Questions tagged [diy]
DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and home improvements: the sustainability issues around mending and improving your home through repairs, renovation, carpentry, plumbing and other building activities that you do yourself, as an alternative to employing a tradesperson.
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What are the best ways to make my home more energy efficient in reducing carbon footprint with photovoltaics?
Photovoltaics are a crucial element in harnessing renewable energy. They convert sunlight directly into electricity, significantly reducing reliance on fossil fuels and lowering greenhouse gas ...
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Removing detergent from fabrics
How can I remove laundry detergent that has accumulated in my household fabrics? Rinsing in a washing machine in hot water and agitation is not very effective but very wasteful, it takes many hours of ...
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Measuring Home Heat Loss
I am interested in testing/measuring my house to see how leaky it is and how bad the insulation is. If my house is poorly sealed and insulated then I will know how to improve it and I can retest it ...
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What is the most environmentally friendly way to paint/preserve wooden art or construction outdoors?
Wood beams, whether pressure-treated or not, tend to be painted to help preserve them outdoors. Wooden art outdoors tends to be stained or coated in something to weatherize it. I am concerned that ...
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DIY portable solar panel mount
So I just bought one of the 28W Big Blue portable solar panels on Amazon and got myself a cheap camera tripod from a local garage sale, all for an upcoming camping trip. I want to use the tripod to ...
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How to identify the rating of my electrical panel
Recently I got a bid from a solar company and they said I don't need to upgrade my electrical box since it is rated at 125 amps, and for that value, I can install a 7k system based on calculation here....
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What plastics are safe/useful to melt?
I have seen a number of videos that talk about melting down HDPE and/or LDPE for craft projects. Some say these types of plastic are safer to some extent. I would like to do some crafts as well that ...
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Creating a string of six 2V batteries in series to power an inverter
Background:
I have a Magnum Energy MSH3012RV 3kw inverter-charger that runs on 12VDC and I'd like to be able to discharge around 250 to 300 AH between recharges (from 120VAC input) without the ...
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How to use a band brake cable with my home built wind turbine?
I recently bought a band brake for a home built wind turbine and was thinking of mounting it on the shaft and getting a cable from the brake to the ground so I can stop the blades in case of ...
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Book recommendation on traditional, pre-industrial homesteading
I am looking for references which document and explain how to do things without using electricity and all industrial technology.
If you have read "The way home" by Mark Boyle, this would be the sort ...
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Is Tawashi really suitable for dishwashing?
As a step to reduce my waste I planned to make a tawashi to replace artificial dishwashing sponges. I had a t-shirt not suitable to be donated, waiting to be upcycled, so I made t-shirt yarn out of it ...
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How to make extracts and fragrances from fragrant plants like Sage
I'm looking to try using more natural products/solutions in our day to day life and some things that I am considering are fragrances, soaps and essences (food). I have read that Sage plants are edible ...
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Is there a difference between DC \ PV cable and AC cable?
I have now seen a few DIY tutorial videos (not in english) which suggest that one should use DC cable for connecting Solar Panels to the Inverter. They claim that AC cable causes a greater voltage ...
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Does Sawdust for Humanure/Composting Toilet need to be Powder?
First timer here, just getting into homesteading.
I bought a pack of sawdust from Tractor Supply the other night. Finest variety they had. Fine premium pine shavings:
This looks like very thin pine ...
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How can I form heat sinks from waste aluminum?
I am designing a thermo-electric generation system that would generate electricity from the heat of my wood stove. The active components are bismuth telluride TEG cells that use the Seebeck effect in ...
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