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Occupy New Haven Prepares Solar Heating System

Solar heating is scheduled to warm the Occupy New Haven site this week, while occupiers in other cold-weather climates winterize in different ways.

As observers wait to see if the occupy movement will engage the political process or remain blades of activism, some of the occupiers are winterizing their camps, with the Occupy New Haven (ONH) site preparing to greet the new year with heat.

“It’s a symbol to say, ‘Hey, we’re still here. We’re ready to get going in the spring,’” said one occupier who has worked to install a solar heating system on the ONH site but declined to be identified.  “If you can survive a New England winter, you can show your dedication to the cause." 

“It’s very common out west and in the northern states. In Minnesota, Maine and Vermont, people use these collectors,” the occupier, who lives off site, said. 

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To provide heat, the first of an expected four heat collector boxes now stands on the New Haven green.  The heat it collects will travel from the collector into an ONH tent—in this case, the common space that is the kitchen.

“On a really sunny day, you can see the heat rising from the outlet of the solar collector,” said Josh, an occupier from West Haven who lives on site. 

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He noted that the design for the ONH heating system is available at instructables.com.

Warm Weather in Winter

The system that is scheduled to begin operation this coming weekend is expected to raise the temperature inside some of the tents by 30 to 40 degrees above ambient air temperature from early morning through late afternoon, with the body heat of the occupiers inside expected to increase the heat even more.

On a day with a temperature of 30 degrees, then, the interior of an ONH tent should reach or exceed a comfortable 70 degrees. 

To maximize heat retention, the occupiers plan to paint the tents with southern exposure black.

In the western Pennsylvania city of Pittsburgh, the 25 to 30 persons determined to remain outdoors in an area the Occupy Pittsburgh movement calls People’s Park are relying upon insulated geodesic structures called hexayurts to forestall the fierce bite of winter.

Historically, the yurt is a structure used by nomadic tribes.

“It’s both a symbol and a tactic,” said Pittsburgh occupier Torry Seeley, who spoke from the city last week on a morning after he said the city had received a dusting of snow and, he hastened to add, plenty of wind.  

“Everybody wants to be heard right now,” said Seeley, who is a small businessman and spends two nights a week at the camp.  “Everybody is so incredibly frustrated.  They need to express themselves.”

He said that a friend had remarked that trying to organize the famously leaderless occupiers would be like herding cats.  Still, he said that corporate money in politics, which is a bête noir on the ONH site, seems to have offended the Pittsburgh occupiers more than anything else.

A Precedent in Buffalo

And in Buffalo, N.Y., a city that typically sees two feet of snow in December but had a green Christmas this year, the Occupy Buffalo movement also plans to use the geodesic dome—this, hung with insulated curtains—to shelter the occupiers who plan to stay outdoors through the notoriously snowy Buffalo winter.  

Last fall, John A. Curr III, who serves as the western regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, brokered the agreement between the city of Buffalo and the occupiers that permits them to have, at present, 52 tents on city-owned property called Niagara Square.

Curr said last week that an Occupy Buffalo committee is still working with the city to determine how to keep the occupiers warm in a way that is safe and in compliance with city codes.

“I have a cold,” said one occupier on the ONH site Christmas day, explaining why he was still wearing festive pink and green flannel pajamas in the early afternoon.

The heat that is scheduled to begin warming the ONH site this week should help him dispense with that, although all occupiers who plan to remain outdoors seem resigned to the rigors of winter.

“We have homeless people all over the world, ” said Occupy Pittsburgh’s Seeley.  “Their humanity lives without homes for a number of years.”   

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