Lowtech Graph lists low-tech options for every need of a home. Here you can compare them, find tutorials to build them, and link them together into a circular system. Why low-tech?

Laundry

Washing and drying clothes. The washing is a short, heavy draw on water and power; the drying is where most of the energy goes, and a line takes none of it. The options differ in what drives the drum and in whether drying happens outdoors, indoors or in a machine.

Solutions

• Pedal-powered washing machine: A washing machine whose drum is turned by pedalling, like a bicycle. Your legs do the work an electric motor would do. It washes clothes with no electricity at
• Electric washing machine: An ordinary electric washing machine. A motor turns the drum and a heater warms the water. It saves time and effort, but it adds a large electrical load, and it
• Hand-agitated bucket washing machine (manual plunger type): A two-bucket system: an inner perforated bucket holds the laundry, and a plunger sealed with a bicycle inner tube forces water through it by hand. Having no dri
• Line or rack drying for clothes: Drying washing on a line, a rotary airer or an indoor rack instead of in a tumble dryer. The air and sun do the drying for free, removing one of the biggest ele