Popular Mechanics 2009-10

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AUTOMOTIVE SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY HOME
HOW-TO CENTRAL VIDEO

First in Flight
LG
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ghting in two wars that are primarily focused
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current wars again those of possible con-
picture. Featuring iAs with high-tech enemies? Is the Defense
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it yields 40 times bomb-dropping warplanes? Will the Air Forces
planned Next Generation Bomber have pilots at
greater contrast
allor a price tag the nation can aord? For all
than typical LCD these critical issues, PM provides expert,
TVs. And with THX behind-the-scenes analysis and news.
Movie Mode, youre
watching it exactly COMMERCIAL TROUBLES Recent Airbus A330
crashes and produAion delays for Boeings 787
as the director
Dreamliner have called into queion the reliabil-
intended. ity of modern aviation materials, pilot training
and manufaAuring. PM walks you through the
search for black-box ight data recorders and
pores over the details of crashes with aviation
experts to keep readers current on all the days
major aviation safety issues.
For more information,
visit lge.com
For breaking news, go to popularmechanics.com.
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James B. Meigs EDITORIAL
Editor-In-Chief BOARD OF
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POPULAR MECHANICS is
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Tom Jones, S.E. Kramer, Jay Leno, Adri Ramdeane, Kyle Roerink, Linda Yin MacArthur Fellow
Fred Mackerodt, Xe MythBusters Contributing Photographers & Illustrators:
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6 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM
& www.fantamag.com
P M F E A T U R E S /// O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9
VOLUME 186 NO. 10
56 The New Homesteaders

A hallmark of the competent man A growing movement of DIYers is living self-suf-
+* is the ability to take care of him- ciently on both urban farms and remote, o-
self. Starting with editor-in-chief the-grid communities alike. PM pays a visit to
James B. Meigss Editors Note, the new colonis. BY JAMES VLAHOS
this special issue celebrates the
rebirth of American independence: 66 The Rules of Survival
the skills, ideas and technology When faced with disaer, some people freeze
that can ensure both disaer sur- with fear; others take aXion. Heres how to
vival and long-term suainability. ay alive in a calamity. BY JOHN GALVIN
74 The Electric
Cold-Beer Gadget Test
PMs senior tech editor builds a portable
energy syem to see if he can run his gad-
getsincluding a fridge full of froieso
the grid. BY GLENN DERENE
78 Apocalypse Chow
Hungry tae-teers scarf MREsmeals ready-
to-eatto nd out if survival grub can fuel the
body and boo morale. BY EMILY MASAMITSU
80 The Soul of an Old Machine

For some DIYers, xing gear isnt about being
praXicalits about enjoying the rewards of
repair in a throwaway world. BY JIM GORMAN
ON THE COVER
Photo illustration 86 The Race to Zero
by Joe Pugliese, Students in an international conte take up
Echo Park, Los
conruXion to show that solar power can sus-
Angeles, photo-
graphed on tain an attraXive, livable net-zero house.
July 22, 2009. BY HARRY SAWYERS
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS NILSSON POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 9

Will cheap electric planes like this Sonex E-Flight soon soar in U.S. skies? Not if the feds can help it (page 16).
PM DEPARTMENTS
NEW TOOLS
CARS
HOME
HOW-TO qMM!
qq q

qq q
15 Supersonic Car 25 Meter Maid 33 Dirty Jobs 93 Sawdu Melodies

A new British jet- and rocket- Qe Generac Power Syems Toyota Tundra goes all- Install this clean-burning
powered speeder is capa- XG8000E Generator tells power, no-frills with the apparatus and stay warm
ble of shattering the sound you when too many appli- Work Truck package. Plus: while slashing fuel bills.
barrier. Plus: Qe future of ances are plugged in. Plus: Ducatis Streetghter S
laser weapons is up in the Qe iconic Rubiks Cube owns the road; we unleash 100 Homeowners
airliterally; advancing den- reinvents itself with touch- two luxury crossoversthe Clinic Fresh eggs: a chicken-
tiry with a chewing robot sensitive technology; a clean, Cadillac SRX and Lexus RX raising, coop-building primer.
that mimics the human jaw. quiet lithium-ion leaf blower. 350to nd out whos boss. Plus: Sump pump fixes.
104 Geothermal: Dig It

q Cut energy costs by tapping
the heat beneath your house.
44 Jay Lenos Garage q

In 1966, 16-year-old Jay helped
his dad buy a new Ford Galaxie
7 Litre. Now hes reoring the 108 Saturday Mechanic
same model. Let the teenage The good, the bad and the messy of refining
cruising begin (again). your own backyard biodiesel.
48 Ready for Anything

If were not prepared for the
unthinkable, are we really 114 Car Clinic
prepared at all? To avoid the
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZACH DESART (BIODIESEL), CHRIS ECKERT/STUDIO D (RUBIKS CUBE)

Get-home-at-any-cost fixes for
wor disaers, Glenn Harlan common breakdowns. Plus:
Reynolds proposes the use Protect your car against corro-
of resilience engineering. sion; clutch advice for extend-
ing your slave units life span.
q
26
119 Ae DIY
Cellphone Charger
Disaster-proof your communi-
cations by making a AA-
powered emergency cellphone
charger (for under $5).
122 Digital Clinic

The easy way to switch off your
watt-sucking surround-sound
system when its not needed.
Plus: How to bypass annoying
slide shows on the Web.
q!q
HOW TO RE ACH US 6
LE T TERS 12
34 THIS IS M Y JOB 132
LISTED ON THE COVER: 54 Beyond Survival /// 56 Going O the Grid /// 80 Vintage Gear ///
119 Revive Cellphones /// 100 Chicken Coop /// 93 Pellet Stove

om
To Mars or to the Moon
I completely agree with Buzz
Aldrins space planwe should
be making Mars our priority
without completely forgetting
about the moon (A Bolder
Mission). Robert Zubrin
[founder of the Mars Society]
also suggeed using the same
vehicles and habitats to set up
a moon base, which would
save the space program
billions of dollars. Ke shuttle
was a miake from the art,
and the sooner it is replaced by
the SpaceX Dragon, the better.
WES CARR
CLERMONT, FL
PM LETTERS
Aldrins article on traveling to
Mars is a great read for an
explorer, but misses the point
Shaky Science biology and have taken two of going to the moon. Why are
I mu address some of the forensic science courses. countries intereed aWer 40
issues you take with forensic Although I was relieved that years? Fir, water, which will
science in your ory Reason- you included the National help us remain there. Second:
able Doubt. Ke elds Academy of Sciences helium-3, which is readily
underlying principles and suggeion to create a National available on the moon. Its used
theories originated with Initute of Forensic Science, in fusion and can produce
scientic udies and analysis I S S U E
accredited colleges and energy on Earth or in rocket
of balliics, blood and universities already oer engines in space.
ngerprints published in
@pW degrees in the subjed. CHUCK BARR
journals such as Nature as early CHARISSA GOGGIN NEW BERN, NC
Readers
as the 1880s. It was this responded to
LONG BEACH, CA
foundation, combined with forensic analysis, I agree with the majority of
modern peer-reviewed ying the P-51 Flight of Fancy Aldrins plan for Mars. But as far
Muang plane and
publications, prociency tes Buzz Aldrins plans Je Wise began his article as colonization is concerned, I
and validation udies, that for Mars. Flying a Legend with the think bypassing the moon is
eablished the forensic science words: You never forget your rash. Ke diance between
disciplines used in crime labs. r 60 seconds airborne in a Mars and Earth creates some
Many of the isolated P-51 Muang. I could not disadvantages. Emergency help
problems associated with foren- agree more. While attending is two years away from a
sic science can be prevented an air show, I met a pilot colony, and the inhabitants will
through lab accreditation, who invited me to ride in his experience extreme isolation.
analy certication, technical plane. It was a lifelong dream Kese problems would be
review and the use of opposing and boyhood fantasy come less severe on the moon and
experts in court. While these true. I will be ever grateful could be overcome to eventu-
measures will not eliminate all to that [pilot], and to people ally eablish a Mars colony
of the problems, they will go a like Wise who help me relive when the technology and the
long way in identifying, solving my adventure. people are ready.
and minimizing their eeds. RON MOWE RY D A N I E L P. J E N S E N
G E O R G E S C H I R O, M . S . , ST. LOUIS, MO FARMINGTON, NM
F - A B C , F O R E N S I C SC I E N T I S T
CADE, LA
Write to Us Include your full name, address and phone number, even if
what you correspond by e-mail. Send e-mail to popularmechanics@hearst.com.
I was sad to see a negative do you All letters are subjeO to editing for length, yle and format.
spotlight put on forensic think? Subscribe Please go to subscribe.popularmechanics.com.
science. Im currently udying

NEWS + TRENDS + BREAKTHROUGHS
qq Compiled by Alex Hutchinson
Z U.S. AIR FORCE: acknowledges that

DRONES the decision to eld
W machines able to
COULD FIRE AT
WILL BY 2047 make lethal
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+ A recent Air combat decisions is
Force report contingent upon
n A series of successful rocket tests in the
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includes a rare political and

o
Mojave Desert (below) marked another step reference to military leaders
in the development of a car built to acceler- robots making the
choice to re
resolving legal and
ethical queions.
E
ate to more than 1000 mph. The Bloodhound weapons without <at could take
F Supersonic Car project is led by the same explicit human much longer than
dire:ion. <e the technical
t
British-based team that built Thrust SSC, the Unmanned development.
car that in 1997 set the current land speed Aircra? Syems
v
record of 763 mph. The design calls for Flight Plan,
20092047
Z three completely different engines: a custom- ates that

designed hybrid rocket for initial thrust, the articial
intelligence will be
jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon war-
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powerful enough
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plane for additional power and a typical gas in 30 years to HAMMER-

engine used to start the car and pump allow drones to STRIKE
make snap SCIENCE
high-test peroxide into the rocket engine. decisions on their + Biologis from
own. One notable the University of
passage says that Massachusetts
autonomous and Tulane
unmanned aerial University are
vehicles could udying the way
launch nuclear people swing
rikes. However, hammers to
OPERATORS HAVE
the Pentagon is underand how
APPLICATIONS FOR not obligated to they compromise
NEW REACTORS follow the plan of between force and
UNDER REVIEW the report, which accuracy while
WITH THE U.S. performing manual
NUCLEAR tasks. Researchers
REGULATORY videotape subje:s
COMMISSION. THE qqq pounding a
NUMBER OF U.S. q! sensor-udded
platform with a
REACTORS
REACHED ITS APEX
OF 112 IN 1990;
+ Be human jaw is a sophiicated machine, with six
degrees of freedom in the movement and rotation
of the lower jawthe same range of movement oered
hammer, then
analyze the images
to compare fa:ors
THAT NUMBER HAS
by aircra^ simulators. Engineers at Britains University of like target size,
FLAT-LINED AT 104
Briol adapted the six-aùator design of the mechanism lighting conditions
SINCE 1998.
that controls aircra^ simulators to build a chewing and age.
robot that creates a realiically moving mouth. Be
goal is to te how the metals, polymers and ceramics
used to make crowns and bridges wear out over time,
dicult and expensive topics to explore in humans.
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y B R A D L E Y R . H U G H E S POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 15

Whos Killing the Ele?ric Plane?
U . S . A V I AT I O N D E S I G N E R S A R E H A M P E R E D B Y
F E D E R A L R U L E S R E S T R I C T I N G T H E U S E O F B AT T E R Y -
P O W E R E D A I R C R A F T. BY DAVID NOLAND
T E C H W A T C H
Powerplant: Flying for Fun: Battery Pack: Quiet Cruiser:

:e plane uses :e all-composite Four 3-kilowatt- :e large, low-rpm
a 100-volt light sport airplane hour air-cooled propeller doesnt
50-hp has a top speed of lithium-ion polymer bother the
brushless 100 mph and can battery packs can pilotor the
permanent- ay aloB 2 hours. charge from a wall neighbors.
Global magnet motor. outlet.
Aspirations
for a Even as the federal government jump-arts ele.ric
Solar Plane cars with $2.4 billion in research funds, ele.ric airplanes
are getting held back. In fa., current Federal Aviation
Adminiration rules prohibit ele.ric motors in light sport
Ele.ric airplanes are
not being made ju for aircraC, a class of planes typically own by less experienced
joyrides (Whos Killing pilots. Ge FAA decrees that LSAs be powered only by recipro-
the Ele.ric Plane?, cating engines, a measure intended to keep high-powered
right). Swiss engineers turbine engines out of the hands of novice sport pilots. Gis
have unveiled the rule is now thwarting the sale of ele.ric airplanes in the
prototype of an airplane United States. Were relu.ant to introduce new technology
they hope will become on a less experienced pilot population, says the FAAs Steve
the r manned vehicle Flanagan, who helped write the LSA rules. We need to get
to y around the world some more ight experience with ele.ric motors. Gat
powered only by the position is frurating to Randall Fishman, an ultralight pilot
sun. Ge Solar Impulse
has the wingspan of a whos currently developing an ele.ric two-seat sport plane,
Boeing 747-400 but the Ele.raFlyer-X. Ge $65,000 kit plane is being designed to
weighs only 3500 LSA specications so it can quickly go into produ.ion if and
pounds, comparable to when the FAA gives ele.ric airplane motors the okay.
a typical family car. Ge
wings are packed with
more than 12,000 solar
cells that power four
10-hp ele.ric motors
and charge lithium-ion
polymer batteries. Te
ights are expe.ed this BOEING DEMONSTRATOR ELECTRAVIA ALATUS SONEX E-FLIGHT
year, with a r
overnight ight in 2010 Electric Flight Line A Aviation designers around the world are experimenting with
and a ve-leg world novel ele5ric-power designs. e Boeing Fuel Cell Demonrator combines a proton
circumnavigation exchange membrane fuel cell and lithium-ion battery to power its ele?ric motor. In January
in 2012. A.H. French designers ew the Alatus ele?ric glider for the r time and plan to sell it this year,
taking advantage of their freedom from the rules that limit U.S. companies. Makers of the
Sonex E-Flight, made in Wisconsin, hope data from their plane will help shape new FAA rules.

Before polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were phased out in the 1970s,
Dredge It Up, companies like General EleYric dumped them into New Yorks Hudson River. In 2009,
Ship It Out prompted by a three-decade legal battle, GE marshalled 12 excavators, 18 tugboats and
37 barges to begin digging up 400,000 tons of toxic sludge and then ship it to a
specially designed, hermetically sealed hole in We Texas. HARRY SAWYERS
T E C H W A T C H
Layers of engineered textiles, clay and

plaics entomb the wae.
0e Dig presses, similar to 0e Dump

v An excavator those used in v In Andrews,
sitting on a barge thick; in certain winemaking, Texas, more than 0e landll uses
reaches with a spots the deposits 0e Delivery squeeze water from 2000 miles away layers of mesh, clay
dredging claw to are piled 10 feet v A second the slurry. 0e from Albany, the and plaics to
scoop sediment high. Scoop by excavator moves resulting lter cake lter cake is isolate the cakes
from the river scoop, workers load the dirt from the is sealed inside one carefully unwrapped from the surround-
bottom. 0e the barge with the barge to a facility of 450 plastic-lined and laid to re in a ing soil, the water
contaminated layer toxic sludge and where a dozen railroad cars bound very sophiicated below and the air
averages 21 inches head to shore. 32-ton lter for Texas. hole in the ground. above.
SB1 Head Here Teekay Is On

0e DoYor Once considered oddities, multiarmed tools are
becoming mainays of hospital operating rooms. 7e
WHEN STEADY HANDS ARE NOT PRECISE ENOUGH,
S U R G E O N S R E LY O N S O P H I S T I C AT E D A S S I S TA N T S . indury trailblazer in the humanrobot medical team is the
BY AMBER ANGELLE da Vinci HD Surgical Syem, a multiarmed assiant that is
dire?ly controlled by a surgeon who sits at a nearby console.
7e syem, made by Intuitive Surgical of Sunnyvale, Calif.,
has been eadily adopted by hospitals performing urology,
gynecology and cardiology operations since the HDs
introdu?ion in 2006. A new version of the da Vinci includes a
A powerful high-denition camera, a fourth arm for complex
procedures, and dual control ations used for teaching new
surgeons or to allow two do?ors to collaborate during
surgery. Jim Hu, a surgeon at Brigham and Womens Hospital
in Boon, has removed more than 600 cancerous proates
B with the da Vinci. He says that robotic assiance allows him
to overcome the limitations of human do?ors, allowing
smaller incisions and less blood loss. 7e syem even
auto-corre?s for any shaking as the do?or manipulates the
tools from the console. But could the assiant one day
C operate without a do?ors guidance? Unless they develop
articial intelligence that can recognize
variations in human anatomy, physi-
;e tool-wielding wris of the
da Vinci can rotate 540 degrees and
cians will always be needed, Hu says.
have seven degrees of freedom, mak- But who knows? If you had told me
ing the tools of the mechanical surgeon when I was in medical school in the
more dexterous than inruments held
in human ngers. Examples of inru- 90s that I would be using a robot to
ments include monopolar scissors (A) , make incisions one day, I wouldnt have
forceps (B) and grasping retraJors (C) .
believed it.
18 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y R E M I E G E O F F R O I

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w.st
stor
oremag
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A Tale of Two When a missile punched through the clouds
o the coa of California this pa June, the worlds
Laser Planes mo powerful mobile military laser had it in its sights. But the
Maritime Laser
Airborne Laser (ABL), a 747 with a chemical laser mounted in Weapon System
THE FUTURE OF LASER WEAPONS
REMAINS UP IN THE AIR, BUT A its nose, red only a low-intensity beam to track its target. Platform: Navy
Ocials at Boeing, which heads a coalition of companies that ships, including the
T E C H W A T C H
PAIR OF BOEING PROGRAMS HINT

planned Littoral
AT A D I R E C T I O N . BY ERIK SOFGE make ABL, say it is a crucial ep to proving that lasers can Combat Ship
deroy balliic missiles as they launch, yet the success may Range: Line-of-
sight
not be enough to save the program. Teifying before Potential Targets:
Congress, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that ABL Small boats,
would likely never be deployed for its mission. You would anti-ship missiles
Bright Future? Next Step: Sea
need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful An array of lasers tes within 18
than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to are rolling onto months; deployed
ring ranges within 5 years
get any diance from the [defenses that prote^ the target Total Co:
missiles] launch site, Gates said. He also scrapped plans to $500,000 to date;
$98.5 million by
build another ABL aircraaand program ocials in the 2014
Pentagon admit funding is in limbo.
But there is another ying prototype in Boeings hangar
that hints at a more promising future for laser weapons: the
Advanced Taîcal Laser. ATLs kilowatt-class chemical laser Laser Avenger
is signicantly smaller than the ABLs, since it is designed to Platform: Humvee
Range:
hit targets at shorter ranges, essentially replacing bullets Not released
and bombs with a more precise beam of lethal light. Boeing Potential Targets:
High-Energy Laser
Improvised Technology
wont release specications, but in a recent te at the White explosive devices, Demonrator
Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, ATL hit a target from small unmanned Platform: HEMTT
9 miles away, roughly a tenth of the planned te range for aerial vehicles 10-Ton Cargo Truck
(UAVs) Range: Approxi-
ABL mentioned by Gates. A smaller laser could nd wider Next Step: mately 6 miles
use on helicopters, warships or unmanned aerial drones, Further counter- Potential Targets:
IED tes could be Artillery shells,
making potential sales worth the eep development cos. conduGed this aircra[, mortars,
year rockets, short-
Total Co: range missiles,
Unknown, UAVs
internally funded Next Step:
by Boeing Low-power tes
in 2011
Total Co:
$36 million
Advanced Ta?ical Laser

Platform: C-130H; 97 [ 9 in. long
Armament: Kilowatt-class chemical-oxygen Airborne Laser
iodine laser Platform: 747-400F; 231 [ 10 in. long
Potential Targets: Vehicles, communications Armament: Megawatt-class chemical-
infraruGure and unhardened enemy facilities oxygen iodine laser
Potential Targets: Intercontinental
missiles in ight
20 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y A N D R E A I N N O C E N T

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Dire*or Jonathan Moow
with a surrogate used in the lm
to show buyers the mechanics
of their potential proxies.
deroying the robots in a

way that kills their
T E C H W A T C H
2009
operators too. Agent Surrogates
Harvey Greer (Bruce Willis) Agent Greer
mu op the rampage.
Moows team created
the lms various surrogate
forms using a combination of
computer graphics, animatron-
ics and prohetics. EeHs-
house KNB built 70 machines
2007
from FBI watcher drones to the
Simulated display models used to sell surro-
Futurama:
Benders
s?4Lq4wRswj?
Society gates to cuomers. Pe team also
layered silicon skin over robotic
Big Score
Bender
Rodriguez
D I R E C T O R J O N AT H A N M O S T O W
E N J O Y S H I S L AT E S T A S S I G N M E N T :
frames, then digitally added details
B U I L D I N G T H E P O P U L AT I O N like circuit boards in poproduHion.
OF AN ALL-ROBOT WORLD. And for scenes where Greers
BY ERIN MCCARTHY surrogate is mangled, Willis wore
prohetics to gain a more realiic
PHOTOGRAPHS BY EVERETT COLLECTION (METROPOLIS, BLADERUNNER, FUTURAMA)
visual result than CGI. Its ju more

