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Just this morning Cory Doctorow blogged this snapshot, taken by one “Joel,” of an ancient gear burial ground at a scrapyard near Charlotte, NC. I wonder how many wild-eyed steampunks they’ve had come sniffing around since then. [via Boing Boing]
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Bourne Energy’s “militarized” luggable hydroelectric plant measures 3 feet in length and weights around 25 pounds. It can be transported to a water source by one person, then set up either on the surface of the river or, ninjalike, completely submerged.
[I]t is self-contained with its own integrated power, control, cooling and sensor systems. The unit collapses into three major parts which slide into a large backpack. The BPP-2 produces up to 20% more power (600W) and can be set up singularly or in arrays of over 20 kW. The BPP-2, which operates silently with no heat or exhaust emissions, is 40% less visible during operation and can also be bottom mounted to be totally invisible.
[via Wired Science]
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The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? @ 60 Minutes…
In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that’s inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard. You’ll generate your own electricity with the box and it’ll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines. It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive – until now.
I’m always hopeful of “new power” developments, specifically fuel cells – what do you think makers? They raised $400m so far… well, that’s what they implied. There are 20 customers so far: FedEx, Wal-mart, Staples, Google (the first – powering a data center for 18 months), eBay (5 boxes, saved them $100k in power costs)… all in CA, they get 20% off the costs ($800k per unit) and tax breaks.
I’ll say this, I want a Bloom Box at Maker Faire 
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Jake von Slatt gives us a video tour of his finished propane and waste oil foundry furnace. I love the lamp post and lights. SO von Slatty!
Final test of Jake von Slatt’s Waste Oil Foundry Furnace
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In these photos, you can see the heat transfer happening through a number of roofs in my neighborhood. In a wintery time like we have now, the snow acts as an indicator of your insulation. If you have a full roof of snow, then you’re well insulated. If you have spots of bare roof surrounded by snow, then inside the house is an area where it’s uninsulated, or poorly insulated. If your roof doesn’t hold the snow at all, then it’s time to look at your attic insulation. Sunny, South facing roofs will naturally clear faster on clear days, due to the input of solar energy. Any part of your building envelope that transfers heat is spending your money and wasting energy resources.
On some of these roofs, you can see areas of white lines. These are the rafters. The roofing structure is thicker there, and heat isn’t transferring as well in those spots. A nearby antique cape, shows that the rafters are 3 or 4 feet apart. That is a big difference from the way it would be framed in modern times with the rafters at 16 inches on center.
One neighborhood house sports a chimney from a woodstove. It seems that the rafter bay where the chimney pierces the roof is totally uninsulated, judging from the lack of snow on that one section of the roof.
On my house, you can see thin spots about two feet from the gutter. That is the place where the studs from the wall meet the rafters. This unusual framing technique seems to have been done to save on materials when building the house. The wall is well insulated, as is the attic. Its just the junction point that is radiating heat.
Before this winter, there were three bare spots on a section of roof over the mudroom in my house. I noticed these spots, and really noticed the cold air flowing from the recessed lights in that room. For a few winters, I put up insulating window plastic over the fixtures to keep the warm in and the cold out. These lights have since been removed and the cavities insulated, there is still a bit of melting in those locations, but nothing like it was.
What can you see by looking at the exterior of the houses around you? Can you see the energy flowing from warm to cold? Does this help you see improvements you can make to your house?
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This is a choice selection of images from the application for U.S. patent 7,631,404, which has since issued to Donald Scruggs of Chino, CA. The title is “Easy inter burial container.” [via Neatorama]
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William Stranger specializes in building furniture out of repurposed wood. I especially liked the massive coffee table whose top is a four-inch-thick slab of bowling lane. It’s part of a exhibit(?) called Second Growth:
A second growth forest is one that has re-grown after it has been heavily logged or clear-cut. The installation of reclaimed materials, organic furniture and hand carved objects suggests the life cycle of a tree. It encourages a closer look at the relationship between consumption and conservation and promotes the idea of a culture in balance with the natural world. A tree is borrowed from its cycle without breaking it. The wood is worked with attention, treated with non-toxic finishes, and after its long second life it will return to nourish the earth. Scrap wood is saved and becomes the raw material for innovative design.
[via dornob]
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Make biodegradable “bioplastic” out of common household ingredients, then laser-cut it with ease. [the Shapeways blog]
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Xavier Calluaud’s “Urb Garden — A vertical food garden for the urban gardener” complete with a composting ‘worm farm’ and internal watering system. [via Inhabitat]
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Need a unique spot for your studio/workshop/cave? Perhaps you could get inspired to incubate your latest crazy ideas inside one of these. They’re being pitched as an environmentally benign alternative to commuting and less expensive to heating a whole house for a home office. These appear to be production models with standardization of design and materials. Anybody have other versions we can see? Do you or your neighbor have one we can view? [Via StumbleUpon]
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