Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Steven Leckart: Note To SuperForest

Morning All!

Here we are on day two of Steve Leckart's off the grid challenge.
We wrote him yesterday inquiring as to the progress of his off-grid survival and he replied with a nice note for all the readers of SuperForest!

Here it is:

"Spirits are high! Main panel's got another hour or so before the sun disappears, and the generator's kicking away at about 1/2-3/4 full.

So far so golden! I spent the morning rather timid to stay plugged in and online, fearing that the warm solar teat of my main generator wouldn't have stamina. Man was I wrong. The panel's offsetting the drainage like a champ. Above and beyond expectations. I'm living in a major city. And for the past 16 hours I haven't touched the grid once.

Still, I will say that as optimistic and awesome as this is, my carbon footprint is significantly heftier than I'd care to imagine. The packages of gear that have been arriving at my home for the past week come from California but as far as Florida (actually, the UK, if I remember correctly). This is, well, pretty sucky. About as sucky as the fact that virtually every handheld solar charger comes with a bag of phone charger tips. It's cool you can adapt a variety of different phones (it'd be cooler if cell phone companies agreed on a standard universal plug!). But here's the thing: I use a Nokia. What am I gonna do with all those other tips!? It bums me out to look at the little baggie of sad, unused tips. Poor, Samsung. Cheer up, Motorolla.

Thus, a SF project occurred to me today!!!

CHALLENGE: acquire a Solio or HYMini charger and spend a lunch hour parked in a crowded outside area (be sure to bring all the tips); now offer to charge every phone you see for 15 minutes each.

Powering up someone else is totally empowering. I may just give this one a go myself."

-Steve Leckart

Amazing, Steve! That's a great idea.
It is a bit crazy to think that every cell company has a different charging tip.
(Oh how we wish we could just pull a string to charge our devices!)

Steve will be living off-grid for the remainder of the week, check his posts over at dvice.com.

Steve Off the Grid @ dvice


And thanks for the note!

Love and best wishes,

Team SuperForest

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