Self sustaining farm

Here's a nice find! There are people working on a self-sustaining farm.
[openfarmtech.org]

They've built an open source tractor, concentrated solar power applications, their own PV panels, growing seeds, making their own flour, open source housing (Hexayurt), etc. They also develop a hydraulic press to press pretty solid bricks from earth. Those can be used for construction. Sounds like fun and they have an excellent group that tinkers a lot and also gets a lot of results. As far as I can see all of their results are made open source and published. They've also identified RepRap and multimachine as being very useful. It would be a very interesting setting to have a RepRap over there. The video's are nice to watch and give you a quick impression of what they're doing. Many of the results are pretty recent.

It all seems to be part of a 'bigger plan': [openfarmtech.org]
I see some synergy between RepRap such as developing a method to create PLA (Polylactic acid, a biopolymer made from natural sugar sources, which can be used as a substitute for petroleum-based polymers) in a domestic situation without needing (3D unprintable) specialized tools.

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Regards,

Erik de Bruijn
[Ultimaker.com] - [blog.erikdebruijn.nl]

I've heard of some other people that have developed methods of farming that are self-sustaining, and require minimal help from outside manufacturing. They are called the Amish.

Yes, but the Amish don't go in much for a lot of things that your typical RepRapper regards as being part of their lifestyle. Their mode of operation also limited to certain climates. I'm all for high-tech trappings and sustainable living - the two are not incompatible.

Vik :v)

VikOlliver Wrote:
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>
> I'm all for high-tech trappings and sustainable living
> - the two are not incompatible.
>
I'm with you on that. The problem with the picture is that serious high tech requires electricity, a lot more than what the sustainability/environmental activist crowd at large is really comfortable with. Environmental activists in California allow us here on the coast 240 Kwhr/month before kicking in confiscatory rates (defined as approaching what it costs to run a diesel generator set). That's barely enough to keep my PC and electric range running. I shudder to think how that crowd would react if I decided to try to recycle my own water using reverse osmosis. I'm already paying US$0.325/kwhr for each additional kwhr and will see that go up to US$0.365 if I use another 40 kwhr/month.

Colour me extremely suspicious of sustainability and environmental types who set policy.

It's getting more and more desirable to go off-grid these days.

We're getting more storms than we used to, and so more power cuts. Suz wants to get a windmill, but the council probably won't approve.

Vik :v)

VikOlliver Wrote:
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> It's getting more and more desirable to go
> off-grid these days.
>
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to do that just now.

About Amish: totally different. Obviously: they don't collaborate and publish their results online under an open source license. While I'm not for isolation from the rest of the world, using local resources makes you accountable.

Reliability is not so much an issue here. In the Netherlands an average household has had about 16 seconds of power loss every year. Now the utilities have been further privatized this may go up a bit, but the grid infrastructure is well maintained nevertheless.

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Regards,

Erik de Bruijn
[Ultimaker.com] - [blog.erikdebruijn.nl]

Many people don't like wind turbines because they're noisy and usually moving. However, the vortex turnado turbine can have its moving parts hidden. The general principle can be seen at about the six minute mark of the vortex wind generator video at:
[www.youtube.com]

I remember seeing the vortex generator design at least fifteen years ago so its patent has expired. The vortex tube shape can be fabricated without support material. A generator made by a Darwin would be too small to have significant power, but at least you prototype it.

However, even if you could make a silent turbine with no visible moving parts, it would probably be useless unless you're on a mountain or the coast. Wind power needs the high winds to be economic and doesn't scale down well. I used to work in the wind industry and whenever people called asking how much it would cost to power their house, they were always shocked by the answer

Solar does scale down well and you could use the a concentrator design like the one at:
[openfarmtech.org]

then either use a high temperature steam engine or reprap a low temperature steam or Stirling engine and accept the efficiency loss.

Enrique Wrote:
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> Many people don't like wind turbines because
> they're noisy and usually moving.
>

I just saw this one. They're claiming that it emits less than 35 dB.

[www.physorg.com]

The price is ridiculous, but the design looks solid. Typical European pricing.