In the United States , where most people have access to safe shelter , clean drinking waterand sanitization servicing , it ’s prosperous to think impoverishment does n’t be . statistic tell apart a dissimilar story . More than 1 billion of the world ’s almost 7 billion people live on less than $ 1 a day [ beginning : The Earth Institute ] . In firmly - hit area such as sub - Saharan Africa , Haiti and South Asia , baby are peculiarly vulnerable . Millions die each year from famishment and diseases such as malaria and AIDS . Few receive a formal education , and even few have admittance to health forethought .
One solvent , of path , is to advance moneyed land to contribute dollars toward external poorness assistance . Another is to donate product and service to countries in need . For example , the nonprofit One laptop computer per Child deliver low - cost , Linux - based laptops to children of develop land . Since 2005 , the organisation has made meg of data processor usable in the Americas , Africa and Southeast Asia , with the goal of giving impoverishment - stricken kids " a window out to the world and a tool with which to conceive . "
Another solution is to share cognition and experience with at - risk biotic community so they can develop their own technologies using local resources . Some projects , such as installing a micro - hydroelectric system in a modest hamlet , can be quite challenging . They expect a large number of constituent , from turbine and pipes to barrage fire and inverter , as well as an understanding of index generation . Other projects do n’t have the same scale , yet still surrender tremendous benefit . Often , the impact of even simple , do - it - yourself devices can be profound , helping people improve their support conditions and conduct healthier life .
In that spirit , we ’ve gain a collection of homebuilt technology that can be put together using easy - to - get hold resource and modified understanding of science and engineering . Our destination was to line project that could benefit destitute population in train nations , but would also appeal to MacGyver wannabe and missionary of sustainable living .
10: Zeer Pot Fridge
It ’s tough to get a side - by - side Frigidaire when you go in North Darfur in Sudan . Even if you could get one , you would n’t be able-bodied to power it . So what ’s a family to do when yield and veggie , break to the extreme heat , despoilment in one or two days ? Thanks to Practical Action , a U.K.-based nonprofit organization concentrate on using technology innovation and dissemination to reduce impoverishment , many African farmers and villagers expend an amazingly childlike clayrefrigeratorknown as azeer pot .
In its finished form , the icebox consist of one earthenware pot nestled inside a second larger pot , with a stratum of sand in between . Making one requires little training and just a few easy steps . First , villagers apply mud and water to make mold , which they dry in the sun . Then they compress fresh clay around the mould to form the desired pots . After add a nucleotide and rim to each , they dry the peck in the sun and then fire them in a cavity of live ashes . After cool down , the tidy sum are quick for assembly . A bed of sand is placed in the bottom of the larger pot . The pocket-size hatful rests on this level . And , finally , sand fills the distance between the two . To make the pot running , villager wet the sand , fill the smaller lot with veggie and then place a wet tag end over the whole affair . Once built , they station the smoke on a tie-up for maximum aura stream .
Twice a day , they must give back to the mint and tote up more urine to the guts , but the campaign has a substantial proceeds , extending the life of vegetable two to three weeks . How does it ferment ? By evaporative cooling : As water vaporise from the sand , through the holey outer green goddess , it pull out warmth from the inner chamber , miss the temperature several degree . As a result , more nutrient fills up hungry bellies alternatively of defy piles .
9: Solar Cooker
The citizenry of many developing nation still usebiomass– wood , charcoal grey , dung or crop byproducts – as fuel for cooking . In Mexico , for example , 95 percent of rural household cook with Natalie Wood on open fires [ source : Ashden ] . alas , woodsmoke contains toxin that have been linked to a number of health problems , include pneumonia , lung cancer , continuing impeding pulmonic disease and centre disease .
Well - contrive stoves , such as rocket stoves , can improve the efficiency of wood burning at the stake . Rocket stovesuse a perpendicular combustion chamber and a horizontal fuel and air inlet at the bottom . The excogitation improve heating system conveyance and makes it possible to direct spicy gas pedal to the cooking mess or griddle . Families that make with rocket kitchen stove consume far less Natalie Wood and disclose themselves to less locoweed .
But why not eliminate biomass altogether ? That ’s the welfare ofsolar cookers , which concentrate the sun ’s energy to slow - cook food . Box cookers– the most basic type – can be build using simple , easy - to - find materials . Onebasic designrequires just two cardboard boxes ( one little than the other ) , a humble piece of chalk , black-market paint and paper . Cut the box incline at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees , have certain the front of the large box has a lip . Then nuzzle the smaller boxful inside the larger , satiate the gap between the two loge with paper or other insulating material , paint the inside total darkness and set the crank on top so it rest against the lip . When you place this cooker in the Dominicus , it will fire up up to about 250 degrees Fahrenheit ( 121 degree Celsius ) .
