2023-11-10 05:00:00
Faced with the challenge of global warming, there are several schools. Those who rely on new technologies and those who advocate other, more energy-efficient systems. “Low tech” are useful, accessible and sustainable technologies. Often homemade tools that some people use on a daily basis. Result: limited impact on the planet and significant savings. Technological sobriety instead of technological overkill: this is the Planète Avenir sequence of this edition.
Bernard is coming home from work when we meet him. Like every day, this professor in an engineering school traveled the 35 kilometers between his home and his school by bike. Once home, he pours himself a cup of tea. The gesture seems banal, and yet: the water is heated thanks to an ingenious system.
Bernard has placed four solar ovens in his garden. Directed mirrors that allow you to cook or reheat a dish using the sun’s energy. One of them delivers the same heat as a 2 kilowatt electric hob, even when it is cold.
In Bernard’s garden, during our interview, it was 7 degrees. In his kettle, it’s almost 100 degrees. “From March to now, 90% of what I ate was cooked with these ovens“, explains Bernard.
The devices cost between 200 and 300 euros. The price can be reduced if you build them yourself.
Great savings for Bernard
These solar ovens are low tech. Useful, accessible and sustainable technology. A philosophy of life for Bernard. At home, we heat ourselves with wood, we preserve the vegetables produced in the garden thanks to lactofermentation… We reduce our energy consumption, and we do a lot of tinkering.
The result: several thousand euros saved each year. “It’s one of my greatest pleasures, it’s to repair, to make do with what I have. I think it’s really a state of mind“, confides Bernard.
Heating without fossil fuel or electricity
Today, low tech is also a community. Anonymous people share their tips and tricks on the internet for building a Norwegian pot, a dry toilet or even a desert fridge.
We meet Kim and Simon. Members of the ASBL Low Tech Liège, they are preparing to build solar heating. They recovered old glazing, a few wooden slats and slates. “The principle of solar heating is that the sun hits the glazing and will heat the slates behind the glazing. These slates will be applied to a frame. Behind these slates, there is a void, therefore air. This air will heat up and this air will be returned to the room to which it will be stuck“, indicates our witness.
Result: 5 to 7 additional degrees in the home without consuming gas, fuel oil or electricity. This technology will soon be one of the heating systems in a 100% low-tech laboratory house renovated by Kim and Simon.
In the home, we are testing new ways of heating, cooking and living. The building on the banks of the Ourthe was affected by the floods of summer 2021. Resilience in the face of climate disasters is an integral part of the sustainable renovation approach. “All the technologies that will be integrated into the building can be appropriated by people, by anyone. So can be repaired and has a use. It is financially accessible, in terms of construction or reconstruction in the building“, specifies Kim Maréchal.
The renovation of the 100% Low Tech house in Liège is underway. It should be completed by next summer.
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