Renate Haeckler wrote:Passive solar design houses with good basements may make the summer cool enough in most climates to do away with air conditioning. IMHO a big problem would be humidity causing mold in humid areas, tho - my best use of the A/C is to get that humidity out of the air so it feels cooler - we're by a river and it's right around 97% humidity almost every morning, you can break a sweat with minimal movement at 62 degrees. They say using clay on the walls will remove some humidity but I doubt it can cope with that much!
I believe there used to be a hand-crank washing machine in the old days, I think I've seen some sitting outside relative's farm houses. You'd heat the water, pour it in, and turn the crank to agitate the clothing. Some hooked them via a belt to an electric motor, but a bicycle on a stand may do the same job.
If you need just a little light after dark, some of the better LED bulbs don't use much electricity, could run off a solar-powered battery. Mother Earth News had an article on how to set up a DC system just for powering lights using a solar panel and a car battery, I believe, wired separately from the rest of the house wiring, which would be AC.
It's possible to remove the moisture from the air using a good desiccant. You mentioned clay, but this is difficult to regenerate. What's needed is a liquid desiccant that can be pumped to a system for heating and regeneration (i.e. removing the moisture that was previous absorbed so the solution can be reused). In principle, it's possible to do this with solar heat. However, in practice it's a lot simpler to use a small furnace. Also, a practical system is going to require an air fan and at least one small pump, so some electricity consumption is necessary. Yet, I am aware of an experimental system that did not use air moving equipment. It required a fairly large structure in the home over which a calcium chloride solution flowed to increase contact with the air and encourage water vapor absorption. There is a small company that designs such systems for use in large buildings, and they often build very large structures that appear as indoor water falls and/or fountains that often appear as modern art pieces. They flow a concentrated salt water solution that dries the air. This would be a big job, but fundamentally it's not complicated. One point that is important to consider is that the solution must be pumped at a very low rate to a heater where it is regenerated. The hot and more concentrated solution returns to the main system through a heat exchanger that gives up its heat to the solution that is pumped to the heater. This increases efficiency dramatically, so less heat is required for regeneration.
My opinion on manually washing clothes is to not consider it unless there is no other option. If one desires a zero electricity home, then manual washing it will be. However, a washing machine does not use a lot of electricity. These are perfectly acceptable for a modest off grid home as a modest solar system can handle it.
The car battery/LED system seems good as an emergency lighting system. The problem with this approach when used regularly is the battery. A car battery simply cannot tolerate more than a few episodes of significant discharge.
