| TEAM | BUILDS | RENEWABLES | EDUCATION | GALLERY | LINKS |
| Autonomous | Segal House |
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| Autonomous
Housing Rather than designing everything around a centralised system, with central power plants, water-treatment plants, sewer systems, gas lines, phone lines, TV cable, and the attendant spider web of wires and pipes that those use. One could instead build a self-contained house, which allows one to cut free of the various umbilical cords of current society, and live anywhere on this planet's land surface. Eventually, also the sea surface, under the sea, and then the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere, but that's projecting far into the future ! The basic design must possess a strong shell that shelters you from the elements, insulated walls, solar & wind power, along with fuel cells, methane-digesters hooked up to composting toilets, water-reprocessing facilities in the house, a hydroponic greenhouse, wireless communications, etc. It catches rainwater, and/or pumps & purifies from nearby lakes, streams, & rivers, or even condenses water directly from the atmosphere. It's meant to help you survive in the various extremes of this planet. it could even be a stationary base-camp, which can be picked up by helicopter and delivered to any GPS coordinates required. This idea still presents one problem though, how do you get rid of the need for roads ? We can make self-contained power systems, and water, food, communication, etc. but what about getting to & fro? What about going to work ? What about driving to town for some supplies ? Besides the transport problem, autonomous housing stacks up really well in a cost/benefit analysis. The following two tables show the energy benefits accrued in comparison to an average UK house and other sustainable house designs round the world, some admittedly older before advances brought greater efficiency. INSERT IMAGE/TABLES: 3energy_consumption + 4energy_consumption2 |
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