When robot and-ins fun to build u and lm it, Moow
populate the world in a movie says. Were all little kids with our
1982
android: as they do in Disneys Surrogates, out eleHric train sets. Our eleHric train Blade
a mobile robot, Sept. 25 every charaHer in the set ju happens to be a big Holly- Runner
usually with a frame has to look perfeH. And that wood movie with all the bells and Roy the
human form. Replicant
turned into a headache for direHor whiles on it.
Derived from
late Greek Jonathan Moow. Usually you hire Creating the illusion of robotic
androeids background aHors o the reet, he perfeHion also required some subtle
(manlike), says. We were ying in models. alterations. For example, when aHors
circa 1751 In the near future, humans never were portraying surrogates, visual-
Merriam-Websters
Dictionary leave their homes. Inead, they send eeHs artis digitally cleaned their
sophiicated robot surrogates into skin of aws in poproduHion.
MARCH OF THE the world. Piloting these proxies from Before I arted this movie, I [thought]
MOVIE ANDROIDS a special chair that plugs into their Hollywood was full of fabulous-looking 1973
Westworld
brain, operators experience everything people, Moow says. But the Gunslinger
Androids have
captured their surrogates do, but incur none of number of people who look like ideal
lmmakers the risks. Pat is, until someone arts prototypes is aHually not that many.
imaginations
since the
earlie days
of cinema. 1927 1939 1956
Metropolis The Wizard Forbidden
Maschinen- of Oz Planet
mensch The Tin Man Robby the
Robot

GEAR + TOOLS + TOYS
[1] [2]
Meter Maid
Using an emergency generator is both a balancing a; and a
1. 6e GFCI 2. 6e PowerBar guessing game: Its tempting to try to pull as many watts from
outlets have meter lets you the machine as possible, but plug in too many appliances and
weather- know when the
resiant generators out- youll trip the circuit breaker. Ge Generac Power Syems
cover plates. put is approach- XG8000E Generator ($1299) features a unique power meter
ing its capacity.
that indicates when the unit is approaching its limit. Given that
the machine can produce a heJy 8000 watts (10,000 for brief
surges), youll have more than enough power to run a well
pump, a full-size fridge, a fan, lights, a microwave and a space
heater before that happens. SETH PORGES
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES WORRELL POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 25

Lilliputian
Literature
E Ink e-book readers
are pricey itemsthe
U P G R A D E
andard-bearer
Amazon Kindle weighs
in at $300. Ae Sony
Reader Pocket Edition
($200) is sort of the
paperback to the
Kindles hardcover. Its
more portable and
a whole lot less
P M
expensive. We like it
as a budget-priced
e-book reader, but its
lack of an internal
3G connePion
(translation: no
zNkLqRNks
downloading books
over the air) might be a
deal breaker for
anybody who has ever
used a Kindle.
q"
Stud-Seeking Radar Reinventing unnecessary

If youre ju searching for a ud, any Rubik technological
old ud nder (or even a magnet) will do. We Rubiks overload. Inead
But if youre drilling into concrete and need Cube is one of the of relying on
CHRIS ECKERT/STUDIO D (RUBIKS CUBE)
to avoid rebar, youll want something with be-selling toys mechanical

slightly keener radar. e Milwaukee M12 evera frurating manipulation, its
Cordless Sub-Scanner Dete1ion Tool symbol of the 80s touch-sensitive
($350) can pinpoint materials buried whose six sides and sides allow users
under 6 inches of concrete (not to mention 43 quintillion to change the
ceramic tile, marble or gypsum). Wats a possible congura- squares colors
full 2 inches deeper than anything else on tions have remained with the swipe of
the market. And, yeah, itll nd a ud, too. unchanged. We a nger. Fancy?
new Rubiks Denitely. But its
TouchCube ($150) price tag could
seeks to replicate buy you a dozen
the experience with old-yle cubes
what can only be and, honely, its
described as an ju not the same.

www.
www.st
stor
orem
oremag
ags.
s.co
com & www.fa
co fant
fa ntam
nt amag
am ag.c
ag.com
.c om
!
U P G R A D E

P M
*e adjuable
ilts come in
zNkLqRNks
three sizes, allow-

ing for lengths
between 15 and
40 inches.
An articulating
hinge mimics
a heels natural
motion.
Leaf Mover and Shaker

Two-roke, gas-guzzling leaf blowers are some of the tool sheds dirtie
denizens. Because the Worx WG540.5 Leaf Blower ($150) is powered by a
lithium-ion battery, it doesnt spew exhau, rids owners of the need to ore
messy two-roke fuel mixtures and isnt conrained by the range limitations
S T U D I O D ( S T I LT S )
of corded machines. And, unlike its noisy, gas-powered peers, its less
likely to annoy the neighbors or run afoul of local noise ordinances.
28 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS ECKERT

Reaching the heights
necessary to hang drywall
has traditionally involved a
choice of two tools: ilts,
which can be dangerous and
tiring, or a ladder, which
needs to be continually
moved. Because the
Tru-Stride Drywall Stilts
($320) have an anklelike
articulating motion built
into their heel, they purport
to better mimic a natural
ride, allowing for greater
comfort and mobility. To see
for ourselves, we rapped
them on and arted liLing
30-pound pieces of
wallboard. Our ndings:
While the heel took some
getting used to, we quickly
found ourselves able to
handle drywall tasks with
greater speed and ecien-
cy. But if youve never used
ilts before, the height can
be intimidating. (Our
suggeion: Wear a helmet.)
The
PC-Free
Printer
Printers are typically
useless without a PC to
tether to. 4e HP Photo-
smart Premium with
TouchSmart Web ($400)
has a 4.3-inch touchscreen
that allows users to pull and
print online coupons, movie
tickets, maps and news
ories without having to
take the time to boot up a
computer. And while we cant
help but feel frurated that
the printer is only able to
access content from
preapproved partners such
as Google, Coupons.com and
Fandango (meaning no
access to the open Web), its
a promising art.
& ww
www.
w.fa
w. fant
fa ntam
nt amag
am ag.c
ag.com
.c om
U P G R A D E
M
qqP [1] [2]
[3]
zNkLqRNks
[4]
[5]
Escape Arti
An earlier iteration of Channellocks Frankenein-like six-in-one
rescue tool allowed anybody to play reman in an emergency. We
gave it a workout by shutting gas valves, punCuring windows and
prying open doorsbut its plierlike tip wasnt designed to cut
through more than a few wires. Ee new Channellock 89 Rescue
Tool ($55) adds shears that are thin enough to squeeze into tight
spots, yet tough enough to cut through battery cables and more.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Metal A gas A pry bar A spanner Ee eel
shears slice shut-o slot can open wrench punch can
through makes it windows, tightens and punCure
battery easy to doors and loosens safety
cables and shut down sealed couplings up glass.
soZ metals. a house. containers. to 6 inches
in diameter.
Eere are few Boo Mobile, Cricket

things Americans and MetroPCS. Eats
despise more than less than half the
their mobile phone monthly co of
carrierspoor AT&Ts unlimited
q service, high fees and iPhone plan. And

seemingly inescap- because they dont
able contraCs make require long-term
many consumers feel contraCs, these
ripped o and plans could be
trapped. One way particularly appealing
Motorola Clutch i465
(Boo Mobile)
out: prepaid phone to the commitment-
services. Eese plans phobic. Ju know
have been around for that if you do go the
years, but because prepaid path, youll
Cricket TXTM8
the major players are likely have to live
(Cricket Wireless) currently waging a without frills such as
hard-fought price war, high-speed 3G
unlimited voice, text networks and the
and data plans can late lu-worthy
Samsung Finesse now be had for about handsets (so no
(MetroPCS) $50 per month on iPhone or Palm Pre).
www.
w.
www.
www.st
w. stor
st orem
oremag
em ags.
ags.co
s. com
com & ww
www.
w.fa
w. fant
fa ntam
nt amag
am ag.c
ag.com
.c om
www.
www.st
w. stor
st orem
oremag
emags.
ag s.co
s. com
com & ww
www.
w.fa
w. fant
fa ntam
nt amag
ag.c
.com
.c om
SPORT SEDAN + CROSSOVER +
PICKUP TRUCK + MOTORCYCLE
2010
Base Price: $24,355
Dirty !e Tundras new Work Truck package rips away all pretense and accentuates
the utility at this pickups core. Carpeting is gone, the upholery is an unabashed
Jobs gray vinyl, the dashboard is moly at black plaic, and the windows roll up with
six hand-wound turns of a crank. Its everything youd have wanted and expeAed
in a 1955 Chevrolet pickup, done with 21-century technology. Our $25,155
truck was powered by a new 310-hp 4.6-liter V8, backed by a six-speed automatic
that provided quiet and seamless thru. Frankly, the 4.6 doesnt
feel like its giving up 71 hp to the top-choice 5.7-liter V8. Inside,
theres plenty of orage behind the bench seatat lea enough
to carry the days hand tools, lunch and maybe a small generator.
Te decor is riAly plaic bucket. But sometimes a plaic
bucket is exaAly what you need. JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN
inside: comparison: qfirst look:q
q
q
q
! . q qyk`q q qtE \Uqq
qqq.q!q q.qq q
q qq.
q
POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 33

PM Test Driven
N E W C A R S
2010
Ducati Street f ig ht er S
P M
20 10
Subaru Legacy
s?ksq:jNy?k
++
++
1 2
So"er Side Closing the Gap
q qq
q
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!qqqq.qq
q
qqq.q!q q.qq qq
+e S model comes Superbikes are focused, hardcore 1e Legacy has never sold in numbers
with Ducati Tra<ion machines. But the retched-out that challenge mainream juggernauts
Control (DTC),
which measures
ergonomics can wear you out. Ducatis like the Honda Accord and the Toyota
lean angle and will new $18,995 Streetghter S aims to Camry. But that might change with this
retard the ignition scratch the itch for power without new model. It comes in powertrain
when dangerous leaving you with sore wris and a he"y tiers2.5i, 3.6R and 2.5GTand eight
levels of wheelspin
are dete<ed. +e
chiropraEic bill. Ge beating, barking trim levels. Ge new Legacy feels
syem can be set soul of the 368-pound Streetghter is markedly more grown up than its
to one of eight a 155-hp 1099-cc twin. Ge frame has predecessor. And, yes, its much bigger
sensitivity levels or altered geometry that makes this too, with almo 4 inches more rear
switched o. We
only felt the syem
Ducati much more reet-friendly. Ge legroom and 9.5 more cubic feet in the
intrude once, gently fork rake has been relaxed, the swing trunk. A four-cylinder and V6 are
cutting engine arm has been extended for more available, but our hearts belonged to the
power and perhaps ability and the handlebar sits higher 265-hp 2.5GT turbo. Externally
saving our hide.
too. Ge Streetghter produces dierentiated by its hood scoop, the
extreme forward thru, but its turbo is a bla to drive, oering smooth
Brembos yield equally unning power with a torque peak that plateaus
q.qfirst look: q
q q
ops. Initial bite from these brakes between 2000 and 5200 rpm. Apart
is tremendous. Our S models hlins from the painfully slow, manual-
suspension exhibited a rm ride but transmission-equipped base model,
excellent control in the turns. A"er there isnt a Subaru Legacy we wouldnt
canyon carving, urban commuting and enjoy driving at lengthespecially that
slogging the Ducati Streetghter S lively 2.5GT. B.W.
along retches of interate, we
hung up our leathers entertained
and impressed. BASEM WASEF

www.stor
oremags.com & www.fantamag
ag.com
Luxury
PM Test Driven
Sweets
CAN CADILLACS ALL-NEW
N E W C A R S
SRX OUT-GUN LEXUSS

RX 350THE UPSCALE
VS.
CROSSOVER LEADER?
BY LARRY WEBSTER ++
P M
s?ksq:jNy?k
Comparison
2010 Lexus RX 350 2010 Cadillac SRX
$52,965 qqq $49,000 (est.)

3.5-liter V6, 6A q
pq 3.0-liter V6, 6A
275 qq 265
7.5 sec qMoqq 8.7 sec
15.5 sec qMq 16.7 sec
@ 90.1 mph @ 84.6 mph
115.4 E qoMq
q 118.8 E
21.5 q q!q
q 19.5 q
As much as
Cadillac may
!qqqq.qq
q
q
!q.qq qyk`q q qtE
q qq
qqq.q!q q.qq qq
sL?q Not surprisingly, the have had its
specs of the Cadillac crosshairs set
mirror those of the Lexusthe outside on Lexus, it built
a much dierent,
dimensions of these crossovers are sL?q Bouncing over the
much sportier
within 3 inches of one another. Under the pockmarked Detroit car. If you hauled
hood, the RX has more power, and only reets in the SRX, we noticed swiveling the family to a
Lexus oers a hybrid model. Both have heads. Were fans too. Fe designers mountain
generously sized, leather-lined interiors. really spent time on the details; by retreat along
But when it comes to hauling, there are comparison, the Lexus is a bit plain. But some twiy
dierences. Fe Lexus rear seats adju open the doors and the situation roads, the SRX
fore and aI, a feature the SRX lacks. Fe reverses. Fe Caddys interior is too would be the
Cadillac has two-tiered shelves in all the highly ylized and busy for our tae, be tool. But in
the daily grind,
doors, adjuable thigh support for the while the Lexus interior is handsome,
the RXs greater
drivers seat and a power tailgate with with materials two notches above those renement,
adjuable opening height that can of the SRX. Fe Lexus oers a far soIer power and
prevent the gate from hitting garage rideimpaOs are barely audible. Fe comfort would
ceilingssmart. Fe SRXs navigation ruOure feels solid, and the resilient make us choose
q.qfirst look: q
q q
syem can discern the speed limit of the suspension makes road imperfeOions the Lexus.
road youre traveling and display it on the disappear. Fe SRX is noticeably ier.
gauge cluer. Lexus packs its own tech: Fe payo is sharper eering response
Fe Remote Touch haptic device that and cornering: Fe Caddy eagerly takes
controls the interior funOions is to the curves. Fis is one buttoned-down
incredible. Its natural to use and oers crossover. Fe eering ays uid, with a
feedback in the joyick with noticeable natural buildup of eort. But squeeze the
resiance when the cursor moves over throttle, and that Lexus will out-hule
any of the buttons. Impressive. the Caddyevery time.

www.storemag
ags.
s.co
s. com
com & ww
www.
w.fa
fant
ntam
amag
ag.c
.com
om
PM Test Driven
2 01 0
Porsche Panamera
N E W C A R S
P M
s?ksq:jNy?k
++
201 0
Chevro l et Eq uinox
uino x
++
1 2
Game Changer Clutch Player
q
!q.qq qyk`q q qtE
!qqqq.qq
q
q qq
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1is is the r The most eagerly anticipated Porsche Every new product GM launches in
Porsche to oer a is not an even hotter version of the 911, the next few monthsor years, or
op/art syem to
save fuel. 1e engine
but the all-new four-door Panamera. So decadeswill be scrutinized. So its
turns o when the we were eager to climb behind the crucial that the redesigned $23,185
car comes to a op wheel. Ke S model receives a 400-hp Equinox not only be solid, but that it
and then automati- 4.8-liter V8, but the twin turbo provide a mainream hit for GM. Ke
cally reres when
you take your foot
increases the aLion to 500 hp. Both basic unibody ruLure and suspension
o the brakeju come paired to a dual-clutch, seven- remain from the previous Equinox. Yet
like a hybrid. Its speed PDK transmission. Ke V8 lights there are two new engines, a 182-hp
a simple technol- with a powerful whumph. Naturally, 2.4-liter four-cylinder that returns 32
ogy requiring only
a modied arter,
we squeezed the throttle at to mpg highway, and a 264-hp 3.0-liter V6
and it improves the oor. Porsche says it hits 60 mph that delivers 25 mpg highwayboth
fuel economy by 10 in 5 secondsand we had no trouble hitched to six-speed automatics. Ke
percent on the urban maintaining 150 mph on our autobahn four-cylinder mu work hard to move
European cycle.
drive. Ke Panamera simply excels on the 3770-pound Equinox. Fortunately,
home turf; it runs like its locked to the the six-speed automatic shiVs with
tarmac. Ke ruLure is solid and the precision and extraLs every bit of thru
q.qfirst look: q
q q
suspension compliant, dispatching available. Ke V6 oers extra muscle

surface irregularities with little cabin and a calmer driving experience. Its no
intrusion. Plenty of cars are good at this rocket, but it reaches freeway speeds
elevated velocity, but this one is in with less ruckus and makes sweeter
another league. Ke $89,800 Panamera noises doing it. Still, the Equinox is more
is an amazing machine. L.W. appliance-like than invigorating. But the
interior is greatly improved, and
rear-seat legroom simply dwarfs the
competitions. J.P.H.

www.
www.st
w. stor
st orem
oremag
em ags.
ags.co
s. com
com & ww
www.
w.fa
w. fant
fa ntam
nt amag
am ag.c
ag.com
.c om
PM Test Driven
201 0
K ia Fort e
N E W C A R S
P M
++ First Look 2 01 0
Jaguar XJ
s?ksq:jNy?k
2 00 9
Ford Fo cus R S
++
1 2 !
Rising Star Forbidden Fruit
q qq
qqq.q!q q.qq qq
q
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first look
Watch out, Honda. Kia is an emerging Ford will bring some of its mo Future Tense
threat, and the $14,390 Forte is proof. successful European designs to the U.S., Jaguars sleek
@is compaB replaces the SpeBra, arting with the 2010 Fiea. For now, agship XJ sedan is
packs a riking visual presence and has Fords hotte car this side of the infused with
plenty of andard safety features. Two Muang, the Focus RS, will remain an class-leading
technology like the
four-cylinder engines are oered, a American fantasy. @e RS has a luy
cool 12.3-inch LCD
156-hp 2.0-liter and a 173-hp 2.4-liter. 2.5-liter 300-hp ve-cylinder turbo with inrument panel.
An eciency model with that smaller 325 lb-U of torque paired to a six-speed. @e nav syem
engine will return an eimated 33 mpg Toggle the key; the engine spins and continues with
highway. @e Forte has a real sense of settles into a nervous, slightly uneven current touchscreen
solidity aorded by the ruBure, and idle. @e gear lever slots quickly and tech, though the
company expeBs
the artful rendering of the interior could cleanly. Even at low speeds, the engine eventually to migrate
be the be ever for a Kia. Power from has sucient torque to pull from low to an iPhone-like
the 2.4-liter engine is adequate, and we revs. Speed up and ... pow! @e kick in syem. Speaking of
were impressed by the SportshiU the back arts at ju above 2000 rpm geures, you
manual-override syem on the and hits hard all the way to 7000. @e aBivate the glove
smooth-shiUing automatic. @e 2.0-liter hard-edged growl mixes with waegate compartment and
q.qfirst look: q
q q
front-seat reading
does need vigorous spurring to keep the chatter o throttle and a diant pop lights with ju a
pace up, but its sweet-sounding in as unburnt fuel ignites in the exhau. wave of the hand.
normal operation. However, we were @e eering is uncannily accurate. It @e XJ is powered
not thrilled with the abrupt clutch tells you of impending front-wheel slides by a 5.0-liter V8 or
engagementmanual transmissions are before they happen, road-surface two optional
supercharged
not this Kias forte. BARRY WINFIELD changes the second youve crossed
versions, one rated
them and which side of a coin the tires up to 510 hp. We
have ju run over. @is car is worth a cant wait for a drive.
trip to Europe. ANDREW ENGLISH DAN CARNEY

www.storemags.com
m & ww
www.
w.fantamag.com
w.
J A Y L E N O S G A R A G E
A GALAXIE FAR, FAR AWAY

> B Y J AY L E N O
> P H OTO G R A P H S B Y J O H N L A M M
M
o of us have a special affinity for the
cars our parents owned when we were J AY I S R E S T O R I N G A
growing up. I was brought home from 1966 FORD GALAXIE
7 LITREJUST LIKE
the hospital in a 49 Plymouth sedan. THE CAR HIS DAD
At age 7, I was with my dad when we ONCE OWNED.
went to Crabtree Motors in New
Rochelle, N.Y., and bought a black and
white Plymouth Belvederethe one Oh, let the boy pick the engine. What
with the big fins. difference does it make?
In 1966 we walked into the dealer- So my dad agreed.
ship to buy another cara Ford Galaxie. I even remember the salesmans
By this time, I was 16 and could drive. name. It was Tom Lawrence. I pulled
Usually my dad would just buy whatever him aside and said, Tom, heres what
they had on the showroom floor. we need: We want the full-size Galaxie
But there were no full-size Galaxies. with the 7 Litre package. In 1966,
There were only Fairlanes and Falcons. for just one year, the 7 Litre was a sepa-
I dont want a little car, my father said. rate model. It was the top-of-the-line
I want a full-size car. So the salesman Galaxie, and it came standard with a
asked if we wanted to order a car. And I 428-cubic-inch V8.
piped up, Can I pick the engine? I want I couldnt convince my dad to get the
to pick the engine. So my mother said, four-speed manual, so we ordered our
& www.fantamag.com
JAY LENOS GARAGE///
CLASSIC CARS
7 Litre with the heavy-duty Cruise-o-

