This document discusses renewable energy options for homes and proposes a simple DIY solar battery. It explores production and reduction of renewable energy in a family context. The author interviewed experts and researched "state of the art" designs. They developed a simple battery using solar cells that gained popularity online. Over 23,000 people viewed blogs about it. Comments showed interest but also concerns about heat and safety. The author advocates for production, storage, and consumption of home renewable energy with devices like solar panels that feed into the electric grid for storage. Further development is needed around real-time control and contextual metering/conversion of green energy sources.

1. Untapped Energy
ctrl.electricity

2. Introduction
• What can I as a designer do regarding
renewable energy at home.
– Production & Reduction
– The family (w)as a context
• Change existing preconceptions and challenge
current paradigm.
• Earth 3.0 (American Scientist 08/09)

3. What have i done?
• Searching for ”state of the art” in Design and
Technology
• Interviews
• Stats
• Where to start?
– Fuel cell?
– EcoGadget?
– ”Magic Bullet?”
– Toy?
– Off Grid?

4. Sareptas bowl
• One variable: The powermarket in Norway:
– Price
• Lack of control
• Lack of consciousness
• Un touchable
• Who made my
electricity?

5. Stats

6. HYMINI
picasaweb.google.com
/stephpoon

7. gotwind.org

8. Energizer

9. Medis/flickr:textopus

10. Regenerative fuel cell
a magic bullet?
Kilde:CRM Prototech

11. (New Scientist 2008)

14. Lord Kelvin:
”If you cannot measure it, you cannot change it”

15. Measure and Visualize
• Awareness through visualization reduces
electricity consumption with up to 15%
• As a “Microgenerator” you reduce
consumption with a total of up to 20%
Sarah Darby, ECI 2006
Lucid design group DIY Kyoto Current Cost

18. Keep it simple …
• Started with a battery. An idea that evolved while
researching the gadgets.
– Why all the inbetween stuff?
• After two weeks of incubation the development
took two hours and i chose the DIY Blog format to
spin it the best.
– Flickr, MAKE pool, blog.bareknut.no:
• Hack A Day
– Gizmodo, Wired, Cnet, Inhabitat …the works
• 23000 hits in a few weeks

21. Some comments
“I am so glad I found you. I'm based in Haiti, West Indies, and we're totally dependent
upon sporadic electricity and carcinogenic crude oil. Blessings upon your brain cells, your
article is great. I've been living here for 3 months now, and I'm starting an NGO
dedicated to solar energy. How can we distribute your products through our schools and
churches? Thanks. Cheers. Claude-Michel“
“Hi .. thats quite stupid.. cause u dont want the batteries to get hot.. and if u place them
in the sun to charge.. well they will get pretty hot…
but nice design though.”
“Love the concept! Would it be possible to convert old rechargeable batteries to operate
like this? You could sell kits even. I'm also picturing something like a small tube lined
with reflective film on the inside to allow light reflection all the way around the cell for
faster charging. You'd need some sort of ventilation to keep the battery cool enough
though.”
“get your self some radioactive waste, mix it up into a paste. Then smear the
radioactive goo alover the face of the solar cell. Finally roll up the solar cell into the size
of your desired battery. Viola, THis will work during cloudy das too” Posted at 6:32 pm
on Feb 16th, 2009 by ABeagle

22. Control & Ownership
• Production
• Storage
• Consumption

23. Production
& Storage
•PV Panel
•Socket I/O
•Grid as battery

24. Control
•Real Time
•In context
•Metering/Conversion

26. Control
•Lennart Fahlén
•Any parameter

27. Ownership
•Green tea
•Green energy

28. Further work
• Writing…
• Reworking…
• Expanding...
• Writing…
• Adding…
• Writing…