• sesameB
  March 7, 2012, 1:39 pm

  Ohhhhh, I want one. This is just heavenly to have as I live the lake, as well here in Arkansas. Simply put, adorable.

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• Stephany
  March 9, 2012, 10:39 am

  yes good idea. only think you have to keep in mind is the haul out. I know it is fresh water but it still needs to be hauled out once in a while.
  Sewer and greywater: can you dump over board where you want to live or are there pumpout stations you can reach? If not you have to get somebody to come to you to pump out.
  Sorry I do not want to be the bad girl here but I lived on my sail boat for 12 years and do know what problems can come up.

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• sage2123
  March 9, 2012, 4:40 pm

  So….what is the means of propulsion in this carbon neutral houseboat?

  Someone must be peddling pretty damn hard belowdeck.

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• Fred
  March 9, 2012, 7:24 pm

  20 tons of steel
  3000 punds of high batteries
  high tech solar

  Carbon Neutral ? Get serious.

  The amount of raw materials and petroleum that went into the making of this barge is immense – especially as it houses just a couple of people.

  Is it a nice achievement ? Yes of course. Is it a bluepring for how to lead a low energy level low environmental impact life.

  carbon neutral, green, sustainable = meaningless buzzwards to scam the clueless.

  It’s called entropy and it sucks. Rifkin wrote about it decades ago. Go read the book.

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• Fred
  March 11, 2012, 8:55 pm

  If you’re serious, here it is, 21 cents on amazon :

  http://www.amazon.com/Entropy-World-View-Jeremy-Rifkin/dp/0670297178

  Articles like this make me a little nuts – I like a clean environment as much as anyone, it just seems like people really have no concept of what scientific concepts underlie changing the way we do things. The buzzwords are all wrong, and if you start from the wrong starting point, you will never ever end up where you want to go.

  Nothing is ‘sustainable’, nothing is ‘carbon neutral’ – on the other hand rifkin’s concept of entropy underlying everything is something I read about in the 1980’s and it is arguably The Most Important Book/Concept I have ever read in my entire life.

  Creating order requires energy – any order, from picking up you socks to buidling solar panels. There is no free lunch – you live, the universe and this planet is degraded in the sense that concentrated usable forms of energy and raw materials becomes ‘used up’ and distributed as waste.

  If everything in the universe moves from order to disorder, the REAL question should then become, how do we get the biggest bang for the buck – because there IS NO FREE LUNCH, NO MAGIC SOLAR PANELS, NO ‘CARBON NEUTRAL HAPPY LAND – how can we get the most happiness, comfort and knowldge from the least amount of waste energy and resources – because there will ALWAYS ALWAYS be waste.

  That’s entropy – and that should be the core of the environmental movement, just like it is the core of the entire universe.

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  • Alex
    March 13, 2012, 1:25 pm

    Kind of like hybrid cars.. They get great gas mileage now but it took a lot more materials to create the car in the first place.

    I know this barge took a lot of resources to create and I think what’s meant by the ‘buzz words’ is that it does not require connection to power to use and run and that in itself is pretty amazing.

    Would it have just been easier/smarter/etc to get a sailboat? Probably. But I think it’s a pretty cool experiment. And if we don’t experiment, how do we discover new things?

    Another perspective for you to consider.

    Reply Link
• popo
  March 12, 2012, 12:24 pm

  I call B.S.

  Let’s talk about that bathroom? Where does the waste go?

  Reply Link

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