In recent years we purchased a manual grain mill and began purchasing locally grown grains. Milling our oats for breakfast, grains for homemade bread and pasta, etc, rather than purchasing packaged goods with a large carbon footprint.
We're not lazy, but after a few months of milling, we motorized the mill. We added a sewing machine engine (750W) and a worm reduction gear box (ratio 30), which reduces the revs while increasing the torque. This makes the mill much more inviting to use.
Currently, I'm learning about permaculture through PermacultureKernow.org.
The personal audit questions are a particularly valuable excercise for me and I have permission to share them.
Begin with creating a mind map for the resources used for your household. (i.e. food, water, clothes, heating...)
Then add the resources and suppliers you currently use. (i.e. municipal water, electric company, grocery store...)
Next, add your ideal resources for living a more regenerative lifestyle. (i.e. roof water harvesting, vegetable garden, solar panels...)
What change have you made that you are most pleased with?
Is there a change that you can easily make towards your regenerative lifestyle goal?
What goal do you find most challenging?
legend
I: insulation
I1: roof
- Doubled roof rafters (glue and screw)
- Reused old insulation from walls/ceiling (keep vent space) - removed horizontal eave flashing
- Closed eave space between rafters (keep mice out) - reused old wall/ceiling plasterboard to finish
I2: wall
- Removed old plasterboard and insulation
- Removed old plumbing and electrical wiring
- Drilled ventholes 1/2" at top ringbeam between all 2x4 - covered any holes with 1/4" galvi mesh ("landscape cloth") - put full layer of 1/4" mesh against 2x4 beams, overlapped to floor and ceiling
- Put nails in floor to grab first layer of bales - installed bales with some plaster on mesh side - applied light anchors to 2x4 from 3rd layer up (wire, screw and landscape pin)
- Finished with plaster (water, lime, sand)
I3: Ring beam basement & garage
- Insulated wood ring beams/rim
(wood has more heat loss than mason blocks)
S: stove
S1: Valve (brick) to regulate heat to chimney
S2: Fire chamber with double 3/4" copper pipe (yellow)
S3: side pocket intended for drying and some baking. Chimney was reused from old burner, moved from side of house (double wall stainless 6"inside- 8"outside diameter). Stove is placed central to the house for efficiency.
Heat to rooms over the garage is by a parallel 3/4" copper line (convection of hot water), through reused heating element (3/4" copper pipe with aluminum cooling fins). The pipe is placed parallel to the 3 central beams, air moves by convection between the floor beams over the garage (gentle radiant floor heating without water).
The copper lines allow safe passage of heat through a fire wall. The floor heating also serves as a dump line for excess heat from the stove/boiler
The space above the basement (kitchen etc) is warmed by radiant heat from the mason stove.
H: hot water
H1: Cold water sags toward stove, rises by convection (circulates without pump/ thermovalve).
H2: Hot water line 1/4" inside diameter feeds kitchen & bathroom (faster flow: short lead time, less heat loss, cleaner line).
To insulate the roof we:
reused old insulation from walls/ceiling,
doubled roof rafters (glue and screw)
placed 2 layers R12 fiberglass (comparable to strawbales)
keep airgap to roof ply (vent moisture)
block critters coming from eaves (scrapyard flashing with vent holes)
reused old plasterboard to finish
2. For the wall insulation we:
removed old plasterboard & insulation
removed all electric wiring and plumbing
drilled ventholes (1/2")at top ringbeam between all 2x4
covered any holes with 1/4" mesh against mice
put full layer of mesh against 2x4 beams, overlaps to floor and ceiling
put nails in floor for first layer of bales
installed bales with some plaster on mesh side
applied light anchors to straw bales from 3rd layer up for stability (wire, screw and landscape pin)
finished with lime plaster (sand, lime, water)
insulated ring beam in basement & garage
Many types of organic seeds can be sprouted. Some favorites include: fenugreek, alfalfa, mung bean, broccoli, chinese cabbage, onion, wheat, adzuki, radish, red clover, green pea, and chickpea.
Add 1 Tbsp sprouting seeds to a clean jar, cover seeds with purified water, cover jar with cheesecloth and secure with a rubberband, soak overnight.
Pour out water through the cheesecloth and set near a window. Rinse the seeds through the cheesecloth 2 times a day, using purfied water.
Sprouts should be ready to eat within 2-9 days depending on the seed type. Top your soups, salads, toast and stir-fries with fresh sprouts.
Our first system used a 3/4" pipe in the stove, 1/2" pipe thru the pump and lower coil (closed loop) in the hot water tank.
The improvements we made on our second attempt:
We replaced the previous water pipe with a continuously sloped 3/4" pipe to 3/4" tank connections allowing for minimal resistance, easy air vent and drain (for maintenance). (See blue flex line from bottom (cold), thru double pipe in fire chamber, to red (hot) at top.)
Pros:
+ Increased flow avoids steam and voids the need for electric (pump/sensor/power).
+ Better flow and the double pipe improve the heat transfer to the tank.
+ We have radiant heat under the bathroom floor as a byproduct of limiting the excess heat in the tank. (See silver flex lines; the yellow line in the background is the Temp/Press overflow dump line that kicks in around 90C.)
We found it optimal to:
* Build the stove central in the basement.
* Install the hot water tank near the stove, kitchen & bathroom.
* Install the solar system (battery) nearby to protect it from frost.