Matic. I remember saying to the
salesman, Can we get the muffler
delete, and just go with the straight
glasspacks?
Are you sure you want that?
Yup, I told him. Thats what
we want.
Four weeks went by,
and my whole family Jay bought this 1966
Ford Galaxie 7 Litre
headed down to pick up in Canada a year ago;
the Galaxie. It was maroon, its the same model
and, of course, it wore his dad once owned.
Its now under reo-
those 7 Litre hubcaps that ration at Jays garage
looked like imitation cus- and will be sprayed
tom wheels. They were the very same Vin-
tage Burgundy as his
wrapped with those skinny fathers 7 Litre.
little whitewalls too. It was
a two-door pillarless coupe
with a black interiora
beautiful car.
Ill never forget what happened He got a ticket for going 110 mph. So bought the automatics, so the cars
next. My father got in the car I knew he really enjoyed the car. came with the C6 floor pan. If a car
we were back in the service area Unfortunately, like most cars of was marked four-speed, the line
and he turned the key. The car let that time, it was brand new in 66, workers took a Sawzall or a torch and
out a thunderous rrrraaaagggg- but it didnt look that way for long. just cut a bigger hole so they could
rrrrrraaaahhhh. And my father said, By 68, rust bubbles were appearing stick in the manual transmission.
Theres a hole in the muffler. Its on the top of the fenders. By 1973, That just shows you the way they did
a brand-new car, and theres a hole the car was pretty much rusted out. things back in the day.
in the muffler! The salesman But that didnt matter too much Speaking of which, after our
explained, No, Mr. Leno. Thats the because I wrapped the Galaxie family had bought that 7 Litre Gal-
way it sounds. around a tree and broke it in half. axie, I started working at my local
Whaddya mean thats the way it I always loved that 7 Litre. And I Ford dealership as the lot boy. Every
sounds? my dad said. What new wanted to relive the experience. day Id go out with a rubber hammer
car sounds like that? The salesman Last year, I finally found a 7 Litre in and put on 50 or 60 sets of hubcaps.
made it clear that we had checked Canada, a four-speed carthe one I And every night Id have to take
muffler delete on the order, which always wanted my dad to get. I con- them off, because kids would steal
specified glasspacks. My father tacted the guy, bought it and brought them. One day, I was carrying a big
looked at the order sheet, then it home. Just going for a cruise down pile of hubcaps. As I came around
looked at me. What did you make the highway, it makes me smile, the corner, I bumped into my boss
me buy here? remembering those days. And it still and dropped all the hubcaps. He
Frustrated, he said, Oh fachris- seems pretty quick. yelled and fired me on the spot. I
sakes, lets get out of here. He put it Weve stripped down the car and was so upset I didnt even tell my
in drive and just nailed it. The car started the restoration process. As we parents. I pretended to go to work
went eeeeerrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeerrrkkk! began to take the car apart, we ripped every day for two weeks. Then I wrote
spinning the tires on the cement up the carpet where the four-speed a letter to Henry Ford II. I told him
floor. My father said, I bought was, and there was a big hacked-out about the Fords our family owned
a rocket ship; you made me buy a hole around the transmission. I and mentioned that this was my first
rocket ship! He was yelling about thought maybe it wasnt a four-speed job. After 10 days, my boss, Ben
the stupid car all the way home. car after all. I checked the data plate Ristuccia, called me and said,
A couple of months went by, and I and called my friend Vince Panicola, I dont know who you know in
was in my parents bedroom looking at the Galaxie 7 Litre website 7litre Detroit, but you can have your old
for something. I opened my fathers .org, who confirmed it was a real four- job back. So you can see, I have a lot
top dresser drawer, and I saw a ticket. speed. In those days, most people of history with Ford. FC
& www.fantamag.com
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T H I N K I N G A H E A D
WHY OUR COM-

PLEX WORLD IS
MORE DISASTER-
PRONE THAN
EVERAND WHAT
TO DO ABOUT IT.
Resilience engineering as an
academic idea was born in response
to the 2003 space shuttle Columbia
disaster. The spacecraft disintegrated
on re-entry because thermal panels
had been damaged by a piece of foam
that broke off during the launch. But
investigators identified a larger issue:
NASA had responded to budget cuts
in the 1990s by adopting a faster,
better, cheaper approach, launch-
ing more missions with fewer
resources. Safety margins gradually
narrowed, information sharing with-
ered and overconfidence ballooned
without anyone really noticing. The
organization had become brittle and
prone to disaster.
When a system looks solid year
after year, its easy to become com-
placent, like the generals behind
READY FOR ANYTHING Frances old Maginot Linewhich,
> B Y G L E N N H A R L A N R E Y N O L D S after all, was pretty good at keeping
> I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y PAU L B L OW the Germans out, though useless
once they found another way in. Its
just a short step from complacency
H
eres a simple truth: Its better to bend than to to pure arrogance: Why worry about
break, and its best to be prepared for the worst. This lifeboats when the Titanic is unsink-
age-old wisdom is going by a new name in slide-rule able? Resilience is about having
circles: Resilience engineering starts with the enough lifeboats anyway.
insight that its smart to design and maintain systems NASAs not the only institution
so they have some give. That means building technol- where financial pressures can lead to
ogies that offer extra capacity to handle sudden loads, brittle operations. When you squeeze
plenty of warning when normal operations are begin- the slack out to cut costs, youre left
ning to break down, backup systems in case things do with systems that have no real mar-
go wrong, diverse digital architectures so that a single gin for error. Modern, just-in-time
bug doesnt produce widespread failure, and decen- manufacturing methods allow facto-
tralization so that when (not if) communication ries to save money by eliminating
breaks down things dont grind to a halt. stockpiles of parts and materials

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be lights and a/c. During the 2003 staffs dont have to worry about you,
THINKING AHEAD/// blackout, New York City streets were they can take care of otherswhich
DISASTER RESPONSE
gridlocked by traffic-signal failure, means that being self-reliant can
causing some to abandon their cars actually help your community.
but if transportation is interrupted, and walk, which, of course, made the Often, government officials worry
those superefficient assembly lines congestion even worse. about the public panicking in a
shut down in a hurry. This doesnt Happily, theres a simple solution widespread disaster. But they have
mean that just-in-time delivery to that one: Battery backups for traffic that backwards. In studies of more
should go away, but the people in signals. The batteries may only last a than 500 emergencies, the University
charge had better have a backup few hours, but thats a huge improve- of Delawares Disaster Research
plan: early-warning systems and a ment. Most blackouts are over by Center found that panic rarely
plan to temporarily switch manufac- then, and even if the backup power occurred. In fact, people consis-
turing sites, perhaps, or a short-term does run out, theres enough time for tently jump in to help themselves
supply of parts always kept in reserve traffic to disperse and police officers and their neighbors. Research by
in case of emergencies. to arrive. The system fails gracefully scholars like Kathleen Tierney, who
Often, technologies become so rather than catastrophically. Califor- directs the Natural Hazards Center
tightly coupled that when one piece nias Sacramento County, New York at the University of Colorado at Boul-
goes down, it produces a cascade City and many smaller communities der, shows that the true first
of failures. In his 1988 book, The have started installing battery back- responders are often the people on
Collapse of Complex Societies, anthro- ups. And when New York experienced the scene when a disaster strikes.
pologist Joseph Tainter suggested outages in 2006, many traffic lights They save lives by administering first
that it was increasing complexity that continued working. aid, getting people out of hazardous
really toppled the Mayan and Roman Backup power for cellphone sys- areas and spreading warnings. Vol-
empires. The northeastern blackout tems can be equally important, but unteers improvised the water-based
here things arent evacuation of lower Manhattan on
going as well. After Sept. 11, called an American Dunkirk
studying the after- by some, that moved masses of peo-
OFTEN, OFFICIALS WORRY math of Hurricane ple out of the danger zone.
Katrina, the Federal A self-reliant attitude is good,
ABOUT THE PUBLIC PANICKING
Communications but skills help mightily, too. Citizen
IN A DISASTER. BUT THATS Commission ordered training is available through the
BACKWARDS. IN FACT, PEOPLE mobile providers to Red Cross, Community Emergency
CONSISTENTLY JUMP IN TO HELP. install backup power Response Teams and Neighborhood
for all cell towers, but Emergency Response Teams. One
the industry resisted underappreciated resource is the
and the requirement amateur radio community. Acquire a
was dropped. This ham radio license (American Radio
of 2003 didnt bring about the end of means that cellphones, which many Relay League site, arrl.org) and you
our civilizationbut it was serious. rely on in emergencies, arent as reli- can become a major resource if a
The problem started when a single able in a crisis as they should be. disaster strikes. Its fun, too.
power line brushed against some In the meantime, architects,
overgrown trees, then quickly spread e Public Option engineers, regulators and govern-
to affect 50 million people. One pro- When it comes to large-scale emer- ment officials should take heed,
posal for adding resilience to the gencies, the country has a hidden and think about creating systems
electrical grid is called distributed weaponand we can do more with that dont leave us hanging when
energy, with homes, businesses and this resource. Im talking about things go wrong. Because, inevita-
municipalities producing at least a a populace filled with self-reliant, bly, they will. FC
portion of their own electricity. community-minded individuals.
Resilience engineering is a spe- During a major crisis, on the order of PM contributing editor
cialized field, but it simply takes Katrina or a serious California earth- Glenn Harlan Reynolds discusses
some common sense to apply its quake, relief services can be over- civilian first responders in his book
principles to the ordinary world. For whelmed. When individuals are pre- An Army of Davids.
instance, when the power goes out, pared to look after themselves for a
traffic signals go down. This causes while, with food, water and medicine
accidents and traffic jamsoften on hand, and alternative sources of ON THE WEB > To see how
Americans coped with the
exacerbated by people who decide to heat or power, it makes a big differ- worst disasters of the past 100
leave work or home in favor of find- ence. The government cant take care years, visit popularmechanics
ing someplace where there might of everybody at once. If disaster-relief .com/10disasters.

8o@Wc[i8$C[_]i
Fêje]hWf^XoJ_dWJoh[bb
Turn on a light, drive a car, visit a store, and you are instantly connected to
thousands of people youve never met: coal miners, autoworkers, engineers,
farmers, truck driversall the people who extract, invent, build, grow and deliver
the myriad products we use each day.
That interdependence is one of the hallmarks of the modern worldno single
person could make a pencil from scratch today, much less manufacture a
microchipbut it also makes us nervous. What happens when the power goes
out? What if the global supply chain that brings us raspberries in January breaks
down? Disasters such as Hurricane Katrina remind us that the networks supplying
power, food, water and communications are all fragile. And we cant always
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F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / ++
FC;:?JEHIDEJ;
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rely on the government to save us when those systems go plified it; and institutions like the Boy Scouts inculcated it
down. We are, to some extent, on our own. Then there are into generations of young people. In this special issue, PM
the slow-motion disasters: global epidemics, energy explores how the concept is gaining new currency today.
shortages, environmental degradation. We visit some of the modern pioneers who are finding new
Whether theyre concerned with short-term threats or frontiers of independencepeople living off the grid,
long-term challenges, more Americans are deciding to get building the next generation of solar homes and challeng-
their own homes in order. Having a good stock of food, ing our throwaway culture. And in our Home, Auto and
water and survival basics is a start. But many of us are going Tech columns this month we offer some advice on how to
further, installing wind and solar power, planting modern embrace the off-the-grid approach in your own life, from

versions of the victory garden and lovingly restoring (rather making your own biodiesel to rigging an emergency cell-
than discarding) broken appliances around our homes. We phone charger. Of course, being self-reliant doesnt mean
are discovering that, in an age of plenty, it can be satisfying giving up the tools and technologies of the modern world.
to do things for ourselvesand that many of the same steps Even the most hardcore DIYer wouldnt be able to repli-
needed to make a lifestyle more disaster-resistant also make cate a simple tool like the wrench pictured above (which
it more sustainable. my father purchased in the late 1930s and used to help
The notion of self-reliance is hardly new. Henry David maintain the Panama Canal). But it does mean using those
Thoreau advocated it; Americas western pioneers exem- tools to build a smarter, safer, more sustainable life.
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Z[f[dZ[dY[edj^[fem[h]h_Z"j^[]heY[ho J > ; F > E D ; H 7 D = M > ; D ? M7 I
ijeh[WdZj^[\k[bfkcf$8kjWh[i[[ZiWdZ shoeless and only a couple of sips into my morn-
iebWhfWd[bi[dek]^jeb[WZki_djeWd[m" ing coffee. Hi, its Novella Carpenter, the caller
ikijW_dWXb[\kjkh[5
said. My goat is giving birth.
Twenty minutes later I was crouched in the
hay at Ghost Town Farm, pushing away chickens
8o@Wc[iLbWêi and peering into the pen that housed the expect-
Fêje]hWfîXoHeX>emWhZ ant mother, Bb. Her udder was so swollen she
couldnt get her hindquarters down. Bleating,
she clawed at the dirt with her right front hoof as
if searching for a stash of Vicodin. Pass me the
iodine, Carpenter said. We better wash up.
Similar birthing scenes have unfolded countless times in Americas agrarian past, but none, I sus-
pected, had the soundtrack of the Ghost Town neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. As Bbs cries reached
an apex they were matched by the caterwauling of a police car siren on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Then
came the intestine-undulating bass of hip-hop from a passing car. Residents disagree on how Ghost
Town got its namefor the isolation created when freeways cleft the neighborhood from the rest of the
city in the 1950s? For the appallingly high murder rate? For the casket companies that used to be located
here? More unanimously accepted is that Ghost Town is a singularly odd location for a homestead that
hosts pigs, goats, geese, peaches, potatoes, spinach and bees. Carpenter is living a version of the Laura
Ingalls Wilder fantasy all right, but hers is Little House in the Hood.
Carpenter, the author of Farm City: The Education of an
Urban Farmer, is, by her own admission, a bit nuts. If so,
New Farmers she has companysimilar farms have sprung up on city
Almanac blocks in Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh and Detroit. And
food is hardly the only commodity that people are producing
?dW*+&&#igkWh[#\eejbej
_dEWabWdZ"9Wb_\$"Del[bbW for themselves these days. A small but growing number of
9Whf[dj[h]hemiXheYYeb_ American households generate all of their electricity using
WdZb[jjkY[h_]^jd[njje wind, solar or micro-hydro. But off-the-grid living has come
]jh[[iWdZfWii_ed\hk_j to mean something more nuanced than cutting all ties with
l_d[i$?dYbkZ[Z_d^[h utilities and society; for many, its about finding creative
WddkWbYhef0'&/+[]]i"
(&&fekdZie\ ways to produce and conserve resources at home. Hundreds
jecWje[i"',gkWhji of thousands of Americans capture rainwater in barrels, can
e\êd[o"*&hWXX_ji food from their gardens, heat water with solar collectors and
WdZ('&gkWhjie\ commute by bicycle. We may be nearly a decade into the 21st
]eWjic_ba$?dj^[K$I$"
ceh[j^Wd*.&& century, but the self-reliant spirit of an earlier erathat of
\Whc[hicWha[jiWdZ homesteading pioneershas returned with gusto.
(+&&9ecckd_jo At Ghost Town Farm, Carpenter cleared the head-high
Ikffehj[Z7]h_Ykbjkh[ weeds from a 4500-square-foot lot and started planting. She
\WhciikffbobeYWbbo didnt ask permission. When the lots owner discovered the
]hemd\eeZ$IjkZ_[i^Wl[

iêmdj^Wjeh]Wd_Y squat garden he warned that he would soon develop the real
c[jêZi"b_a[jêi[ estatethat was five years ago. Now the lot is verdant with
9Whf[dj[hki[i"YWd^[bf lavender, sage and thyme; lime, rhubarb and raspberries;
ie_bijeh['&&&#fbki artichoke, collard greens and avocado.
fekdZie\YWhXedf[h
WYh[$Ej^[hWffheWY^[i Strolling through the garden, I became overwhelmed by a
YWdYWki[YWhXedbeii$ feeling that could only be described as vegetable lust. But
something deeper than my appetite had been stimulated,
too. My grandfather once worked a small mountain farm in

+. E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C
J > ; I ; B < # H ; B ? 7 D 9 ; ? I I K ; D[m>ec[ij[WZ[hi
Greece. He immigrated to Californias Central Valley in his

20s, opening a produce stand and then a grocery store, but
he never totally severed his connection to the land. I remem-
ber strolling through fruit-laden trees in his backyard as a
boy. Now, I was gearing up for major changes myselfthe
arrival of my first child, the purchase of my own homeand I
had been thinking about what sort of sanctuary I could cre-
ate for my own family. The house I envisioned was solar-
powered and garden-ringed, a little safer, smarter and more
productive than the wasteful world around it. I was deeply
curious about the experiments of modern homesteaders
because I wondered just how self-sufficient I could be, too.
In the pen Bb continued to push and, with a little gentle
guidance from Carpenter, the newborns head crowned.
Then the front legs were out. Bb gave a final, anguished cry
and the kid was born, a female, soon to be named Hedwig.
Twenty minutes later, she had a brother, Eeyore. The two
Nigerian dwarf goats wobbled about on untested legs and,
undistracted by a car alarm that had started to blare, tried to
find their mothers teats.
America is dotted with remote, off-the-grid home-

steads. Certain regionsincluding western Texas around
Big Bend National Park; the mesas outside of Taos, N.M.; and
pockets of the Sierra Nevada northeast of Lake Tahoehost
whole mini communities. The Surprise Valley of northeast-
ernmost California supports another. There, where skyscrap-
ers of light slant from the heavens to the mirror-flat floor of
the desert, I was crouched on a mattress attached to a rope.
The other end of the rope was hitched to a Ford F-350. The
tires spun and soon I was hooky bobbingsurfing at 30
mph, a roostertail of dust in my wake. I felt as gleeful as the
Road Runner with Wile E. Coyote giving futile chase. The
truck stopped after a few minutes and, as I spat dirt clods
from my mouth, a pretty young woman in a red plaid shirt
and a white cowboy hat emerged from the cab. Youre lucky
youre just visiting, Tierra Hodge said. If you lived here we
would have set the mattress on fire.
Id been introduced to Tierra through a tortured chain of
connectionsmy wifes cousins fathers friends daughter,
or something like that. She grew up off the grid on land near
here, and had agreed to guide me around a place I never

knew existed and introduce me to people who didnt neces-

sarily want to be found.
The first stop was welcoming enough: a mountain home-
stead replete with mud, solar panels, semi-clothed children,
and chickens. Then we had lunch in the town of Eagleville
with Ed and Wendi Lutz, trompe loeil painters whod retired
to build an off-the-grid retreat. Tierra said the place was
beautifulcircular, with deep wooden sills and colorful
& www.fantamag.com
Tina and Bill Hodge with their daughter Tierra (center) in the kitchen of their earth-berm home in Cali-
fornias Surprise Valley. Ive been building houses all my life and can say for sure that ferro-cement is
much more forgiving, Bill says. If it looks right, it is right. Its more like building a sculpture.

,& E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C able to raise our children in a safe environ-
ment, Tierra says. She and her sister,
Celesta, grew up in a tepee; her mom, Tina,
and dad, Bill, supported the family by breed-
J > ; I ; B < # H ; B ? 7 D 9 ; ? I I K ; D[m>ec[ij[WZ[hi ing llamas and selling medicinal herbs.
Instead of sitting in a classroom the Hodge
girls were home-schooled, usually outdoors.
Instead of playing video games, they
explored the mountains on horseback.
Growing up in the wild was idyllic but not
bottles embedded in the wallsbut the Lutzes refused to dis- always easy. When Tierra was 15 a boy braved
close its exact location. Id told them I was a journalist and the long dirt road to the homestead to pick
might as well have said One World Government Spy. We have her up for a date to the county fair. He
come to value our privacy, Wendi said, eyeing me warily. That emerged from the car looking spiffy in an all-
afternoon we drove past a doomsday retreat, complete with white outfit only to have the Hodges pet rac-
its own private airstrip, belonging to a wealthy Bay Area busi- coon pounce with muddy paws. Then one of
nessman. Hes preparing for the end of the world as we know the llamas pegged him with a wad of saliva.
it, Tierra said with an enigmatic smile. I couldnt tell if she Tina, always on the lookout for free meals for
was mocking him or applauding his foresight. wildlife she rehabilitates, shouted after the
couple, Goodbye, honey, have fun, and dont
The specters of financial crisis, climate change, forget to look for roadkill! I just about
uncertain energy reserves and a fragile food supply loom large died, Tierra recalls. But in spite of their
for the new generation of survivalistsand though I dont upbringingor because of itthe girls
share their apocalyptic mind-set, I find myself relating to the turned out fine. Tierra went to college. And
urge to run for cover. In April, the top-selling action and Celesta moved almost directly from the tepee
adventure book on Amazon.com was Patriots: Surviving the to a penthouse in New York, gracing the cover
Coming Collapse, a work described to me by its author, James of Cosmopolitan as a fashion model.
Wesley Rawles, as a survival manual dressed as fiction. Its The day after hooky bobbing, I found
plot appeals to those on the political right, who fear a too- myself standing ankle deep in llama poop
powerful governmentand the anarchy to come in the wake with a shovel. My job was to ferry wheelbar-
of its inevitable collapse. Leftie off-the-gridders gravitate more rows of the stuff up a hill to a garden, dump
to the grow-local approach championed by author Michael the smelly payload and then do it again. And
Pollan. Were using up the worlds resources more quickly again, ad infinitum, until it got dark or my
than you could imagine, says Ruby Blume of the Institute of blisters burst. It was raining, so I was damp,
Urban Homesteading. I think we need to be prepared. and the sodden manure was getting heavy.
Lately, homesteaders of all political stripes have settled Then the clouds broke, and the sun beamed
upon a common concern: globalization. The shock waves of down on the Hodges secluded moun-
any crisisfor instance, the subprime meltdownnow tain160 acres surrounded by protected
spread far, fast and wide. Many doubt that major institutions wildlands. The air was pine-scented and
can be counted upon to save the day. Youre on your own, pulsing with the sound of a creek.
your job is at risk, and a lot of the commodities you rely upon Just as my back began to give out, Bill
are vulnerable to disruption, says John Robb, author of Brave mercifully invited me to tour the familys
New War, which describes how terrorists could exploit global airy, three-bedroom house. It was built
systems. To my ear, such statements straddle the line between earth-berm style, dug into the mountainside
reasonable advice and hyperventilated threat. One day youre and covered by a living roof of soil and vege-
sipping a frappuccino. The next youre using a pitchfork to tation. The ground temperature stays close
fend off rioting mobs. But even if I dont fully agree with the to 57 F year round, which makes the house
dystopian diagnosis, I like Robbs proposed cure: Youre extremely energy efficient. A small solar
going to have to start doing more for yourself. The beauty of array provides enough electricity for lights, a
the DIY solution is that the exact problem doesnt matter; refrigerator and a stereo.
greater self-sufficiency
makes sense to survivalists
Efficiency From the Land

and eco-utopians alike.