Animproved designuses sturdier materials , such as wood instead of cardboard and foam or else of newspaper . It also adds four enhancer - coated panels to playact as reflecting telescope to concentrate the sunshine ’s energy . The consequence : a cooking temperature of 350 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit ( 177 - 204 degrees Celsius ) – raging enough to guy a whole chicken !
8: Composting Toilet
The sound of Archie Bunker ’s flushing toilet was always effective for a chuckle or two . But in many rural community across the world , healthful waste disposition is no laughing matter . According to the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , nearly 2 billion hoi polloi last without appropriate sanitation facilities and service . As a result , bacterium and computer virus from human waste end up in the piss supply , leading to a number of disease , including dysentery , typhoid fever and cholera . Two million people , mostly children , choke from these diseases every year , says WHO .
Flushing privy , which require large amount of water and a complex sewerage system , are n’t the answer . A truly in effect answer will require no electrical energy and will be both cheap and easy to construct from readily available fabric . go in thecomposting lavatory , a bioreactor organisation that converts waste to biogas , which is then burned and superheated by a heating system money changer to sterilize the handle effluent . The concept is the inspiration of Duke University scientists Marc Deshusses and David Schaad , who win a $ 100,000 Gates Foundation assignment in 2011 to develop the idea .
Although the excogitation had n’t been finalized at the prison term we drop a line this , the system will contain a certain sleeping accommodation , probably made of $ 100 worth of PVC , which will receive solid waste . In this oxygen - free surround , anaerobic bacteria will chow down , divulge down the wastefulness and producing methane gas . rather of free the natural gas , however , the scheme captures it and burns it . This terminal step is important because it does two things – it down harmful pathogens and go on methane , a powerful greenhouse flatulence , out of the standard pressure . So we can treat our crap without pooping on the environs .
7: EMAS-Flexi Hand-operated Water Pump
Nearly 70 percent of the Earth may be covered in urine , but try telling that to a landlocked farmer stress to eke out an existence in Africa . grant to the Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) of the United Nations , 1.6 billion citizenry be in part wherewater is extremely scarce . By 2025 , two - thirds of the world ’s universe – nearly 4.5 billion people – could face severe water supply shortages . One of the biggest proceeds is irrigation . farming is creditworthy for 70 pct of all freshwater and groundwater withdrawal worldwide , says the FAO , and yet it ’s indispensable if rural farmers are to feed their communities . In fact , irrigating a farm can vastly increase the amount of food it produce .
Low - cost , human being - operated pump offer an ideal resolution to this paradox . They enable minor Village to get the water they need for drinking and irrigation without putting unnecessary stress on an arena ’s water reserves . Over the years , farmers have experimented with many type of water system - ticker technologies , including roach pumps , treadle pumps and rower pumps . Many of these designs require some machining andweldingexperience , as well as memory access to sheet sword , valve and other component . That ’s what establish theEMAS - Flexi H2O pumpsuch an attractive applied science . to begin with originate in Bolivia by the Mobile School for Water and Sanitation ( EMAS , in Spanish ) to attend extended families or small groups with no more than 50 people , the EMAS - Flexi pump uses promptly useable components – premature ventricular contraction pipes , galvanized iron pipe , ribbon adaptor and two glass marble – and can be forgather quickly and easily .
Here ’s how it works . One PVC pipage , slenderly smaller , fits into a 2d pipe . At the bottom of each pipe , a methamphetamine marble deed as a valve . The inner pipe attache to a metallic element MT - shaped hold that is unreasoning on one side and open on the other to form an outlet . The pumping drive rear and lowers the inside tobacco pipe , which move within the stationary outer pipe . An up diagonal creates sucking , drawing water into the cylinder . A down stroke displaces water supply from the cylinder , force it out at the top . The operator can pump about 4 to 8 gallon ( 15 to 30 liters ) of water per second , which is enough to provide drinking water and water a small garden .
6: Rain Barrel
Harvesting rainwater is an ancient practice that ’s seen a revivification in late age . In modernize countries , where citizenry often foot it for H2O , it ’s attractive because relatively simple and cheap systems canprovide clean waterfor a household or even a community of interests . In industrialized nations , it ’s attractive because it reduce stormwater runoff and eases homeowner water bills .
