<story><title>A solar-powered, self-hosted version of Low-Tech Magazine</title><url>https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jws</author><text>The author is concerned about the embodied energy cost of a larger battery, so has a smallish battery which only lasts about a day.&lt;p&gt;For my small solar powered installations I generally use a lead acid battery with a &lt;i&gt;zero&lt;/i&gt; embodied energy cost. When I pull a starter battery out of a vehicle, instead of immediately recycling it I use it as a storage battery for one of my remote solar installations, sometimes adding it in parallel to an existing one. They can then perform for years as a bad, but useful, low current storage battery. Eventually something horrific¹ happens or a cell goes completely² and I recycle the battery.&lt;p&gt;So the lead and the sulphur spend a few years longer between reincarnations as batteries, but the embodied energy is zero for my use.&lt;p&gt;␄&lt;p&gt;¹ A camera&amp;#x2F;weather sensor station went offline after an unusually strong storm from the south. I suspect there was unprecedented wave erosion and dropped it off the embankment. When the site becomes accessible again I&amp;#x27;ll probably find it in a heap at the shoreline with ruined batteries from freezing. (Sometimes I lose the sulphur, but there is a world sulphur glut so I don&amp;#x27;t feel too bad.) Other causes of demise are failed solar chargers or stuck on loads, usually from wiring failures. (darned rodents)&lt;p&gt;² I&amp;#x27;d like to make a lead acid charge controller which can detect a shorted cell and just call it a 10V battery instead of a loss, that would extend their lives. There is DC&amp;#x2F;DC conversion already happening at charge and discharge, so it shouldn&amp;#x27;t hurt efficiency significantly.</text></comment>
<story><title>A solar-powered, self-hosted version of Low-Tech Magazine</title><url>https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>themodelplumber</author><text>&amp;gt; Only one weight (regular) of a font is used, demonstrating that content hierarchy can be communicated without loading multiple typefaces and weights.&lt;p&gt;This point has nothing to do with energy use (or very, very little) but is a really great graphic design tip for those looking to make a site more pleasant to browse.&lt;p&gt;The other weight that&amp;#x27;s not being used in favor of regular is &amp;quot;bold&amp;quot;. Instead of bolding, the font size attribute is changed to establish hierarchy. Faux small caps are also used.&lt;p&gt;From the CSS:&lt;p&gt;h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
 font-weight: normal;
}</text></comment>