When we heat our house, we also heat water through the mason stove using a 3/4" copper pipe. Circulation to the boiler is activated at 70 degrees Celcius through a bi-metal switch. (The water needs to be above 60 degrees Celsius to avoid condensation in the fire chamber.) The pump only switches on intermitently when the water in the stove is hot enough to contribute to the hot water tank--minimizing energy use. We have a mixing valve on the tank for safety to mix hot water from the boiler + cold feed water.
We optimize our hot water use using 3/8" OD copper pipe and insulation for the kitchen, shower, and bathroom sink--all branched from a single 3/8" pipe. The water travels 4 times faster than using a 1/2” ID pipe. The shower heats up 4 times quicker and the pressure reduction is negligible for our 1 GPM showerhead.
We are sharing our solar schematic for DIYers interested. When the battery is nearly full, an auxilary 12V switch (from the MPPT) activates a relay to dump surplus energy into the hot water solar tank. This allows us to optimize our solar intake.
Sometimes a wheelbarrow stacked with firewood can become a bit unwieldy on a slope. My husband shares his schematics in this blog. The cart has a welded frame (angle bar carbon steel) and 26" heavy duty wheels that are flat-free. It suits the purpose well and is super easy to handle. Feel free to use these schematics to build your own cart. Let us know if you make any improvements!
Some of the best advice we've received is to make our house the way we want to live. So the living room is becoming our tea-room and our dining room is becoming our dojo.
We have removed the sheetrock and stapled 1/4" mesh to the studs. My husband installed bucks around the windows and sliding doors. We removed the brick chimney because it was in questionable condition. We replaced it with an upcycled double paned glass door--which makes a lovely picture window.
Our next steps are to plaster the bales, weld a wood burning stove, construct a warming bench, finish the ceiling, revise the lighting and enjoy.
You can get a snapshot of your energy usage with a plug-in kW meter to check each of your electric appliances. Running fewer high energy appliances simultaneously will lessen the peakload.
If you have solar panels, put them to optimal use when its sunny.
A heat pump or a solar collector connected to your hot water tank converts summer heat into hot water.
A mason stove provides heat for cooking, warmth and hot water (for showering).
We had poured the footings for the posts last autumn. Old glass doors were installed with a chainfall to enclose the greenhouse. My husband wired the pv panels during the spring. The greenhouse blocks the summer sun and invites the winter sun—which passively cools and heats the house.
We are in the beginning stages of adding a greenhouse to the south-facing side of our home. The addition will serve two purposes: as a gardening space and a buffer from extreme temperatures. We collected used windows and glass doors and based their measurements for planning the footing locations of the addition. We dug 36” deep x 9” wide holes for the post footings. Then dropped in rebar and 36” x 8” cardboard tubes into the holes before pouring in ready mix concrete. We welded 1” threading onto the rebar (so that the posts can be adjusted if necessary). One set of footings are for the roof overhand support. The other set of footings will frame the doors and windows of the greenhouse.
We removed sheetrock from the ceiling joists by finding the nails with a magnet and pulling out the nails. We used a sheetrock jack to hold the sheetrock as we removed it from the ceilings. We moved the insulation from between the ceiling joists in the attic up to the underside of the roof between the rafters. Then we screwed the sheetrock onto the rafters, before we spackled and sanded the joints and primed and painted the sheetrock.
Straw bales have an insulation value of R35-R50, depending on the bale size and the direction that they are stacked.
We started by finding the nails in the existing sheetrock with a magnet and removed the nails. Then we removed the sheetrock from the walls. We used a drywall jack to remove the sheetrock from the ceiling. (We reused the sheetrock by nailing manageable sized sections to the rafters.) We drilled small holes in the ring beam along the exterior facing walls to vent air behind the bales. Then we meshed the holes and stapled 1/4” metal mesh on the studs and joists to keep mice out of the bales. We screwed wood bucks around the windows and meshed the bucks and pinned the edges of the mesh to the bales with landscape pins.
Our lime plaster mix: 1 part water, 1 part hydrated lime, 3 parts sand, 1-2 handfuls of chopped straw. We chopped straw with a streamer in a clean bin.
We plastered the back sides of the bales and stacked the bales against the mesh—this helped the bales to stick to the mesh and protects the bales. We stacked the bales in a brick format and anchored the bales to the studs using landscape pins in the bales with wire screwed to the studs. After filling the gaps between the bales with loose straw, we trimmed the bales using a streamer to level the surface before plastering. We plastered a full coat over the bales and let it dry before filling areas to level the surface. Our full final coat did not include chopped straw. We circulated air in the room and allowed a week to dry.
Mesh and window buck
Bales in brick format and dry wall jack
Final coat of plaster
Wash laundry with 1 cup of borax or baking soda per load.
Reduce fading by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to your wash.
Treat stains with salt, vinegar and sunshine before laundering.
We’ve connected irrigation pipes to the rainwater catchers to irrigate the vegetable gardens. The piping is connected with t’s to multiple junctions with y splits to connect hoses. The irrigation is gravity fed since the gardens are downhill from the rainwater catchers.
This system is made with used 6-inch metal ducting, metal t’s, two 6-inch fans, a 3 speed switch and galvanized metal straps. It is effective and energy efficient. Drawings are available upon request.
My husband welded a sustainable stove from carbon steel sheet metal. The stove is essentially a box within a box. The suspended installation is connected to the kitchen chimney section. Heat is provided from the masonry stove in the basement which travels up the chimney, circulates around the inner box of the kitchen stove and then exits through the top of the chimney. This has increased the efficiency for heating and cooking and uses less firewood. Stove drawings are available upon request.
