Hello and welcome to "Eco-Hut". This page describes the building of low-cost, eco-friendly accommodation for a single person. It is designed to save energy, resources, and money. This means one can focus on truly important things, like philosophy, the love of wisdom.
My email is: kellyjones@naturalthinker.net
- Keep it simple and small. The simpler it is, the easier for one person to build and maintain. The smaller it is, the less materials, time, effort, and money is required to build. The simpler it is, the more conducive to meditation and an unfragmented mind.
- Many-purposes is cheaper, since less objects are required to look after. For example, a kotatsu is a heater and a table. A greenhouse lean-to on the north side of a house grows food, increases indoor warmth, and protects the skin of the house. A shelf can be a safety barrier. Wall cladding can be a noticeboard. Under-floor space can be storage space.
- Be self-sufficient in energy, water, waste, and food. This reduces your life-supporting efforts and costs.
- Think (DIY attitude). Use your own skills and effort. Use materials easily obtained nearby, like rocks, clay or sand, reeds, weeds, grasses. Reuse and redesign. Part of this long-term approach is balancing efforts of ongoing maintenance with the reusability of components at the end of their life-span. Do not reuse or recycle materials that are near the end of their life-span.
- Adapt. Take what is there as a guide, not an enemy. For instance: every building design ought to be different, to respond directly to local conditions of rainfall, frost, winds, bushfires, flood, cold pockets, and other inhabitants' needs and habits.
- Inspire, by being an interesting and thought-stimulating place to observe. It should be easy to use, and accommodate major life changes. It should not create psychological barriers, but bring inside and outside into the same sphere.
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My tips on saving money
I am strongly against the "common sense" but insane notion of investing in property as a major source of income. The result of this, is that accommodation costs most people twenty years of life slaving in an unedifying job merely to afford accommodation! How absolutely stupid.
Even one year of being mentally stressed and incapacitated for deeper thought, is a year lost forever. And such a life has demoralising effects on others, as well as oneself. You start telling others that you had no choice. You start blaming society, when it is your own choice to give in to this stupid system. So, I believe that investing in properties as a major source of income is one of the most powerful causes for the philosophical ignorance rampant in society today. Most people, if they have heard of any philosopher's name, haven't a clue what their ideas were, or, if they have, whether the ideas were valid or not. This is shameful, given that philosophical matters are about understanding the nature of Reality, and one's existence in relation to Reality. Not knowing Reality leads to disaster (Lao Tzu).
How to build cheaply
- Be rational, not emotional. Building a house is not the most important or expensive thing in your life. It is just a multi-functional shelter, not an ego-prop or living teddy bear. If a female is propelling the building process as owner, then she ought to be the one most fully engaged in the physical labour of building.
- Save money in high-interest savings accounts, instead of term deposits, because the former use compound interest paid more frequently. Start saving earlier rather than later. Don't touch the savings.
- Do your own conveyancing when buying land. This can save you hundreds of dollars in legal fees. A DIY kit will give you instructions.
- Research blocks of land thoroughly before buying. Talk to locals about the history of the area (e.g. floods, bushfires, historic photos, etc.). Records can be bought from the Land Titles Office, local council, power network, and water authority. Talk to the local council planning officer, for advice about building on a site (regulations and costs). Check the local fire station for bushfire rating of the block.
- Adapt tiny house building plans available for free, like the Zinn by Jay Shafter's Tumbleweed Tiny House company.
- Ensure quotes include GST.
- Don't be stressed about building. Take your time and you won't create a need for expensive remedies, like holidays or hospital treatment. If you work to a plan, including rests for recreation, with projects to work on every day, then the slowness of overall progress will be less noticeable, and you will be less likely to lose enthusiasm when faced with tougher tasks.
- Research building design and drafting. You can draw your own building plans for submission to council for planning and building permits, as long as they are as accurate and detailed as professional drawings. Have them certified by a professional draftsman, before submitting to council. You will still need to pay engineers for soil tests, structural items in the building design, wastewater design, and energy efficiency rating.
- Choose locally available tradesmen and materials, to save in transport costs.
- Use second hand or scrap items that have a long life-span, especially hardwood floorboards and wall cladding, tiles, and fixtures like taps, coat hooks, and furniture. Make your own timber window frames, then buy certified double-glazing units to fit inside.
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An ecological dwelling adapts to its local environment. My design responds to my site. The following section explores my local area, to show how my design developed as a direct response to it.
