Archive for DIY Projects
January 16, 2012 at 6:20 pm · Filed under Activism, Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Money and Finance, Off Grid, Solar, Uncategorized
Sounds simple enough, yet how?
Being a vagabond is great and all, but I also believe in community and sustainability! How could I accomplish all parts of my equation at once? I mean, isn’t community and sustainability accomplished successfully by living in one location with a group of people, following models of communal or group living, farming and running co-ops? And isn’t tramping around comprised of moving from one place to another quite often, rarely being somewhere long enough to build community or become part of an already established one, coupled with spending way too much time in cars, busses, trains, or airplanes and chain supermarkets to be sustainable? Read the rest of this entry »
January 9, 2012 at 9:37 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects
Running the flue of a wood stove up the outside – rather than the inside – of a home has two advantages. It leaves more inside space clear and installation can be said to be inherently easier. If you are a do-it –yourselfer trying to either save money from your wallet and home maintenance budget , take pleasure in accomplishing such projects on your own – or additionally don’t want to call in a heating trades mechanic or tradesperson this can be said to be your ticket and preference and first step.
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January 9, 2012 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects
A metal chimney outdoors- A good and easy idea that you may not of thought of when dealing with a smoke pipe system for saving valuable space is to have an exterior wall support a space-saving chimney, which can well draw hot smoke outdoors and up on the side of a house or building to a good and safe distance up on the roof.
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January 4, 2012 at 9:13 pm · Filed under DIY Projects
It seems a contradiction in home comfort and energy savings of your fuel oil, electrical or natural gas fossil fuel home energy heating costs.
Why on earth would you want to insulate the warm and comfortable areas in your home? Would it not be the cold and drafty areas where insulation and heating / cooling insulation would be of greatest need and value both in wintertime frigid weather and as well in the summertime to keep your home good and cool and as well keep power or hydro electrical wattage, amperage and monthly utility costs down?
December 31, 2011 at 4:48 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Off Grid
Many people – especially for décor and ambience are drawn towards “real antique “pot bellied wood burning stoves. If they are strictly for ambience – and not to be fired up – then it really does not matter. That is except for purchase price. However if you are purchasing the device either as a heating appliance along for ambience and charm , or strictly for its furnace heat output comfort giving qualities any of a number of real concerns come into play. Consider safety, your house and fire insurance policies coverage and extra fees and costs that may come into play. Its not only a question of “is it good enough “ or “safe enough” but also that the device may not meet current fire safety csa ( in Canada ) or Underwriters Listing standards or for that matter even your local building codes. Even if the heater does measure up – you may not know its full condition, its maintenance over the years and even if serious events or damages happened to occur to this one unit over its lifetime.
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December 16, 2011 at 6:53 am · Filed under DIY Projects
While it is true no doubt that ventilation in any home , residence or commercial property remove and serves to remove airborne ventilation, additional measures are necessary if not essential to cure any area of inherent air leaks. Remarkably more homes and buildings than ever seem to have seepages of water
into their basement or even crawl space areas. As said in the last point deforestation and denudement of covering vegetation often lead to a Rube Goldberg type of water flow. Water it seems has a remarkable ability to flow and meander far from what you think is the original source – right into the lowest areas of your home.
Natural intrinsic flow patterns are restricted and limited and as opposed to natural absorption involving natural drainage of rainfall into the earth itself, can send water that lies around residential or even business areas to flood basements and crawlspaces that previously could be counted on to stay dry overall. In some cases , the key to a dry basement may be no more complex than cleaning out rain gutters and eaves-troughs or as well taking the time and attention as sealing cracks in foundation walls or leaks up in the roof. When such routine steps are not sufficient or adequate , you may find that you may have to lay underground pipe to carry water away – perhaps to a dry well or perhaps just offshore away from your property.
Alternatively you may want to apply water-proofing to the foundation itself or even install a sump or other type of effluent pump in your basement or crawl-space areas.
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December 16, 2011 at 6:32 am · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech
Your home is your castle and protection from the outside elements. After all that is how shelter started . Pragmatic but all in all though one might think of a home for cosmetics , or as in investment in these days of relative low interest mortgages which allow many to afford homes , and even vacation properties that they might never of been afford previously. Still no matter where you live or reside , you want to stay snug as a rug in a bug . Weatherstripping allows this , with energy savings and reduced energy uses overall.
Yet few houses , homes and apartments demand totally full and comprehensive total weatherstripping in total. Yet no doubt over time you , your family or property will no doubt require some.
