Eco Factor: Energy-efficient and sustainable living exhibited by a family.
A New Zealand based family has given up all luxuries and technology in an effort to educate the world the ways to go green and sustainable. Murry Grimwood and Jennie Upton are putting up in a $50,000 home that is 100% self-sufficient and off grid. Gadgets in this part of the world are no longer required, but once the energy crisis starts to loom large, this home would definitely be one of the few places where you can take shelter.
The few gadgets that the family possesses are cellphones, which are charged whenever they turn on the generator to wash their clothes, a car stereo owing to energy-efficiency, laptops that too get their juice from the washing machine generator and a television which is just turned on to watch the odd movie.
The house has been constructed with recycled materials and lots of insulation to enable the single sheet of plywood to protect the family from harsh weather. Lightning is done using LED bulbs which hardly require any energy and a single solar panel is what the family owns to power them. The kitchen is devoid of any fancy gadgets or ovens and cooking is done on a wooden stove.
Furniture too is made from recycled and post-use materials, which one would often find in the junkyards of the urban world. The only thing they have to go to the market for is a few gallons of petrol to run the generator, and to nullify the carbon emissions of which, they have 40 acres of trees on their property.
The Dark Side:
When fossil fuels are nowhere to be seen in the very near future, people all over the world will be forced to throw out their electronic gear and live on the footsteps of the Grimwood family. However, if technology itself can provide a cheap, green and efficient alternative to fossil fuels then we might see a much advanced world.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
[For original images of the family’s endeavor please visit ODT]
Via: ODT
