How does our work fit into the larger goals of sustaining life on Earth? Personal global perspectives paired with a sweeping look at how we handle basic energy-transfer problems: heating, cooling, refrigeration, movement. We explore some solid-state technologies – structures with few moving parts – that perform sophisticated tasks with simple materials. These structures take advantage of natural gradients to allow their inventors to sell shaved ice in pre-industrial deserts, cook sanitary food in a war zone while evading enemy detection, or keep a home comfortable winter and summer using little to no fuel input. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com.

1. The Nature of Power
Ernie and Erica Wisner
Permaculture Voices, 2015

2. Ernie's Ocean

3. Erica's Academy of Physical Arts
In physics, power is
the ability to do work.
l(Lift weights, overcome friction.)
l2nd law of thermodynamics/arrow of time:
lThings proceed toward increasing disorder.
lLaw of life (and death): Sunlight fuels self-organization.
lDirect, local options: (Minimize distance, transfers, losses, secrets)
lSolve 2 problems (Solutions beget new problems)
lPrepare for the unexpected

4. Erica's Law:
A permanent solution
to a temporary problem
l is a permanent problem.

5. Power in Permaculture
lUsing what's abundant (surplus/waste/problems)
lto generate what's scarce (wants/needs/solutions).
Primitive Technology, two types:
lFirst attempts / prototypes
lFirst choice / locally-evolved and proven

6. So why don't we stick to ancestral ways?
lTimes change. We adapt.
lFossil fuel boom: like “free” whale oil
lOther resources:
lRadiant gain/loss: solar gain, night-sky cooling, line-of-sight, conduction
lConvection & wind: chimney, scoop, State change: evaporate, condense
lLocal biomass food, wood, biogas, biofuels*
lNesting strategies
lzone, insulate, mass/bank, shade, expose

7. Let's examine some alternatives:
lOff-grid, locally-powered or solid-state.
Experimental Mid-stage Ancient
Passive solar Hoop house
Glass/trombe
Sears catalog
homes, sunrooms,
shade porches
Courtyards, caves,
solar bowls,
terraced cities
Cooling /
refrigeration
Ground tubes
Swamp coolers
Pits/streams
Root cellars
Shade trellises
Swamp coolers
Yakhchal/ice pits,
wind catchers,
fountains, qanat
Heating Pocket rocket,
woodstove,
cave hearth
Rocket mass
heaters,
geothermal
Hot rocks:
Ondol, k'ang,
kachelofen,
tawakhenah,
hypocaust

8. Passive Solar Iterations
l1: Hoop houses, tanks, trombe walls
l2: Sears / Custom passive solar homes
l“for dummies,” “for smarties” - abstract designs
Image credit: http://www.greenenergytimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/passiveSolarDiagr

9. Passive Solar Iterations
l3: Courtyard cities
Image credits: Wikipedia, via MisfitsArchitectu
Image credit: Fathy, Hassan, Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture: Principles and Examp

10. Cooling (off-grid)
l1: Ground tubes, pits, (hand) fans
l2: Solar chimneys, vents, shade trellises, swamp coolers, fountains, (heat-powered refrigerator
Image credit: Wikipedia via MisfitsArchitectu

11. Cooling (off-grid)
l3: Root-cellars, ice-houses, yakhchal, qanat
Image credit: from Misfitsarchitecture.com,
://betterarchitecture.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dome.jpg

12. Heating
1: Food, fire, hot rocks,
lpocket rocket, woodstove
l2: Rocket mass heater, geothermal, radiant floors

13. Heating
l 3: Fox stove, k'ang, ondol, kachelofen, hypocaust
Photo Credit: Jessica Steinhauser / MHA.org

14. Review
lAlternative methods
Experimental Mid-stage Ancient
Passive solar Hoop house
Glass/trombe
Sears catalog
homes, sunrooms,
shade porches
Courtyards, caves,
solar bowls,
terraced cities
Cooling /
refrigeration
Ground tubes
Swamp coolers
Pits/streams
Root cellars
Shade trellises
Swamp coolers
Yakhchal/ice pits,
wind catchers,
fountains, qanat
Heating Pocket rocket,
woodstove,
cave hearth
Rocket mass
heaters,
geothermal
Hot rocks:
Ondol, k'ang,
kachelofen,
tawakhenah,
hypocaust

15. lTime frames day/season / 5yrs / generations
lPersonal resources skills, affinities, tolerances
lCommon traps / errors:
lFads/symbolic gestures: biofuel mandates, tilapia, RMH in a tipi
l“Other Guy Knows Best:”
lunder-estimating unknowns
loutside your skillset or experience
lCommunity tolerances
l“Shoulds” vs. satisfactory solutions
lToo-small circles (self-consumption)
lDelusion of “independence”
lIllusion that leaving it = saving it.
The most powerful choices reflect knowledge of
- the situation
- your own nature.
Image credit: http://xkcd.com/1338/

16. Thank you
Erica and Ernie Wisner
lhttp://www.ErnieAndErica.info
lPhoto Credits & Recommendations:
lMisfitsArchitecture.com, “It's Not Rocket Science”
lMHA-net.org
lWikipedia.org