The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle
Imagine a personal heating system that works indoors as well as outdoors, can be taken anywhere, requires little energy, and is independent of any infrastructure. It exists – and is hundreds of years old.
Heating and Cooling
Interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology.
Technology has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is—more often than not—aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions.
There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society.
The Printed Website: Volume III & The Comments
The printed archives of Low-tech Magazine now amount to four volumes with a total of 2,398 pages and 709 images.
Thermoelectric Stoves: Ditch the Solar Panels?
Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels.
The Printed Website: Second Volume Out Now
The second volume features a third of the web articles published in the earlier years, carefully selected for their continued relevance and interest today.
Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill
Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system.
Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
The heat storage hypocaust could keep a room warm for days with just one firing of the furnace.
Medieval Heating System Lives on in Spain
The expression “estar en la gloria” (to be inside the gloria) means that someone feels happy and comfortable.
Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places
Most modern heating systems are primarily based on the heating of air. This seems an obvious choice, but there are far worthier alternatives.
The Revenge of the Circulating Fan
Cooling people by increasing local airflow is at least ten times more energy efficient than refrigerating the air in a given space.
Heat Your Clothes, Not Your House
The arrival of compact lithium-ion batteries has increased the performance and diversity of electrically heated clothing.
The Solar Envelope: How to Heat and Cool Cities without Fossil Fuels
Modern research, which combines ancient knowledge with fast computing techniques, shows that passive solar cities are a realistic option, allowing for surprisingly high population densities.
Medieval Smokestacks: Fossil Fuels in Pre-industrial Times
Almost all of the leading economies in Western Europe during the last millenium relied on a large-scale use of fossil fuels such as peat and coal.
The Bright Future of Solar Thermal Powered Factories
To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy.
Insulation: First the Body, Then the Home
Modern thermal underclothing offers the possibility to turn the thermostat much lower without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal.