Living Without Fossil Fuels

Ep 171  |  Alexis Zeigler

Alexis Zeigler –  Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle

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Alexis Zeigler The Great Simplification

Summary

As we deepen our understanding of the existential challenges facing humanity, the path from our industrialized lifestyles to ones that respect planetary boundaries can often feel unclear and overwhelming. However, there are already individuals and communities who have transformed their way of life to do just that. What are the lessons they’ve learned along the way, and how might we use them to transform our own lives? 

Today, Nate is joined by Alexis Zeigler, a founding member of the cooperative community Living Energy Farm, to take a peek into the Farm’s unique daily life and explore their innovative systems for using electricity and technology in ways that are far less consumptive than the average American. Alexis also explores the benefits of shared resources, how social norms have made modern housing designs inefficient, and the crucial role community-building plays in creating truly effective off-grid lifestyles.

What practical steps can individuals take to shift away from the hyper-consumptive lifestyles popular in industrial societies? Why is it important to mix technological innovation with social and collaborative transformation? Most of all, how could we replicate and adapt the Living Energy Farm model across different regions and cultures in order to increase the number of humans living sustainable and fulfilling lives?

About Alexis Zeigler

Alexis Zeigler is a self-taught activist, builder, mechanic, writer, and orchardist. He has organized numerous successful campaigns focusing on political, environmental, and economic localization issues. 

Since 2010, he has been working to build and grow Living Energy Farm, a zero-fossil-fuel and mostly self-sufficient farm that prioritizes collective living principles. Their mission is to serve as an example and actively promote lifestyles and technologies that are truly sustainable, and to make these sustainable technologies accessible to all persons regardless of their income or social position.

Their minimalist website, www.livingenergyfarm.org/, has more information about the technologies they use.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – Alexis Zeigler, Living Energy Farm

02:32 – The Oil Drum

03:01 – Intentional Communities

03:13 – Twin Oaks, Income Sharing

04:19 – Solar Hot Water, Recommendation from Alexis: Alternate Energy Technologies

05:19 – 10k watt average energy use in the United States

06:56 – Biogas

07:56 – Direct Drive

08:55 – Simplified Combine Harvester, USAID + funding cuts

09:35 – Alternative Current and Direct Current, Voltage

10:56 – PV Panels

13:13 – Hang drying clothes, how to set up a drying system, + How to Hang Dry in Cold Regions

14:26 – Compression Design Refrigerators, LEF’s model for sale (sold at cost): Sunstar Direct Drive 8 CuFt Chest Style Refrigerator/Freezer – Living Energy Lights

14:48 – Thermal Energy Storage

15:47 – Note from Alexis on Simplified Air Conditioning Systems:

This is a difficult issue. A lot of LEF’s work (as well as Nate’s) encourages people to focus on larger design issues instead of simply throwing energy at badly designed systems. That said, it’s hard to sum that up in a single link. If you are looking for actual solar air conditioning systems, there are numerous companies in the U.S. and abroad selling actual solar mini splits, such as this one.

18:45 – Living Energy Lights

19:07 – Empowering Communities by Alexis Zeigler

19:58 – History of AC Power in power grids

22:10 – Inverters

24:02 – Snubber

24:22 – Solar Well Pumps + Off-Grid Water Pumping Design Considerations

24:55 – Note from Alexis on Direct Drive Washing Machines:

Unfortunately, there is no such thing (to my knowledge) of a solar direct washing machine currently on the market. Living Energy Farm [has] a prototype, but that is of little use. There are some solar washing machines on the market, but all are battery powered, and most are of low quality.

The only company I know of that makes high quality DC washers is an Amish company called Fisher Manufacturing in Narvon PA (not to be confused with a very large plumbing company of the same name). Unfortunately, Fisher Manufacturing does not list the washer on their website. Their machine is a re-made Speed Queen, which is very high quality, but not cheap.

25:06 – Most electronics run on DC electricity

26:15 – Energy use of average american house for temperature control

26:49 – Strawbale house

28:15 – Pete Schwartz, Solar Cookers

28:45 – Inefficiency of Air Fryers + Note from Alexis:

While this article is accurate from a technical standpoint, saying that air fryers add 50 cents to your monthly electric bill misses the point. Gunpowder is pretty cheap. Doesn’t make shooting people a good thing. The problem is that air fryers are part of a design process that focuses on energy intensive appliances as opposed to the larger social impacts. A good way of thinking about it is this way from “Professor Goose” on The Oil Drum:

“The most energy-intensive segment of the food chain is the kitchen. Much more energy is used to refrigerate and prepare food in the home than is used to produce it in the first place. The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator, not the farm tractor. While oil dominates the production end of the food system, electricity dominates the consumption end.”

32:02 – Energy Independent Cooperative Systems

35:01 – Average American has 60 devices plugged in 24/7, resulting in ~12% of our power use

44:07 – Green Illusions, Ozzie Zehner

46:05 – Lacto-Fermentation

49:55 – The Superorganism

51:35 – Kat Kinkaid

54:03 – Indigenous perspectives of leadership

55:16 – Links on corporate dependency and the co-option of solar energy:

REAL Green New Deal

The Green Growth Delusion

Uncertainty, utopia, and our contested future

EconPapers: Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition

57:24 – Hyperconsumption

57:46 – Social isolation effects on humans

1:09:21 – Cultural Materialism – Anthropology

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