellite Phone Service. The same is true for the internet. Students can investigate Wide Area Wireless High-Speed Internet Service with Antenna, Satellite Internet Service, and Voice Over Internet Protocol Service [48].
Michael Reynolds has developed a Solar Oven and Thermal Refrigerator which are integral parts of the Earthship kitchen. The oven can maintain temperatures of up to 400 degrees F. During winter, cold outside air is admitted to the thermal refrigerator at night. This saves wattage for other functions during winter when there may not be as much solar gain for electrical usage. Reynolds has also developed a composting toilet that uses solar energy. Another option is a composting toilet developed by SunMar that uses small amounts of electricity. Neither requires a sewage hook-up.
Earthship Biotecture uses underground cooling tubes to introduce cool air from below the frost line into homes to provide air conditioning in warmer climates. The Building Circles Organization uses the same concept with a slight variation. The tubes have self contained water which circulates underground. Fans blow over the tubes and the cooled air is introduced into the home. There are several options for heating water including solar panels, batch heaters and coil heaters.
There are quite a few variations of photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. Building-integrated PV systems, developed by Uni-Solar, can replace roofing, thus eliminating bulky PV modules. They also produce other PV adaptations. YouTube has an incredible number of videos showing both large and small adaptations of wind turbines.
Assessment and Closure
The brochures and/or billboards are to be viewed as an advertising campaign aimed at educating and enticing consumers to buy new products. In a classroom presentation, each group should be able to explain how the prospective customer will benefit from purchasing their product.
Final assessment will be provided by a group of teachers who will judge the billboards and/or brochures for clarity, creativity, and persuasiveness.
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