In the early 1970s, Tier- J_dWWdZ8_bb>eZ][Xk_bjj^[_hêc[h_]^j_djej^[MWhd[hCekdjW_di
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their own fully off-the-grid h[XWhYel[h[Zm_jî_nbWo[hie\'( #_dYîj[[bc[i^WdZY[c[djWh[
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(\[[je\m[j[Whj^fbkiWjhWYjeh$J^[h[Wh[dem)$'.c_bb_edigkWh[
and later in Surprise Valley, \[[je\]h[[dhee\i_dj^[Kd_j[ZIjWj[i$H[i[WhY^^Wiiêmdj^Wj
with the thought that when ikY^hee\iYWdh[ZkY[^[Wj]W_dXo/+f[hY[dj"^[WjbeiiXo(,
society crumbles, well be f[hY[djWdZijehcmWj[hhkdeXo+*f[hY[dj$

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A History of Self-Reliance Jêk]êh]Wd_Y\eeZWdZiebWhfem[hcWoi[[cb_a[j^[fheZkYjie\jeZWoi
Newspaper Daniel Halladay, a ConneMicut In the depths of the Depression, A trio of

editor Horace machini, invents the self-governing Scott Nearing, a former college researchers
Greeleys wind-powered water pump. professor, moves his family from New at Bell
advice: Go to York City to a farm in Vermont. He Laboratories
the We; there and his wife, Helen, describe their creates the
your capacities experience 22 years later in Living worlds r
are sure to be the Good Lifeinspiring future photovoltaic
appreciated. generations of back-to-the-landers. cells.
1838 1854 1932 1954
1845 1910 1940 1943 1949

Fed up with consumerism and Erne Gompson Seton, a naturali, J.I. Rodale Eleanor Naturali Aldo Leopolds A Sand
indurialization in civilized society, arti, author and failed Canadian publishes Roosevelt County Almanac meticulously
Henry David )oreau settles in at homeeader, becomes the r Chief Organic plants a White documents a year in the natural life
Walden Pond for a 26-month Scout of the Boy Scouts of America. Farming & House vi=ory of Wisconsins Sauk County. Leopold
experiment in self-reliance, to live a Intensely intereed in American Gardening, garden, outlines his Land Ethic, which says
primitive and frontier life if only to Indian traditions and praMices, Seton which inspiring the A thing is right when it tends to
learn what are the gross necessaries writes the r Scout handbook, champions nation to grow preserve the integrity, ability and
of life and what methods have been emphasizing conservation, outdoors suainable vegetables at beauty of the biotic community. It is
taken to obtain them. ethics and praMicality. praMices. home. wrong when it tends otherwise.
Bill crouched beside an unfinished section of wall, where recent marriage. The house has only enough
he pointed out a grid of 38 -inch rebar layered with steel mesh. solar power for a refrigerator, a few light
He had painstakingly covered the rest of the grid with a mix- bulbs and a boom box, but the desert view
ture of sand, cement and waterferro-cement construction surpasses that of most million-dollar vaca-
that was affordable, fire- and pest-resistant and exceptionally tion homes.
tough. Bill bent the rebar before applying the mortar, which Tierra is conflicted about her future and
resulted in strong, gracefully curving walls. The house had considering a move to the Bay Area. After
taken him more than two decades to completeand should getting a taste of her life for the past few
be there for a thousand more, he says. days, I had more than an inkling why: It is
That kind of workthe kind that results in dirt under fin- lonely to live this far out of the mainstream.
gernailsis back in vogue. Not everybody builds his own I couldnt do it myself, no matter how daz-
home, of course, but people with office jobs are raising hens, zling the mountain scenery. And yet Tierra is
bees and wind turbines, learning to weld and taking up quilt- proud of what she has achieved. Theres a
ing. My blistered palms reminded me that manual work is resourcefulness to living this way, she says.
still work, and tasks like shoveling manure can be just as You know that if all else fails in the world,
mind-numbing as data entry. But I couldnt deny the appeal youll still be okay.
of creating something tangible and unique.
After the tour, Bill and I plopped chairs down outside and Power generation doesnt

popped tops off of a couple of beers. Purplish mesas flanked have to be a DIY enterprise. Witness Ore-
the horizon to the east. To the west rose the snow-topped War- gons Three Rivers community, a subdivi-
ner Mountains. He admitted that living off the grid on 160 sion with 250 solar- and wind-powered
acres was a utopian thing not many people could emulate. homes, or the Villages at Heritage Springs,
As for Tierra, she moved back to Surprise Valley after sev- 500 solar homes planned for Southern Cali-
eral years away. She started a fencing company and has built a fornia. Other all-solar real estate develop-
small off-the-grid place of her own. It has three tiny rooms ments are in the works in Florida, Iowa and
that she shares with Sienna, her 4-year-old daughter from a Colorado. Clayton Homes, the countrys

Wdn_ekiW]["^kcWdi^Wl[X[[d]e_d]XWYajej^[bWdZ\ehY[djkh_[i$ BY JOE P. HASLER
Stewart Brand publishes the Whole A mere 126 years ajer Lincoln During the economic downturn,
Earth Catalog, a counterculture bible signed the Homeead Aând two Detroit ramps up produîon in
that, through its massive nal issue years ajer its repealAlaskan Ken six of its 17,000 acres of vacant
in 1971, enables the individual to Deardor receives a land title from lots by turning them into 500
condu^ his own education, nd his the U.S. government, making him minifarms.
own inspiration, shape his own Americas la ocial homeeader.
environment and share his adventure
with whoever is intereed.
1968 1988 2008
1967 1970 1978 2000s 2005

A lacy, tinted 20-ory-high geodesic be Technicolor Commune Following terrori attacks on New Congress passes the Energy Policy
dome designed by Buckminer Fuller Amish, a band dweller John York, catarophic Hurricanes Katrina A' of 2005, which requires public
houses the U.S. pavilion at the of California Schaeer and Rita, escalating oil prices and utilities to accommodate net
Montreal worlds fair. Strong but peace lovers, opens Real nancial uncertainty, the ranks of metering. bis praîce allows
lightweight, geodesic domes ree^ arrive in Goods in survivalis swell. Increasing numbers small-scale producers of renewable
Fullers philosophy of more for Tennessee to Mendocino of Americans begin to ockpile energy to roll back meters and bank
lessan approach to natural praîce County, Calif., food, water, gasoline and other excess energy produced during
resources that made him a pioneer in colle'ive and sells early essentials in preparation for societal periods of ample sunlight and wind
the suainability movement. living. solar panels. collapse. for use at a later date.
largest maker of mobile and prefabricated then that oil was a finite resource, but the suns going to be
houses, has introduced the i-House, which around for, what, 96 billion more years? Beck says.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GETTY IMAGES (1838, 1845,1943, 1954, 2000S, 2005); PHILIP
includes solar panels and energy-efficient Yet it wasnt until recently that he built his magnum opus:
FRIEDMAN/STUDIO D (1910, 1949, 1968); ICONS BY DOGO (1854; 1940; 1970)
appliances, for little more than $100,000. a 5800-square-foot spread with a 270-degree view of Rocky
Satellite Internet services have enabled Mountain National Park. When most people think about an
people to stay connected even in remote off-the-grid house I dont think theyd picture this, Beck said
areas. Nick Rosen, who runs the website when I arrived. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts style of archi-
Off-grid.net, spends several months each year tecture, Beck used wood beams, stone and stucco to create
living off the grid in the mountains of multiple wings fanning out under long diagonal rooflines. We
Majorca, Spain, but seamlessly continues his passed through the front door, elaborately carved from stand-
work as a writer and technology consultant. ing dead hardwoods, and proceeded to the Great Rooma
The notion that painful sacrifices are manda- cavernous space with a flat-screen television, a dining table
tory has been toppled, he says. Modern long enough for 16 and a baby grand piano. Beams recycled
energy technologies, well-insulated homes from a century-old railroad trestle support the lofty ceiling. In
and power-sipping appliances mean you can the kitchen, granite countertops could land a small plane.
live a fantastic, comfortable time off-grid. Yet Becks only utility bill is for propane. Outdoors, above a
Curious to see how much luxury is possi- wood-fired hot tub, rise two wind turbines that can produce
ble, I arranged to visit the home of Thomas 800 watts of electricity. Integrated photovoltaic cells on the

Beck, an architect in Estes Park, Colo. Beck roof contribute another kilowatt. A few dozen yards from the
got his start in residential work before he hit front door stands the power house: An array of solar panels on
puberty, building multistory treehouses top generates 1.44 kilowatts and, inside, three inverters charge
complete with trapdoors and firemans lead-acid batteries32 in all. Three banks of evacuated-tube
poles. He began studying environmental solar thermal collectors heat water for both domestic use and
design in 1973, just as the OPEC oil embargo the 3.5 miles of radiant floor tubing that warms the house.
hit, and attended the National Solar Energy Beck stepped out to meet with a client and encouraged
Conference the following spring. I realized me to explore the house on my own. I went downstairs,

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where a lap pool with 10,000 gallons of F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / ,+
solar-heated water acts as a thermal reser-
voir to help stabilize the homes tempera-
ture. I was tempted to go for a quick swim
but then chickened out. The whole place, in J > ; I ; B < # H ; B ? 7 D 9 ; ? I I K ; D[m>ec[ij[WZ[hi
fact, screamed look but dont touch, and
I wondered what it might say about the
broader movement for sustainability. This
eco-mansion took copious amounts of natu-
ral resources to construct. I would love to
live here. But, environmentally, it seemed a
bit like a biodiesel-powered Hummer. While
an impressive showcase for off-the-grid
tech, Becks luxurious spread appeared no
more realisticfor me anywaythan the
Hodges bare-bones retreat.
The dream of living more inde-

pendently from civilization is almost as old
as civilization itself. When Rome fell 1500
years ago, city dwellers fled to the country-
side, becoming some of the worlds first
back-to-the-landers. The Diggers of 17th-
century England and Depression-era Ameri-
cans similarly tried to provide for themselves
locally. By the late 1960s and early 70s, as
many as 1 million Americans, decrying con-
sumerism and Vietnam, set out for what they
thought would be a purer life in the country-
side. For inspiration they read Aldo Leopold admired Carpenter, but I thought she was more than a little Archite!
and Henry David Thoreau; for practical crazy. What made her urban version of utopia any better than &omas Beck
designed and
advice on everything from carpentry to com- the rural approach of her parents? built his home
post they clutched issues of the Whole Earth I find the country incredibly lonely, Carpenter said as we in the Rocky
Mountains.
Catalog. However well-armed with informa- headed back. Ghost Town was diverse and intriguing; the It melds the
tion, though, most of the would-be pioneers menace of thugs was tempered by the support of the commu- Arts and
lacked practical experience and abandoned nity. We strolled past a bodega whose owner, a goatherd in Cra5s yle
of the early
small-farm living after learning that it was Yemen before he emigrated to the U.S., had taught her how to 20th century
as Novella Carpenter indelicately put it to slaughter livestock. And Carpenter pointed out a monastery with energy-
mea s---ton of work. occupied by Vietnamese monks, one of whom had helped her generation
and orage
Carpenter knows firsthand about the chase down a runaway pig. technologies
travails of the back-to-the-landers. She Carpenters urban farm is doubtless an extreme case honed in
the 21.
spent her early childhood on a rural retreat study. But it also seems to me the most tenable future for
in Idaho. Directly emulating her parents self-sufficient, environmentally sustainable living. Home-
horrified her, but the apple fell only so far steading, to be sure, needs the sense of hardy independence
from the tree. I recognized that if my par- that Id found in Surprise Valley. And I certainly appreciated
ents were Utopia 8.5 with their hippie farm the appeal of some eco-luxury la Beck. But for homestead-
in Idaho, I was merely Utopia version 9.0 ing to truly transcend niche statusfor it to have any appre-
with my urban farm in the ghetto, she ciable impact on the worldit must embrace the community
wrote in Farm City. spirit of Carpenters urban experiment. Maybe Id drunk too
A few weeks after the goats were born, much organic goat milk. But after seeing everybody else, I
Carpenter and I strolled past a graffitied knew that it is Carpenters city setup I want to draw from to
warehouse across from the farm, then create my own familys future homeminus the gun-toting

turned left on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. teens and the tumbleweaves, of course.
Carpenter said that instead of tumbleweeds People are always like, I know where Im going to go
she sometimes spotted tumbleweaves, when the s--- hits the fan, Novellato your house! Carpen-
the lost hairpieces of prostitutes, blowing ter says. And my response to that is, if it hits the fan, its
down the block. When we stopped in a small going to hit the fan for all of us. We left the street and walked
park to pick pellitory, a nettle-like plant behind her house, where she scattered sawdust on the
that the chickens love, Carpenter recounted ground to cloak the livestock odors. We tossed out the pelli-
a shooting shed witnessed there. I really tory, and the chickens scrambled to gobble it down. FC
& www.fantamag.com
,, E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C
? J M 7 I ; 7 H BO " / 0 & & 7 C " 7 D : ; ; H ? BO
dark in Poway, Calif., as 75-mph winds drove chap-
) arral embers through the air and shook the bones of
Frank Vaplons house. One ember lodged in his
woodpile and set it ablaze. Most of his neighbors
had evacuated, but Vaplon had decided to stay and
B_\[#j^h[Wj[d_d]i_jkWj_ediYWd^_jm_j^de fight the wildfire that was closing in on his property.
mWhd_d]WdZfki^j^[b_c_jie\^kcWd Geared up in a mail-order firefighters outfit
[dZkhWdY[$>emZeoek\WY[ZemdZ_iWij[h helmet, bunker coat, respirator, the whole thing
m^[dj^[h[i[l[hoh[WiedjefWd_Y5>[h[i Vaplon began his assault by shooting a high-
êmjem_h[oekhXhW_d\ehikhl_lWb$ pressure stream of water at the flames, but it just
blew back against him in a hot mist. It was like
8o@e^d=Wbl_d pissing into the wind, Vaplon says. So I turned
?bbkijhWj_ediXo7dZh[iH_l[hW around and started spraying down the house.
The Witch Creek fire was the fourth largest on
record in California. A reported 1800 firefighters bat-
tled the blaze and several others nearby; more than
250,000 people in San Diego County were evacuated.
Conventional wisdom says that when a wildfire is
burning down your neighborhood, you shouldnt stick around. And, for most homeowners,
evacuation was certainly the smartest option. But Vaplon stayed and fought back against
the fire. What did he know that everyone who followed the conventional wisdom didnt?
Some disasters are simply not survivable. But most are, and research on human behav-
ior suggests that the difference between life and death often comes down to the simple
yet surprisingly difficulttask of recognizing threats before they overwhelm you, then
working through them as discrete challenges. The people who survive disasters are not
necessarily braver or luckier than those who perish. They do, however, tend to be better
prepared and more capable of making smart decisions under pressure. Not everyone is
born with these traits, but almost anyone can learn them.
down everything that I could, Vaplon says.

The roof, my lawn, everything.
The former Hewlett-Packard engineer
Rule 1: didnt stop there. He raked up all the loose
Prepare for the Worst debris around his house, and then boarded
The last thing I want from my story is for up the attic vents where embers might get
people to risk their lives, Vaplon says. But in. He checked the fuel for his three backup
Id thought about protecting my home, and I generators. And he put important papers in
felt comfortable with my decision to stay. a steel box, which he loaded into his RV. He
The day before the fire swept through his 2.5-acre spread, he parked the vehicle facing out just in case he
woke up early to the distant smell of smoke. He immediately needed to bolt. I had a plan to go if I had to
broke out 500 feet of fire hose and attached it to a standpipe go, he says. If for one minute I started to
hooked up to a 10,000-gallon water tank. I started watering get scared, I would have left.
The gear and setup were just part of
Vaplons extensive preparation. Whether

deliberately or not, he had organized his

brain to deal with disaster by planning a
detailed fire strategy.
The brain is an engineering system,
says John Leach, a former Royal Air Force

Frank Vaplon saved
his home from a
California wildre with
mail-order reghting
equipment and plenty
of preparation.
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,. E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C told me we were in deep troubleI dont
know what it was. I yelled for the boys to get
under the tables. As the scouts dove for
cover, the wind came up. Ullrich leaned into
J>;I;B<#H;B?7D9;?IIK; Hkb[ie\Ikhl_lWb the door from the outside, trying to push it
shut, but instead he was picked up and
thrown from the building. Then the 150-mph
wind simply blew the Boy Scout shelter
apart. I can only describe my actions in that
moment as being totally futile, Ullrich says.
combat survival instructor who now works with the Norwe- There was absolutely nothing I could do.
gian military on survival training and research. Like any Once the tornado passed, Ullrich noticed
engineering system, it has limits in terms of what it can pro- he couldnt hear out of one ear. He felt
cess and how fast it can do so. We cope by taking in informa- around and fished out a stone. All around
tion about our environment, and then building a model of him was chaos. Some scouts were pinned
that environment. We dont respond to our environment, but under a collapsed brick chimney; others
to the model of our environment. If theres no model, the were trapped by the debris of the wrecked
brain tries to create one, but theres not enough time for that structure. For a brief moment Ullrich was
during an emergency. Operating on an inadequate mental dazed. Then he went into autopilot rescue
model, disaster victims often fail to take the actions needed mode. I dont know how to describe it, he
to save their own lives. says. It was like my brain went away, and I
Not Vaplon. As the firestorm approached, he stayed calm went to a very businesslike place. He circled
and clearheaded. He had done so much advance work that what was left of the disintegrated shelter,
he had created a model for his brain to act on when disaster directing the able-bodied to take care of the
came. All his equipment would have been useless if he hadnt injured. And the scouts did just thatapply-
thought through how to use it. ing pressure to wounds, turning T-shirts
The Witch Creek blaze swept past in less than 2 minutes. into bandages and elevating the legs of those
Vaplon quickly put out the small fires on his property, then who were in shock. Ullrich used a 6-foot iron
doused his neighbors fires. He saved one house, but another bar to pry up a wooden board and bricks that
burned after embers set the garage on fire. There was noth- had fallen on one boy.
ing I could do about that one, he says. When I got back to In a disaster roughly 10 percent of people
my house I heard these two loud thumps. Those were the gas panic, while 80 percent essentially do noth-
tanks exploding. ing. Unable to come to terms with whats
happening, they freeze. The remaining 10
percent jump into action. Ullrich was
trained in CPR and first aid, skills that
Rule 2: doubtless helped the scouts that day, but
Keep Cool in a Crisis before any of that formal training would
The tornado siren sounded at the Little Sioux even matter, Ullrich needed a separate and
Scout Ranch in western Iowa just before the equally important skill: to get hold of him-
power went out on June 11, 2008. Scout self and get people organized.
Leader Fred Ullrich, an IT manager at the According to Chris Hart, a former Navy
University of Nebraska Medical Center, opened the door of psychologist and now professor at Texas
the building where he and 65 Boy Scouts had taken shelter.
I was looking for lightning and listening for that freight
train sound youre supposed to hear with tornadoes, but
there was nothing like that, Ullrich says. But something
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Womans University, being able to set aside
fear is what separates people like Ullrich
from others. Fear is a good thing, Hart
says. You want to have it because it can
motivate you to action. But if you become
overwhelmed by it, then its debilitating.
Whats worse, research shows that the
greater the number of people who are
involved in an emergency situation, the less
likely it is that anyone will intervenea phe-
nomenon known as the Bystander Effect.
Ervin Staub, professor emeritus of psychol-
ogy at the University of Massachusetts, who
has done extensive research on the subject,
says that in group situations, there is a diffu-
sion of responsibility; people look for cues
from others before deciding how to act. Just
being aware of this tendency and saying I
am responsible can make a difference. Peo-
ple who believe that they are responsible for
other peoples welfare help more.
Ullrich didnt know what he and his
scouts were in for that day, but mental pre-
paredness and responsibility are central to
the Boy Scout philosophy. The night before
the tornado, Ullrich had put the boys :Whob@Wd
through a first-aid drill. When emergency IdemXekdZ_dW@[[f\eh'*ZWoi_dMWi^_d]jedIjWj[i9WiYWZ[
responders arrived after the tornado, what
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dead or mortally wounded. Scores were suf-
fering from broken pelvises, dislocated autumn snowstorm. Jan was driving on a
shoulders, lacerations and punctured lungs. widely usedat least in good conditions
Yet, amazingly, the rescue crew also saw that forest service road as the snow began to pile
Ullrich and the uninjured scouts were put- up. He became stuck 35 miles from his des-
ting their training to work. They had orga- tination when the tires of his 93 Jeep Chero-
nized an on-the-spot triage center, helping kee sank into deep snow.
to prepare the most seriously injured for In the car, Jan had a near-full gallon of
their journey to the hospital. water, some food for the evening, a Wal-Mart
By teaching his scouts to leap into action, sleeping bag and a Seahawks jacket with a
Ullrich skewed the 10-80-10 math of disas- fleece liner. He was certain hed be rescued
ter. He saw the drill as part of his responsi- the next day, but no one came. He knew he
bility to care for the troop. The point of it is shouldnt leave the shelter of his vehicle to
to get these scouts to be the people who look for help, so he stayed with the Jeep and, as the days
dont sit around when something bad hap- passed, settled into a survival routine. He slept in fits and
pens, he says, but to be the type of people starts so he could keep brushing the snow off his door and
who do something. the roof in case a search helicopter came looking for him. (In
fact, the local sheriff had called off the search after the fifth
day, convinced Jan was not in the area.)
After eight days, Jan was seriously dehydrated. He was
Rule 3: literally buried in frozen water, but he knew that it would do
Hang in There him more harm than good. I had read somewhere not to
On Saturday, Nov. 18, 2007, eat snow if you were stuck, he says. He was correct: It low-
Daryl Jan left his cottage on

ers the core temperature of the body, which then must

Bainbridge Island in Washington expend precious energy to keep warm. Yet his head ached,
State to head for an overnight his teeth felt fuzzy, and his tongue and lips were cracked
sky-watching event 190 miles southeast at he had to find water or die. Eventually, he wrote a goodbye
Trout Lake. He had planned to be back the note to his family and friends and set out with his empty gal-
next day to watch a Seattle Seahawks game. lon jug to search for water.
Jan never made it to Trout Lake. Instead he Jan struggled through the 5-foot-deep snow until he
became the prisoner of a tremendous late noticed a depression. He dug through it with a cup, and

