thehouseofyourdreams
BELOWBuilding a 3D-printed home is like putting together a huge puzzle
they’ve never been touched by human hands,” he said.
“So, for our customers, it’s about guaranteeing that they’re going to get what we’ve told them they’re going to get. It’s cutting out the human interpretation you get in the traditional construction process; it’s taking what people see in consumer products and bringing that to the construction industry.”
■How do your homes differ from standard-built houses?
“It allows us to do more with less, in terms of design and finance,”
Bell told us. “We can spend more time designing it; focus
on details and fabricate items that you couldn’t
otherwise do using a traditional process.”
This includes work on the core of a building, dubbed the chassis, to which other pieces are fitted. Items such as lighting fixtures are built in from the ground up, while insulation, electrics and plumbing have their own separate cavities in walls to ensure that workers are confined to only those areas, interfering with the finished product as little as possible.
BELOWUsing digital tools allows you to spend more time on the design of a home
Interiors are designed and built digitally too
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@ P C P R O F A C E B O O K . C O M / P C P R O
Futures
Elon Musk wants us to drive electric cars, travel through supersonic Hyperloop tubes, and spend our holidays in space – and now he’s turned his attention to home energy. His company Tesla has unveiled a home battery system called Powerwall that lets you store solar energy to power your home.
Is Powerwall the future of energy?
Musk thinks so – and so do tens of thousands of others who have pre-ordered the battery.
A battery? People are excited by a battery?They are – Musk claims that 38,000 people have already signed up for what is, essentially, a giant rechargeable lithium-ion battery. They’re hoping it lives up to Musk’s promises of being less battery and more home-energy- management system.
And what makes it so smart?The Powerwall is charged via solar panels, storing energy from sunny mornings to use on grey afternoons or at peak-use times. It also lets users top up from the electric grid, so if your panels aren’t pulling in enough power to meet your needs, you can fill up your Powerwall at non-peak times when rates are low for use in the evenings. Hey presto, lower utility bill. Aside from storing solar and load shifting, it’s also handy as a backup power source in the event of an outage.
How much will this bill-cutting battery cost?The 10kWh Powerwall costs $3,500 (£2,290) and can hold charge for a week, while the 7kWh version is $3,000 (£1,964) and recharges daily. That doesn’t include installation however, nor the cost of installing solar panels. Musk admits the price is too expensive for the mainstream US market, and is clearly hoping to drive it down.
That’s a lot for a battery.True, but it really is big: it weighs 100kg and measures 86 x 18 x 130cm, offering up to 8.6A of peak output. The Powerwall can be installed inside or out, working at temperatures between -20°C and 43°C. If you’re worried about having a big ugly box
attached to your wall, fear not: Tesla has designers that Apple would envy. The Powerwall is a sleek, shiny rectangle that wouldn’t look out of place on a spaceship.
Electricity companies aren’t going to like this, are they?Possibly not, but some punters have suggested they may be the means through which many of us get the expensive Powerwall system installed in our homes, much the same way many energy companies give out pricey smart meters, which cut usage but keep us as loyal customers. Plus, Tesla is pushing its batteries to utility firms to help manage their power, and to businesses to avoid peak charges.
When can we get a Powerwall?
Deliveries in the US will begin this summer. Tesla is taking pre-orders for the Powerwall in the UK. Find the details at
teslamotors.com/powerwall.
Whatis...
Tesla’sPowerwall?
ElonMuskhasbeenbreakingboundariesagain:thistime
he’slaunchingasmart-homebatterysystemthatstores
cheaporsolarenergytobeusedlater
What is it?PrintedTouch stickers feature conductive ink on the rear, enabling you to build interactive devices that play sounds when you press them. It’s a great way to teach programming basics to children, and the stickers have also been used to add track samples to posters and album covers. These are stickers you’d actually want to collect.
Why would you want conductive stickers?The technology allows you to make pretty much any surface interactive – so you can make posters that speak when you prod them, or floors that play music when you tap a spot. The CreatorKit bundle includes printed touch stickers, control modules, battery packs and software to set up your program.
How does it work?Conductive ink on the back of the sticker behaves like wires, while the front has capacitive touch sensors. They’re sticky on both the front and back, so you can fix them to a surface and add a graphic to the front. To make them play a sound, simply press a control module into the right spot on the sticker along the conductive ink, and do the same with the battery pack and sound actuator, which turns the surface into a speaker. Then, use the software or decide what the sticker will do, such as playing the sound, increase the volume and so on. Save the file to a microSD card, plug that into the control module, and you’re done.
How much will it cost?You can try out the system by building your own “piano”. For £15, you get stickers with a piano graphic on the front, and a control module that plays key sounds on the back. For your own project, you can buy four page-size stickers and a control module for £22. For more advanced users, the Creator Studio offers more
modules and stickers, as well as a line-out to connect speakers, conductive tape and conductive ink for £130.
Likely to get funded?At the time of writing, the project had 49 backers pledging £2,257 of the £12,000 goal. Delivery of the PrintedTouch Stickers is expected in September. Link:pcpro.link/250creatorkit
Crowdfund
this!
OurpickofUKtech
projectsonKickstarter
andIndiegogo
CreatorKit
PrintedTouchStickers
F
or as long as computers have been around, they’ve been used to make art – and the Victoria and Albert museum in London has a collection that proves digital expressions are just as intriguing as those daubed in paint.Started with key acquisitions in the late 1960s, the digital art collection resides in the V&A’s Prints and Drawings Study Room, which is open Tuesday through Friday – but this being computer art, you can also view 1,000 pieces from the collection online at collections.vam.ac.uk.
“Visitors are often intrigued to see a set of punch cards made in 1970 by the artist Manfred Mohr,” said Melanie Lenz, Patric Prince Curator of Digital Art at the V&A. Mohr wrote his own