getting
free of governments and corporations - mostly on buildings
The other day, I pointed to technology
that is fast developing and capable of making (some) individuals free
of the oil companies for transport.
Today, I refer to another move to independence - innovative
building materials that are far cheaper and more effective than much of
the poor standard build methods presently used in the UK.
Are the government serious about ecology or are they
more interested in control and bribes from corporations?
buildings
from straw, newspaper and concrete
 “The
StrawJet harvests straw in the field before it has been crushed or damaged,
orients the stems so they are all parallel, adds a clay based binding
material, compresses the bundle and binds it into a continuous length
of 2 inch cable using a polyester yarn. Once the clay has dried, the
cable becomes a rigid cylinder.“
—
“Completed Wall Structure
“Walls can be built up using different materials to meet specific
design requirements. The example at the left shows a wall with vertical
straw columns and horizontal members from Jerusalem Artichoke. Also
shown is a conduit to carry electrical wires and / or plumbing.”
[Quoted from greeninventor.org]
“I built a building 14' X 14' using a mixture of newspaper and
portland cement. I want to build another with added chopped straw to
the mixture for strength and to expand the mix. I live in Southern Oregon
and have had no problems with mold or structure problems after 1 year.
The roof is sheetmetal that is at least 16" past all walls. The
building cost about $300. All the newspaper was free. The acrylic paint
was $10. Most of the cost was sheetmetal.” [Quoted letter to from
treehugger.org]
“Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S.
dependence on foreign oil.
“So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent
$1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil.
He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30
percent more than diesel would cost.
“His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels:
a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes.
“He's been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal
government.
“And to legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he
would have to first post a $2,500 bond.” [Quoted from charlotte.com]
near
zero-consumption houses
Interesting
house construction for near zero energy consumption and it doesn’t
even have photovoltaics.
Sample pricing
ARC3232
This house has a floor area of about 2000 sq feet. The kit price is $60,000.
Homes are shipped via tractor-trailer at a cost of approximately $1.55-1.85+
per truck per mile. Mileage is measured from Raleigh, NC to your site.
Most homes fit on 1 or 2 trucks. The customer pays the freight company
for shipping upon delivery. Delivery is free for homes built in North
Carolina.
The total finished cost of the home depends on your tastes in finishing
materials, how much (if any) work you do yourself, and labor costs in
your area. Expect your total home cost to be approximately 3-4 times
the kit cost. [Of course,] Specific site costs, such as land purchase,
blasting, or well drilling are not included in these estimates. [Quoted
from enertia.com]
Now where can I get a house built to these standards,
at this cost, in Europe?
using
homes to generate electricity
“ [...] The south-facing glass side of the structure captures
the winter sun, but during the summer the sun is high enough in the
sky so that the rooms don't heat up.
“The building, a so-called positive energy house, actually produces
more energy than its residents need -- it's essentially a tiny power
plant. The solar panels on the roof produced almost 9,000 kilowatt-hours
of electricity in the first year. Subtract the structure's own power
usage along with heating costs and there's still a surplus of around
2,000 kilowatt-hours left over. The monthly expenditures of €100
for electricity and heat are more than offset by the €400 in revenue
the solar panels bring in.
The key point is that the family can actually make money with its energy-efficient
way of living. And it doesn't require spending winter evenings reading
by candlelight or taking only one warm shower a week. But such homes
remain the exception in both Europe and America. Most of the 17 million
houses and apartment buildings in Germany spend some 30 percent of their
total energy use just heating rooms and water. This also happens to
be where most of the savings potential lies." [Quoted from spiegel.de]
Low-energy houses can get by on 7 litres of fuel
oil per sq m [psm]. Old buildings (most) can eat 50 litres psm.
“In Germany the big [generating] firms -- RWE, E.on, EnBW and
Vattenfall -- have carved up the territory. They set the industry's
agenda and they are betting on large power plants that require vast
quantities of water for cooling and an expensive long-distance power
grid requiring lots of maintenance.
“Smaller plants that service end customers in urban centers are
far more efficient. Such co-generation plants are usually fired by gas
and are normally located close to the customers who use the power --
hospitals, schools or industrial facilities. They are also able to provide
both electricity and warmth at the same time." [Quoted from spiegel.de]
 do-it-yourself
heating
“I decided instead to take advantage of the south-facing side
of the garage and build a solar furnace to collect some of that sunshine
just bouncing straight off my garage.” [Quoted from blog.hemmings.com]
“Taking advantage of a wall that faced toward the south on his
garage exterior, Daniel Strohl stacked soda cans in coluns inside of
a box, after drilling them out.
“Then, this dude painted the cans black for maximum sun absorption
and arrayed them as columns, sort of how your regular air heater would
work.
“A whole lot of caulking later, he had something that looked
like the figure above- to which he attached an air hose to feed into
his garage. Using this message he was able to get an 80 degree heat
differential, which ain’t shabby.” [Quoted from myninjaplease.com]
However, note from the original
page:
“I determined the intake air temperature, which should have been
the same as the ambient air temperature, to be about 80 degrees. Using
the same equipment and methods, I determined the outlet temperature
to be about 95 degrees - thus a 15 degree temperature differential.
Not 110 degrees, but not bad [...] ”
related material
Distributed energy
systems and micro-generation
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