A typical harvesting system of rules has three canonic part :
Luckily , most forward-looking theater make out equipped with a catchment Earth’s surface – the roof – and an adequate supply of trough and downspouts ( although one vital addition for rainwater harvesting is a system of rules of filters and screens to keep dust out of the water supply ) . That leave the storage tank , or cisterna . In more sophisticated systems , cisterns can be large structures made from concrete or galvanized sword , sometimes located underground , sometimes not . Simple , homebuilt cisterns , however , are both potential and extremely operative .
The most basic designs use credit card bbl for water warehousing . Apopularchoiceis a 55 - gallon ( 208 - liter ) drum made out of high - tightness polythene , or HDPE , plastic , although evenRubbermaid rubbish canscan be transformed into an effective , albeit small , storage tank . Either way , the barrel must be unintelligible to forbid algae development .
After that , it ’s a simple affair of retrofitting the container so it can run as a water collector . This may involve drilling two holes , one at the bottom to hold a spigot and one at the top to act as an outpouring valve . Then you cut a hole in the top of the bbl , near the back , to pick up a downspout . seize some window screenland over this possible action to catch debris and foil pestiferous mosquito , and you have a perfectly serviceable rainwater barrel – and a ready supply of urine for horticulture .
5: Compost Bin
Likerainwater harvesting , composting has been popular on small farm for 100 . The process involves converting constitutive debris – vegetation , food scraps and manure – into a deep , all - natural fertilizer . Farmers use high - quality compost because it enable soil to obtain more water and provides nutrients to crops , eliminate the need for synthetic fertiliser . This in spell increases the productivity of their soil and leads to higher win . It also reduces the amount of solid dissipation entering processing facilities and landfill .
biologic decay occurs whether you want it to or not , but the idea behind composting is to make the cognitive process find more apace . One proficiency , known asheap compost , does n’t want a structure . You only shake off organic material into a pile , about 3 foot ( 1 meter ) eminent and 3 feet broad , and then twist the material on a regular basis using a pitchfork . you may increase the efficiency of composting , however , if you utilize acompost bin– a social organisation to concord and condense organic dust and to provide a suitable family for the organisms that make the decay possible . The easiest structure to make is a telegram - mesh bind unit , which require a 10 - foundation ( 3 - beat ) length of 36 - inch ( 91 - cm ) wide galvanized crybaby wire , heavy telegram for tie and three or four wooden postal service . You simply form the duration of wimp conducting wire into a piston chamber , connect the end together with wire and then sequester the whole thing to posts drive in the land .
Bins that can spread out work even better because they mix the organic textile more good and hurry up the decaying process . It ’s possible to build a horizontally get on rotating barrelful , but it need a important input signal of clock time and energy . Another solutionis to corrupt a solid food - grade plastic cask , with a obliterable palpebra , and then bore a series of golf hole across the intact surface . After make full the barrelful with organic stuff , you simply rest it on its side and roll it regularly over a level surface . Using this method , a large loudness of yard waste can be composted in three weeks to six months .
4: Solar-powered Air Conditioner
Air conditioning may seem like a luxury , not a necessary , but some studies have shown that productiveness increases dramatically if workers do their jobs in cooler blank space . What does that say about property such as Brazil and India , where just 11 percent and 2 percent of households , respectively , have line conditioning [ root : Rosenthal ] ? It says that people survive in developing Nation will need A / snow as much as they needclean waterand better access to health tutelage .
Most of us remember of unit of measurement filled with refrigerants , especially chlorofluorocarbons like Freon , when we retrieve of air conditioning , but some cool down systems work on a different rationale . Evaporative ice chest , also get laid asswamp coolers , take advantage of water ’s power to convert from a liquid to a gas . Heat is need for this nation change to occur , so if you may get urine to vaporise , you may cool down something down . swampland cooler do just that by blowing dry , blistering air over a moist fabric . As the hot tune encounters the fabric inside the unit , it evaporate the body of water , losing some of its heat in the process . A blower then impel cool , humid air out into the room .
you may build ahomemade swamp coolerusing a cool fan from an onetime figurer , wooden craft sticks , an absorbent cloth and a small , 2 - watt solar gore for power . First , you create a underframe out of the craft joint , with the fan supported at the top so it blows down and two decks below the fan to brook strips cut from the fabric . Everything should be paste so the construction brook good and sturdy . Then you connect the wires from the devotee to the solar jury ( or battery as a not - so - dark-green alternative ) , wet the framework and get the cooling begin .
3: Bicycle-powered Cell Phone Charger
Believe it or not , more people in develop countries utilise electric cell telephone set than people in highly-developed areas . accord to some research , between 80 and 95 percent of the universe of Kenya , Mexico and Indonesia transport school text message on their mobile gimmick [ source : Mlot ] . But even if family members living in a poor African community have cell phones , they might not have electrical energy to charge them . So what do they do ? Many must shoot down their headphone at stall for a small fee .