About Zeehan: The block is located in the small mining township of Zeehan (altitude 172m, population 728), a town on the West Coast Range in Tasmania. Winter averages are 3 to 11°C and 9 to 20°C in summer, with extremes of -4°C in winter and 40°C in summer. The annual rainfall is high, at 2.3m peaking in the long, cold winter. The latitude is 41°south, with summer days stretching to 16 hours. The main industries are mining (zinc, tin, nickel), and tourism. Land is cheap here, because new deposits are increasingly more difficult to find, causing mines to close and workers to move away immediately, and because of the remoteness and rainy, cold climate. Quarter-acre blocks sell for under $20,000K in 2013.
Here are some photos of the area, showing the changes over time:
| 1900 hospital | Post Office | Gaiety Theatre | 1945 CC16 train |
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2008 | Post office | Silent films | Special G16 |
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Mt Zeehan | Mt Zeehan | Bastyan Dam | Reece Dam |
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Spray tunnel | Old cemetery | Old cemetery | Old cemetery |
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Boarded section at Mariposa | Old smelter site | Sprayer room (silver, lead) | Burning Gorse |
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Aerial pic | Aerial pic | Aerial pic | Aerial pic |
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Links to other interesting photos
Some of my photos on exploring the area:
| Zeehan gym | Zeehan museum (Old Mining School) | Train at museum |
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| Rusting mining equipment | Another train | Pine tree behind museum |
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| Hilltop winze above the museum | Post Office | Pine tree |
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How I took a basic ecohut design, and adapted it to the site and local environment
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My block is flat, grassy, sandy-peat soil and 961sqm in size. There is one other building at the opposite side of the block, a residence about 200m away. There were three main items for the site design: (1) Improve water drainage owing to the heavy rainfall, (2) Prevent bushfire danger owing to the gorse on neighbouring crown land, (3) Treat greywater onsite. Here are some photos of the block in October 2013, after stormwater drains were cleared on the north edge.
| Southeast | South | West |
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| Heemskirk Rd | Front of block, north | Front of block, east |
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| Rear laneway and drains cleared | North end of block | West laneway drain partly cleared |
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The block is zoned "Rural Resources", with residential building as permitted at the discretion of council planning officers. This "discretionary use" meant a planning permit would cost more, and the building setbacks would need to be adjusted, since Rural Resources had a building envelope set back 20 metres from the front and rear boundaries. To apply that to my block would make building impossible.
When applying for planning and building permission, I enclosed my arguments in support of my building plans. An early version is provided here.
Other aspects included in the site design were: access, bushfire prevention, location of buildings, tanks, vegetation, site contours, water courses and drainage lines, waste, solar easement, and setback lines.
Below are several of the draft-stage drawings for the planning permit. Click on each for full size images (~1MB each):
| Site Layout | Building Layout | N & E Elevations | Mezzanine |
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I stuck to the timber stud-frame construction method, because it would be easy enough for me, and lightweight enough not to require a concrete slab. In my cold temperate, high-rainfall region, the stick frame would need to be raised off the ground to prevent rising damp, to prevent heat loss through the walls and roof, and still allow for natural ventilation in the very hot summers. Also, the greenhouse would require special consideration of ventilation, to prevent moist air building up inside the building.
Description of materials:
- Reinforced concrete piers (3:2:1)
- Structural timber: (a) F17 kiln-dried hardwood (PEFC Victorian Ash) for bearers, floor joists, wall bottom and top plates, studs, ceiling joists, rafters. (b) Ridge beam is F17 engineered laminated veneer lumber. (c) Verandah posts, rails, rafters and battens are greensawn Tasmanian stringybark (messmate) from selectively logged forests near Sheffield, air-dried for a couple of months before use. (d) Structural plywood for bracing walls.
- Recycled timber floorboards (E. obliquans), eaves blocks, shelves, kitchen cupboards.
- Recycled unused tiles in the shower, kitchen, and on steps.
- Zincalume corrugated sheet iron for roofing and external cladding.
- Clear Laserlite 2000 corrugated sheet for greenhouse cladding.
- Recycled polyester batts and pleated silver batts for insulation.
- New double-glazed windows, casement style, with internal flyscreens.
- Glass blocks were bought new because all the tip shops had broken ones.
- Second-hand furniture, e.g. writing bureau, cushions.
- Water-based paints.
- New 450L pump well from Everhard.
- New Ecolet NE Slimline from Ecoflo in Banyo, Qld.
- New Bosch Hydropower 13H gas hot water unit.
- New solar hot water unit, evacuated tubes close-coupled to heat-exchanger tank, from SolarOz.
