I thought it might be a good idea to look back on what we have accomplished this fall. First we finished the outside stucco work with a finish coat of lime putty and sand and had topsoil delivered which we raked, rolled and seeded.
We started the inside stucco work spraying the slip on the inside of the bale walls.
How much (useful) energy can you derive from rain falling from your roof? How can you best capture wind energy with many small wind turbines? Are there other options for using solar energy besides PV’s and solar hot water heaters? What are some other small options anyone could use that have cumulative benefits and are easy and cheap to install?
It’s a thought I had the other day when considering energy production for our house in the future. While on the road for my job I passed by an off-grid (even though the grid was 100 feet away) 3000+sf home with solar hot water, solar PV panels and a 100′ tall 3 or 5 KW wind turbine. It was massive and made the property seem very out of place next to smallish 1400-1800sf bungalows all around it. I decided that one large scale device to provide all or nearly all of my energy needs was not a route I wanted to take. I started doing mental calculations and plans to incorporate many small unobtrusive energy production devices into our house and land. We have a hectare so we have some room to play with and it is a former farm field so can plan around future trees, wind rows, etc…
Recently I began a new career with the Provincial Government of PEI. I had been with the Fire Marshal’s Office as a building inspector and quite enjoyed my job and coworkers. An opportunity came up to become part of the new Office or Energy Efficiency and I jumped at the chance! The position was Energy Programs Officer and the description of the job was:
The purpose of this position is to assist in the development and implementation of energy efficiency programs delivered to Island homeowners and businesses. The Energy Programs Officer will also provide information and advice on appropriate energy efficiency techniques and technologies utilized in the residential and commercial/institutional building sectors.
I have been a lurker here on The Sietch for a couple years ever since I started thinking about alternative building and alternative energy and began seraching the net for any and all information on the issues. Recently my wife and I have taken the plunge and settled on a house plan, design and philosophy. We are building a smallish (<1200sf) two story strawbale home using a hybrid stickframe technique and unique passive solar design. Our main source of active heating will be from an EPA woodstove and standing deadwood from the family woodlot. This dry seasoned wood has been propped up in the woods since Hurricane Juan made the marathon trek up to Atlantic Canada and devasted many of our non hurricane environemnt trees. We are hoping to build a house that is comfortable, inviting, low consumption and built to last while using local and low pollutant causing materials. And we hope to inspire and educate others by hosting free informational and hands on workshops to those interested in learning and helping us out all along the construction process, and as we are building 95% of the house ourselves, the help will be needed!
We have also committed ourselves to a few sub-projects that we are going to try and perfect and implement into our house such as a chest fridge (some of you may be familiar with Tom Chalko’s example from his page and as reported on Treehugger.com) with a custom rack system to make the low chest orientation easier to deal with. We are also going to be using some reclaimed glazing units from a local office building construction site that were being discarded as they were ordered the wrong size. Finally I am working on some convenience projects for my Dad’s off grid cabin such as a water ram pump to bring up water from a nearby stream and a solar water heater for dishwashing purposes.
Our second longterm goal is to raise organic vegetables and perhaps goat and/or sheep on our 3 acre lot along with apples, pears, plums and peaches and setup a food sharing cooperative with the local rural community. There are already hobby scale meat chickenand duck producers in the neighborhood and some other veggie growers, we hope to expand the idea so that by sharing what you grow you get to sharing in everyone else’s harvests and thus have fresh local seasonal food most of the year.
Finally, we want to eventually quit our day jobs and open a campground/nature retreat and teach people about growing their own food, respecting nature and thinking about the connected systems of the earth that connect all we are and do.
I hope my contributions make a difference to some few people out there!
