Water from wind

EcoGeek has an interesting post about a wind-powered turbine that cools itself and condenses water out of the air. While there are doubts about the implementation, there are certainly examples of being able to condense large amounts of water out of the air, and in nearly any P-A world, getting fresh, clean water is going to be a challenge. Of course, most of these assume there isn't radioactive dust blowing around, but at least it's a good start.

Powerless cooling

"Apocalypse" frequently means no power. But so does "rural Africa." A very inventive Nigerian man named Mohammad Bah Abba developed an incredibly easy evaporative cooling system called a Zeer. Take an unglazed terracotta pot, and fill the bottom with sand. Put a smaller pot inside it. Fill the gap with sand. Add water to the sand. The water soaks into the pots and slowly evaporates, which causes cooling. Apparently it works quite well.

Terracotta is a great PA material because A), it's everywhere, B) it might actually survive the ravages of time and weather, assuming it doesn't get smashed, and C) you might actually be able to make it yourself. Hit up any garden or home store and you'll find plenty of big planters. For that matter, check your neighbor's houses. They may have a few as well, already in use.

More on Bah Abba and the pot-in-pot refrigerator at Wikipedia.

Solar Cooking

I came across a site on solar cooking today, and I realized that it's just the thing when you need to cook your food but don't want any smoke to alert nearby raiders, zombies or other nasty folks. The site has some plans for cookers. One seems to be made from an old tire and a sheet of glass - a little gross, but very resourceful. My dad and grandpa had actually messed around with this a few years ago. They used a wooden box lined with garbage bags and a glass lid. I don't remember if we actually cooked anything in it, but it was a neat idea.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Work has me very busy and there's no sign of it letting up.