Presentation
Description
It is a blog founded in 2007, since 2018 is available on a solar powered server and since 2019 also in print. Low-tech Magazine is written by Kris De Decker (Barcelona, Spain). It publishes at most 12 well-researched stories per year.
Digital activity
Low-tech solar powered website
Good practice targeted
Environmental
To go further
Good practice
To reduce energy use, they opted for a back to basics web design, using a static site instead of a database driven content management system. They further apply default typefaces, dithered images, off-line reading options, and other tricks to lower energy use far below that of the average website. In addition, the low resource requirements and open design help to keep the blog accessible for visitors with older computers and/or less reliable Internet connections. Because it uses so little energy, this website can be run on a mini-computer with the processing power of a mobile phone. It needs 1 to 2.5 watts of power, which is supplied by a small, off-grid solar PV system on the balcony of the author’s home. Typical for off-the-grid renewable power systems, energy storage is limited. This means that the website will go off-line during longer periods of cloudy weather.
Starting date of the good practice
2007
Time to implement the good practice
It has been working since it started in 2007, although their work on the website was interrupted by lockdowns and travel restrictions in early 2020.