- All doors are external, solid 35mm, bought new, including two glass-panelled.
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During my adult life, I've relied mostly on passive heating, like sealing off air inlets in buildings, heavy curtains on windows, and occupying the sun-facing rooms of a building. In winter, I tend to use small personal heating devices, and will continue to use these in the ecohut: USB typing gloves, hot water bottle, hot drinks, kotatsu (using a reptile heater cord of about 50W), warm clothing, and being active.
For hot water, I plan to use an evacuated-tube, close-coupled solar hot water system that couples the evacuated tubes to the storage cylinder, with a heat exchanger within the storage tank mounted on the roof. In winter, this will be boosted by a hydropower L.P. gas heating unit, that is ignited by water pressure. I decided to connect to the mains water to provide enough pressure for the water into this system. Drinking water is collected from the roof and stored in 10,000L poly tank. In future, I'd like to build a cordwood sauna that could also act as an indoors clothes-drying room, guest bedroom, and food-drying room.
Here is a kotatsu:
Cooling is simple for the ecohut: open windows to create a cross-flow of air. Cooling of food happens using a 35L 12V Waeco refrigerator.
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By regulation, the minimum water storage for a rural residential site of 1000sqm in Tasmania is 10,000L, if they are not on "mains" supply. This is for defending the property in a bushfire. As I am also connected to mains water, with a hydrant across the road, it is not legally necessary for me to have the fire-fighting water tank, but it is there as a back-up in case of mains pressure failure. So there are two 10,000L poly tanks, one for fire-fighting, one for drinking and gardening, and the fire tank must have a metal skirt to shield it from grass fires.
Water tanks for use in bushfire prone areas can be poly (no longer necessarily metal or concrete), but no poly pipe connections are permitted exposed above ground, as these can easily melt in the approach of a fire. Also, tanks are to be placed on the fire-side of the house, as with all wet areas like gardens, greywater absorption / evaporation trenches, orchards, dams, etc.
A fire-fighting truck needs to get within 3 metres of the water tank, and the tank outlet must have specific 2" Storz fittings (see the Tasmanian Fire Service website for details). Tanks need to be placed on a concrete slab or a stabilised gravel bed, and the overflow from the tank piped away from the tank base.
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Water is pushed by mains pressure to the evacuated hot water cylinder on the roof, which thermosiphons and feeds down into the shower, kitchen sink, laundry tub and hand basin. In winter, I can turn a valve allowing mains water to the gas hot water unit, which ignites on water pressure, such that hot water from the gas unit will then enter the solar evacuated tubes and then enter the shower (etc.). Wastewater drains via kitchen grease trap and laundry lint filter into a 450L pump well, then is pumped up to a raised modified greywater bed of 10 metres in length, 2 metres in width, and about 60cm high. There is no effluent disposal but rather humanure is collected in the Ecolet NE Slimline composting toilet, which has two buckets that take about 2 months to fill. When filled, an empty bucket is swapped in, while the full bucked sits for 2 months, then is composted onsite in a worm farm, to be later used as fertiliser on fruit trees.
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I aim to generate no pollution. This means, if I buy things packaged in metal, plastic, glass, paper or whatever, then I need to find a long-lasting use for the packaging. Not to mention, to ensure the item is long-lasting itself. To reduce waste, I aim to buy bulk food in reusable sacks, go fishing instead of buying tinned fish, preserve fruit and vegies in glass jars, and not to buy things in unrecyclable plastic packaging.
All food can be composted, including digested food. Food scraps can go into a worm farm, while humanure is composted after being shat into a dry composting toilet. There is a special mix of enzymes and sawdust that go into the composting toilet with humanure. To aid in helping the humanure dry out, I don't pee into the toilet, but dilute it 1:10 and pour it onto trees as one of the first tasks of the morning to avoid ammonia being generated. The composting toilet room needs to be maintained at a temperature of 18°C, and then the batch sit at the same warm temperature for a couple of months, before being further converted by worms. When ready, it is mulched around fruit trees and vines, like apples, berries, pears, etc.
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The hazards for the Zeehan block are: bushfire.
