Downsizing into a renewable energy house

Starting Roofing

2009-06-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know it? No rain in the forecast, but it rained all night!!! And all morning!!! So I installed the roofing felt to protect the structure in the rain. Then, of course, it quit raining. So here is a picture of the house with the felt on and boards to keep it secure until the shingles go on.

Time to Roof

2009-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Glory halelujah! The framing, piers, siding and roof sheathing are done for the kitchen part of the house. Here are some pictures.

Here is the west side piered, framed and partially sided.

Here is the west side with the siding done, awaiting battens.

Here is the west side with the battens on.

Here is the north side showing the sheathing on. Next the roofing and then inside finishing. The outside dimensions are 14 1/2 foot by 14 foot, giving a square footage of 201.6 sq. ft. Plenty of living space.

Kitchen work

2009-06-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

A lot of progress has been made on the renewable energy house. The rough framing is almost done and some of the siding has been re-installed. Here are some pictures.

This view is from the north side facing the front of the house. The front wall and rafters are finished.

This view is from the north west showing the west wall framing.

This view is into the west doorway. It shows the kitchen area. The kitchen was only five and a half feet wide, which was far too confining. I removed the kitchen structure from the main part of the house and moved it out to seven feet wide. It will be much more usable now. Not bad so far for an ex-chicken house.
Winter Lake Research Center

New Hand Drilled Well

2009-06-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

One of the primary needs in a house, of course, is water. The renewable energy house must have its own water supply. This has been provided in the form of a hand drilled well. The well was drilled with a post hole digger. Here is the link to the page that details the process. These are instructions to drill your own well. Here is a link with more pictures of the demolition phase of the house. The demolition is finished and the rebuild has started.

Biomass stove, solar lights

2009-05-18T08:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the new biomass burner. You can read the instructions about how to make this style here. This type of burner is what will be used for cooking and water heating in the renewable energy house.

Lighting will be provided by several systems. For most lighting, solar power garden and flood lights will be used. These lights are surprisingly effective and they don't cost a foutune. Here is a picture of a couple styles. They come in a dizzying array of shapes.

Installation for these lights is simplicity itself. Just shove the stake in the ground in a place that gets full sun. Turn the switch on and put the unit in the stake. It charges all day. Take it iff the stake in the evening, turn it off and bring it inside. When you need light, turn it on. Very handy.
My web site is here.

Cooking facilities, lighting

2009-05-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have finished the biomass cooking stand. There will be two MIDGE stove units in it with exchangeable burners. To find out more about these stoves, google +"midge stove" and you will have a wealth of information. When I find my camera, (Arghhhh!) I will publish a series of pictures of how I make them. I have modified the standard design somewhat to be cleaner burning. I finished the experiment mentioned in the last post with the solar powered flood light. I am satisfied with the quality of light and length of time it runs, so I will definitely be incorporating some into the renewable energy house. It has been raining steadily here for over a week so there is not much I can do with getting the outside framing done.
http://www.winterlakeresearchcenter.org

Emergency lighting results

2009-05-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

I let the new flood light I mentioned in the last post charge up all day. When it got dark, I checked out its lighting qualities. Admittedly, it is not a big sodium vapor flood light.
However, for such a small, inexpensive unit, it puts out an astounding amount of light. I brought it inside and used it as a house light. It was entirely adequate for all lighting needs. The conclusion is that these lights can indeed be used as a cheap source of emergency lighting.

An inexpensive renewable lighting solution

2009-05-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had an idea that the little solar powered garden lights may be a good emergency lighting source. They are on a little spike that you just push into the ground. They have a little solar panel on top and one or more LED lights inside them. During the day, an internal set of batteries is charged up. At night, the unit senses the absence of light and turns on the light, using the stored energy. I will incorporate a system of these lights in the renewable energy house. The cheaper ones don't put out much light, but the more expensive ones can put out an astounding amount of light. The better ones have a switch to turn them off. So you can let them charge up during the day and bring them in at night, turning them on when you need them. Voila! Instant emergency lighting. Yesterday, my friend Don gave me a solar powered floodlight. I have been letting it charge up all day and will do a post on how much light it will do when I check it out after dark. The technology in these little lights is nothing short of phenomenal. The flood light has four AA batteries, which can be charged up by the sun and put in a wired six volt led system in a house and be used for all but the most demanding lighting needs. And the cost is only a few percent of the standard solar setup. Get the ones with a switch, so they can be turned off when not in use. You need at least two leds in each unit, but three or more really do the job. Also, the solar cells are larger and they have more battery capacity in them in the more expensive units.

