Getting started
Ed Borden
by now. My bad!!!
We worked quite a bit on the story, vision. I think a main thing we
came away with was that the place we are going to innovate here is not
going to be the energy generation. We need to be using work that
already exists (instructables.com, NJ's work) as long as it is in an
inexpensive and accessible form (that means small, cheap, easy to
build or get a hold of). Right now, the ones that seem most do-able
are:
- Joe's pinwheel
- A small VAWT. Something that could easily be carried and put on a
roof or in a yard.
- A solar panel that could easily be installed outside a
window/doorway (is this NJ's design or a modification of it?)
The place where we are going to innovate is getting relevant data out
to the internet, producing out of that data a system whereby people
can share energy, and in how we build a community/movement around
this.
Some of the more specifics around the hardware, Joe was really excited
about a charge controller that connects to the internet, accepts a
variety of inputs, tracks in/out
We talked about how individual residential units within a building
could share energy. I was thinking about how we could potentially
hijack the wiring already in place in the building. Namely, one
circuit which would run from a set of sockets in the home and down to
the circuit box could be connected to our DC power system instead.
This might happen in a central location. Maybe from that central
location, wiring to the other dwelling units would be easier.
Regardless, I just wanted to think about how we might utilize the
infrastructure of a building that already exists.
We also thought about the fact that is we took just the phone, laptop,
and desktop that every person in the city probably owns, multiply that
by 9M, that's a lot of energy. How much, though? Can we figure out
actually how much of the power grid we are looking at replacing,
assuming we could power those devices in entirety with our system?
Last thing and maybe the most important... The vision for this has to
be big and tied directly to a problem we can see and feel. NJ has
done a good job of framing this against the backdrop of asthma
alley/Big Allis. I think we need to have a vision of a power system
where Big Allis is obsolete.
What I mean is that in the past, there was a reason for centralized,
coal power production. Maybe we've progressed now to the point where
we don't need that. Is it hybrid power technology coupled with the
internet?
Maybe the way we solve the problem of asthma alley is literally shut
down the producer of the pollution itself. In thinking about this, I
was remembering about how I'd read how the city had a completely
different makeup in the era of the steam engine. Disgusting,
billowing black smoke through the area that is midtown now. As the
city grew and changed, and the trains changed, people can actually
live and work in those areas now. Maybe the removal of a big nasty
coal burning power plant in the middle of the city is the same thing.
From: Dan Selden [mailto:seld...@newschool.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 4:25 PM
To: Ed Borden
Cc: ryba...@newschool.edu; Joe Saavedra; natalie jeremijenko
Subject: Re: Energy Project
Sounds great. Super psyched to get on board. I'll take a stab at some
graphics in the next couple of days.
-Any ideas on a name for the project?
-Do we want a separate project blog as well?
LI City is like 10minutes away by subway… should be easy enough to pop
over there and snap some photos at the end of class.
Dan
On Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Ed Borden wrote:
Dan, Galina, NatJ, Joe --
Joe and I were realizing just now how behind we are on making this
project happen. But, have no fear, we are in the business of making
shit happen.
I want you guys to know that both Joe and I consider this project to
have massive potential. We are talking about redefining the basic
infrastructure of freaking civilization. It might look like our method
is small at this point, but the idea is HUGE. This is a GREAT place to
be. We will be 100% carrying this project on after the class is over.
I believe we will end up with a kickstarter campaign at some point to
distribute the power generation kits.
I also just wanted to confirm with you both that this is the project you
want to work on. I know you both are involved to some degree with the
bike project, so I just want to make sure you can make an adequate
commitment, because we will definitely be depending on you if you are in.
Here's the description I wrote a while back:
"We will build the mechanism whereby shared citizen-owned power
generators will create a localized DC hub that can power residents'
"digital lifestyles". Residents of a single building will consume power
from 3 harvested energy sources (wind, water, solar). An online
interface will track residents' usage of the system and make a
carbon-footprint comparison against centralized coal power sources. We
are telling the story of a top-down, centralized energy system versus a
bottom-up decentralized, citizen-owned energy system.
"
Target User Group:
"Long Island City. Asthma Alley. Home to NYC's food production
(bakeries) center and major power facility (Big Allis).
"
Between now and the end of class on Tuesday, I want to get really
organized and flesh out the story. Joe is going to be working on the
technical portion for the time being. The 3 of us will be working on
generating assets so that we all understand what this is and how the
system works. So, we need an expanded text and some basic
graphics/pictorials of how it will work. We are also going to
immediately start building a community around this project. I will plan
to blog about it on the pachube blog very soon so we can get the word
out a bit.
Does anyone know how long it takes to get to LI City? How do you feel
about taking the last 90 minutes of class and going on a field trip? We
can take pictures and use them as additional assets for talking about
the project.
Ask questions!!!
--
Ed Borden
Evangelist @ Pachube
973.404.0467 (US)
skype:borden.edward
@edborden