Protecting Electronics From Corrosion
One of the biggest concerns about building a floating home is corrosion. Seawater, humidity, and the constant exposure to both will corrode just about any metal that you put into this environment. Protecting steel is pretty straightforward with the use of epoxy paint to seal it from the elements. When it comes to electronics, it […]
Incinerator Heat Exchanger
Part of making a super-efficient home is finding ways to repurpose things that would otherwise be wasted. In this case, we will be repurposing the heat that is generated from our jet incinerator system. Since the incinerator system will generate quite a bit of heat when burning the waste, we decided to try to harness […]
Smart Jet Burner For The Incinerator Toilet
One of the challenges with developing the SeaPod is that it won’t be connected to a local grid so it can’t connect to a sewer system. Also, since the SeaPod will be floating in the ocean, we don’t have a yard in which we can bury a septic tank. This leaves us with a big […]
Discovering Panama (San Blas) – Part 4
Grant has finished up his day in the water and is exploring a beautiful, tiny island. The boat is moored up, the ocean laps gently on the sands of the island. The hammocks, palm trees and volleyball net only make the place more idyllic. Panama is well known for its amazing snorkelling and diving. From […]
Discovering Panama (Starfish In San Blas) Part 3
Grant’s day of adventure has led him into an area in the San Blas that is called a “Natural Bath” due to the warm, shallow, and calm waters. The water is only about waist deep so Grant can easily stand here with his toes in the sand.One of the coolest things about this tropical water […]
End Of Phase One Development
We are back at the factory for a very big day in the development of the SeaPod. We have spent nearly a year creating the molds that we will use to build the SeaPod and now that those molds are built, we no longer have a use for the plug that gave them their shape. […]
Discovering Panama (Diving San Blas) Part 2
Continuing on Grant’s day of exploration, we are back from the islands in San Blas, Panama. Grant is suited up and has his snorkeling equipment ready to go swimming with some of the local marine life, but before he jumps in, he has another update for us.One of the coolest things about not only being […]
Discovering Panama (San Blas) – Part 1
Recently on a very rare day off, Grant was able to take the boat out and do a little bit of exploring here in Panama. About 60 kilometers from the factory, he spent the day in the San Blas area which is made up of more than 300 small islands in the Caribbean Sea just […]
3D Scanning Physical Objects
Here we have Grant going over some new technology that we may be able to implement into our SeaPod production process. It is a cell phone based LIDAR scanner that is able to use light to scan an object and create a digital rendering of that object. Grant decided to do a quick test on […]
Incinerator R&D Production Facility
While we make quite a bit of the components for the SeaPod at the Ocean Builders Factory here in Panama, some things require a bit more than we can handle at the factory. One example of this is the components of the incinerator for the incinerator toilet. We are working with a fully sophisticated facility […]
Welding The Interior Core Of The SeaPod
We have been getting quite a bit of work done on our two SeaPod TriPod model bases here at the factory. In this video, we can see one of our welders making some welds on the interior of the core. This is a very important process in terms of giving the base the structural strength […]
Incinerator Starter Development
The jet incinerator toilet system in the SeaPod will be used to safely dispose of toxic solid waste by burning it until we are left with just a small bit of non-toxic ash. One of the important things to consider in a floating structure is efficiency. This means that keeping a pilot light burning in […]
New Factory Security Protocols
Here at the Ocean Builders factory, we have someone on the premises 24/7 working as a security guard or watchman. Since we have quite a bit of valuable materials like fiberglass and resin as well as plenty of tools that could be a target for theft, we like to keep someone here as a deterrent […]
Electric Turbine Engine Design
Omer Larrañaga Design, Technology
Today, Grant has a really exciting project to show us, energy-efficient steam-powered turbines. When thinking of steam power, many might conjure up notions of old, behemoth trains and factories, but steam power is by no means confined to the industrial age of the 19th and 20th centuries. The team here has developed a number of […]
Proportional Valve For Controlling Gas
The burners for the incinerator toilet are fueled by propane gas. Since this system will be fully automated, we needed a way to automatically operate the valves to control the flow of gas to the burners. We are back in the workshop with Omer who has built a prototype to show how this will function. […]
Shower Assembly Update
There aren’t many things about the SeaPod that most people would consider ordinary. We are pushing the boundaries everywhere we can and the shower is no different. While it would have been easier to install a simple knob-controlled shower that you would find in most homes, we decided to go beyond what is normal and […]
Solar Turbine Testing Equipment
One of the most important research and development projects that we are focusing on is the development of a solar-powered steam turbine. We have spent the last year and a half working on this project and we have encountered a few difficulties that required some problem solving. There are many people around the world who […]
Demo: Smart Desalination System
We are back with Omer who has a demonstration of the operation of our smart desalination system. This is the reverse-osmosis filtration system that will supply the SeaPod with clean and safe drinking water. The system is powered by a one-horsepower motor that supplies the power to the pump which pressurizes the system. Reverse osmosis […]
Drone Delivery Services
We are back with Connor in Panama at the site from which our delivery drones will operate. This is the bay where the first SeaPods will be deployed and this site in the video will act as the home base for the delivery drones. As you may have read in our previous article about the […]
Poop Separator
Omer Larrañaga Design
Here we have a video of two of our 3D printers working on some components of the poop separator for the incinerator toilet. The poop separator does exactly what its name implies, it separates the solid waste from the liquid waste.The liquid waste is strained out and goes into the blackwater system where it will […]