-& E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C instructor turned survival psychologist, it
shouldnt be. Unfortunately, people in
his situation die all the time, but they
dont have to, Leach says. He didnt have
J>;I;B<#H;B?7D9;?IIK; Hkb[ie\Ikhl_lWb food, but thats not a problem for two
weeksyou can live without it. Fluid is the
issue, but he found water. What really
saved Jan, Leach says, is that he adapted
to his environment; he understood that he
was in trouble and changed his behavior.
Not Your Ordinary Survival Checklist Being aware of your surroundings and
recognizing the threats means your brain
=Wbbed`k]ie\mWj[h"h[[nj_d]k_i^[hiWdZhij#W_Zikffb_[iWh[ is working on solutions, Leach says, and
j^[[ii[dj_Wbie\Wdo]eeZikhl_lWba_j"Xkjekhikhl[oe\jêi[ that gives you an edge. That awareness
mêekjbWij[ZZ_iWij[hiik]][ijiW\[mceh[kd[nf[Yj[Z_j[ci$ starts your brain modeling a plan to keep
yourself alive and help in your own rescue,
BEER instead of remaining in denial about the
8koWbeje\_j"iWoiJh[o9b_Ya" problem or simply panicking.
1
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heZ[ekjbWijo[Whi>khh_YWd[ Steve Leslie, a 20-year veteran of Wash-
?a[_d=Wbl[ijed"J[nWi$?jied[ ington Statebased Olympic Mountain
e\j^[edboj^_d]ioekYWdki[ Rescue, has seen countless people get lost
\ehced[o_dj^[W\j[hcWj^$
D[[Zoekhd[_]^Xehje^[bfoek or stranded in the woods. He sees long-
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j^WdW(&X_bbm^[dWbbj^[
maintenance. Basically its housekeep-
ijeh[iWh[XeWhZ[Zkf$ ingyour chances of survival go way up if
you maintain a good shelter, find water
HANDHELD CB RADIO GLOW BRACELETS and, if you have any food, parcel it out.
2 4
J^_dadeed[ki[i98hWZ_ei M^[dj^[[b[Yjh_Y_jo_iekj"oek Jan created a survival routine and
Wdoceh[5J^_daW]W_d$J^[i[ cWodej\[[bb_a[Y[b[XhWj_d]"Xkj stuck to it: He avoided desperate actions
j^_d]iYWdX[WZ_h[Yjb_d[je j^[i[fWhjo\WlehiYWdYec[_d
[c[h][dYoYh[miWdZjemjhkYai" ^WdZo$>eki[i][jZWhah[Wbbo and stayed with his vehicle, kept the roof
[nWYjboj^[\ebaioekc_]^jmWdj gk_Yabom_j^defem[h"iWoiCWha clear to increase the odds of being found
je][j_djekY^m_j^W\j[hW LehZ[hXhk]][d"mêm[djl[
Z_iWij[h$Fbki"j^[omeham^[d ZWoim_jêkj[b[Yjh_Y_joW\j[h?a[
and, most important, never gave up. By
Y[bbjem[hiZedj$Beea\ehed[ ^_jJ[nWi$?ki[Zj^[cjecWha facing realityhe was stuck and might be
j^WjWbiejkd[i_djeDE77 j^[beYWj_ede\hWZ_ei"Wi^b_]^ji" there a long timeand adapting to it,
m[Wj^[hY^Wdd[bi$ XWjj[h_[iWdZZeeh^WdZb[i$
Jan set himself up for the slow, disci-
CONTRACTOR BAGS
5
A GOOD BOOK plined work of long-term survival.
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ijhkYjkh[i"WdZoekYWdki[j^[c Xeh_d]W\j[hWm^_b[$?\?Z^WZW Outlast the Aftermath
jeZhW]^[WloeX`[Yji$ Xeea?mekbZ^Wl[X[[di[j$ Last September, a 600-mile-
wide hurricane named Ike
carved through the Caribbean
with wind speeds of up to 145
mph before slamming into Texas near
PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILIP FRIEDMAN/ STUDIO D
Houston. As a direct result of the storm,

48 people in Texas died.
discovered water. He drank an entire gallon. It was the But, according to a report by the
greatest feeling, he says, still recalling the first sip vividly. National Hurricane Center, the aftermath
I could feel that water going through my body. It was like proved to be deadlier than the storm itself.
I was the Tin Man being oiled. Once he got back to his As many as 64 post-storm deaths occurred

Jeep he put away his pen and goodbye note. The water he in Texas because of factors such as carbon
found kept him alive and gave him hope as the snow con- monoxide poisoning and electrocution.
tinued to fall day after day. More than 1 million Texans were left with-
In the end, Jan was stuck for 14 days before a local out power. Municipal water systems were
snowmobile club found him. He had lost 10 pounds but overwhelmed, and clean water was the
had suffered from neither frostbite nor hypothermia. next to go. Enormous lines formed at
Jans survival story is, of course, amazing. But is it FEMA food centers, grocery stores and gas
miraculous? According to John Leach, the former RAF stationswhich had no electricity to
& www.fantamag.com
CWhaLehZ[hXhk]][d In times of danger, many people can
7\j[h>khh_YWd[?a[ijhkYaJ[nWibWijI[fj[cX[h"h[i[WhY^ retreat into a defensive crouch, but every
Y^[c_ijCWhaLehZ[hXhk]][dWdZej^[hi_d^_i>ekijedikXkhX man for himself is a terrible strategy for
eh]Wd_p[Zj^[ci[bl[ijeYb[Wdkfj^[d[_]^XehêeZm_j^Y^W_d
iWmi"hWa[iWdZLehZ[hXhk]][di\Wleh_j[W\j[hcWj^jeeb" post-disaster situations. Psychologists
Wbb_]Wjehbeff[hi]h[Wj\ehjWa_d]WfWhjb_cXied\Wbb[djh[[i$ use the term reciprocal altruism to
describe what happens when people over-
pump what little gas was left. That first come their tendency toward selfishness
weekend after Ike, some 37,000 Texans and work together. We tend to extend
were holed up in shelters that ran short of help to others, says psychologist Andrew
food and water within 24 hours. The next Shatt, one of the worlds leading experts
few weeks brought countless scores of on the psychology of resilience, on the
injuries from clearing debris. understanding that some other will
While many in the area were awaiting expend a few resources to save us. By
assistance, Mark Vorderbruggen and sev- working together, groups reduce the dan-
eral of his neighbors in the Houston sub- ger and stress to individuals. Once their
urb of Spring were already busy cleaning basic survival needs are met, says Shatt,
up their neighborhood. The crew had orga- people like Vorderbruggen instinctively
nized before the storm by gathering all the reach out to help the community. They
two-way Family Radio Service walkie-talkies they could find are more resilient and happier with their
and then distributing them among 14 occupied houses. lives for doing so.
They had already taken a quick inventory of residents with In fact, for Vorderbruggen and his
generators, chain saws and first-aid skills (one neighbor neighbors, the aftermath of Ike was less
was a retired Army medic). The day before Ike hit, Vorder- like a disaster and more like a barbecue.
bruggen went door to door with four or five guys from the The area was without power for five days,
neighborhood, serving as an impromptu pickup crew, but the neighbors conserved resources
clearing yards of furniture, tools and anything else that by eating meals together at a different

might turn into a deadly missile in hurricane-force winds. house each night to ensure that no food
Thanks to his preparations, Vorderbruggens house was spoiled. We cooked on the grill, and
survived largely intact. But there was still plenty of debris I ran a small light off a battery-powered
to clean up in the neighborhood. Almost every leaf and electric inverter, Vorderbruggen says. I
every pine needle on every tree was stripped off, he says. got to walk around in Hawaiian shirts and
There was an incredible amount of raking to be done. swim shorts for nearly a week. Cooking
He and his neighbors all pitched in to clean up every yard outside, clearing debris. It was actually
and sidewalk. kind of funfor me. FC

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electricity fails, the floodwaters begin to rise and the orders for evacua-
tion come, everyone will surely be concerned with stockpiles of food,
q
blankets and water, but Im going to be equally worried about Blu-rays, q
computers, Wii games and cold drinks. After all, Ive got a modern fam-
ily to provide for. How are we going to maintain our high-
' tech lifestyle? I recently decided to design and test a plan
to keep our gadgetry humming once society collapses.
I created a closed-loop power supply using two
Exide Orbital gel-cell deep-cycle batteries, an inverter,
( ) * +
01. Coleman PowerChill 02. Verizon MiFi 03. Vizio VA220E

Thermoelectric Cooler ($168) ($40$60/month) Eco HDTV ($400)
q

z Zz z Zz z Zz
EWz oz tEz
Since this 12-volt fridge ran all This Wi-Fi hotspot with 3G broad- This electricity-sipping 22-inch
day long, it was a real battery band connectivity goes wherever 720p HDTV used less power than
killer, but it kept our beer cold. you want ita must-have. a 40-watt light bulb.
07. Flip Mino 08. Coleman LED 09. Tivoli Audio

Video Camera ($180) Rechargeable Lantern ($45) iSongBook ($400)
z Zz z Zz z Zz

Fz oz Fz
If it were truly the end of the The lone LED in this lantern puts My 6-month-old rocked out to
world as we know it, wouldnt out powerful light; the battery Sesame Street songs on this
you want it on video? lasts up to 10 hours. portable radio with iPod dock.

F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / -+
Southwest Windpower Air

Sunforce 60-Watt Solar Breeze Wind Turbine Yamaha EF1000iSC
Charging Kit ($399) ($699) and EZ Tower ($573) Generator ($879)
Zz
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z z Zz z
oz Fz
F z Zz
A half-hour of setup, and we Capable of making 400 watts in a This 1000-watt device has
were making electricityeven steady wind, our turbine couldnt enough power to charge two
under light cloud cover. exploit light, swirly breezes. 12-volt batteries in parallel.
- . / '&
''' ''(
F H E : K 9 J I
D E J J E I 9 7 B ;
04. Nintendo 05. Acer Aspire One 06. Panasonic Portable

Wii ($250) Netbook ($380) Blu-ray Player ($800)
z Zz z Zz z Zz

ZEz tnz Z@z
Minimum electricity Lightweight, long on Its a little awkward to use, but
input; maximum battery life and great for worth taking along for hi-def
fun output. post-disaster blogging. movies among the ruins.

10. Craftsman Nextec Drill, MultiSaw 11. LG LX370 Cellphone 12. BenQ Joybee GP1
and Worklight Combo ($150) ($100 with contract from Sprint) Mini Projector ($500)
z Zz z Zz z Zz

tzMFEz Fz FZz
Because when society collapses, I charged this phone once, and We hooked the Wii up to
youre going to have to be your three days later it still had two this projector, and the world
own carpenter. bars of battery left. became our screen.
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-, E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C ! 2 By the next morning, however, both
batteries were dead, and my beer was get-
ting warm. It was time to break out the fos-
sil fuels: I started the generator and
J > ; I ; B < # H ; B ? 7 D 9 ; ? I I K ; ;b[Yjh_Y9ebZ#8[[h=WZ][jJ[ij attached one battery. Then my stepfather
and I finished raising the 29-foot wind-
turbine tower and hooked both that and
the solar array up to the second battery.
The Yamaha generator took about
2 hours to charge one of the batteries. (I
a small wind turbine, a 60-watt solar array and a portable gasoline genera- learned later that it is a far better use of the
tor. Then I assembled a suite of electronic devices and conveniences 1000-watt generators power to charge both
selected for maximum efficiency. I loaded it all into the back of a pickup batteries in parallel.) My solarwind hybrid
and brought the whole operation, along with my wife and 6-month-old setup, by contrast, took about 6 hours to
son, to my mothers 17-acre farm in upstate New York. Her property charge a battery. Making power this way is
seemed well-positioned to harvest power from both wind and sun. a hell of a workout on the arms and shoul-
ders: Our deep-cycle batteries weighed
For three and a half days, 40 pounds each and had to be hauled from
PM technology editor Glenn the open field where we were making
Derene and his family
powered all their gadgets power to our gadget-stuffed bunker.
with a portable energy farm.
! 3 and Beyond After the first few days,
my family and I settled into a groove, alter-
q! 1 Both batteries were nating batteries back and forth from the
fully charged, so on arrival solarwind station, then topping off the
Wind I immediately hooked one charge with the generator when the sun
Turbine
up to our 40-quart Cole- set. When I wasnt busy hauling batteries,
man thermoelectric fridge we had plenty of music, movies, Internet
and stocked it with beer, access and video games to keep us enter-
water and soda to ensure tained. But I learned to moderate my usage
cold beverages would be of the most power-hungry devices. Accord-
Solar available as soon as possi- ing to my measurements, the TV and pro-
Array
ble. I also plugged in my jector pulled 35 and 41 watts, respectively,
battery-powered devices but generally only ran for an hour or two at
Glenn Gasoline so that everything would a time. The fridge, on the other hand,
Generator
be charged up by the time sucked up 50 to 60 watts all day long, so we
I had my solar and wind unplugged it in the evening.
generators ready. We got lucky with the sunshineafter
I assembled the solar the initial thunderstorms, we had good
rig in a half-hour, but the weather for several days. The wind, how-
wind turbine proved to be ever, was not as reliable. The Air Breeze
a more complicated affair. turbine needs at least an 8-mph wind to
Id love to give an estimate spin; for maximum effectiveness, that
of how long it took to wind should come from a consistent direc-
erect, but I cant, since the tion. Unfortunately, the swirling Hudson
project was interrupted by three thunderstorms in 4 River Valley breezes spent more time spin-
hours, which threatened to deliver a far higher dose of ning the turbine like a weathervane than
natural electricity than I had in mind. So we postponed rotating its blades.
the completion of the turbine until the second morning. After three and a half days, the genera-
While waiting out storms, I set up a survival base camp tor ran out of fuel. However, I determined
in my mothers living room and made my family vow to that if I were willing to forgo the fridge and
PHOTOGRAPH BY CLARK PELL
use only the electronics and power we brought with us. be a bit more judicious in the use of the

Our Internet access was supplied by Verizons MiFi 3G TV, we could have kept using our electron-
wireless hotspot, and we tapped into it for e-mail on an ics as long as the weather held.
Acer netbook. We put our son to sleep with lullabies So our tech-survival trial run taught us
played on a Tivoli mini boombox. And when night fell, we two lessons: First, there is no reason we
watched a Blu-ray of Wall-E on a 22-inch HDTV. Since cant all watch HD movies and play video
many of the devices were operating on their own battery games in the aftermath of society-crushing
power, we were able to get through the first evening with- disaster. Second, we will have to make some
out having to recharge either of the deep-cycle Orbitals. sacrificesget used to warm beer. FC

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The Channellock 6-N-1 Rescue Tool is

more than a toolits an emergency kit
that slides into your back pocket. Hang
it by the fire extinguisher or stash it in
the go bag that you keep on hand for
disasters. Its a must for homeowners
living in areas prone to hurricanes.
BY THE HOME EDITORS
F O R M O RE I N F O R M AT I O N ,
V I S I T W W W.C H A N N E LLO C K .CO M
& www.fantamag.com
-. E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C
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(MREs) are the militarys answer
to a long-term, disaster-proof food
supply. These vacuum-packed
foodstuffsalso available in
civilian versionsrequire little
+
more preparation than activating
an included heating pad by adding
water, and have all the nutrition
necessary to keep you alive. But
does the taste inspire the will to
survive? To find out, we served up
civilian MREs from three different
manufacturers to some of PMs A1ual enchilada
hungriest staffers in a flavor may look less
appealing by
face-off. Heres what the end of the light of your
the world tastes like. fallout shelter.
Our vegetarian-friendly menu looked the mo appetizing of the entrees.

It proved to have a decent tomato sauce, though a touch salty. Unfortu-
Paa and vegetables;
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHILIP FRIEDMAN/STUDIO D (PACKAGED MRES)

nately, it couldnt mask the faH that the noodles were overcooked. =e side
crackers; peanut butter; g bar;
dishes ranged from yummy, not overly sweet (shortbread cookie) to dry
raisins; shortbread cookie
but tay (g bar). =e big disappointment: the unnaturally moi raisins,
Price $6 Calories 1150 an insult to grapes everywhere. Grade B+
=e south-of-the-border option was at lea shaped like an enchilada,

although it lacked un sabor delicioso. =e sauce was too tangy and acidic,
Beef enchilada; bread and
completely masking the avor of the meat. =e rawberry pary was
grape jelly; rawberry toaer
really dry with a bland but familiar tae. =e fruit cocktail proved to be
pary; mixed fruit
ju as fresh as the canned variety, and the bread, though a little dense,
Price $7 Calories 860 was nicely complemented by a smooth and avorful jam. Grade B-
Smothered in cheap barbecue sauce, the meat in the poultry entree
had a consiency that was indiinguishable from the vegetables. =e
BBQ chicken with beans; potatoes;
pound cake, on the other hand, was a andout, deemed to be the be of
dried fruit; nutraisin mix; vanilla
all the deserts in the te. =e dried fruit snack taed a bit like soap,
pound cake; sugar cookies

with too much sugar. =ankfully, the nut mix had a great, familiar tae,
Price $6.50 Calories 1530 on par with regular trail mix. Grade C
qq!q
Food isnt ju about way, a few extra shelf- to ock up on avor- spices, hot sauce, bouillon,
calories. Your disaer able ingredients can go a enhancing items that dont powdered drink mix and
menu may include MREs or long way toward civilizing need refrigeration, such as chocolate. A few bottles of
canned food, but either your supper. Dont forget ketchup, muard, salt, wine wouldnt hurt either.
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> E M C 7 D O C $ ? $ J $ ; D = ? D ; ; H ? D = Ph.D.s does it take to

repair a dishwasher? In the case of a balky Maytag at Eric Wilhelms
house in Oakland, Calif., one doctorate sufced. After a plastic wheel
on the dishwashers upper rack broke off of its assembly, Wilhelm
faced a classic consumer conundrum. The same plastic part had bro-
ken and been replaced three timesand now the warranty had
ended. Considering this history and Wilhelms mounting frustra-
tion, repairing the 3-year-old appliance seemed marginally less logi-
cal than buying a new one.
But discarding the machine didnt feel right to Wilhelm, who is
the co-founder and CEO of Instructables.com, a website that details
DIY projects, from simple repairs to elaborate, artsy computer
mods. Armed with a drill, a vise and a spare stainless-steel bolt, Wil-
helm repaired the wheel and got his rack rolling againand it
hasnt broken since. From a purely monetary standpoint, it proba-
bly made no sense for me to spend an hour and a half xing a plastic
wheel on my dishwasher, he says. But I got an intangible reward
a satised feeling that I xed something and didnt replace it.
Not so many decades ago, Wilhelms little project wouldnt have
seemed noteworthy. Typical American homes were places where
socks were darned, lawnmowers rebuilt and bushings, gaskets, nuts
and bolts were transfused into a steady stream of machines that 1950s OKeefe
needed rehabilitation. By the time I was growing up in the 1970s, & Merritt 40-inch
though, many people had come to look on tinkering as less a sign of Gas Stove
competence than of deprivation and backwardness. My father, who
OWNER:
grew up in poverty, probably felt more pride in getting a new washing Mister Jalopy, Los Angeles
machine delivered than in keeping an old, outmoded one working HANDS-ON CARE:

