Inside Segway Dean Kamen's Off-the-Grid Island Home

[admin]

He calls himself Lord Dumpling, and his island "nation" has a zero-tolerance policy for incandescent lights. In fact, he claims to have the first fully self-powered nation. He is Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway electric scooter and other devices, some of which are responsible for making his island home self-sustaining—along with a lot of LEDs (light emitting diodes). All was well between the "countries" until a couple of years ago, when the U.S. Coast Guard decided to cut the undersea cable that powered the lighthouse. Kamen's island would have to be self-sustainable, with solar panels powering the lighthouse...

Discuss "Inside Segway Dean Kamen's Off-the-Grid Island Home" here. Read the article.

 

[Jeepers]

Very interesting. How much did Mr. Kamen pay for all this equipment and how many years will it take for him to get even on the cost side ? He may be rich but I am just asking for what it would take us, average people.

 

[GO-NAD!]

It is certainly very impressive. However, I've lived by the ocean all my life and I for one, would feel quite vulnerable. Although it may be very efficient, I would be concerned about the reliance on the technology he is using, in such an isolated spot. He may be as one with Mother Nature, but she is an unpredictable mistress....

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm not sure where the audio/video portion of this fits in, but if I had crazy money like that I would have been looking at some of the new OLED lighting products which have come to the market and are now available. Entire walls of glass made out of OLED which can produce light.

I was doing a little digging around on it last week and the technology is pretty cool. Not sure if it can handle actual lighting duties the way LED can, but I would think that going with just ONE technology really isn't the way to do things.

I think Lucas was one to say: Keep switching up the way you do things and people won't figure out how you do it.

 

[m_vanmeter]

Mr. Kamen is a wonderfully gifted inventor, but aside from his experimental work to desalinate water, there is nothing new here.

Living "off the grid" is not new, people have been doing it successfully for years....just read a couple issues of "Homepower Magizine". LED lighting is not new and Philips is definately not the only source. Matter of fact, they are pretty far behind the LED curve in replacement lighting.

So, while interesting what a guy can do with his well earned money, there is little in the way of new or unusual information here.

 

[Knucklehead90]

I'm sure this gives Mr. Kamen tremendous bragging rights over his carbon footprint too - while cruising above the fray in his private jet.

Typical of off-grid homes is not-so-green technologies such as lead-acid batteries for storage of the gathered solar and wind power generated electricity. And the manufacturing of some of these 'green' products such as copper and aluminum and other metals and materials used in making one man's island 'green'. Many of these materials are mined from the depths of the earth - not picked like an apple. These are some of the things eco-freaks don't want to think about when it comes to the 'green' revolution. When these technologies are placed in the context of the real world they are not so green.

The efforts to make us more 'green' is laudable. But until it becomes cost effective only those like Mr. Kaman will be using them - at least until politics drive up the prices so high that we are forced to move to these less cost effective methods of powering our homes. The day where each will have a hydrogen generator light enough to lift like a suitcase with enough power for the entire home is far off into the future - don't level my dams and raze the coal - gas and nuclear generating plants just yet. As Mr. Kamen has probably experienced on a few occasions the sun doesn't always shine and the wind isn't a constant.

Do you think a Prius is 'more green' than a gas powered car that gets 40mpg? You may want to re-think that one.

Just MHO of course.

 

[Jeremiah Josey]

Way to go Dean!

This is a great story. It’s thanks to people like Dean Karmen that we get to experience marvellous “miracle” technology as "common place" after millions of dollars and millions of human hours have been spent perfecting it, both operationally and economically. His Segway is an example of that. These LED lighting systems are another example, invented by someone else, but requiring people like Dean to step up and pay to use it to keep development viable and ongoing. Halving his power requirements!! Wow, how many power stations don’t need to be built if that was common place? Lots!!

[One of his most profitable inventions was the miniaturization of the kidney dialysis machine: from a huge bed side monolith to a small under the plane seat portable unit. He’s saved countless lives - the new one is much more reliable - and has give mobility to millions. Yeah, I admit it: I’m a fan of people who stretch to excel and change the world in the process. To the guy who developed the sonic tooth brush: thanks. My teeth have never been cleaner]

That’s one of the great things I love about technology: that it takes only one person, or a small team, dedicated and skilled, and thick skinned to plough into an idea or concept until its finished. Hey, wasn't Thomas Edison like this to invent the electric light bulb.. How many prototypes… over 1,000??? And the cost of the early units… Whoa!! Momma mia!!

I work in the heart of the post-modern industrial age: the Middle East, and I’m putting in more veins – pipelines – to keep the black blood flowing. It’s an amazing concept crude oil. Straight out of the ground. It’s so easy here there’s no need to pump it. There’s enough pressure to drive it all the way to the settling tanks. It’s a struggle just to keep the black gold in the ground! So primitive, yet so new, modern and well, essential to absolutely everything we do nowadays (the kind of essential like “Made in China” has become: cheap price always trumps chump quality). So I get a very good perspective on what’s going on technology-wise and how it affects the world. From Nokia Mobile phones made in China – now India (I have both. Used to have one made in Finland…) – to new a innovative ways to make stuff from crude oil (like the Rocky Mountain Institute have documented so very well, Google their web site), to crazy new ways to make renewable crude oil, and of course better ways to do what I do now.

From the audio perspective, it’s the same. A great friend of mine and his team has cracked the electrostatic puzzle and now have a beautiful sounding – and beautiful looking - full room speaker (100% sweet spot: full live stage sound from any position in the room!) Just magic!! Nakamichi had signed them up for production just as the Japanese icon went sideways… ( God willing they will rise again, and we’ll get to read about them here. And I’ll tell you who they are

Well done Dean. Go the innovators!

Jeremiah Josey
(at wordpress)