DIY

Low Voltage Controls: Part 2

Last time I wrote about controls, things got a little dense real fast.  If all of the talk of switches and relays seemed to lack any relevance, then stay put, because this month I’ll skip ahead and show some real concrete examples of ways we use low voltage controls around on our farm.  Review the […]

Experimental Farm Network’s Nate Kleinman Visits Living Web

Climate change– its causes and effects, its crusaders and its naysayers– is one of the top issues of our time. For Nate Kleinman, who used to work in disaster relief, it’s the work of his life. On February 24th, Living Web Farms will host Kleinman for a full day workshop on addressing climate change on […]

Low Voltage Controls: Part 1

  Last weekend I had the privilege of leading Living Web’s first workshop for 2018.  Tech workshops tend to work best in the winter, before the growing season kicks in. Cold weather and a stiff wind kept us in the classroom and bundled up tight for a brief tour of some of the low voltage […]

Biomass for the Masses

by Richard Freudenberger, Living Web Farms Resource and Alternative Energy Coordinator Call it firewood, biomass or solid fuel, it’s still one of the most reliable ways to heat your home—but only if you do it right. Even long-time wood-burners can disagree on what is “right,” so we’re going to do our best to clear the […]

Atomizing Waste Oil Burners

Update: 10/26/18.  Part 2 available here Summer HVAC season is coming to a close and lately our local scrap-yard has been teeming with old oil burning furnaces. While Asheville residents are replacing oil burners with updated heat pump systems as fast as they can, conscious builders and tradesmen are recycling the used equipment, and although […]

Conducting a Do-it-Yourself Home Energy Audit

by Richard Freudenberger, Living Web Farms Resource & Alternative Energy Coordinator There are two benefits to saving energy in the home. One is the financial gain of allocating less of your household budget to keeping the household humming, and the other is the less noticeable advantage of managing consumption for the sake of our planet’s […]

DIY – Make a TLUD Gasifier

By Dan Hettinger, Biochar Facility Manager Last month I wrote a little about the carbon impact of biochar production, and concluded with the assumption that going ‘carbon-negative’ is likely very possible with simple scale ‘backyard’ biochar technologies.  Bob Wells’ immensely popular presentation on the Tin-Man shows an effective DIY method with a single 55 and […]