for a few more years. Buying new and buying often were American Maintain the valves
idealssigns of a modern outlook and success.
Popular Mechanics readers were among those who never
stopped building, modifying and xing the technology in their lives: J^[+/9WZ_bbWYe\ijel[i"
cars, stereos, garden sheds, computers, the occasional wind turbine EA[[\[C[hh_jji\ekh#Xkhd[h
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.( E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C one-time philosophy post-doc turned motor-
cycle mechanic. (Hipsters in Brooklyn carry
their copies in Crumpler messenger bags as
they pedal restored Schwinn bikes to welding
J>;I;B<#H;B?7D9;?IIK; Iekbe\WdEbZCWY^_d[ class.) The Internet has fostered communi-
ties of guitarists fixing old Fender amps,
shade-tree mechanics endlessly rebuilding
Volvos and steampunk show-offs grafting
motherboards into antique-looking brass
and steel contraptions.
technology to kite-surfing equipment, credits the digital rev-
olution. You have 20-year-olds who grew up with Microsoft Premature Demise
Windows, accustomed to complete control and personaliza- Mr. Jalopy is annoyed. An artist, business
tion, Griffith says. They want the same control over their consultant and used-bike store owner in Los
physical objects. Repairing and making things does that. Angeles, the self-named tinkerer has become
Whatever the cause, diverse data points support the con- an outspoken advocate for keeping old
clusion that a mechanical revival is underway: the ubiquity of machines running. Repair culture is right in
home-improvement megastores and even more numerous line with the rise of sewing, crafting and the
DIY and man-and-machine shows on TV; the rise of websites slow-food movement, he says. All of these
such as FixItClub.com and RepairClinic.com; and the healthy are about engagement with the stuff around
traffic at the plans-and-advice section of PopularMechanics us. And he is troubled by the hands-off mes-
.com and at Instructables. Among this summers most widely sage that many modern products convey.
reviewed books was Shop Class as Soulcraft, a manifesto call- Take the Apple iPhone. The battery is sealed
ing for renewed respect for mechanical skills, written by a into the phone, so when the battery goes the
whole unit is supposed to be returned to
Apple for an expensive and time-consuming
1971 John Deere OWNER:
replacement. For an indispensable digital
John Fernandez, Brick, N.J.
140 Lawn and HANDS-ON CARE: tool, thats a death sentence.
Garden Tractor Rebuild the carburetor When a product cant even be opened, it
takes away a fundamental aspect of owner-
ship, Mr. Jalopy says. If I cant repair it,
then who owns it? What Im buying is tempo-
rary use of an object that will soon [meet its]
demise. In a world designed by Mr. Jalopy,
cases would be easy to open and ease of
repair would be a primary engineering goal.
There are products made that way
theyre just not sold in electronics stores.
Industrial mainstays such as jet airplanes
and diesel locomotives can stay in service for
decades, thanks to robust construction and
maintenance-friendly design. Modular archi-
tecture in Xeroxs commercial-grade copiers
allows the machines to remain state of the
art through multiple innovation cycles. Such
product life extension strategies could be
extended to more consumer products, says
industrial ecologist and operations manage-
ment specialist V. Daniel Guide Jr., of Penn
States Smeal College of Business. But
M^[dYecfkj[hioij[ci M[[a[dZ<h[[ZecCWY^_d[i whether people want them is uncertain
WdWboij@e^d<[hdWdZ[piWmj^_i $Yec$Ij[f'0=[jj^[i[hl_Y[ such items often cost more, and people tend
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out, it takes a lot of energy to mine raw mate- F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / .+
rials, transform them into useful goods and
ship those items from warehouses to stores
to living rooms. Repair is a small act to save
money, but its also small action to save the Tomorrows Classics
planet, Griffith says.
Broadly speaking, thats true. But its dif- 8koj^[cdem"b[Wl[j^[cjeoekha_Zi$
ficult to determine the total
environmental impact of a CHANNELLOCK 421 7fW_he\9^Wdd[bbeYa*('fb_[hiX[]_dib_\[Wijme
PLIERS f_[Y[ie\^_]^#YWhXedij[[b$:hef#\eh][ZWdZ^[Wj#jh[Wj#
productor just about any [Z"j^[oWh[m[ZZ[Zje][j^[hm_j^WdkjWdZXebj$
aspect of modern life. (It J^[h[W\j[h"j^[^Wbl[iWh[è_d[Z\ehb_\[$J^[`Wmi]h_f
once took Griffith, who has j[dWY_ekibom_jêkjib_ff_d]$CW_dj[dWdY[5FhWYj_YWbbo
ded[$Ki[WdWmbjeYb[Wd]kda\hecX[jm[[dj^[j[[j^$
multiple advanced degrees
and won a MacArthur genius ;l[hojeebh[WY^[iWfe_dje\f[h\[Yj_edWdoZ[l[bef#
S TA N L E Y P O W E R L O C K c[djj^[h[W\j[h_iZ[jh_c[djWb$IjWdb[oiFem[hBeYa
grant in 2007, several days jWf[c[Wikh[h[i_Z[iWjj^Wjf_ddWYb[e\[d]_d[[h_d]"
TA P E M E A S U R E
to calculate his own carbon m_j^_jiib_cY^hec[#fbWj[ZfbWij_YXeZoWdZW
footprint.) Researchers who ifh_d]#ij[[bXbWZ[YeWj[Z_dCobWh$A[[f_jYb[WdWdZ
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study the issue have identi-
fied a distinction between T R O Y - B I LT 9Wij_hed"WdZfb[djoe\_j"_ij^[a[ojej^[Jheo#8_bj
faddish electronics and the GARDEN TILLER j_bb[hiikYY[ii$J^[cWj[h_WbZWcf[dil_XhWj_ed"
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of domestic life. A paper in cWY^_d[i8h_]]iIjhWjjed[d]_d["Y^Wd][j^[][Wh
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the journal Environmental j_d["XWd]_jXWYa_djei^Wf[edWdWdl_b$J^Wji_j$
Science & Technology
reported that it takes 8 gal- REMINGTON 870 >WhhoI$JhkcWdmWifh[i_Z[djm^[dj^[.-&mWi
SHOTGUN Xehd$I_dY[j^[d"c_bb_edie\j^[de#\kiifkcf]kdi
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weighing just 2 grams. But
the chips arent used for
long. Consumer electron-
ics are designed with six-
month life cycles, Guide
says. All the energy embod-
ied in them is consumed
during the production phasevery little says. Nothing is too humbleFrazier will replace the broken
while theyre being usedbut we get rid of handle on a Swiffer sweeperbut he gets a bigger payoff with
them quickly. If mobile phones could be products like the stereo receiver he fixed not long ago. I think
upgraded rather than replaced, there would I can usually do a better job than paying someone else to do
be a solid environmental payoff. it, and it makes me feel good knowing that receiver would
In contrast, many an ancient appliance have cost $400 to replace. In my mind, Im ahead $400.
could help the environment by retiring from For Talbot Hack, 47, of Ann Arbor, Mich., diagnosing a
service. A washing machine is designed for a leaky coffee maker or replacing the hard drive on a laptop is
20-year life cycle, Guide says, and very little a welcome change from his work as a marketing executive.
energy is consumed in its production. Almost And, he uses repair as a way to connect with his teenagers. I
all of it is used during the life cycle. New try to instill in my kids that they can feel confident taking on
models of such appliances tend to be far certain tasks, he says. Recently, he and his son solved an
more efficient than their predecessorsso if engine compression problem on a 20-year-old moped. The
Wilhelms dishwasher breaks again when its lessons my kids learn are: Do a little research beforehand,
10 years old, he might want to dump it. break the problem down, go step by step and dont give up at
the first sign of trouble, Hack says.
Machine Code In the end, no accounting of monetary savings and carbon

Malcolm Frazier, 35, of Stratford, Conn., balances can outweigh the psychic rewards of taking charge
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y D O G O
learned small-engine repair and a mending of a concrete problem and resolving it. Old-school repair hob-
mind-set from his father. For him, life-cycle byists and new-school garage hackers seem to agree that
analyses dont matter when the wheels come reanimating a machine or tool bound for the trash heap can
off a machine. Fixing the problem just feels yield outsize paybacks. When you repair, theres satisfaction
rightit fulfills a personal code that com- in understanding your world and having power over it, Grif-
bines self-reliance with thrift. I dont throw fith says. You think, I know this machine. I brought it back
anything out without trying to fix it first, he from the grave. Its a part of me, and Im a part of it. FC

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red steel frame of a half-built house, its footprint a jagged stamp
on the landscape, glints in the sunshine beaming down on Santa
Clara University. Crawling around the crescent-shaped structure,
<ehj^[IebWh:[YWj^bed"(&j[Wcie\
Yebb[][ijkZ[djiijh_l[jeXk_bZj^[ceij workers holler measurements, fasten sheathing and snap chalk
j[Y^debe]_YWbboiWlloikd#fem[h[Zêki[$ lines. Theyre wearing hard hats and tool belts, and the noise of
J^_iEYjeX[hj^[_hêc[i]e^[WZje^[WZ steel swatting plywood sounds unmistakably like a job site. But
_dWYedj[ijjeYedikc[j^[b[Wij[d[h]o$ this is hardly a construction crew out of central casting. Swinging a
sledgehammer in this gravel lot somewhere between the quad and
the cafeteria, a student volunteer with arms as skinny as the tools
handle tries in vain to pound a steel spike into the ground. He
swings, misses and repeats, while the crew snickers. Each stroke
gets more and more desperate, until, finally, a cartwheel swing
sends the kid headlong. His oversized hard hat flies off and the
- crowd cracks up, prompting structural and construction manager
Dan Ruffoni, a 22-year-old senior at Santa Clara, to intervene. Ruf-
foni sinks the spike in a few clean blows and progress resumes,
but the sledgehammer slapstick has cost the rookie contractors
8o>WhhoIWmo[hi 7 precious minutes. They really dont have 7 minutes to spare.
Fêje]hWfîXo
9^h_ijef^[hBWCWhYW The students have been working 100-hour weeks all semester,
running to the job site after class and doffing hard hats to take
midterms. So far, theyve managed to finance the project and file
138 pages of engineering drawings on deadlinenot to mention
pass their exams. But the big deadline, though still months away,
Students juggle
homework and
hard hats at Santa
Clara University,
where theyre out
to prove that smart
design and solar
technology can
power a net-zero
house today.
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.. E 9 J E 8 ; H ( & & / F E F K B 7 H C ; 9 > 7 D ? 9 I $ 9 E C he works on the project full-time and does
school on the side. While workers whistle to
Layla from a dusty boombox, Anand, the
teams water systems leader, gestures to a
J > ; I ; B < # H ; B ? 7 D 9 ; ? I I K ; HWY[jeP[he rectangle of blue sky visible through the ceil-
ing beams in the asymmetrical structure.
Were putting solar photovoltaics and flat-
plate solar thermal collectors on the roof,
he says, and clerestory windows will provide
simple daylighting. Our architecture is not
is approaching fast. Thats when the half-clad structure now only performance-driven, we want the house
rising from the campus will have to function as a super- to look good. He describes his teams strat-
efficient, sun-powered home of the future at the Solar Decath- egy as a young, daring Silicon Valley
lon, in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the U.S. Department approachand its not without its chal-
of Energy this fall, the competition will pit 20 teams of college lenges. Window shutters with thin-film solar
students against each other in an international showdown of collectors along the louvers had to be axed
innovative engineering. Team Californias young roster tops because of safety concerns. Certain products
out at age 23, whereas some schools attract Ph.D. candidates, have proven to be so obscure that it was
or students Ruffoni describes as old enough to look like unclear whether they could be shipped to the
theyre already in the homebuilding business. As team U.S. For other prototypes, students have had
project manager Allison Kopf puts it: We dont have a con- to prove that new materials are up to code.
struction background. Were undergradswe have no back- All this before crossing the last major hur-
ground, period. But the students dont see that as a serious dle: simply showing up at the competition.
impediment; if anything, it has increased their drive to win. The members of Team California (which also
Like many of his teammates, 21-year-old Preet Anand says includes students from California College
Preet Anand, far le),

dismantles a mockup
of the house framing.
He says Team Califor-
nias proje8 can prove
that renewable energy
and ecient design
are a necessity, not
a luxury. Above right,
sophomore Allison
Kopf makes cuts a)er
class while freshman
Vi8oria Watson holds
the sawhorses eady.

of the Arts) must dismantle the house once where real-time meters will monitor both the amount of
they finally complete it and transport the energy consumed and the power each home feeds back into
pieces in three wide loads on a meticulously the system. Nationally, meters like these could help utilities
planned, 2848-mile journey across the coun- respond more quickly to power outages or prevent rolling
try, only to reassemble the structure in just brownouts. At the Solar Decathlon, they will keep score
six days upon arrival at the National Mall. 50 additional points go to houses that generate more energy
Then, they must move into their house for than they consume.
the duration of the competition. In the end, Team Californias heating and cooling system may help
theyre not just building a solar-powered the house hover near that perfect zero. Doing all the heating
hometheyre proving that people can live and cooling with electricity would take a lot of power from
in solar-powered homes, comfortably and our solar panels, 23-year-old thermal design leader Tim
without sacrifice. Teams have to shower in Sennott says. So the students drew up an elaborate system in
their houses, watch TV, do laundry and even which solar thermal collectors heat and cool the house
host other teams for two dinner parties and through radiant tubing in the floor and ceiling. An energy-
a movie night. recovery ventilator maintains a constant indoor temperature
During the competition, the DOE will and humidity, further reducing HVAC demands. What we
open the solar villages 20 homes for public designed is a whole ton more complicated than something
tours from Oct. 9 to 13 and Oct. 15 to 18. On we would ever put in a residential home, Sennott says.
Oct. 14, expert judges in 10 categories Were trying to do stuff with technology thats not main-
including architecture, engineering and stream yet. The tactic can be risky. In July, the supplier of
market viabilitywill comb through each the cooling systems solar-powered absorption chiller pulled
home, scrutinizing details down to the place- out, leaving students scrambling for an alternative.
ment of the lighting. This year, theres an The Solar Decathlon has a precedent of such edgy
added twist: The houses will be plugged into approaches, according to its director, Richard King. Students
the Potomac Electric Power Companys grid, in years past have adopted solar technologies that were
How It Works
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Solar Scholars
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hardly even heard of at the time, King says. The compe- tions. The beauty of putting products into
tition gives the public a chance to see these new technol- an actual building is that it helps people
ogies work together as a systemsome, like Californias understand its not just conceptual. This is
radiant cooling, for the first time. a material thats ready to be used, that can
Santa Claras 2007 Solar Decathlon house, its boxy be integrated into design today. Working
frame crowned with solar panels, stands a short walk from with Santa Clara on this years house, Tera-
the current job site. In its sunny living room, sitting in a gren revised the joist to create open-web
chair made from reclaimed wine-barrel staves, Anand floor trusses. The elegant, trestle-shaped
pulls a tape measure from his back pocket and points to bamboo beams have openings to run con-
handsome bamboo joists along the ceiling. The 2007 team duit, simplifying installation.
wanted to develop bamboo-based structural materials, he But really, all the cutting-edge technol-
says. That idea caught the eye of the company Teragren, ogy eclipses the core challengebuilding
which sent unfinished bamboo for the students to test in a a house isnt easy. Try doing it on top of a

Tinius Olsen machinea massive contraption that full college course load. Despite the occa-
stresses I-beams to evaluate tensile strength and shear- sional decision Ruffoni describes as so
load capacities. That year, underdog Santa Clara took third embarrassingly wrong that only students
place. The students joists, now certified under multiple would do it, his teammate Anand credits
international building codes, will soon be on the market. their teams inexperience as a major asset.
Its one thing to manufacture a product, but its Unfamiliar with the sobering constraints
another to have it installed in a building that meets code, of actual construction, he says, The only
says Tom Goodham, Teragrens vice president of opera- thing we had to apply was creativity. FC

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RAISING CHICKENS + GEOTHERMAL
B A S I C S + S U M P P U M P P I T R E PA I R S
Pellets In,
Heat Out
Wood pellets are

loaded into the
oves hopper (1)
and are fed by
auger (2) to a re
pot. Le pellets are
ignited and the hot
combuion gas
swirls upward.
A blower drives
indoor air through
heat-exchanger
pm do-it-yourself
pipes (3), and the

air discharges into
the room.
Sawdu
1
Melodies
PELLET S TO V E S O FFE R A MO R E S O PH IS TICATE D A LTE R N AT IV E TO
2
THE TR A DITIO N A L W O O D S TO V E . B Y J O E T R U I N I
La winter, Conne0icut homeown- wood, or, to be precise, sawdu.

ers Keith Goodrow and Jody Willis Oese clean-burning oves form
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A
began looking into ways to cut their one leg of a dual-fuel rategy that is
fuel bills. Goodrow, a civil engineer, and appealing to growing numbers of
Willis, a veterinarian, were spending homeowners concerned with per-
about $3000 a year on fuel oil to heat sonal independence, sustainability
their ranch home and to produce hot and co savings. Unlike oil and natu-
water. Looking for a way to trim that ral gas, wood pellets typically are pro-
number, they decided to follow the duced close to where theyre used
lead of a neighbor who had inalled a reducing the energy used in
ove that burns pellets made from transportationand they come from
P H OTO G R A P H S B Y J A S O N H A M I LT O N POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 93

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P M D I Y H O M E /// THE 1. Warm Air
PARTS Blower circulates
pm do-it-yourself
PELLET STOVE
air from the room
through the heat
exchanger and back
a renewable resource. Mo compel- into the room.
2. Auger moves
lingly, the pellets are made from a saw- 1 wood pellets from
mill wae produ;no trees are cut the hopper to the
ju to manufa;ure them. fuel chute.
>en theres the co advantage: 3. Fuel Chute
guides the pellets
Oil and natural gas are tightly tied to a o the hopper and
global syem thats sensitive to politi- into the re pot.
cal disruptions and renery-damaging 4. Pellets are
energy dense
hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, both extrusions formed
of which can cause prices to spike. (An from hardwood and
online calculator maintained by Penn soOwood sawdu.
State helps homeowners compare the 5. Igniter arts the
2 pellets burning
cos of various fuels: energy.cas.psu eleQrically, no
.edu/costcomparator.html.) Federal matches needed.
tax credits are helping to make such 6. Fire Pot holds
about a handful of
stoves more attractive as well. Tax- burning pellets. Its
payers can receive a credit of 30 per- set again a
cent, up to $1500, for the purchase refraQory rewall
and ca-iron oor.
and inallation of a 75 percent e-
cient biomass-burning ove in 2009
or 2010. By leaving a conventional sys-
tem in place, homeowners can hedge
their betsat times, fossil fuels may
well be less expensive than pellets.
What drove our decision was the eco- 3 4
nomics, Goodrow says. He expects

the $6000 investment in the stove,
including its installation and a large
bulk fuel purchase, will pay for itself in
less than three years.
In the Hopper
A pellet ove is simpler to operate
than a classic wood-burning ove, but
its certainly not as hands-o as a con-
5
ventional furnace. Our whole culture 6
is built around giving the consumer
produ;s that you can plug in and for- heat 2250 square feet of living space.
get, says Dan Freihofer, vice president >e homeowner pours pellets into
of operations for PelletSales.com, a the hopper and tinkers with settings to
pellet provider. But the pellet ove determine how fa the fuel will burn, the room is pulled through the heat
takes a little more involvement. Youve and thus how much heat it will throw exchanger and warmed before dis-
got to ll it every day, and clean the off. Some stoves can even be con- charging into the room.
ash out every few days. >e archetypal ne;ed to a wall thermoat, allowing Depending on the burn rate, a ove
owner is someone who isnt daunted you to turn the heat up or down as will run anywhere from several hours to
by a little technologyan engineer or though it were a furnace. When the all day before its hopper needs another
someone who likes to tinker. >ere ove is in operation, an ele;rically driv- load of fuel. Each pellet is an energy-
are two basic ove types: inserts that en auger meters fuel into the re pot. dense sawdu extrusion that meas-
fit into a fireplace and freestanding >e fuel is ignited and hot combuion ures about inch in diameter and
models, like the Lopi Leyden that gases wind their way through a tubular inch long. The average household
Goodrow and Willis bought. >is ove heat exchanger at the top of the burn uses between 2 and 3 tons per heating
produces 45,100 Btu per hour, roughly chamber. >e gases transfer their heat season. La winter a ton of pellets (50
matching the output of a small resi- to the exchanger and are then pulled 40-pound bags) co about $200 to
dential boiler or furnaceenough to outside by an exhau blower. Air from $275providing, that is, you could nd

P M D I Y H O M E /// P E L L E T S T O V E
pm do-it-yourself
1 2
THE 1. A hooded vent supplies outdoor air for combuion. 7is

INSTALLATION prevents the creation of negative pressure in the house (caused
by combuion) and the risk of drawing CO into living areas.
2. Exhau joints are sealed with high-temperature silicone caulk.
them. #e pellet indury got a sooty

black eye over the la few seasons
in regions where demand outripped
supply. #e producers and retailers bored a pilot hole as the center mark
say they have xed the problem for for the exhau vent. Next, we cut
this year with better production the interior wall surface with a dry-
methods and logistics. Just to be wall saw. Outside, we used a recip-
sure, many stove owners started rocating saw to remove wood siding
placing orders in the spring. Some and sheathing and fitted the wall
groups of owners started pooling thimbles into their holes. #is hard-
their orders to buy a whole traAor- ware provides a noncombustible
trailer load of fuel at a timebringing surface to pass the exhau pipes
down the price while ensuring theyd through. We used essentially the
have pellets once the temperature same method to inall a fresh-air
drops. Supply looks dramatically intake vent, which would supply out-
better this year, Freihofer says. door air for combustion. Then we
Supply will exceed demand. fastened all the exterior vent sur-
faces to the siding and caulked with
Hole in the Wall high-temperature sealant.
To see how these heaters go in, I Back inside, we set the ove on
visited Goodrow and Willis to help the hearth pad and conneAed the
the dealer inall their Leyden ove vents. #e fresh-air vent conneAs to
and tried not to get in the way. #e the ove bottom with a exible cor-
process turned out to be raightfor- rugated vent pipe, while rigid metal
ward. Fir, the two-man crew from pipe runs from stove to exhaust.
Deans Stove and Spa, in Plantsville, Finally, we attached the hard-wired
Conn., set down a UL-lied hearth thermoat, which comes with the
pad with a pedeal base that would ove. (For added convenience, wire-
raise the 400-pound stove about less remote thermostats are also
7 inches above the oor. Next, we available for about $150.)
located wall uds, and temporarily #e inallation done, we plugged
set the stove in place to decide in the ove and lled its hopper. #e
where to run the vents through the auger delivered pellets to the fire
wall without hitting any uds. pot, and the automatic igniter lit the
With the vent locations deter- fuel. In no time, the room was glow-
mined, we moved the stove and ing with warmth. FC