Utility systems for Demonstration house.

2009-04-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of calculating and design work on the utility systems for the little house. These are the systems I decided to install. I have proven all the systems out and will optimize them in the little house.

Water: This will come mainly from a hand dug well. The water in the well has been tested chemical free, but since it is a shallow well, it must be assumed that there are little critters in it. Thus it will be heavily filtered before use. Potable water will be treated with an ultraviolet system. There will be gutters on the eaves leading to two barrels that will serve as cisterns for additional water supply in the winter. In the summer here, there is very little rain, so this is a winter only system. I will use a hand operated washing machine that I already use. Water is already pumped by hand, so it will continue to be done by hand until I get enough solar panels. I have the parts for a dual water heater, solar/biomass, so I will heat water with that.

Cooking: Cooking heat will be supplied by a wood cookstove made from an old washing machine and tin cans. I didn't invent this stove but I did some improvements to it to get it to burn more cleanly. I use this stove in my present kitchen. This neat little burner system burns its own smoke, so it can be used indoors. When I find my digital camera, (Arghhh!) I will put up pictures of it. In the meantime, if you want to know more about this cool little stove, google +"midge stove". You will have enough reading for a few hours. This stove will burn mostly twigs from the ground around the property. The trees shed them continually. For longer cooking, I will use wood pellets. They are denser and burn longer. They are made from sawdust, which is renewable and also a waste product.

Electricity: There will be three sources of electricity and three power busses in the house. The house will be wired for 120VAC, 12VDC and 5.5VDC. The 12 VDC and the 120VAC will come from the alternative powerhouse via solar. There is a 300 watt controller, a 400 watt inverter, batteries and a fifty watt solar panel in the powerhouse. I will add solar panels as I can afford them. I have been using this system for my laptop and larger lights for about six months now.
The 5.5 VDC bus will be powered in two ways. It will run LED tap lights that I use most of the time. This system is already in use in the main apartment. It is powered from two sources. One source is an antenna and ground system that uses the power from a small nearby, a half mile away, AM radio station. It can recharge a four pack of AA nicads every day, which will run the lights all night. It is not technically renewable and the station does go off the air occasionally, so I have another ground based system to help it along. Even though the radio system is not renewable, it is using waste energy, since the energy I capture would only be dissipated in other objects. It has absolutely no effect on other listeners. This radio station also runs speakers in the day time loud enough to be overpowering, especially during conversation, so I have them on a volume control. It runs the speakers at night, but just loud enough to listen to them comfortably. It also provides the power to run a tiny FM radio I got at the dollar store for a dollar. I simply charge up the 2 AAA nicads in the FM radio from the AM power and it gives me enough power to listen to the FM as much as I want. The ground based system was invented over a hundred years ago. It will power LED lights for all the light I need, but does not put out a large amount of power.

Heating will come from a small wood stove, Oregon approved, so there is very little smoke from this stove. It is a commercially made model.

Clothes drying: The simple principle of evaporation will be used for clothes drying. I sold my dryer in 1997 and have hung my clothes to dry ever since. It works quite well, if a bit slow. In a summer breeze, the clothes actually dry faster than in an electric or gas clothes dryer. And its free to boot!

I have not figured out refrigeration yet, but I did an experiment this year that proved to me that I don't really need it. So I may go without it until I come up with something workable.

