Open Source Low Tech: free plans for energy, water and food infrastructure

OpenSourceLowTech.org is the work of Daniel Connell, who prototypes and develops basic technologies that anyone can build from recycled materials and simple tools. The aim, he writes, is for everyone everywhere to be able to build and maintain their own infrastructure — producing their own energy, food, clean water, communications and anything else they need.

Five designs, full construction tutorials

The site documents five flagship builds: a $30 wind turbine, a solar cooker, a rocket mass heater, a solar hot water panel and a wifi dish. Each one comes with a complete construction tutorial and how-to published free on the site, and all designs are open source and licence-free for any purpose. Tutorials are grouped under energy; food, water and sanitation; cooling; and communications. A Facebook group serves as the place to ask questions and post results from your own builds.

No external funding, wide coverage

The project receives no external funding and is kept going entirely by the support of people who use it, Connell notes. Its designs have been covered by Al Jazeera, The Guardian, the New Statesman, Le Monde and Make:, the last of which highlighted the $30 wind turbine built from bicycle parts and discarded aluminium. The site drew renewed attention on Hacker News, where readers compared it with Open Source Ecology’s Global Village Construction Set and Low-tech Magazine’s solar-powered site.

Why it matters

The project sits at an unusual intersection: it applies open-source habits — shared designs, free licences, public documentation — to physical infrastructure rather than software. The pitch is not novelty but accessibility: simple tools, locally available or recycled materials, and instructions detailed enough for a first-time builder to finish the job.