With a little know - how and just a few materials , you could establish your ownbicycle - powered electric cell telephone set charger . In addition to abicycleheadlight generator , you ’ll need some canonical electronics – lap circuit card , rectifier , capacitor and voltage governor . First , you tie the generator to either the front or back roulette wheel of your bike . Next , you cut the cord on your cell phone charger to unwrap the positive and negative wire . Now mount the electronic components on the circuit board and wire everything together : author to rectifier , rectifier to capacitance , condenser to voltage regulator , voltage regulator to cell phone charger . Finally , cut across the components with electrical mag tape and mount the circuit board just under the derriere post . The battery charger itself can rest in a basket or in a bag bind elsewhere on the bike frame .
When it ’s sentence to strike the street , sequester your cubicle speech sound to the charger and start cycle – the faster or farther you go , the more juice your phone gets . Just remember not to bike and text at the same time .
2: Solar Laptop Charger
Tour a middle - class home in the U.S. , and you ’re certain to get across an old estimator collecting dust in a closet . Not so in developing countries , where families have picayune hope of using a PC to get a atmospheric condition prognosis or do research for shoal .
Getting laptop to these part is just part of the solution . The United Nations estimates that 1.5 billion people around the world still hold up far from their country ’s electric grid , which stand for power electronics is almost a bigger problem than getting them in the first position [ source : Rosenthal ] . pocket-size - scale renewable energy , especially solar , can provide a viable solvent . Many family in Africa have installed small solar power system on their hut , enabling them to charge a cell phone and consort a few luminousness .
It ’s also possible to harness the sun ’s vigour to charge a laptop , and a few off - the - shelf products make it easy to do . A typical offer comes with a 16 - James Watt solar instrument panel and a stamp battery integrated into a laptop computer bag . you may make the same thing if you ’re ready to hand and have memory access to a few tools . You ’ll need to acquire the core element of the charger : the solar control board , 12 - volt battery packs , a 12 - volt auto major power exit and an old suitcase or briefcase slimly larger than the laptop . Then you ’ll call for to move out the padding from the case to make some surplus room . Next , climb on the solar venire , the solar bang controller and the elevator car big businessman transcriber to the exterior of the case . You ’ll need to practise into the vitrine human body to accommodate attachment screws and to produce hole for wiring . After that , disassemble each battery pack and reconfigure the 10 cells so that they mold long flat packs that meet well in the compositor’s case . Attach leads to the pack a , link all of them together and attach them to the positive and disconfirming terminal on the solar charge comptroller . you could find detailed instructionshere .
When the gadget is done , adjust it in the sun and let thebatteriescharge for several minute . Then you ’ll be ready to excite your laptop computer and anything else that can be plugged into a car adapter .
1: Cantenna
Wireless technologies tender a bright choice to multitude living in rural communities , reserve occupier to tap into ceremonious telecommunications infrastructure . This , however , requires an inexpensive style to increase the range of a wireless signal . That ’s where a tin can waveguide antenna – orcantenna– come in handy . you could make one of these devices using an honest-to-god soup , veg or java can ( cleaned out , of course ) , an N - type female chassis connecter , copper telegram , a USB WiFi arranger with obliterable transmitting aerial and a special cable known as a " pigtail . "
Assembling a cantenna is easy . First , cut a piece of Cu telegram about 1.25 inch ( 3.2 centimeters ) long and solder the conducting wire to the N - type material body connecter . While it ’s cooling , exercise a maw in the tin can just large enough to take over the chassis connective . Then sink the connector through the maw so that the Cu telegram is inside the can . Bolt or screw the connector to the can to keep it secure . Next , remove the factory antenna from the USBWiFiadapter and have it away the smaller destruction of the pigtail cable onto the adaptor . The other end of the pigtail should attach to the N - type female form connexion . Finally , enclose the USB transcriber into your computing machine , climb on the can alfresco , point it to a likely sign and , voila , you have wireless Internet .
You should note that the receipt of the cantenna depends on the dimensions of the tin can you opt . ThisWeb sitehas a calculating machine to find out where the frame connector should be located based on your can ’s diameter . Another of import musical note : You may need a fairly long piece of pigtail depend on the aloofness between the cantenna and your computer .
Most of the " new " technologies present in this article are n’t unexampled at all , but are found on centuries - old concepts . form you wonder how many great ideas have been lose to history .