The key problem for the site was to have a 14 metre fire buffer all around the building, when the block was only 20 metres wide. This led to needing to have a formal, written agreement with my neighbours on both sides; being Crown Land, I had to lease both blocks of Crown Land. This entailed paying a lot more money than I had imagined would be part of the ecohut project. In addition to crown lease fees of $220 per year, were legal fees for the crown solicitor to draw up the lease (almost $700), and annual council rates (approximately $330 for each block), and quarterly water authority charges for the water mains (about $400 per year for each block) despite never connecting the water mains. 3-6 months after the lease was approved, there would also be revaluation fees ($150 to $300) and probable increase of the lease. If this seems unfair to you, it is because it is unfair. But Crown Land doesn't clear fire hazards on their land in Tasmania neighbouring residential housing, unless the housing was there before there was a fire hazard.
I gained the BAL of 12.5 through the Crown Lease. Bushfire-related changes to the design included choosing fire-resistant timber for the deck, flyscreens on all windows, an ember-proofing skirting to the lower perimeter of the greenhouse, and using Laserlite 2000 for the greenhouse cladding.
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When I registered as an owner builder in 2014, I was required to do two courses: one for building management, and the other to obtain a "white card" showing an understanding of safety issues. In late 2016, changes to the building industry were announced, making it far more difficult for owner-builders to get building permits, since their work is now classified high-risk and therefore more expensive to undertake.
In 2014, to obtain building permits, I had first to obtain a certificate of compliance from my private building surveyor, to indicate the building plans meet federal and state building codes. To register as an owner-builder, the building surveyor submitted my registration form, along with building trade levies, to the state authority. Then I was granted permits by the local council, including a building permit, planning permit, plumbing permit, and special plumbing permit for the greywater bed.
All these permits, certificates, registrations, and so forth, cost me a lot of money.
When permits have been granted, I then had to submit forms relevant to different components and stages of the building, e.g. "start work", to show to council their works are approved by the building surveyor. The plumber submits his or hers to the council. There are many of these forms. The building surveyor inspects progress at least three times during the building: once to check foundations, before concrete is poured; once to check framing is according to current Australian Standards, before enclosed by cladding; and once at the end of the build to certify completion, which is a formal end to the process and approved by the council.
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The structural timbers, foundations, and bracing, had to be specified by a structural engineer. Most of the construction detail I gleaned from books like Allan Staines' series of books for owner-builders, information from a Construction Technology unit studied at Curtin University, books and videos on woodworking skills, roof construction, Klaus Zwerger's book on wood joints, and the like.
I had some trouble in a few structural details, that were actually the fault of the structural engineer. He specified dimensions for a ridge beam at 170 x 35mm. Note: A ridge beam cannot be cut and joined, but must be a single length, or else it has to be very carefully supported. However, the dimensions specified indicate a ridge board, not beam. A ridge board may be cut and joined. So, when I ordered the timber, and was told the full length of 11 metres was not available, I decided I could cut and join two timbers at the half-way mark using a zig-zag splice within a fish-plate. This is a very solid join. However, because it is not technically permitted by Australian Standards, I had to go back to the structural engineer (the original one having left by then), to get a new design solution. The new engineer specified a supporting pole with struts, which blocked the ladder entrance to the mezzanine, so I offered a design of two poles and struts, like a door frame, with the ladder slotting in between. Another end-strut was also required, and the supporting posts had to go down to rest on floor joists directly adjacent to concrete piers. A lot of fuss that could have been avoided with better dimensions by the first engineer!
Another issue I encountered was lintel construction, where I needed to add more bearing support and ensure laminated timbers were end-on.
Another issue was that the original rung ladder design was vertical (at 90° to the horizontal) which, while permitted by Australian Standards, is not the safest option. There were a few issues with the design, that the building surveyor had passed, that I later discovered were not legal. So I altered the design to create a step ladder with hand-rail, at 70° to the horizontal, and added tread support to the rebated treads.
Following are some photos of construction, starting with a garden shed slab, and levelling the crown land by hand (pitchfork, shovel and wheelbarrow). Periods with no photos mean I am slowly working at projects on site, dealing with illness, working off-site at various jobs, or discontented by the appallingly and unusually long, wet winter of 2016.
