Ep 171 | Alexis Zeigler
Alexis Zeigler – Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle
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.
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
Download transcript00:00 – 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:
Uncertainty, utopia, and our contested future
57:24 – Hyperconsumption
57:46 – Social isolation effects on humans
1:09:21 – Cultural Materialism – Anthropology
