Access
to power is critical for people. Individuals that live primarily in
public spaces often do not have access to stable power sources, as
components for off-grid living are often expensive and complicated. They
are also heavy and cumbersome to work with. Improvised systems are
often built without understanding of how to safely implement them,
creating the possibility of serious harm to people and everything they
own.
Roadsteading
is more than just building a personal habitable space, but about
helping the distributed village of neighbors as well. We've been helping
inspect and repair power systems in vehicle dwellings, camp sites, and
other off-grid communities intermittently over the last few years. This
project is going to be an attempt to codify this behavior in a way that
can scale a bit better than wandering around in RV-dense areas and
asking people if they need help.
E-Waste Reuse
There are numerous types of enterprise scrap that can be diverted from the scrap stream and into meaningful power systems. Enterprise UPSes, salvage laptop batteries, breaker panels and transformers from building demolition sites, and much more can all be pieced together to create significant quality of life improvements for people living in the public.
We are seeking partnerships with companies and recyclers that work in the industrial salvage industry to create a pipeline for these kinds of devices. Most businesses in this field are willing to do labor trading for salvage, which may be a good way to help prepare volunteers as well as give meaningful access to grade and test intake devices.
Training
I've found a venue willing to allow us to teach workshops here in Berkeley CA. I want to start teaching workshops on building offgrid systems using industrial salvage, as well as establishing protocols for safely inspecting and repairing them. There are tons of people eager to help each other in the roadsteading community that just don't have the expertise or training for it. We are gonna need a lot of people willing to help folks out if we start opening issue management for folks.