Incinerator to heat leisure centre

From the Coventry Telegraph (5/1/11):
"UNDERGROUND pipes could see Coventry’s city centre buildings heated by the Whitley incinerator.

The city council is planning to use warmth that is currently wasted at the plant off London Road to heat the Council House, Coventry Sports Centre, Coventry University and Coventry Cathedral.

The scheme could then be extended to heat homes at the Friargate development next to the railway station and the city centre masterplan.

A report to the city council’s cabinet claims that the new district heating system, when expanded to its maximum reach, could cut the council’s carbon footprint by a whopping 40 per cent.

It estimates the council could save £85,000 a year on its energy bills while simultaneously avoiding carbon taxes and generating income by selling heat supplies".

Read More http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2011/01/05/whitley-incinerator-to-heat-coventry-city-centre-buildings-92746-27936441/#ixzz1DP1OUPEA

The 'get fit in the office' health programme

Exercising the Imagination

"Despite Having recently initiated a partial realization of the most obvious dangers that threaten the natural environment of our societies, they are generally content to simply tackle industrial pollution and then from a purely technocratic pespective, whereas only an ethico-political articulation- which I call ecosophy - between the three ecological registers (the environment, social relations and human subjectivity) would be likely to clarify these questions"..."there no longer appears to be a cause-and-effect relationship between the growth in techno-scientific resources and the development of social and cultural progress". "It seems instead that we face up to the logic of desiring ambivalence wherever it emerges in culture, everyday life, work, sport etc.- in order to reevaluate the purpose of work and of human activities according to different criteria than those of profit and yield"..."Individuals must become both more united and increasingly different".

(Guattari, 'The Three Ecologies', 1989)

Placemaker for displaced people

Concept for Art in Common Space

Sound to light

This is a simple sound to light circuit I soldered together. The system glows red when the inbuilt mic picks up sound. It can be adjusted to respond to different sound levels. The ideal would be to create a system which is not dependent on batteries, but translates sound energy into light. I'm not sure if the technology is there yet but I am looking into it. If I did manage to build a system I would place it next to the M25 at Gunpowder Park. Perhaps the miniature lights could be configured to form a text which became activated during heavy traffic usage, and capable of communicating with drivers.

Frying steak

'Bill the Biker' said that the heat sink (a heat dispersal grill) on my bike generator was likely to get so hot that I could fry steaks on it. Well there's another idea - thanks for that Bill. I might use olive oil instead of a silicone heat transfer compound, and I might flavour it with garlic and rosemary. Thanks again Bill....

Bill The Biker

I met 'Bill the Biker' today - a Harley riding electrician who is helping me with the electrical components for the pedal powered bike. He's a great guy with no reservations or hang-ups about such a strange sounding project. Far from it, he even saw the potential merits in a future scenario where avid cyclists would help contribute to energy production in their own homes - a kind of reversal of the electric car which you normally plug into your home to fill with electricity overnight. Instead, he advocated a bike scheme which you would plug into your home at the end of a daily commute t help power lights for example.
He also asked me if I planned to plug the whole bike into the bridge, or whether I was going to take off the battery and then plug them into the lighting system. I said the latter. His critique was that the public wouldn't get such a clear sense that the bike had done the work. I agree, and it did give me the idea to house the bike inside the bridge at the end of each day, and to have it lit up inside and visible through the grate in the bridge which is at eye level. I told him this and he said he wanted some credit. Well here it is Bill - thanks for giving me the idea!

Eco nightclub

I heard this on Radio 4 this morning - the Worlds first Eco Nightclub with it's own energy generating dancefloor said to be capable of producing up to half of the clubs energy requirements. It makes me feel slightly more confident in some of my own more 'ambitious' ideas. Here's more on that story:

"THURSDAY 10TH JULY @ SURYA, KINGS CROSS, LONDON Each week millions upon millions of exuberant human beings head out of their houses and into nightclubs to expend large amounts of energy on the dance-floor. Mobilising vast social groups each and every week clubbing remains one of the few areas of society untouched by the green message. All this is about to change as Dr. Earth plans to launch the world’s first eco-disco and unveil a 10 point manifesto for all club owners and promoters across the world to adopt and do their bit, however small, towards saving the planet".

SPIN CYCLE: Advertising using the promise of pedal power without the product to match that promise

I spotted this advertisement for washing machines in Hildesheim Germany. The promise seems to be for the creation of leisure time through the use of electrical domestic products. Manufacturers seem to be missing the potential alignment of human energy output for the creation of electricity to power such appliances. What a missed opportunity!

Other devices and contraptions

selected images from sketchbooks

Monument to Displaced People (Shelter)

Oilfields for the future

The City as a Power Plant

A selection of images from sketchbooks relating to the concept of the City as Generator

Eco Gym

A selection of images from sketchbooks relating to 'Eco-Gym' concept

Human Powered Washing Machine

courtesy of CCAT

'Greens Hurting Climate Fight'.

In an interview with the Guardian (12th Jan 2008) Sir David King who recently stepped down as the governments scientific advisor, said that any approach to fighting climate change that does not focus on technological solutions is "utter hopelessness". He went on to say that: "there is a suspicion, and I have that suspicion myself, that a large number of people who label themselves 'green', are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th Century. Let's get away from all the technological gizmos and developments of the 20th Century... we'll just use less energy. And then there is there real, where everyone is aspiring to the sort of standard of living that we have, that is based on large energy consumption."

More houses?

More houses...

Houses

well placed for global warming?

Allotments from the M25

5 minutes walk from Gunpowder Park...