Welcome to Appropedia   

From Appropedia
Jump to: navigation, search
edit  watch  

Sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.

Appropedia is for collaborative solutions in sustainability, appropriate technology and poverty reduction.

All are welcome to to add to and edit Appropedia. This is your site, to find, co-create and improve the solutions we need. See our Mission.

Contributors have made 196,720 edits and uploaded 14,757 files. — Browse our categories or all 34,004 pages.

edit  watch  

Announcements — more

Intellectual property internship
Appropediafox.pngAppropediaFox is a free and open source Firefox plugin that helps make editing Appropedia fast and easy.

edit  watch  Selected page (refresh)
Direct and diffuse solar radiation (Practical Action)
Solar thermal energy. The sun is the source of the vast majority of the energy we use on earth. Most of the energy we use has undergone various transformations before it is finally utilized, but it is also possible to tap this source of solar energy as it arrives on the earth’s surface.

There are many applications for the direct use of solar thermal energy, space heating and cooling, water heating, crop drying and solar cooking. It is a technology which is well understood and widely used in many countries throughout the world. Most solar thermal technologies have been in existence in one form or another for centuries and have a well-established manufacturing base in most sun-rich developed countries.

The most common use for solar thermal technology is for domestic water heating. Hundreds of thousands of domestic hot water systems are in use throughout the world, especially in areas such as the Mediterranean and Australia where there is high solar insolation (the total energy per unit area received from the sun). As world oil prices vary, it is a technology which is rapidly gaining acceptance as an energy saving measure in both domestic and commercial water heating applications. Presently, domestic water heaters are usually only found amongst wealthier sections of the community in developing countries.

CCAT natural paint project

Homemade house paints - exposed, exploited, examined and explained.

Selected quote
You don't have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency.
Bill Mollison
Aleiha's parabolic solar cooker
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems. Since work is defined as a force acting through a distance (a length of space), energy is always equivalent to the ability to exert pulls or pushes against the basic forces of nature, along a path of a certain length.

Sustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy and power, wind power, wave power, geothermal energy and power, biomass fuel and energy, and tidal power. It usually also includes technologies that improve energy efficiency.

While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. As of 2011, small solar photovoltaic (PV) systems provide electricity to a few million households, and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more. Over 44 million households use biogas made in household-scale digesters for lighting and/or cooking, and more than 166 million households rely on a new generation of more-efficient biomass cookstoves.

edit  watch  

Popular pages — more

edit  watch  

Hot topics / In the news

edit  watch  

Construction zone — correct mistakes & flag spam as needed

Newest articles more Wanted pages - click to add info more
Under construction

New pages being developed:

  1. CCAT BSS sign wall
  2. RollandAshley549
  3. Engr215 Friends of the Dunes
  4. Humfoodguide
  5. Engr370/HumFoodGuide
  6. Congo Red Dot Test
  7. SafeSnip
  8. Firefly
  9. NeoNurture
  10. Biological farming

Note: Appropedia's newest pages may not yet comply with our policies. Page titles in italics are "redirects," often created when moving a page.

Under construction

Create a new page:

  1. Rural communities
  2. Animals
  3. Environmentalism
  4. Nutrition
  5. Organic waste
  6. Human development
  7. Water pollution
  8. Ecosystem
  9. Clay
  10. Environmental science

These red links are invitations for you to contribute your knowledge.

Or create a page on the topic of your choice.

Newest files - images and documents that can be added to pages more

Note: Appropedia's newest files may not yet comply with our policies.

edit  watch  

Please help Appropedia grow!

We want your projects, current works, observations and wisdom! Please see our Contributing content page. You can also enrich existing articles by clicking on "edit" at the top of the page or section. Appropedia's software is robust and forgiving, so Be Bold and contribute!

More info on helping out is at our Community Portal page. Ask questions or leave comments at the Village Pump page. You can also check out the Appropedia mailing lists. Appropedia community and Site tech.

Become a Facebook Fan. Follow us on Twitter, Identica or FriendFeed Stumble our links at StumbleUpon or Delicious. See our images at Flickr and YouTube... and make sure to add us as a friend, subscription, resource, etc. wherever you are!

Personal tools