#DIY solar

[solarpunkbusiness]

Solar balconies are booming in Germany

Solar balconies are a piece of the wider energy transition across Europe, explains Jan Osenberg, a policy advisor at the SolarPower Europe association.

“We see them as a subset of rooftop solar, but also as something different,” he tells Euronews Green. “We basically see it as a trend to use all possible artificial infrastructure for solar generation.”

Train tracks, motorways, carparks, car roofs, cemeteries and building facades… the list of structures getting a solar makeover goes on and on.

Plug & Play Kits

From a customer point of view, the main difference is that balcony PV is much easier to install. You can buy the kit online, and don’t need an electrician to set it up. Unlike for rooftop installations, where certified installers are recommended to avoid fire risks and damage to the structure.

In short: the panels are put on a mounting structure and attached via cables to an inverter that converts the electricity from DC to AC, which goes into your socket via a regular plug.

Who are solar balconies for?

“The main reason for the success of balcony solar systems is that it gives people the chance to use solar who weren’t able to use it before,” says a spokesperson for German manufacturer Meyer Burger.

“Most people don’t own a house, or they cannot install rooftop solar because of heritage protection, shading, or other constructional conditions of the roof. For them, balcony solar is appealing because they can use solar power to generate their own electricity and reduce their electric bills.”

[diybattery]

Be Careful! BatteryEVO is putting USED CELLS and FIRE RECALL CELLS in their packs. I posted a link about this on Reddit:

[thoughtportal]

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grow mushrooms

[thesolarpunkworkshop]

Day 5 or 6 of working on the solar bike. The main bike is effectivaly finished. Decided to go lightweight on everything and it was definantly the way to go. On the back is a 24qt milk crate big enough to hold another few bike batteries. That has a thin as possible sheet of hobby plywood above it that is ziptied to the 50w flexible solar panel. And mounted to the milkcrate with hobby screws. The panel recharges the bike through a mppt step up charge controller. The front panel charges just a simple 5v battery pack for my phone. All in all, I think it turned out well.

[queerpunxx]

against me back patch

[siriscrafts]

I put a solar dyeing jar up! I'm dyeing a t-shirt with onion skins and dried lupin leaves! Red onion skins should give green, yellow onion skins a warm golden yellow and lupins cool yellow. Now it will soak up the sunlight for a couple of weeks and slowly release the dye. No electricity needed! I recycled the last of my alum into this – the water in the jar is the mordanting solution i used in my ecoprinting project!

[solarpunkswy]

Remember to avoid fast fashion! Wear the clothes you like, style them in different ways, and make your own fashion choices! We don't need websites and companies like Shein that profit off of the abuse of workers. Thrift and shop locally if you need. Learning how to sew is a rewarding hobby and will allow you to make your own unique accessories as well!

[roseredsnow]

Inspired by this post and a comment I've just realised it may be helpful for people just learning to sew and make clothes what's easier to start with and what's harder.

So offering my opinion as a cosplayer who's sewn a lot of things.

(Baring in mind this is as the most basic version, not taking into account pleats or collars etc)

Starting with easier.

- T-shirts and tops, fairly simple, you could literally a square/rectangle and leave bits unsewn for the sleeves and head and it'd still work, for the sleeves, it's just more rectangles.

(Will help to curve the holes though, especially for the neckline)

- Dresses honestly pretty similar just long rectangle, just means you're using more fabric.

With both of these if you want to take it in anywhere to make it more form fitting it tends just to be like a curve inward, just make sure it's all flat or you'll catch some fabric on the side you're not looking at and have to go over again and possibly have puncture holes depending on what fabric you're using.

-Skirts again pretty simple, it just depends how you want to do the waist, and making sure if it doesn't unfastened all the the way down that the top of the skirt can go over your hips.

- Trousers (pants) are hell, I know people that have degrees in fashion or costume making and still despise making trousers.

Important to remember that you're probably gonna need the back to come a bit higher up, if you find it riding too low add in a long triangle, you'll often find bought jeans with this done on purpose.

The inseam? Honestly I have no tips it's why I hate making trousers.

If you're using an elastic waistband pretty sure the rule is elastic the measurement of your waist, fabric to the measurement of your hips/the biggest oart it has to go over. Elastic will stretch but not all fabrics will.

- Jumpsuits/Dungarees, I haven't made many but the issues here is again the inseam plus making sure you don't give yourself a wedgie cause it needs to go over your shoulders as well, so probably like give extra length than you would for top + trousers and then take it in.

- Gloves are a nightmare, would not recommend, I only tend to make them for facepaint characters if I can't find some online that are long enough. You will have to unpick some thread between your fingers, I don't know what else to offer.

Almost anything that fits you when on and is just a pain to put on can be fixed with a longer zip, I have a dress that fits perfectly when on but because its fitted at the waist it won't go over my hips or shoulders unless the zip goes all the way to my hips, but it works.

Will eventually do like a proper guide to making stuff as simple as possible, I have both a top, trousers and cloak to make for an upcoming cosplay so that's gonna be fun.

[cognitivejustice]

Underground greenhouses are helping people to take back control of their nutrition and ease farming amid the climate crisis

[clothless-sock]

Added some pizzazz while fixing up two little holes in my Janis Joplin tee! The scrap fabric I had matched the color of the shirt PERFECTLY, it’s totally wild.

[solarpunkbusiness]

Solar panels are now so cheap, Europeans are building fences with them

The panels capture less sunlight when used as fencing than they do on roofs, but the process saves on high labour and scaffolding costs, according to analysts and posts on social media by households that have installed them.

“This is the result of solar panels getting so cheap that we’re just putting them everywhere,” said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at BloombergNEF. “Since installation cost — labour, scaffolding — is the vast majority of the cost of installing a rooftop PV [photovoltaic] system, it can make sense.”

“Why put up a fence when you can just put up a load of solar panels, even if they’re not aligned exactly to the sun?” says Martin Brough, head of climate research at BNP Paribas Exane. “Where the panels themselves are just incredibly cheap, the constraints become the installation costs and the sites . . . you get a bit of a DIY mentality.”

source

[idothefelting]

Needle felted Pupa from Solar Opposites

idothefelting (dot) com

[thesolarpunkworkshop]

Day 2 of the solar ebike project. I managed to get more power input on this thing, the problem is it's way more janky. With all the hinges and panels on them it's going to clang itself apart with a big enough pothole.

Oh well, I'll think of a solution.

[queerpunxx]

band patches

[siriscrafts]

It's time to reveal the sun dyed shirt! It's been 22 days since I put it in the jar.

Smells like autum (decayed leaves) and look at that golden yellow! What about the red onion skins inside the shirt?

Sure looks red! But red onion skins are supposed to give green dye, the red goes away when it's rinsed... right?

Right!! It's completely different now! How fun!

Here are some details! I can't quite capture the greenness of the top, it's not quite that dark in natural light.