Residential wind turbines need 12+ mph average wind at hub height and an unobstructed site to make sense. Most homes don’t have either. Solar wins for 90%+ of properties. Here’s how to tell which camp you’re in.
Ground source heat pumps use the constant temperature of the ground to heat and cool your home with a COP of 3.5-5.0. Upfront cost is steep, but in cold climates the math works. Here’s how it actually functions.
Three ways to use solar electricity you don’t immediately consume: net metering (1-for-1 grid credits), feed-in tariffs (fixed export payments), or battery storage. Here’s the economics and policy risk of each.
Community solar lets renters and apartment dwellers subscribe to a solar farm and save 5-15% on their electricity bill without owning a panel. Here’s how it works, who it’s for, and what to watch for in the contract.
Grid-tied solar shuts off during blackouts. Off-grid needs huge batteries for cloudy weeks. Hybrid is the modern default. Here’s the cost, complexity, and resilience trade-offs of each.
Solarpunk is an aesthetic, a literary movement, and a political stance that imagines futures where humans live with the planet instead of against it. Here’s where it came from, what it actually means, and why it matters now.
Every solarpunk reading list cites the same five books. Here’s a wider 15 — from Le Guin and KSR proto-solarpunk to recent anthologies — that imagine futures actually worth building toward.
Solarpunk isn’t fictional. Bosco Verticale in Milan, CopenHill in Copenhagen, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore — buildings illustrators have been drawing for years are already real. Here are ten that count.
Cyberpunk gave the 1980s a vocabulary for techno-dystopia. Solarpunk is trying to give the 2020s a vocabulary for what comes after we deal with the climate crisis. Two genres, two futures, one ongoing choice.
A 1,400 sq ft roof catches ~870 gallons per 1 inch of rain. Here’s how to design, size, and build a residential rainwater system — from a single 55-gallon barrel to a 5,000-gallon cistern.