A screenshot of the markdown file for this page. During the last months we have been working on switching the solar powered website from one static site generator (Pelican) to another (Hugo). Many readers will not notice the changes right away, as we have not made any major adju … | Continue reading
Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution. A simple, sensible, but nevertheless controversial message; high-tech has become the idol of our society. | Continue reading
We built a pedal-powered generator and controller, which is practical to use as an energy source and exercise machine in a household — and which you can integrate into a solar PV system. We provide detailed plans to build your own, using basic skills and common hand tools. | Continue reading
Most modern heating systems are primarily based on the heating of air. This seems an obvious choice, but there are far worthier alternatives. | Continue reading
Around the 17th century, the Dutch started reinforcing their dykes and harbours with sturdy mats the size of football pitches – hand-woven from thousands of twigs grown on nearby coppice plantations. These “fascine mattresses” were weighted with rocks and sunk into canals, estuar … | Continue reading
George Cove, a forgotten solar power pioneer, may have built a highly efficient photovoltaic panel 40 years before Bell Labs engineers invented silicon cells. If proven to work, his design could lead to less complex and more sustainable solar panels. | Continue reading
Can we make modern health care carbon-neutral and maintain the levels of care, pain relief, and longevity that we have come to take for granted? | Continue reading
It is surprisingly difficult to build a carbon neutral sailing ship. This is even more the case today, because our standards for safety, health, hygiene, comfort, and convenience have changed profoundly since the Age of Sail. | Continue reading
In the mid 20th century, whole cities’ sewage systems safely and successfully used fish to treat and purify their water. Waste-fed fish ponds are a low-tech, cheap, and sustainable alternative to deal with our own shit — and to obtain high protein food in the process. | Continue reading
To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable. | Continue reading
Being an independent journalist – or an office worker if you wish – I always reasoned that I needed a decent computer and that I need to pay for quality. | Continue reading
How to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action. | Continue reading
Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution. A simple, sensible, but nevertheless controversial message; high-tech has become the idol of our society. | Continue reading
The water and energy use of the mist shower is so low that the bathroom could be taken off-grid and off-pipe even in an urban context. | Continue reading
Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels. | Continue reading
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy. | Continue reading
The energy use of the internet can only stop growing when energy sources run out, unless we impose self-chosen limits. | Continue reading
The fire – which we have used in our homes for over 400,000 years – remains the most versatile and sustainable household technology that humanity has ever known. | Continue reading
For being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history. | Continue reading
A wooden rotor and tower greatly increase the net energy output over the lifetime of a small wind turbine. | Continue reading
If we build them out of wood, large wind turbines could become a textbook example of the circular economy. | Continue reading
Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system. | Continue reading
High speed rail is destroying the most valuable alternative to the airplane; the “low speed” rail network that has been in service for decades. | Continue reading
Our new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content. | Continue reading
To improve energy security, we need to make infrastructures less reliable. | Continue reading
Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution. A simple, sensible, but nevertheless controversial message; high-tech has become the idol of our society. | Continue reading
Our new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content. | Continue reading