So there you have an outline of the power and water systems the demo house will use. I am currently using most of these systems and they are very reliable. I will give more details as I progress on the project.

www.winterlakeresearchcenter.org

What I Wanted in my Renewable Energy House

2009-04-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

I now knew what I wanted to do with my new little house. I decided on some basic criteria. The house had to be efficient. It had to be convenient to live in. It had to have all the normal house stuff that we Westerners take for granted, such as good cooking facilities, indoor plumbing, bathroom, shower, electricity, etc. But there was a big catch. In keeping with the spirit of Winter Lake Research Center, all utilities, including electricity, cooking, heating and other utilities, had to be from renewable sources. The only exception is telephone service.
I have been living in the main apartment with renewable energy for about a year and a half now. About fifty percent of my current energy use is renewable and a further fifteen percent is alternative, in other words, unusual but not renewable.
I decided on a mix of solar, biomass and other exotic technologies. I wanted the house to be a full demonstration house to make a point. The point is: "See, it can be done on limited means".
Here are a few pictures of the house from April 3, 2009. It is gutted out and ready to be renewed. The square footage is 175 square feet.

www.winterlakeresearchcenter.org

Voluntary Downsizing

2009-04-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

This new blog is about my adventure of downsizing into a very small, off-grid, renewable energy house. I have lived in conventional houses most of my adult life. I did a little wandering in my younger years and lived in some very cramped spaces, such as the piano-like crate in Seattle. It was in a blackberry patch along the railroad tracks and nobody ever discovered I was living there. I had a wonderful time, but life eventually got its hooks into me and dragged me off.

I have always wanted just a little more house. There was a wife and three children and there just never seemed to be enough room. My wife was killed in a traffic accident and the children all grew up and moved out. I moved from where I was living with one child still a minor, to Oregon, where I currently live.

I bought a three story , burned out commercial building. Over two years of constant hard labor, my son and I renovated it. We built a shop, a three bedroom apartment and a store front all in this one building. It is still not finished, but quite livable. For a short time, I had enough space. Then my elderly mother moved in and brought all her stuff. It was fun having her here and getting to know her again, but she had a lot of stuff. Once again, not enough room.

Then my mother got ill and died. We distributed her stuff to my siblings and things got a little roomier. Then another relative moved in, who liked to collect stuff. Same thing, no room. Then the relative got married and moved out. Then my son got married and moved out.

At that point, it was just me and a three story building. Guess what? Too much stuff! No room to put it all! I was getting more than a little frustrated with the situation. Here I was, with more room than I had ever had, and it was crammed full. I couldn't find anything! I made a decision to fix the situation, so I made three rules (the only exceptions were tools):
Rule 1: Don't get anymore stuff, unless it is absolutely vital.
Rule 2: If I hadn't seen an item or used it within a year and a half, bye bye item.
Rule 3: Everybody elses stuff has to go away, now.

I began to burn loads of wood stuff, leftover lumber scraps, old rotted pallets, a big pile of brush.
Then I took all recycle stuff except project stock to the recycle center, newspapers, magazines, cardboard of all kinds.

Then I insisted to every one who had stuff stored at my place that they remove it post haste. There was a lot of resistance to that concept and some of the stuff just magically appeared on the sidewalks in front or their various living places. That process is almost done. There is only one pickup load of "other peoples stuff" left here and it will go away next week.

I then went through all my stuff and applied rule no. 2. That process is about three quarters completed. I sold, gave, donated, dumped, etc. all the stuff I would never use. I abandoned all the thousands of project that I wanted to do and just retained the ones for Winter Lake Research Center. That let me clear out a tremendous amount of just stuff, not needed stuff. I began to have some room to breathe again. I could find everything I needed and I could keep the place clean. Then I made a mistake. I had so much room, I put beds in the spare rooms to let people use in an emergency. Guess what? There are a lot of emergencies! Once again, no room!
So I closed the free hotel and took most of the beds out. I made an announcement at church that I had free beds and they disappeared quickly!

Once again, I had plenty of room. But I discovered something surprising. After I had disposed of most of my stuff, I now had too much room. I was only living in three rooms and there were seven rooms total. Plus I was beginning to have some extra room in the downstairs workshop.

I could see that I would be rattling around like a little dipper in a big water pail. I decided to move to smaller quarters. I began casting about how to do this. I really don't want to move away from this spot, but what to do? There is not much property here to build a small place and it is very expensive to build.

Ah-ha! All at once it hit me. I had just kicked the chickens out of their house. They had a fine house, but I didn't have time to properly care for them, so I gave them away. I decided to live in their old house. I did some measuring and it is only a hundred square feet smaller than the actual space I am using now. Problem solved! I just have to rebuild the chicken house into a people house! Since this post is way too long, I will break it up some. So goodbye for now.

www.winterlakeresearchcenter.org