.com
.c
pm do-it-yourself
by Roy Berendsohn
A Lots of people with no farming

background have started raising
chickens in the past few years, mainly
to add a satisfying dose of
Raising Chickens self-reliance to their daily
Input / Output diet. You can raise chick-
ens anywhere that zoning
Retrot a shed to
house chickens, or laws dont prohibit it, from
build a small coop, a small yard in a rural
complete with a
swing-up hatch that
township to the heart of
leads to a chicken many big citiesthe proj-
yard enclosed by a ect doesnt take much
chain-link fence.
space. My first piece of
advice is to start slow.
One of the most common
mistakes made by novice
chicken owners is getting
1 chicken too many birds too fast,
+ says Gail Damerow, who
has raised countless chick-
ens and written several
b ook s on farm -an im a l
3 square feet care, including Storeys
+ Guide to Raising Chickens.
A laying hen produces an
egg a day, so it doesnt
take more than a couple
of birds to put breakfast
2 pounds of on the table. Thats your
feed per week output. As for input, count
+ on providing each bird
with 2 pounds of feed per
week and 1 to 2 cups of
clean water a day. (But
2 cups of your chicken mileage may
water daily varyas Damerow points
= out, Chickens havent
read the books.)
The size of your flock
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A
determines the size of the

1 egg per day coop you build. If anything,
Raising Chickens err on the side of making
the ruUure a little larger
Q My husband and I are thinking of raising a few

chickens to provide eggs, but we want to make
sure were not getting in over our heads. Could you
than you think youll need. Damerow
advises 3 square feet of oor area per
laying hen. The coop size require-
give us some general guidelines on chicken care and ments I follow are oYen criticized as
building a coop? being too spacious, Damerow says,
yet my chickens rarely experience
the health problems I hear about from
100 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGR APH BY SA R A H SH AT Z

other chicken keepers. ples. Even if the archite7ural nice-
pm do-it-yourself
When it comes to building the ties are lost on the birds them-
ru7ure, a chicken coop is much selves, they wont be overlooked by
like any small outbuilding. Its wise your neighbors. And if you decide
to keep it simple and inexpensive, some day to leave chicken-raising
yet urdy enough to safely house behind, at lea youll be leW with
animals. Ae gold andard of coop an attra7ive ru7ure. Sanitized
construction is to pour a slab of and repainted, the coop could go
concrete and ere7 the building on on to a second life as a garden shed
that. Ais design is suitable even to or to enclose rewood.
meet organic poultry andards. If
youre not concerned about these Flood Control
ringent requirements, build the I live in an old house with a sump
base and floor out of pressure- pump that sits in a murky, muddy
treated lumber. pit. :e pump failed recently a<er
Finally, check with your local the pit partially caved in. I need
agricultural extension office or to upgrade the whole setup.
other amateur poultry raisers to Where do I art?
find out about carnivorous var- Its a long shot, but buy a plaic
mints that live in your area. Aey sump liner and lid and see if it will
range from raccoons, skunks and simply t in the hole. If it does, ll
weasels to coyotes. When I was a the space between the liner and
kid, local farmers dealt harshly with pit wall with clean gravel and
these critters, usually with a shot- declare vi7ory.
gun bla. Im not embarrassed to Assuming that doesnt work,
say that as a young guy who hunted dig a new sump pit. Ais is a tough
on those farms, I had no qualms and muddy job that will require a
about assiing them. stout shovel, a wrecking bar and
Ae times have changed, though. perhaps a posthole digger. You
Before you pull the trigger on a may even need to rent a wet-cut-
pe, know what your responsibili- ting pavement saw or an electric
ties are. Laws regarding varmint jackhammer to remove some of
control vary by ate. Ae rearm the existing basement oor.
method aside, take sensible precau- Make the hole large enough to
tions against animal intruders. surround the plastic sump liner
Aose Yankee farmers kept a tidy with a layer of gravel about 2 to 3
coop. Aey knew that local preda- inches thick. In addition to the plas-
tors were stealthy and needed tic sump liner and lid, youll need a
cover, so they removed piles of new pump. If the old pump dis-
brush or rocks from anywhere near charged using a makeshiW setup,
the coop, and they mowed nearby then inall new PVC pipe and a
to keep grass short. back-ow valve. (Search for Inall-
We havent dealt with aehet- ing a Sump Pump at popular
ics here, not a topic normally asso- mechanics.com.)
ciated with these buildings. Still, I If the outlet supplying the pump
dont see why a coop has to be is not GFCI-protected, complete
ugly. Ae poultry plans oered by the inallation with an ele7rical
North Dakota State University upgrade. Inall a GFCI receptacle
Extension Service on its website in the pumps outlet box. Uncom-
(some going back to the 1930s) fortable with this work? Call in an
are particularly attractive exam- ele7rician. FC
Got a home-maintenance or repair problem? Ask Roy about it.

? Send your questions to pmhomeclinic@hearst.com or to Homeowners
Clinic, Popular Mechanics, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019-5899.
While we cannot answer questions individually, problems of general
interest will be discussed in the column.

.com
.c
How Your House Works
DRILL AND FILL

Inallers thread
pipe into a hole a
few inches wide
and over 100 feet
deep. As wind and
solar hog the alt-
energy spotlight,
this technol-
ogy has remained
underground.
pm do-it-yourself
Geothermal: Dig It Youre not making heat, youre moving heat, Colorado geothermal
inaller Jim Lynch says. Inallations like Lynchs tap into the earth
EFFICIENT AND ECONOMICAL, below the fro linewhich always ays around 50 degrees Fahren-
G E O T H E R M A L H E AT S , C O O L S A N D heitto reduce a homes heating and cooling loads. All HVAC syems
CUTS FOSSIL-FUEL USEWITH A require energy-intensive heat movement, a task responsible for over
H E A LT H Y R E T U R N O N I N V E S T M E N T. half of the average houses total energy demand. Geothermal works
more eciently because the syems mild arting point creates an
ecient shortcut to the target temperature. Imagine a 100-degree
PHOTOGRAPH BY MERLE HENKENIUS
Florida day or a 0-degree Michigan night: Spot the syem 50 degrees,

and it doesnt work so hard to get the house comfortable.
Unlike wind and solar, geothermals power source never varies.
Bob Brown, vice president of engineering with equipment maker
WaterFurnace, says, Se grounds there all the time. Its great for
heating and its great for cooling. All Ive got to do is bury a plaic
pipe, put uid in and, lo and behold, Ive got a great syem.

by H A R R Y S A W Y E R S

pm do-it-yourself
HOW IN THE GROUND: A water-lled,

closed loop of 1-inch high-density
basement walls. Drillers backll each
hole with bentonite grout (or new
GEOTHERMAL polyethylene (HDPE) pipe ferries heat enhanced grouts, engineered with y
HAPPENS between the earth and the house. Pipes
descend 4- to 6-inch-diameter vertical
ash) to maximize thermal conduIivity.
wellsthe number and depth depend IN THE HOUSE: Pumps cycle water
on the houses site and sizebefore through the pipe loop to the heart of the
ganging together in a header and syem: the geothermal unit, which aIs
bringing lukewarm water in through the as furnace and air conditioner. Pis
'e
Inallation

THE BIT
7is mud-drilling bit
grinds soE earth
and funnels it back
into hollow, 20-foot
drill-shank sePions.
Corkscrew auger
bits, in contra,
q!qq

pound through solid

rock. A new mud bit
spinning at 1000
rpm, pushing
downward with
between 300 and
500 pounds of pres-
sure, is good for ve
150-foot holes.

THE PIPE
Water-lled HDPE 1 2 3
pipes absorb heat
VERTICAL HORIZONTAL POND
through their walls. COILS COILS SYSTEM
7is sawed-o
cross-sePion Vertical coils (1)
shows two pipes fuel a syem by
fused in a butt joint 'e using less total
made by pressing Setup HDPE pipe than
the molten edges horizontal coils (2),
together at over in which loops of
500 F. 7e joint, pipe ll shallow
ronger than the trenches exposed
walls of the pipe climate control to conant heat
itself, resis ru, from the basement. ju below the fro
rot and leaks for a Using the same line. In pond
purported 200-year principles as a syems (3), a
life span. refrigerator, which blanket of water
removes heat from insulates coils
food, this machine anchored on racks.
THE UNIT and the buried pipe
A combined furnace remove heat from
and air conditioner, the earth or from
the geothermal unit the house. Wired to ITS A GEYSER.
manages all-season a 50-amp circuit, it Hot springs and other eamy subterranean
works without Geothermal liquids are not related to residential
venting, combus- Misconceptions geothermal. 7ose are unusual local seismic
tion or risk of circumances. Home syems work
carbon-monoxide everywhere.
poisoning.
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y J A C O P O R O S A T I

machine uses refrigerant and the CASE STUDY A typical 2000-square-foot home in Commack,
temperate water from the underground N.Y., was recently retrotted with a geothermal syem. Tax credits,
the ineciency of the exiing syem and a low-intere loan
pipes to heat or cool air. 5e air is then
combined to create immediate savings. be monthly payment is
circulated through andard du7work. now $24 lower than the old monthly HVAC expense.
With a device called a desuperheater,
the unit uses excess heat to warm up Inallation co: $30,000 -- $11,000 (tax credit) = $19,000
Annual cos: $3945 (old syem) -- $2076 (geo) = $1869 saved
domeic hot water at no added co. Payback period: $19,000 / $1869 = 10.17 years
5e results feel the same as those from Monthly fuel cos for old syem: $329
any andard forced-air HVAC syem. Monthly geothermal cos: $173 (power) + $132 (loan) = $305
Air in the du.s (1), the refrigerant, or the refrigerant, now

refrigerant in the absorbs heat from heated to 180 F or
e Flow geothermal unit (2), it, depending on the chilled to 40 F, lls
and water in pipes season. Like an air condenser/
(3) ow pa each conditioner, the unit evaporator coils. Air
other like compresses or in the duSs blows
interlocking gears. expands the across the coils to
Water brought from refrigerant to raise be cooled or
underground or lower its warmed, then ows
transfers heat to temperature. Finally, through the house.
q
q q
q
CONDENSER/
EVAPORATOR 1
AIR
COMPRESSOR
EXPANSION
VALVE
SYSTEM 2
Hard ground can upgrade, it may HEAT REFRIGERANT

EXCHANGER
inhibit deep operate as
digging, opping geothermal 90
Colorado inallers percent of the
like Jim Lynch from time, while the old
doing simple boiler or furnace
vertical work: res up only on the
Texas, Nebraska colde days of the
thats some easy year. be payback 3
drilling down period on retrots DISPERSES HEAT
TO EARTH
there, Lynch says. averages 12 to 15 WATER
His clients receive years; on new

options 2 and 3. If inallations, it can ABSORBS HEAT
FROM EARTH
an exiing syem get as low as three
gets a geothermal to six.
THE WATER TABLE IS IN THE WAY. IT GENERATES ELECTRICITY.

Inallers drill raight through it. On Long Indurial-scale geothermal power plants
Island, where the water table is ju a few can generate eleSricity. Home syems
feet below the surface, saturated sand dontbut they do save eleSricity (or fuel)
makes for some of the be drilling and by replacing conventional home heating
mo ecient heat transfer possible. and cooling with more ecient equipment.
POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 106

www.storemags.com & www.fantam
amag
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om
SURVIVAL + WHICH FLUID +
TIRE INTELLIGENCE
degree of difficulty
The New Make your own diesel for 70 cents a

gallon, the Internet ad claimed. I was
Moonshiners tired of paying for 30 gallons of regu-

lar diesel each week to ll my pickup,
HO ME-B R EW B IO DIE S E L WI LL so I downloaded the inruUions. It
LE T Y O U TU R N U S E D FR Y -O IL W A S TE wasnt long before I was sucking used
IN TO HIG H-Q U A LITY DIE S E L FU E L.
IT S S IMPLE, B U T NO T N E C E S S A R ILY
EA S Y. B Y J O H N D E C K E R
pm do-it-yourself
Senior editor Mike Allen (who used to teach organic chemiry

in a previous career) gloves up to pump methanol into the processor.
108 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZACH DESART

www.storemags.com & www.
w.fa
fantamag.com
P M D I Y A U T O /// B I O D I E S E L
pm do-it-yourself
fry oil out of tanks behind a
restaurant, and mixing it q
q
with lye and methanol in a

5-gallon bottle before pour-
ing it into an old water heater.
Two hours later, I opened the valve
at the bottom of the heater and black
goo oozed from the hose, a biodegrad-
able subance called glycerin. Before
long the glycerin drained and gave way
to a thin, clear, amber liquid: I had my 1. Start by ltering
r batch of biodiesel. your wae vegeta-
ble oil to remove
chunks of food leN
Young and Fuelish over from the fryer.
I made that r batch of fuel ve We used a paint
years ago. If you faHor in all the time I lter. Qe ltrate is
spent making the homebuilt biodiesel moly breading,
with the
processor (a converted eleHric water occasional chunk
heater) and experimenting with the of ... something.
design (some batches went, umm, less Mix all your oil
from dierent
than perfeHlyI had to replace two sources to achieve
injeHion pumps on my truck), my expe- a uniform sample.
rience with DIY fuels was oNen a frus-
2. Next we need
trating and, occasionally, very expen-
to titrate to see
sive process. how acidic the oil
Since then, the biodiesel indury 1 is. Add a small
and the technology have amount of
phenolphthalein
evolved. With the profes- indicator dye to a
sionally engineered biodiesel carefully prepared
syems available today, the mixture of
methanol and
process is simpler, safer, takes less time sodium hydroxide.
and yields more consient results. So I Add a sample of
decided to try one of the commercially the acidic wae
available processorsit came boxed oil to the mix
with a calibrated
with all of the equipment and reagents pipette.
needed to turn out consistent, high-
quality biodiesel fuel. Qe FuelMeier 3. Trickle in a
prepared basic
processor used here has five fewer reagent until
valves than the eight in my old home- the mixture
made one. It also mixes the lye and ays purple for
2 10 seconds of
methanol inside the tank to prevent the
swirling. Qe
chance of dangerous spills. quantity of reagent
3 you add here
determines the
amount of
methoxide (methyl
Yes, you can make biodiesel in a plaic bucket with little
!q alcohol/sodium
more than some drain cleaner, gas-line de-icer and a wooden hydroxide mixture)

spoon, if you know what youre doing. But it can be danger- to add to the oil
Biodiesel ous. Splashing lye and/or methanol into your eyes can blind to complete the
you. And ele[rical pumps unattended in the presence of transeerication
Safety Fir hundreds of gallons of ammables will make your local re process. It takes
some simple math
marshall underandably nervous. In addition, poor-quality or a look-up table
produ[ will damage your very expensive diesel-inje[ion to calculate
pump. Our advice? Research biodiesel produ[ion properly the amount.
before doing the mad-scienti routine. MIKE ALLEN

www.
www.st
stor
orem
emag
ags.
s.co
com
m & ww
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P M D I Y A U T O /// B I O D I E S E L
pm do-it-yourself
A Little &eory
eres quite a bit of chem-
iry involved in transform-
ing vegetable oil into biodie-
sel, in a process known as
transeerication. Vegeta-
ble oil (VO) is made up of
chains of fatty acids held 4. Heat your oil to 5. Drain the glycerin bottom of the
120 F, then add the from the bottom vessel in a few
together by glycerol mol- calculated amount until you get hours, where you
ecules. Methanol breaks of methanol/ lighter-colored, can drain it out.
those chains of fatty acids hydroxide mixture. thinner biodiesel
4 Qe FuelMeier pouring from the 6. Allow the fuel
apart. &e corrosive, alkaline
processor we used valve. Qen use to air out for a day
lye (sodium hydroxide, conveniently lets water to wash the or two with the
although you can also use you do the excess methanol, top o to let any
potassium hydroxide) breaks methanol/lye mixing lye and soapy cloudiness (caused
inside a tank residue from the by a small amount
the glycerol (a heavy alcohol) mounted to the lid. biodiesel. Qe water of remaining
off those chains and the Agitate for an hour will settle to the water) dissipate.
methanol (a light alcohol) in by running the
transfer-pump hose
turn takes the place of the back into the vessel.
glycerol, leaving shorter, At this point the oil not apply. Thats because the more
lighter, more combustible will have been pure the WVO is, the better the biodie-
molecules. &e result is an converted into sel. Reaurants that overcook their
biodiesel. Allow the
oil that burns well as a direG heavier glycerin food, dont change their oil frequently
replacement for petroleum- to settle out for or cook lots of frozen food will have oil
based diesel fuel, with 12 to a few hours. with high free-fatty-acid content.
15 percent glycerin leK over As for water, less is better. As little
at the bottom of the tank. as 5 percent in the WVO
&e lye aGs only as a cata- can leave you with a batch
lyst in this case, and isnt of soapy glop instead of
consumed in the process. biodiesel in your processor.
On the other hand, wae You dont want to deal with the mess
vegetable oil (WVO) , like we 5 of cleaning up, so care in selecting
get out the back door of res- feedock will pay o in the long run.
taurants, is somewhat acidic Heat a couple of ounces of the WVO in
because it has free fatty a frying pan. If it sizzles, theres too
6
acids, which are produced much water. This water can be
during heating and cooking. removed by heating the oil to above
Fortunately, that acidity is 220 degrees in an open container, and
neutralized by the extremely then letting it cool down. But that con-
q
alkaline lye essential to the sumes a lot of energy, and youll need
transesterification. Adding to baby-sit the whole business because
lye converts free fatty acids of the danger of re. Be ju to nd
to a form of soap, mo of which will higher-quality WVO.
drain out with the glycerin. &e remain- Busy restaurants are like food-
ing soap is removed in the wash. Of cooking assembly-lines. &ey heat their
course, we have to be sure that the oil at the same time, at the correG
amount of alkaline lye is ju enough to temperature, and fry about the same
counterbalance the acidity, or we wind amount of food every day. &ey also
up with poor-quality fuel. change their cooking oil at the same
time and in the same way every week.
Biodiesel in PraGice
You cant make biodiesel if you dont
have a couple of high-quality reau-
rants in your area. Greasy spoons need

Other places arent as careful, and their to ore the WVO, the methanol and enough to ignite the carbon inside the
pm do-it-yourself
oil gives me less, and poorer quality, the biodiesel, all of which are amma- DPF. Re carbon simply burns o, leav-
biodiesel per batch. I get almo all my ble, and a place to work. Dont forget ing the DPF ready to filter out more
WVO from two local reaurants, and youll also need to dispose of leYover particles. Biodiesel, more viscous than
Ive never had water in the oil. Biodiesel poor-quality WVO, a fair amount of mineral diesel, sticks to the cylinder
processing has become popular. Res- glycerin and the occasional batch of walls and washes pa the rings into
taurants used to be thrilled when I took glop. Theres an excess of methanol the crankcase. This can dilute the
the old oil away without charging them. and alkali remaining aYer the transes- engine oil, potentially causing engine
Now WVO is a commodity not unlike terication, and commercial biodiesel damage. Mo car manufa]urers pro-
crude oil. When regular diesel is about producers recover the methanol and hibit the use of more than 10 percent
$2.50 a gallon, I pay $0.30 per gallon. use it for the next batch. Your local biodiesel if you expect any warranty
When diesel was $4.85 a gallon, I paid authorities may have an opinion as to prote]ion. Biodiesel works be in older
$0.60 a gallon. the proper, legal disposal of glycerin. diesel vehicles with precombustion-
Youll ill need to run a fair amount chamber mechanical inje]ion.
Doing the Math of conventional mineral diesel in your Caveats aside, you can make diesel
The 40-gallon processor we used tank along with your home-brew fuel, fuel sustainably while also reducing
here costs nearly three grand. We especially in the winter when low tem- pollution. Getting a good supplier of
saved about $1.20 a gallon over the peratures turn even the best-quality WVO when fuel prices are low should
current price of petro-diesel, if you biodiesel into jello. ensure an adequate supply when
dont count the $2995 price tag for the Also, the current crop of direct- demand rises. Biodiesel stores very
processor. Rat means wed have to inje]ion diesels dont fare well on con- well in a cool, dry place if you squirt a
make 62 or more batches to pay back centrations of bio higher than 10 per- little nitrogen from a welding supply
the invement, or one batch every six cent. Why? To thermally purge the shop into the top of the barrel. Making
daysfor a year. A couple of batches diesel particulate lter (DPF), the injec- a lot of the u now might be one way
can be fun, but spending every Satur- tion syem periodically inje]s fuel into to have your own little invement in
day with greasy hands can get to be a the cylinder during the exhau roke home-brew biodiesel futures as regular
chore. Youll also need to set up a place to raise exhaust temperatures high diesel prices climb. FC
www.
www.st
stor
st orem
emag
emags.
ag s.co
com
com & ww
www.
w.fa
w. fant
fa ntam
nt amag
am ag.c
ag.com
.c om
Get-Home-at-
pm do-it-yourself
Any-Co Tweaks
Got a leak in your radiator?

