Temperature And Electricity Monitoring

December 23, 2009 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

[Willem] has been using an Arduino to monitor temperatures and electricity usage. For the temperature monitoring he picked up some 1-wire temperature sensors similar to those we’ve featured in the past. To pick up on electricity usage he’s not using an amp sensors, but because he’s in the UK he does have a flashing LED on his power meter. There’s a known trick to pick up these flashes with a photo cell to calculate energy usage based on meter readings. Finally, the data from the three sensors (indoor temp, outdoor temp, and energy usage) is piped over the Internet via an Ethernet shield so that it can be collected and graphed.

[Willem] has had the system running for a year. If you’re nosy you can look at the temperature graph generated from his collected data.

C-clamp Current Monitoring

December 21, 2009 by Mike Szczys 24 Comments

[Hydronic] did some tests to make his own current sensor using a c-clamp wrapped with wire. He tried several different cores including an aluminum carabiner, the C-clamp, and what he calls a u-lock (removable chain link). There is some success here that could be improved with cleaner winding and by adjusting readings based on the length of wire used in the wrapping.

This did make us perk up a bit right off the bat. Reader [Mure], who tipped us off about this, suggested that this could be used to make your own Kill-a-Watt without including it in the circuit. We made the jump to house monitoring. We’d love to have a data tracker for our home circuits to curb wasteful energy use. Perhaps we’ll try to make our own sensors and produce a diy Cent-a-Meter.

Solar Water Heater

December 14, 2009 by Mike Szczys 49 Comments

[Jake] built himself a solar water heater. The system has an 82 gallon insulated water tank and uses a solar collection grid made of PVC pipe. As the water heats, it rises to the top of the collector and runs into the tank while pulling colder water from the bottom of the tank back into the collector.

A sunny day yields temperatures around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. On a cloudy day the water can still be heated to about 90 Fahrenheit. This is about 19 degrees cooler that one might desire but the difference is made up by an electric shower head that heats as the water comes out. [Jake’s] system, seen in the video after the break, allows him to forgo the use of electricity on sunny days, and reduce its use by around half on cloudy days. Continue reading “Solar Water Heater” →

World’s Largest POV Display

December 2, 2009 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

How do you convince a power company to let you play with their multi-million-dollar wind turbine? Call yourself an artist instead of a hacker! [Michael Pendry] convinced Siemens to let him install this ‘art’ piece on the rotors of a wind turbine outside of Munich, Germany. It features 9000 LEDs, 3000 on each of the 30 meter blades, and can pump out 20,000 candelas when fully illuminated.

The problem? The blades of the power generator turn extremely slowly compared to fan-based persistence of vision displays. This makes it more of a “long-exposure” display system that is illustrated in some of their press photos. Ok, so the POV is a bit of a let-down, but the display effects achieved are still pretty impressive.

[Thanks Sam]

The Glass Recycling Game

October 17, 2009 by Mike Szczys 27 Comments

bottle-bank-arcade

Operating under the premise that glass bottles were not being recycled as much as plastic or aluminum because there’s no payment for the effort, the team at The Fun Theory set out to add a non-monetary incentive. Here is the fruit of their efforts, the Bottle Bank Arcade. Now recycling glass bottles comes with a bit of a game.

A light flashes above one of the holes in the recycling bin and then rewards points if a bottle is inserted there quickly enough. This Simon says type concept proved incredibly popular in the video embedded after the break. We would image some of the kids in the video made their parents haul them home and back with some empties so they could play.

In one evening, this modified bottle bank was used over 100 times, while a nearby low-tech repository was used just twice. This is a great way to use some tech knowledge, a love of hacking, and desire to spread joy in order to make the neighborhood more fun and help increase the amount of trash that ends up being recycled. This is the same team that put together the musical subway steps, we hope they keep this trend going!

Continue reading “The Glass Recycling Game” →

OLPC Pedal Power

October 13, 2009 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

olpc-pedal-power

A One Laptop Per Child group out of Afghanistan have come up with a way to power the XO using pedals. The system interfaces a set of pedals with the Freeplay hand-crank charger, freeing up both hands for typing. Although not as compact, using both legs makes power generation much easier. Apparently a child as young as 3rd grade is able to pedal this well enough to power the computer in real time.

We just hope this contraption is used for learning and betterment, and not in a pedal-for-porn scenario.

[via Gizmodo]

Stove Built From Beer Can. Hobos Rejoice.

October 11, 2009 by Mike Szczys 52 Comments

beer-can-alcohol-stove

[Charles] sent in a tip about an alcohol based stove built from beer cans and a penny. The burner is efficient, lightweight, and tiny all while still packing a pretty big punch. It can boil water for sterilization, cook some rice for your meal, or make a spot of tea. The penny is used as the regulating valve. The cup in the burner has a hole in the center where the penny is placed using gravity to create a seal. Denatured alcohol is then poured into the cup and outer ring and lit on fire. As the burning alcohol warms up the cup, it starts to leak under the penny and into the fuel cup where it then begins to boil. This boiling alcohol expands as gas and exits the small holes around the outside of the burner, creating flames similar to the ones you use on your gas stove at home.

The genius here is that everything needed to make this is cheap and available anywhere. The basic build tools include a knife, drill bit, hole punch, two beer cans, a penny, and denatured alcohol. In a bind, you could complete the build using a pocket knife and without the drill bit or hole punch. It is also a nice alternative to hauling around a disposable propane canister when camping or backpacking. We’ve covered an aluminum can stove quite a while ago but that old link is dead and we think this is just as fun the second time around.