But isn’t that the “American way” (referring to the United States methodology).  Using whatever resources we have at hand to make a buck.  Sure commercial air travel ushered in staggering benefits of globalization, but primarily for profit.  When profits are at stake you can bet there will be fierce regulations.  Yes some of those regulations are for our safety, but at what costs?

Fewer regulations might be less safe but when regulations hamper the creative soul that is when I feel dark inside.  Do you think the FAA would have let Orville and Wilbur fly their plane?  In case you don’t know where I’m going, I say, no I don’t think they would have.

Frowning at regulations made for our safety doesn’t mean I am reckless, if I am going to test a design you can be darn sure I will have taken into account the design flaws and done thorough safe testing on my own.

All I want is a bike shop, a welder and a dream (a slide rule might come in handy).  Let me chase the skies.

Oh right back to the title, in a hundred years we’ve made a lot of advancements in technology for which I am grateful, but when copyrights and regulations get in the way of the creative spirit I would count all the technology advancements as a loss.

Firstly, let me reintroduce wood-gasification (http://www.build-a-gasifier.com/fema-gasifier-plans/).  You tell me why it would be a bad idea to replace gasoline (non-renewable) with wood and other biomass (very renewable).  The FEMA supplied design was intended to be easy to set up and get going in the event of a catastrophic fuel shortage.  Sounds like a good place to start playing.  I saw Rocket City Rednecks hook a gasifier up to a gasoline generator and it ran just fine.  Yes it appears that tar build-up is a problem for wood-gas especially in the case of the FEMA basic design.  I wonder if the gas percolated through water would have less tar… how much additional energy would it take to make wood-gas a more long term solution.

After a little perusing it seems that the “DriZzleR Method” is pretty effective at cutting down the tar in the producer gas follow DriZzleR Method at http://thedrizzlergasifier.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/thank-you-pascal-to-give-me-opportunity.html

So how well will it burn human poop?  How does the poop need to be prepared?  Is it a reasonable use of resources to try and do such?  This could have solved the solid sewage problem of living off the grid.

I’ve heard rumors (http://news.mongabay.com/bioenergy/2007/05/researchers-to-develop-biomass-powered.html) of a thermoacoustic all-in-one heater/cooler being developed.  What is a reasonable amount of return for such a unit and how big would it be?  Energy input to temp change ratio?  Would self resonating cylinders be beneficial or hindering to establishing a standing wave?  How would it integrate and what could it integrate into?

Garbage: Can plastic be remolded and re-purposed with reasonable effort?  What about other trash like cardboard or metals?

Is it possible to use ground temperature in a mobile house situation to assist with heating/cooling? Would the naturally cool ground be an effective component for a sterling engine?

This is assuming that the tiny house is a trailer, how hard would it be to make it self propelled and what kind of spacial real-estate would that require?

Furniture and interior wise, how tight can utility be packed?  Multipurposed furniture/rooms.  Plumbing, ease of access, spacial arrangement.

Water treatment and collection.

HVAC.

Saturday January 31st,
I had spent that afternoon banging my head against my computer trying to configure Open FOAM on my virtual Linux Mint OS before going to a Viking themed shindig.  A lot of weird and providential forces have been at work to get me to that point.  To get stuck with installation config problems (sort of a fun puzzle to be solved in my case) seemed laughable and mildly devastating.  You look lost, let me catch you up.

OpenFOAM® or Open Field Operation and Manipulation is a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) toolbox learn more at http://www.openfoam.org.  What that means for me is that I can test the air dynamics and combustion properties of prototypes before actually building anything.  Then you would probably say: Prototypes of what? Then I would say: Oh, yeah… Hang on a sec.

Post Mortem Gifts From Nikolai Tesla  or How Tesla Helped Save Pulse Jet Engine Technology.

I browse the web a lot for technology.  For a long stretch I was intrigued with Pulse Jets. For more than you ever wanted to know about pulse jets check out http://www.pulse-jets.com/pulse3.htm.  Basically it’s a jet engine without the turbofan or compressor, it is really quite amazing… and loud.  So obviously I wanted to spec one out for myself to be built.  After reading some I thought to myself, Nikola Tesla’s Valve conduit would really help here.  Lo and behold that specific device was mentioned in a piece of the history of Pulse Jets.

In 1915 (I think) NT patented a valve that had a preferred flow through it.  He might have had different plans for it, he was going on about his Tesla Turbine at the time so maybe it was related to that *shrugs*. Whatever though.  He got distracted with electricity for a while after that, or maybe he wanted it to be found and figured out later…?

Yes there are PJEs that operate off of moving valves, those might even be a better fit for what I want, but a valveless PJE is so much more elegant in my opinion.

So that’s my current aim.  Design and test the Valve Conduit for use in a Pulse Jet Engine.  I have CAD’d a 3D model of the V.C. rotated so as to fit in a housing.  Now I just need to test and tweak it in Open FOAM.

I have a friend that has a 3D printer so once I get the values I want the rapid prototyping will be a cinch.

Whatever I learn from this venture will help me better understand the limitations of making a Pulse Detonation Engine, more on that later.

Enter Suzanne Lee, or for your benefit here is a TED talk on her bacteria grown clothes: http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_lee_grow_your_own_clothes?language=en .

Turns out that cellulose is a great insulator, she even says that she dreams of growing cars and things!  House gen next here we come!

Here is an idea developed by MIT almost 10 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_Tree_Hab I don’t know what progress they’ve had in 10 years, I’ve been busy doing my own thing.

Personally I’m going to study plant galls for a while, maybe we could just ask trees to grow a house for us.