Crack a raw egg into the
radiator ller cap (not the
overow tank, if you have one).
by Mike Allen Se egg white will plug the
holefor a while.
Now that youve xed the hole

in the radiator, you dont have
enough water to rell it. Top o
with diet soda (no sugar to gum
up the water pump). Other liquids
will work too, like recycled beer
and that le[over
iced tea.
Punched a hole in the oil

pan with a stone?
Whittle a plug from a twig
and hammer it into the hole.
Trim o the excess so the plug
doesnt catch on the next rock.
Fix It or But now you dont have enough

oil to rell the crankcase.
Add a quart of water. Really.
Walk Home Se oil-pump pickup is not on
the exaU bottomthe
remaining oil will oat
Q My 4x4 quit suddenly, on the side of a mountain. My wife and

I were looking at a potential 20-mile hike, until a guy on an
ATV came by and xed it in 5 minuteswithout any parts. How
on top of the water.
did he know, and what did he do? He moved this little box-shaped
thing in the fuse box underhood from one place to another.
A Heres a little-known secret

many of the relays used on most
cars are identical, whether they are
ured out it was the relay in such a short
time. (Sounds like the voice of experi-
ence.) Its easy to tell which relay is
Poked a hole in your gas
tank on a rock?
Stu a wedge from a bar of
used for the fuel pump, the headlights, which. Relay positions, as well as fuse soap into the hole. Itll la
the fans or the rear-window defroster. positions and values, are listed in the long enough to get into town.
Its a standard 30-amp SPDT relay. He owners manualand, almost always, Or a few hundred yards pa
that ream you need to ford.
probably repurposed a relay from some on a decal inside the fuse/relay panel
other circuit on your car, like the to boot. Actually, the schematic of the
foglamps or the rear defroster, and relay, telling you which pins are which,
plugged it into the fuel-pump relay is usually printed on the side of the
socket. Im just impressed that he fig- relays outer case.
114 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L LU S T R AT I O N BY D O N T WA K E M E U P

.com
.c
P M D I Y A U T O /// C A R C L I N I C Q + A
pm do-it-yourself
Im Melting eral dissimilar metals (iron, copper
Ive had to replace the radiator in and aluminum are all common in
my truck twice and the heater core engines, radiators and heater cores)
three times in the la ve years wetted with an electrolyte. That
because of corrosion. I use fresh essentially creates a big battery, and
antifreeze, but it doesnt seem to the eleErolysis can eat through thin
help. Whats happening here? radiator tubes in short order.
If fresh coolant, changed every other
year, isnt holding the corrosion at Clutching Techniques
bay, look for one of two problems. I had to replace the clutch slave
Fir, the combuion gases could unit on my 2003 Ford F-150. Fe
be leaking into the cooling syem mechanic wanted to know how I
through a bad intake manifold gas- drove the truck. I said that when I
ket, head gasket or a cracked head op for trac lights, I usually leave
or block. You can chase that by sni- it in gear with my foot on the clutch
ing the radiator neck with the probe pedal. He said that this praJice
of an exhaust-gas analyzer. If you might have caused the slave unit to
can deteE any carbon monoxide in fail. Ive been driving manual
the radiator, its a sure sign theres transmission cars and trucks for
exhau leaking in. some 30 years and have never had
Second, the corrosion problem a problem with the clutch before.
could be eleErical. Measure the volt- What is the right way to drive a
age between the battery ground and manual truck or car? Leave it in
the liquid in the radiator. Ju dip the gear with my foot on the clutch
voltmeter probe into the coolant pedal or take it out of gear and
without touching the side of the ller keep my foot o of the clutch pedal
neck. If the meter indicates any more when I am opped?
than a few hundred millivoltsbad I dare say mo of the vehicles youve
news, dude. Id art by replacing all driven, unless they were either a
of the ground wires and clamps con- tiddlywink-size sports car or a big
necting the battery to the engine rig, didnt have a hydraulic clutch like
block as well as to the frame and your late-model F-150. So you may
body of the vehicle. Remember, not have seen this problem in the
youve got a cooling syem with sev- pa. Mo American iron uses a pure
qq
Read the F U E L E F F I C I E N C Y a n d G R E E N H O U S E G A S R AT I N G
Label
0 100
S A F E T Y R AT I N G ( W E T T R A C T I O N )
0 100
D U R A B I L I T Y R AT I N G ( T R E A D W E A R )
0 100
Starting next year resiance has a direS consient among tire

it should be simpler to eeS on fuel economy), manufaSurers, making it
comparison shop for tires. wet traSion and wear impossible to compare the
He NHTSA is proposing a resiance in an easy-to relative tread-wear of tires
new label be axed to the assimilate form. Since from dierent companies.
sidewall of every new tire. 1976, tread-wear ratings He new ratings are
He label (which hasnt have been lied on tire indury andard, and the
been nalized yet) will sidewalls, in tiny raised easy-to-dige label should
show a tires rolling print. Unfortunately, the make it easier to compare
resiance (rolling current ratings are not and shop. M.A.
www.
w.storemags.com & www.fantamag.com
w.
mechanical linkage, or maybe
pm do-it-yourself
a cable. Regardless, keeping

your foot on the pedal while
opped, or in motion for that
matter, is poor pra;ice.
First, theres a safety
issue: Leaving the truck in
gear might make it easier to
lurch into trac if you sneeze
or lose your concentration
and release the clutch pedal.
On a more mechanical level,
the pra;ice keeps hydraulic
pressure on the slave cylin-
der, shortening the life of the
seals. It also keeps the
throw-out bearing spinning.
Unlike any other bearing in
the drivetrain, this bearing
doesnt have liquid motor oil,
ATF or gear lube conantly
circulating pa it. Je throw-
out bearing is lubed by a
scant spoonful of grease
sealed inside. When this
bearing fails, the r ep in
repairing it is to remove the
transmission from the car,
which isnt easy or cheap.
Outmoded
Whats the replacement for
Type A transmission fluid?
Type A automatic transmis-
sion fluid (ATF) was a GM
specification for transmis-
sion fluid back when they
ill used buggy whips. Well,
not exa;ly: It was r used
in 1947 when GM started
selling cars with modern
automatic transmissions.
Type A ATF was superceded
by Dexron in 1967, and then
by Dexron II and Dexron III.
Some power-eering units,
convertible-top hydraulic sys-
tems and even outdoor pow-
er equipment still specify
Type A. You should be able
to substitute Dexron III in
mo applications that spec-
ify Type A. If youre really
compulsive about an older
vehicles diet, you can find
true Type A from some
smaller manufa;urers if you
hunt around. FC

ww
ww
HOME THEATER POWER + WEB SLIDE
SHOWS + EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES
1. A paper clip 2. Clip the 3. De DIY

a3s as an battery trays charger has no
On/O switch. red cord to the way of limiting
Ju remove phone batterys the current
one end from positive metal or preventing
the battery conta3, overheating.
trays metal and the black So limit it to
conta3 to kill cord to its 10-minute
the current. negative one. charges, and
unplug it if
it arts to
get hot.
+e DIY
pm do-it-yourself
Cellphone
Charger 2 3
W ITH A FEW A A B ATTE R IE S
A N D $ 5 WO R TH O F PA R TS ,
A N Y BO DY C A N C O B B LE
TO G ETHER A N E ME R G E N C Y
CELLPHO N E CH A R G E R .
BY SETH PORGES
.eres no magic to a cellphone char-

ger. Its really little more than a plaic-
wrapped rip of copper wire designed
S T U D I O D ; I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A
to deliver power (epped down in volt-

age and converted to DC, of course)
from an outlet to your phone battery.
So if an emergency rikes and you
nd yourself without either your char-
ger or a working wall outlet, its really
pretty easy to macgyver together a
contraption that uses AA batteries to
quickly give your phone enough juice
to make a few emergency calls. +e
whole process, which is a lot like a
miniature version of jump-arting a
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS ECKERT POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 119
& www.fantamag.com
P M D I Y T E C H ///
pm do-it-yourself
DIY PHONE CHARGER
l
Beyond r Too
P owe
Phones 1 2V

p
p to
La )
nd D
(C a

) 12
ra n dD
e
Ca
m
(
Ca
.1
LR
11
DS
) In an emergency, C or D cells or a Ju make sure its

D
homemade larger battery tray, an emergency.

d
an
battery chargers the process is A desperate need

(C
2
7.
can be used to basically the same to update your

PS
power other as for phones. Facebook photo

rG
Ca
gadgets as well. Heres how many may not be worth

)
And while some batteries youll the risk the

(AA
3.7
devices may need to charge process poses

mera
require more some other to your laptop

batteries, larger common gadgets. or camera.
' Ca
(AA)
3.7
Compa
car, takes minutes and uses parts that where the paper clip comes in handy. tive () next to another. (Note that
can be found at Radio Shack for a total Unfold it and hook one end through mo phone batteries contain three or
of less than $5. the metal spring in the negative end of more conta;s, but you can ju ignore
To do it yourself, youll need the fol- the empty slot. 9en take the other the re of them. And if they dont have
lowing: a few AA batteries, a four-AA- end and bend it so it touches the metal positive or negative markings, a volt-
battery tray, a metal paper clip and conta; on the outside of the tray at meter will tell you which is which.)
two alligator clips. 9ats it, and the n- the positive end of the same slot. Taking care to make sure the two
ished produ; should be able to charge 9is clip will a; as a sort of On/O clamps dont come into conta; with
ju about any phone (with the notable switchas long as it is touching both each other, clasp the red alligator
exception of the iPhone, which does the spring and the metal contact, clamp to the side of the battery so that
not have an easily removable battery) power will be owing and the charger its metal jaws are touching the posi-
if you nd yourself in the wilderness or will be on. To turn the charger off, tive metal contact, and the black
waiting out a power outage. simply move one end of the paper clip clamp to the side of the battery so that
away from one of the conta;s. its touching the negative one.
Check the Voltage Your battery is now charging. But
,e r ep is to check the voltage Hook Up the Power be warned: Since this makeshiX mech-
on your phone battery. Mo clock in at For our contraption to work, you anism has no built-in way of limiting
about 3.7 volts, but you should pop it need to conne; the tray to the phone the current or guarding again over-
out of the phone and read the ne print battery. 9e tray will have two wires heating, youll want to keep an eye
to see for sure. 9is information will let running from it: A red wire carrying cur- (and a finger) on it to make sure it
you calculate how many AA batteries rent from the positive battery terminal, doesnt get too hot. If the phone bat-
you need. 9e key is to use enough to and a black one carrying current back tery starts to heat up, unplug it
barely exceed the phone batterys volt- to the batterys negative terminal. immediately, or you could damage it.
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y G A B R I E L S I LV E I R A
ageemploy fewer and you wont be Crimp or solder a red alligator clip to And there are other reasons why you
producing enough juice to charge the the red wire, and a black alligator clip should only try this if you have no other
battery, but hook up too many and you to the black wire. If a voltmeter is avail- choice: 9e process could violate your
could burn out the whole thing. AA bat- able, hooking your clips to it can con- phones warranty, and the sharp alliga-
teries are 1.5 volts each, so charging rm that your batteries are providing tor clips can scratch up a batterys
a 3.7-volt battery requires combining the corre; voltage. plaic shell. And, to be safe, I wouldnt
three of them for a total of 4.5 volts. Now look closely at the phone bat- recommend using this method to
Pop the batteries into the AA tray. tery. It will have a series of small metal charge your battery for more than
Its a four-battery tray, so youll need to conta;s that it uses to suck up elec- 10 minutes at a time. When youre
put something else in the la AA slot tricity. 9ere should be a positive (+) done, put the battery back in the
in order to complete the circuit. 9is is sign next to one of them, and a nega- phone and art dialing. FC

444
Watts
pm do-it-yourself
z
FEq
8qq
8qM
q!q
q!qt
by Seth Porges
Fight the Q I have my television hooked up

through my surround-sound
system. Its great for movies, but
Power Drain the rest of the time it feels like Im
just wasting energy. Is there any
way to get the best of both worlds?
Home *eater Energy Use
244
Watts

8qq
qqM
q!
q
q
?RQNVqYVk?jy?qq
172
Watts
@MwsR?sqwjG?qq
qq
jYs?4sYjq>E
q
NRRqq#ssq
#ssU?s?jq>vE
4s#y#qE{vqq
zNs4Lq>t
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q
Switchable power Save the home

rips let you kill theater for when
juice to compo- youre watching
nents youre not movies. No need
using. An HDMI to wae watts
switch routes AV during the
A Multichannel surround-sound sys- the combo used a total of 172 watts.

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y D A V I D M . B U I S A N
signals around morning news.

your home theater tems can bring a stunning theater- When we added a 5.1-channel home
receiver when
youre not using like soundscape to your living room. theater with a powered subwoofer, it
it. A wattmeter Great if youre getting your Michael Bay kicked our consumption up to 244
identies the wor fix, but overkill if youre just watching watts. Watch a movie through a Blu-ray-
power oenders.
the morning weather reportespecial- playing PlayStation 3, and the total goes
ly when you consider how much power up to a whopping 444 watts. Uats two
these sound systems suck up. We and a half times the eleVricity usage of
hooked up a wattmeter (everybody the TV and cable box alone.
should have one) to a typical 37-inch The problem is exacerbated by the
LCD HDTV and cable box, and found that faV that modern home theater receivers
& www.fantamag.com
are often used as HDMI
pm do-it-yourself
routers, meaning they take
video inputs from multiple
sources (cable box, Blu-ray
player, game syem, etc.),
and output them all to your
TV using a single HDMI
cable. This arrangement
keeps things organized, but
it also means that the
sound syem is on when-
ever the TV ispowering a
constellation of speakers
and, likely, a subwoofer,
even during shows that
dont really benefit from
multichannel, room-filling
surround sound.
Keeping components
turned o when they arent
needed can make a notice-
able dierence in your ener-
gy bill. Le key is to arrange
your home theater syem
so that its easy to switch
among different input
devices and sound syems
without having to rewire all
of your AV gear whenever
its movie night. The easy
way to toggle between
sound systems: an HDMI
switch that has a digital
audio output.
But before you buy an
HDMI switch, youll need to
make sure it will work with
your speaker syem. Some
7q
s?4Lq
s?jU AMOLED
For years, techies have been

yearning for a exible-display
technology, which could allow
for impossibly compa<
gadgetssuch as portable
media players or e-book
readersthat are capable of
being rolled up when they arent
in use. A"ive-Matrix Organic
Light-Emitting Diode displays,
which have a matrix of pixels
that light up when ele<rically
a<ivated, have presented some
of the mo promising
exible-display prototypes so
far. AMOLEDs also use less
power than traditional OLEDs.

om
P M D I Y T E C H /// D I G I T A L C L I N I C Q + A
pm do-it-yourself
AV receivers have optical audio tiple page-view hits from visitors

inputs and others have coaxial audio who may be surng over to see a
inputs. See which one yours has and single ory. But it can be annoying
get an HDMI switch with the same having to click next every few sec-
type of audio conne?ion. Remote- onds ju to read a li. ê easy way
controllable HDMI switches with digi- around this: If the site has a Print
tal audio outputs are available from button near the top of the ory, click
companies such as Octava and it. ê entire ory will load as a sin-
Kramer Electronics for $250 to gle page. When your browser asks if
$350. Hook your cable box, gaming you want to commence the print job,
machine and Blu-ray player to the ju click cancel, and read the ory
HDMI inputs, link the HDMI output at your leisure.
dire?ly to your TV, then plug the digi-
tal audio conne?ion into your receiv- Powered Drive
er and turn it on only when you want I bought an external hard drive that
a surround-sound infusion. came with a Y-shaped double-
And if youre really serious about ended USB cable. However, I tried
minimizing ele?rical wae, plug all conneAing it to my laptop with
of your nonessential AV gear into a ju one of the two USB jacks and
separate power strip and kill its it seemed to work ne. Do I really
power when its devices arent in use need the Y cable, or can I use any
(this will cut down on the andby, or USB cable?
vampire power leakage that Compared to other USB devices,
occurs when unused devices are leU external hard drives are power
plugged in). Belkin even makes a hogsthey oUen require more juice
remote-controllable power strip than older laptops are capable of
called the Conserve that allows you delivering through a single USB jack.
to maintain consistent power to When its conne?ed to a computer
devices that you use all the time through a double-ended Y cable, the
(DVR, Wi-Fi router), while completely hard drive is able to suck up a double
killing power to unused gear. dose of power through two USB
slots simultaneously.
Circumventing However, because newer laptops
Slide Shows are able to deliver more power
I read a lot of news online and through each USB jack, you may not
always get frurated when I have a?ually need the Y cable. ê only
to click through a slide show 10 way to know for sure: Try plugging it
times in order to see a full ory. Is in with a single USB cable. If your
there any way around this? hard drive works, you can probably
News websites love slide shows get by with conne?ing it to that com-
theyre an easy way to generate mul- puter using any old USB cable. FC
Popular Mechanics (ISSN 0032-4558) is EDITORIAL AND P.O. Box 7186, Red Oak, IA mailings, please send your
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Printed in U.S.A. Department, Popular Mechanics, would rather not receive such this magazine.
& www.fantamag.c
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THIS
IS
MY
JOB
q
q qqqqqqqq
JES SPROUSE
LOCATION SPRING GROVE, VA.
AGE 36
3 YEARS ON JOB 2
1. Raceway Pond
!is 2000-square-foot,
rubber-lined pond produces
25 pounds of dry algae
a day. Rather than grow
2 designer rains, Sprouse
uses native algae. We get
1 seeding through the air and
water, he says. !ough his
5
crop has lower energy-rich
lipid content than geneti-
cally modied algae, its
easier to grow. Sprouses
long-term goal: Scale up to
a 25-acre farm that would
produce 14,000 pounds of
4 dry algae per day.
2. Centrifuge
!e algae solution enters
as 99 percent water; it
exits as 60 percent algae.
Sprouse is designing
a lter press that would
use less energy.
3. Fertilizer Tanks
Sprouse uses two tanks
one full of diluted pig excre-
ment, high in phosphorus
and potassium, and one
containing nitrogen-rich
ureato create fertilizer.
4. Algae Coal Oven

Algae pae is cooked for
several hours, under pres-
sure, inside this 55-gallon
drumproducing granules
that are non-water-soluble
and can be ored outdoors.
Its a drop-in replacement
for coal, he says. Unlike
coal ash, algae ash contains
no mercury or lead and can
be applied to farm elds.
When Jes Sprouse was a kid, he used to watch mile-long
coal trains rumble across the Wyoming plains, headed for the 5. Harvester
power plants his ironworker father had helped to build. Now, he is in the energy business Positioned at the terminus
of the raceway, the
himself, but inead of coal he focuses on algae farming. So far, his operation is limited to harveer houses a pump
a single pond in his front yard, but hes got big plans: to fuel America as a tycoon of algae that pulls water through
pellets (for home use) and algae coal (for power plants). Both produPs yield 10,500 Btu lters, which extraU a
per poundnearly as much energy as bituminous coal. And theyre a lot cleaner. Ive diluted algae solution. !e
water is then recycled to
known for a long time that our path is unsuainable, he says. Farming algae is environ- grow more algae. Sprouse
mentally driven, but I also want to make money. PAUL TOLM invented the device.
132 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM GOLFER

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www.storemags.com & ww
w. www.
w.fantam
amag
ag.com

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THE NEXT BIG WARPLANE We are now

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This portable drill

TRUST. IN YOUR HANDS.

THE C3 5 -INCH CIRCULAR SAW

THE C3 JIG SAW WITH LASER Equipped with

THE 19.2-VOLT CRAFTSMAN C3 LITHIUM-ION BATTERY

Meet the battery that powers them all.

TRUST. IN YOUR HANDS.

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6 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

56 The New Homesteaders

80 The Soul of an Old Machine

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS NILSSON POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 9

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15 Supersonic Car 25 Meter Maid 33 Dirty Jobs 93 Sawdu Melodies

104 Geothermal: Dig It

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48 Ready for Anything

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZACH DESART (BIODIESEL), CHRIS ECKERT/STUDIO D (RUBIKS CUBE)

122 Digital Clinic

10 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

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12 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

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Z U.S. AIR FORCE: acknowledges that

includes a rare political and

plane for additional power and a typical gas in 30 years to HAMMER-

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y B R A D L E Y R . H U G H E S POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 15

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Powerplant: Flying for Fun: Battery Pack: Quiet Cruiser:

16 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

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Layers of engineered textiles, clay and

0e Dig presses, similar to 0e Dump

SB1 Head Here Teekay Is On

18 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y R E M I E G E O F F R O I

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PAIR OF BOEING PROGRAMS HINT

Advanced Ta?ical Laser

20 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y A N D R E A I N N O C E N T

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LOVE YOUR CAR?

Youre in the drivers seat at Popular Mechanics new

INTERACT WITH OTHER CAR BUFFS

EXTEND YOUR EXPERTISE

deroying the robots in a

visual result than CGI. Its ju more

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES WORRELL POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM | OCTOBER 2009 25

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Stud-Seeking Radar Reinventing unnecessary

to avoid rebar, youll want something with be-selling toys mechanical

26 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM

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three sizes, allow-

Leaf Mover and Shaker

28 OCTOBER 2009 | POPUL ARMECHANICS.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS ECKERT

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Eere are few Boo Mobile, Cricket

Base Price: $24,355

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Our vegetarian-friendly menu looked the mo appetizing of the entrees.

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