In a modern hydropower installation, a water turbine converts the energy
in the moving water into rotational energy at its shaft, which is then
converted into electrical energy by the generator that is coupled to the
turbine. Next, the electrical energy is converted back into rotational
energy by the electric motor of the machine that is being powered. Every
energy conversion introduces energy loss.
In an old fashioned hydropower installation, there was
only one conversion of energy; A water wheel converted the energy
inherent to the water source into rotational energy at its shaft. The
same shaft also moved the machinery, so that the only source of
significant energy loss occurred in the water wheel itself.
Some small direct hydro powered systems in South America present a
strong case for combining the use of modern materials with old fashioned
methods of water power mechanization. The higher efficiency of this approach means that less water is needed
to produce a given amount of energy. This lowers the cost of hydropower
and enables power to be produced by the use of very small streams.
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If there is any damage to the unit when you move in, DOCUMENT IT. Take photos and make sure they’re dated.
If something breaks while you live in the unit, and you can’t fix it easily yourself, REPORT IT. Make the landlord deal with it.
Document what the unit looks like when you move out, before the final inspection–because landlords can and will try to fake damage. Have proof of what damage was yours, if any, and what damage was not.
Landlords will try to fuck you out of every penny you have, including in ways that are horribly illegal. Don’t let them.
A landlord MAY NOT keep your deposit over ‘normal wear and tear’. They may ONLY collect on something that is YOUR FAULT. They cannot charge for carpet wearing down or needing a new coat of paint after a few years, or the furnace needing a replacement because it’s old. They can charge you for punching a hole in the wall that you never fix, or spilling paint on the carpet requiring a specialized cleaning or replacement. And they may ONLY keep what covers the repairs (If insufficient, then and only then may they keep the whole deposit, as in your deposit did not cover the damage you caused).
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AS A TENANT. You landlord MUST return your deposit unless it was damage you directly caused, and ONLY the amount needed to fix the damage, and not one penny more.
“Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.” – Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell
“Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.”
— Franz Kafka, The Zürau Aphorisms (via philosophybits)
How to make everything yourself - online low-tech resources
Energy Bulletinpointed us to the website of Practical Action (previously known as the Schumacher Centre for Technology & Development), an online resource devoted to low-technology solutions for developing countries. The site hosts many manuals that can also be of interest for low-tech DIYers in the developed world. They cover energy, agriculture, food processing, construction and manufacturing, just to name some important categories.
We would like to add to this the impressive online library put together by software engineer Alex Weir. The 900 documents listed here (13 gigabytes in total) are not as well organised and presented as those of Practical Action, but there is a wealth of information that is not found anywhere else. The library is also hosted here (without search engine).
Other interesting online resources that offer manuals and instructions are Appropedia and Howtopedia. These are all wiki’s, so you can cooperate. The Centre for Alternative technologies has many interesting manuals, too, but the majority of those are not for free.
Just a heads up: the fastonline mirror of the 2006 cd3wd directory is still up, but the download in full link at cd3wd is no
longer working.
According to wikipedia, the project stopped after Alex Weir passed away and the website taken down.
almost forgot! here’s a rundown of the disc organization from the readme on disc 1001_cd3wd. That way you can prioritize your downloads based on your needs (such as if you have limited bandwidth or drive space or whatever else for local conditions).
Each is approximately 4.3 GB:
- #1001 – medicine, health, water, sanitation - #1002 – material from practical action, ITDG, appropedia, etc.. - #1003 – vocational education, construction, metalwork, electrical trades, auto mechanics, woodwork, metalwork etc - #1004 – agriculture - #1005 – more agriculture and also all Portuguese titles and most French and Spanish titles - #1006 – the upgrade disk – material additional to the cd3wd release of 2011/12, plus the rest of the French and Spanish titles
