Topic 1c
How could I live 'off-grid'?
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Activities
Activities
Read through the sections below to learn about: collecting water, going to the toilet, cooking food, staying warm and more.
Later, you will be given an engineering task to design a piece of technology which could be used to help a person live off-grid. The catch? You have to design it using materials collected from the rubbish you photographed last lesson.
Why isn't there enough water for everyone?
Why isn't there enough water for everyone?
Water is the most precious resource we have on planet earth, yet we treat it as if it is disposable. Every year there are floods in the winter in the UK and often water shortages leading to draughts in the summer. Why is this?
Solar still - Sea made drinkable.mp4Making Fresh Water from a Solar Still.mp4DIY Solar Water Distiller! - Simple Solar Water Distilling - Easy DIY (for survival_SHTF).mp4Have a go yourself.....
It is extremely easy to make a solar still (solar distillation unit). All you need are the items listed in the picture. Here's how it works:
As the unit is air-tight (and so water tight as well), no water vapour can escape it.
As the water is heated, it evaporates (turns to water vapour) and rises to the surface like a gas.
As it hits the cooler wall of the cling film, it condenses turning back to liquid water.
The slope of the weighted cling film encourages it to run downwards as droplets and into the small collector dish. Clever!
'Waste not, want not' - Toilet talk
'Waste not, want not' - Toilet talk
Something as simple as going to the toilet is serious business! As much as I think you'll deny it, I bet you've at least once wondered where your poo goes when it leaves the toilet.
The amazing flushing toilet as we currently know it has been around since the 1890's. In the modern world the flushing toilet has become a problem as they consume huge amounts of fresh water which is in short supply.
A brief history of toilets - A TED Ed video
A brief history of toilets - Francis de los Reyes.mp4Because poo is toxic, it needs to be taken to waste processing plants where any harmful bacteria and viruses can be destroyed. This is an expensive process and during floods, when the water treatment system can't handle the amount of waste, it is often dumped, untreated into rivers and the sea. This causes pollution and kills marine life.
The video adjacent describes a typical wastewater treatment plant in the UK and the do's and don't of flushing a toilet.
Veolia UK _ Wastewater Treatment in Edinburgh.mp4History of Toilets.pngThe population of the world is getting larger every year. In an effort to bring safe sanitation to parts of the world where they don't have easy access to water supplies and suffer from inequality of wealth, the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation held a conference in 2014 and invited some of the best minds around the world to propose solutions to the growing sanitation crisis.
Reinvent the Toilet Fair India 2014 Technical Guide.pdfCompostable toilets are actually quite clever!
How to Build a Composting Toilet _ Live Free or Die_ DIY.mp4
'Fat of the land' - Growing food sustainably
'Fat of the land' - Growing food sustainably
Buy local
Buy local
You will often hear your farmers and businesses say "buy local". But they have a vested interest in you buying their produce. Have you ever stopped to consider why this is REALLY true?
Every time your food is picked up, handled, processed, wrapped, stored and transported, it requires energy in the form of precious heat and electricity. The more steps in the food chain there are from source to plate, the bigger the problem is.
Food miles incur massive costs in terms of the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere when, boilers, generators, machines, tractors, lorries, trucks, ships aeroplanes and more handle our food.
Buying local helps to keep these food miles down to a minimum and also helps support local farmers and businesses.
Next time you buy from a supermarket, check to see where your food came from. Was it local?
What's Your Food Footprint_ _ Earth Lab.mp4Food miles calculator
Food miles calculator
Avoiding food poisoning - Cooking food sustainably
Avoiding food poisoning - Cooking food sustainably
We all need to eat right? But to avoid food poisoning (and to make it tasty), it's often necessary to kill off bacteria first by heating our food. There are some simple ways to heat food that are relatively environmentally friendly.
It is possible to harness the suns power to directly heat an object by concentrating the suns rays using a parabola.
A parabola is a mathematic term for a special curve. It is useful because anything pointed at it is reflected towards a single point.
How to convert an old satellite dish into a parabolic mirror so you can cook food using just the sun!
Parabolic Satellite Dish Conversion - Solar Cooker.mp4It's possible to make your own gas (for burning) by breaking down food waste using live bacteria. This is turned into methane gas.
Biodigester - Methane as fuel.mp4Gross! - Check out this video where the make methane in a biodigester during a BBC children's television program.
GROSS! How to Make Methane Gas _ Earth Lab.mp4The not so good news...
Homes in the UK that use gas boilers and gas ovens burn 'natural' gas. Natural gas is classed as a 'fossil fuel' as it often comes from the oil industry; however it is also the 'cleanest' burning of the fossil fuels. It produces CO2 and H2O (water) when burned.
It is necessary to store methane in tanks to be able to use it. If methane leaks into the atmosphere it causes serious harm to the environment as it is far more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than even CO2. It is this heat entrapment that is directly causing global warming.
Are cow farts destroying the planet?
Are cow farts destroying the planet?
Click the image to find out more.
Fireless cooker.pdfStaying warm
Staying warm
Insulate Britain and mass-protests
Insulate Britain and mass-protests
In 2022, a number of people across Britain staged protests up and down the country, blocking roads to get their message across. Whether we agree with their methods or not, they have a point - we in the UK waste tremendous amounts of energy heating our homes when if they weren't quite so leaky we wouldn't need to.
Below are some ways of heating our homes more sustainably and efficiently.
Hemp and sheeps wool.
Hemp wool vs Sheep wool insulation _ Everything you need to know.mp4Denim and cellulose
Denim vs Cellulose Insulation _ Everything you need to know!.mp4Straw - It's the future!
Straw - the future of sustainable building.mp4Why is central heating both wasteful and harmful?
The Future of Heat.mp4Smart tips for staying warm and avoiding wasting heat energy.
Heat pumps explained - The future of heating in the UK?
Heat pumps explained - the future of home heating _ Nesta _ A sustainable future.mp4
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