| 2 Nov 2014: Garden Shed slab after 21 days' curing | Levelling crown land by hand |
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| 12 Nov 2014: Garden shed | 22 Nov: Site levelled and 42 pier holes bored |
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| 22 Nov 2014: Excavator loading onto truck | 25 Nov: Corrugated pad forms 450mm dia x 200mm ht |
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| Pier forms, 200mm dia x 1330mm. Dog mesh and plastic sandwich |
Mesh cylinders on bases, showing how piers sit above pad forms |
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| 26 Nov: Emptying holes of water: muddy work |
9 Dec: Hurdles erected to suspend reobar, plastic bag hole liners and formwork |
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| Work bench | 26 Dec: volunteer workers Alan and Bery |
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| 26 Dec: foundations finished | 9 Feb 2015: wood shed framing |
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| 15 Feb 2015: Rest of the site levelled | 15 Feb 2015: Old bottles found when excavator dug stormwater drain trench |
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| 2 March 2015: Woodshed wall made of gorse masonry | 26 April 2015: Gorse masonry shed almost finished |
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| 25 September 2015: Bearers finished | 25 September 2015: Detail of painted lap-joint at load point |
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| 28 September 2015: Floor joists finished | 28 September 2015: Three trees from Kevin Solway (about a month old) |
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| 4 October 2015: West wall erected | 15 November 2015: Walls finished |
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| 20 January 2016: Plywood bracing, linseed oil, ceiling joists underway | 20 January 2016: Gorse masonry storage shed |
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| 29 January 2016: Ceiling joists done, verandah underway | 11 February 2016: Ridge beam up, rafters underway |
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| 14 February 2016: Main common rafters erected | 1 March 2016: Greenhouse rafters completed |
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| 3 March 2016: Outriggers and gable framing | 4 March 2016: Plywood bracing on gables |
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| 7 April 2016: Sarking and battens | 13 April 2016: Roof cladding and ridge capping |
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| 18 April 2016: Wall sarking | 26 April: Wall and gable cladding underway |
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| 10 June: Floor, wall and ceiling insulation underway | 13 June: Storage boxes under floor (trapdoor) |
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| 25 June: Window, doors, handles, locks | 27 June: Recycled Tas Oak floor boards underway |
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| 5 July: Solar HW, loo vent, waste plumbing | 6 July: Hot and cold water plumbing |
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| 10 September: Ceiling underway | 13 September: Shower tiling underway |
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| 15 September: Balustrade underway | 14 October: Interior cladding underway |
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| 23 December: Shower wall mosaic | 23 December: Shower tiling |
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| 25 December: Mezzanine ladder | 3 January 2017: Gyprock jointing and painting, toilet in place |
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| 13 January 2017: Kitchen bench and sink | 25 January: Kitchen / shower / toilet ceilings. Painting. Tiling |
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| 31st January: Skirting boards and architraves underway | 4 February: Small deck and outdoor basin under construction |
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| 4 April: Ready for gas connection (cooktop instead) | 4 April: Kitchen ready for final stage plumbing |
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| 4 April: Mains trench for house water | 4 April: Tank trench for drinking |
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| 4 April: Mezzanine painting | 4 April: Mezzanine painting cont'd |
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| 10 April: Seven water taps connected, and wastes plumbed | 9 April: Frames for solar hot water unit installed |
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| 11 April: Gutter bargeboards underway | 11 April: Mains and tank pipes to house, plus two outdoor taps |
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11 April: Hydropower 13H. L: hot, C: gas, R: cold.
The cold pipe has a manual valve, but the water is the hot pipe from solar hot water unit. | 11 April: Cold pipe to solar hot water tank, hot returns into gas water heater.
The manual shut-off bypasses the Hydropower thermostat |
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11 April: LP Gas pipes run outside verandah to Hydropower 13H,
and here back to house to fuel the cooktop | 11 April: Garden tap on solar hot water frame |
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| 11 April: Outdoor basin | 11 April: Solar hot water tank in place |
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| 14 April: Gutters and downpipes underway | 20 April: Greenhouse wall cladding |
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| 27 April 2017: Greywater bed sand and inspection port underway | 9 May 2017: 12 volt 250W panel installed (to upgrade later) |
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| 4 April: Autumn. Trees from 12 to 24 months old | 9 May 2017: Another picture of trees |
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| 9 May: Herb box (rosemary, parsley, sage, oregano) | 9 May: Yukkas, wild-sown poppy, White flag iris |
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| 10 May 2017: "Wear Orange Wednesday" (SES Day) | 10 Oct 2017: More architraves etc. |
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| 30 Jan 2018: Switchboard | 9th Feb 2018: Max amps sunny day |
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| 2nd March 2018: Gas cylinder regulator | 2nd March 2018: 24 evacuated tubes |
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| 2nd March 2018: Solar heat exchange diagram | 5th December 2018: Rear view solar HW, sauna/woodfire connection |
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| 2nd March 2018: Greywater bed pipes and geotextile membrane | 22nd Sept 2018: Shelf for bathroom |
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| 29 Sept 2018: Rock steps | January 2019: Iwataki hut in midsummer |
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