Appropriate Technology

APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION TO APPROPRIATE
TECHNOLOGY
• Questioning Technology
What is technology?
• Technology has improved the human condition in many
ways —longer life spans, higher standard of living, and
increased mobility and communication.
• New technology tends to be accepted as “progress,” as

the key to society’s problems and a better future, but the
impact of technology is never neutral.
• Technology is spreading to emerging markets faster
than ever before
• The technology lag is decreasing
• New technologies are entering developing
countries and “leapfrogging” over older
technologies (i.e., cell phones)
• We need to consider not only the usefulness
of technologies but also their impact on the
environment, health and society.
• For example, the usefulness of a car is
obvious, but many of the costs are not so
obvious.
• To manufacture a car:
 metals have to be mined and processed
 plastics need to be made from oil, and rubber
processed from trees.
 all the components need to be transported around
the world to a factory, where cars are assembled.
 Before the car is even on the sales lot, the
environment has been impacted in many ways.
 Moreover the fuel that the car uses during its
operation is harmful to the environment
• We need to ask, “Is this technology
necessary?”
• What is the purpose of this item?
• What are some possible problems with it?
(e.g., what impacts can’t we see? What was
left out or ignored?)
What is appropriate Technology
• Appropriate technology (AT) is technology that is designed to be "appropriate" to
the context of its use.
• Appropriate technology is small-scale technology. It is simple enough that people can
manage it directly and on a local level. Appropriate technology makes use of skills
and technology that are available in a local community to supply basic human needs.
• Appropriate technology has been used to cover a wide range of both technologies
and lifestyles including sustainable living, alternative fuels, and ethical technology
transfers.
• A technology is considered appropriate if it solves a social problem without many
adverse negative effects.

The most appropriate technologies are:
• Sustainable - requiring fewer natural resources and
producing less pollution
• Small where possible (as in Small is Beautiful). This places
more power at the grassroots, in the hands of the users.
• Appropriate to the context, including the environmental,
ethical, cultural, social, political, and economical context. The
appropriate technology for one context may not be
appropriate for another.
E.F. Schumacher
• Coined the term Appropriate Technology.
• Based the philosophy of appropriate
technology on his experiences in developing
nations.
– He worked around the world as a Economist.
• His 1973 publication “Small Is Beautiful:
Economics As If People Mattered” outlined
Appropriate technology.
Goals for appropriate Technology
• Non-Violent / sustainable (no damage to the
environment)
• Renewable Sources of Energy
• Create Job opportunities
• Created locally
• Use Local skills
• Use local materials
• Simple, small scale Appropriate to the
community
• Low Cost
• Appropriate technologies are not necessarily "low"
technology, and can utilize recent research. High technology is
used in appropriate technology applications as well.
• Example, mobile phones have been utilized as a financial or
investment sector service, or as a market, weather, and health
information exchange mechanism.
Cost of systems and Solutions
• In traditional systems the initial building cost
/ cost of production is only 20 to 30 percent
of the total lifetime operational cost.
• Appropriate technology aims to increase this
to a high percentage as an aim is to make
systems that are low cost to operate and
relatively maintenance free.
Operational Costs
• What are the fuel costs?
• What are the repair and maintenance costs?
– Both monetarily & in Labor
• Fire wood Vs. Heating oil
Maintaining the System
• Monetary costs
• Material requirements
• Labor requirements
– Skilled or unskilled?
• Frequency of maintenance
Other Costs
• Environmental costs
– Pollution
– Environmental impacts
• Economic implications & Social costs
Areas of Appropriate Technology
Rural energy
• Efficient stoves : Rocket stoves, gasifier stove, efficient wood charcoal and electrical
stoves
• Solar: solar electrification, solar water heating, solar water still, solar water disinfection
• Biogas & Biofuel
• Water pumping: Wind water pumping , solar water pump, bike pumps, hand pumps,
rope pumps, ram pumps
Agricultural technologies
• Crop seeding and harvesting machines: few machines available and locally produced
• Maize shelling, milling machines
• Oil presses for sunflower, soya, essential
Low-cost building
• Rice and coffee husks and peat for brick burning: some use
• Hand brick press machines, concert mixing and concert pumping machine,
Transport
• Low energy vehicles : manual powered vehicles : animal powered vehicles
Appropriate technology for cooking
Biogas digesters
use manure, food scraps, and/or plant residues to create
methane gas that can be used for cooking. The digester also
creates a high-quality compost to be used for agriculture.
• Improved cookstoves can be very simply-made clay or metal
structures, which can improve the efficiency of burning solid fuels for
cooking and reduce the possibility of smoke inhalation and related
diseases. Rocket Stove
Fuel briquettes from
gasifier Stove
light Agrowaste
Appropriate technology for Preservation
• solar dryers
• Solar dryers are devices that use solar energy to dry
substances, especially dehydration of fruits and vegetables is
a promising food processing technology that increases shelf
life of products for almost a year.
Preservation
• Pot-In-Pot Refrigerator
Is a simple cooling system to preserve food in rural areas
with no electricity. The solution was a Pot-in-Pot refrigerator,
which relies on the concept of evaporative cooling. The
system works by putting a smaller clay pot inside a larger
one, separating the two by constantly moist sand.
Evaporation causes a cooling effect in the inner pot.
Tomatoes and peppers can last for up to 21 days (can’t even
get that to happen in convectional refrigerator!)
Water pumps
Treadle pump
The current (shown at right) is an effective means
of transporting water from low elevation to high
elevation. They work by having a person put their
weight on a lever, which pushes down on a piston
full of water
Rope pump attaching to the

Bike

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APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY

• New technology tends to be accepted as “progress,” as

the context of its use.

• Appropriate technology is small-scale technology. It is simple enough that people can

• A technology is considered appropriate if it solves a social problem without many

adverse negative effects.

Rope pump attaching to the

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