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So how are these flood proof? the TLDR she is designing super cheap limestone/mud/bamboo dwellings that last longer than tents. Are they being designed at eleva
by brianbreslin 3y ago
So how are these flood proof? the TLDR she is designing super cheap limestone/mud/bamboo dwellings that last longer than tents. Are they being designed at elevation?
It got me thinking of can someone mass produce simple pipes pre-filled with electrical wiring and outlets that don't require sophisticated knowledge to install/connect to solar? How do you cheaply bring up the standard of living in these $176 houses?
- aaronax 3y agoNeed something like PoE for power distribution.
- mindslight 3y agoYeah, they definitely need to add some cat6 to the walls of these structures. Ten gig switches are becoming cheap enough, and can provide heat in the winter. Then each individual home can connect to the community center with some buried fiber, plus a 60GHz point to point link for when it floods. The community center can have a few server racks for local media, and a satellite uplink. Wait, what are we talking about again?
- 0_____0 3y ago.......why?
- aaronax 3y agoSo that someone with one hour of training can safely assemble an electrical system in a house.
- scythe 3y ago>It got me thinking of can someone mass produce simple pipes pre-filled with electrical wiring This comment gave me the idea that you could just run the electrical wiring through another piece of bamboo, since it's hollow and about the size of an electrical pipe. After searching, I didn't see whole lot of interest in this -- maybe it's too flammable? There is one DIY guide for decorative use, but that's it.
- erellsworth 3y agoI don't think bamboo is entirely hollow. Doesn't it have solid junks at each "joint" or whatever it's called? That would mean to run wire or something else through them, you'd have to either drill out those parts, which would require a very long drill bit.
- Turing_Machine 3y agoI've never done it, but apparently you can knock out the nodes with a long metal rod (like a piece of rebar or something) before the bamboo is completely dry, or after soaking or steaming it.
- mindslight 3y agoThe main benefits of conduit are protection from physical damage, and having a raceway to neatly run wires/cabling in after a structure is built. I don't know that either one is particularly important here? Also I would think that electrification would revolve around the community centers rather than individual dwellings.
- quickthrowman 3y agoI don’t think bamboo is a listed raceway, I’ll have to double-check the NEC when I get back from lunch. (Residential wiring doesn’t use conduit, outside of weird jurisdictions like Chicago, where conduit is mandatory for residential wiring. Romex (NM cable) is what homes are wired with)
- 0_____0 3y agoThe prefilled pipes are called BX or armored cable, and outlets are wicked easy to wire in the first place. Impoverished people aren't idiots, they're just resource constrained.
- brianbreslin 3y agothank you for that clarification. I also never suggested they were idiots. But resource constrained + not trained as electricians = me wondering how do you make it foolproof and safe and cheap.
- jrockway 3y agoI think what I'd do is just build a light and outlet onto the bottom of a solar panel; cut the proper holes, drop solar panel onto roof, now there is a light bulb and outlet in your ceiling. But I have no idea if this is practical; is there a lot of caulk in the developing world? No idea. But "all in one" seems the most foolproof to me.
- bluGill 3y agoElectric is not hard. A few people in the village become an electrician and just do it. I learned watching my dad doing various things in the house, and now my kids are learning watching me. My dad learned from his dad, who just read some books on the subject. (I also read books on the subject). Sure electric can get complex, but what happens in a house is covered by a few charts (what size wire to use, how many wires fit in a box...) and some logical thinking.
- buildsjets 3y agoFrom the article: "If a flood is coming, homeowners can dismantle the structure’s bamboo skeleton from its permanent foundation and move it to higher ground. Bigger buildings, such as community centers, stand on stilts several feet high."
- ooterness 3y agoSo the invention in question isn't flood-proof (it's mobile) and it's not a home (it's a tent).
- blechinger 3y agoSpot on. The definitions have been stretched too thin to retain meaning. If these are acceptable definitions then every impermenant structure is all-weather proof. We just need to be clairvoyant enough to migrate the structure before weather happens!
- quickthrowman 3y ago> It got me thinking of can someone mass produce simple pipes pre-filled with electrical wiring and outlets that don't require sophisticated knowledge to install/connect to solar? This already exists, Reloc is one of the companies that makes pre-manufactured electrical cables and pre-wired electrical devices with simple plug together connectors. ‘Prefilled conduit with wire’ on its own has existed for a long time, MC cable is used in commercial electrical wiring, I think there’s also a residential variant of armored cable (BX?). There’s also SO cord, which is a bundle of conductors with a non-metallic jacket around it. https://reloc.acuitybrands.com/ https://reloc.acuitybrands.com/