Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels.
Found this on the lowtech magazine. What are your toughts?
Under the conditions that the Lowtech Magazine article is suggesting these thermoelectic generators would be useful, a steam engine/generator combo would perhaps be prohibitively expensive for an impoverished area to afford, except maybe through a group purchase where it becomes a central power supply for an entire village, but at that point they may as well instead do the solar microgrids, which would require a lot less time and effort to keep fueled, and probably cost less overall.
I think the other primitivism blog guy would be against the use of a fossil fuel powered anything. I’m not actually sure what level of technology he would be okay with.
Looking into their blog again just to be sure, it appears they think a return to, I guess medieval/bronze-age technology is ideal? Based on this quote:
Where might one look for meaning? The guideline is simple. If it requires non-renewable materials, modern forms of energy (fossil fuels, nuclear, electricity from any source), industrial processes, or purchase with money, then it’s probably best to treat it as being devoid of meaning.
I assume they would consider a steam engine as falling under industrial processes.
Under the conditions that the Lowtech Magazine article is suggesting these thermoelectic generators would be useful, a steam engine/generator combo would perhaps be prohibitively expensive for an impoverished area to afford, except maybe through a group purchase where it becomes a central power supply for an entire village, but at that point they may as well instead do the solar microgrids, which would require a lot less time and effort to keep fueled, and probably cost less overall.
I think the other primitivism blog guy would be against the use of a fossil fuel powered anything. I’m not actually sure what level of technology he would be okay with.
My thinking was steam engines are 100s of years old technology.
Looking into their blog again just to be sure, it appears they think a return to, I guess medieval/bronze-age technology is ideal? Based on this quote:
I assume they would consider a steam engine as falling under industrial processes.
If that is the case you certainly don’t get thermoelectric generators
Definitely not :p
(just to clarify, the OP article from Lowtech Magazine about thermoelectric generators is in no way related to the Primitivism guy wanting no tech).
Ahh that makes a bit more sense.