Open Source Low Tech • Hacker News Board

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#141

Post by WillAdams » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 12:12 PM UTC

busymom0 wrote: post #105

elias1233 wrote: post #43

It would be interesting to see if an air conditioner or refrigerator can be made in this manner

If you don't have AC but do have a refrigerator, you can build a DIY AC using a box, bottles of frozen water and a fan. There's YouTube tutorials on how to do it. I have friends who use it in their apartment which doesn't have AC and doesn't allow installation of one.

Do the thermodynamics of that work out beyond a localized shift? (kitchen is hot, other room cool?)

I've always thought that refrigerators should be boxed in with air circulation where filtered intake air for the back comes from the basement and the then heated air is piped up to the attic to be vented.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#142

Post by CurtMonash » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 4:40 AM UTC

nchmy wrote: post #4

CurtMonash wrote: post #2

I recall predecessors to this idea from the 1970s, which probably implies I heard about them from Futurist Magazine and/or the book Small is Beautiful. It has always been suggested that engineers could do something worthwhile by inventing very simple yet useful things that could realistically be made in poor/underresourced countries or villages.

What do you figure happened, such that people largely haven't done this?

No scale at which it really took off. Village-wide stuff requires a bit of politics, and anyhow there are donors out there for capital equipment and even a bit of organizing help. Factory-level stuff -- well, the product idea isn't the hardest part of a new business, is it? Etc.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#143

Post by ErroneousBosh » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:53 AM UTC

buildsjets wrote: post #124

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Off the top of my head. Steel frame, can be repaired / modified with any old welder. Designed so it can be taken apart with the minimum of generic tools. Standard bearings, brake blocks etc (probably brake blocks that you can shove some piece of old tyre in). So basically just your average cheap crappy Halfords Bike-Shaped Object type "bike"?

You do know that it is possible to buy a durable, heavy duty steel bicycle that is not department store trash, right? We have hundreds of these were I work. https://www.worksmancycles.com/indbikes.html

They're actually surprisingly inexpensive, for what they are. It does look like they're single-speed which limits them to nice big flat sites, but they look like they'd hold up well.