On top of that even installed – say simple caulking around windows require maintenance and upkeep on a regular , planned and ongoing basis. Every few years new weather stripping as well as caulk are necessary to replace what has worn away and now leaks. This happens over time and use , as well as settling and movement of the house as the ground surface shifts itself. It may be normal spring unfreezing ground shift or it just be may regular settling of soil after wet seasons.
Yet once properly sealed , a house may just have too little or basically inadequate air flow to carry moisture away or enough oxygen to take full advantage of modern new fuel efficient furnaces. Therefore to maintain and enhance stated furnace efficiency levels ventilators as well as heat exchangers must are often recommended to be installed and in place to take full and complete advantage of natural air currents. Alternatively extra air flow exhaust can be created by the strategic placement of electrical ventilating fans. It should be noted and driven home that intentional ventilation of this type and sort has a big time major advantage and advantages over the accidentally randomly created air currents that just drift across odd cracks and crannies. You have better control of how much air gets in and to where.
While it is true that ventilation itself removes airborne moisture, other measures are often necessary to cure a home of air leaks. Yet the real villains should be placed in perspective. For example if one lived in Toronto Canada humidity is an issue – humidity air in via cracks. There is a good level of moisture in the air due to water moisture drifting into the air from the Great Lakes especially Lake Ontario. Yet if one is in the Canadian prairies in the dead of winter , with a continental climate its exceptionally dry . Air in Winnipeg is said to be drier than the Sahara Desert during the cold – 50 January winter time periods.
On top of that due to deforestation and the building of parking lots basements that were never wet at all – seem to have much more of seeping water and resultant humidity in home basements than ever used to be the case. Large concrete covered or asphalt covered shopping lot parking lots seem to be among the worst offenders. Its as simple as that.
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December 15, 2011 at 1:59 pm · Filed under DIY Projects
What was that rustling in the bushes near the pond? It sounded like pebbles or twigs falling through the leaves, yet the air was still. The curious noise stopped me as I walked to the barn. Looking up, I could see something shaking a topmost branch of the butternut tree. Then I spotted the red squirrel knocking butternuts from the twigs and letting them fall down through the branches and brush to the ground. Later he will gather them one by one to store under the stonewall or perhaps in a tree trunk.
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December 12, 2011 at 9:13 pm · Filed under DIY Projects
Most of the information that is available on being “green” reflects actions that you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. These recommendations focus on things like recycling, being more responsible in selecting products and using less energy. One that is often neglected is family disaster preparedness. This is an area of being “green” that we all need to spend a little time on.
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December 9, 2011 at 1:02 pm · Filed under DIY Projects
Whether you like it or not, the bad weather is coming, and it’s going to arrive hard and right in your face. If last year’s winter is anything to go by in the UK then we will be in for more heavy snow, ridiculously low temperatures and high winds. The country was fairly caught out last year and many roads and railways were disrupted. Read the rest of this entry »
November 23, 2011 at 2:36 am · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
When it comes time to designing your new home – its not as easy as you might think in 2011 to be fully green and to plan to take full advantage of energy saving practices and technologies that are available. We do not all live in San Diego or Vancouver BC where not only the climate is most temperate – but also we may not encounter the most progressive and knowledgeable government officials, tradesman and contractors. It can be like one giant circus or being at Sea-World as you try to explain to these miscreants. Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Wind Power
Windows are a mixed blessing. No doubt they are great for admitting light and making your home – be it condo , house , apartment bright and cheery while admitting light, providing a view of the out-of-doors as well as collecting some solar energy during day light daytime hours they are not good – indeed horrible – insulators against nighttime heat losses. In fact , in the heating and windows trades it is both well known and held as a truism that single pane glass acts as a heat exchanger to the outdoors – allowing about 10 times as much heat loss per a square foot area than an insulated wall would.
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November 18, 2011 at 6:50 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
Loose fill (pour type) fiberglass, mineral wool and cellulose products are easy to install in unfinished attic areas. These materials also can be blown into walls. However they do settle over time – reducing their insulation values and make for drafty, cold patches of space. Read the rest of this entry »
November 17, 2011 at 6:09 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid
A penny invested in installing and upgrading insulation materials in any building is it your home or office building – your property or an investment group of properties is many KW of electrical power, volumes of fossil fuels saved. Here are some things to consider before you go shopping at your local building equipment store to help you choose the type of insulation materials that you do the renovations and upgrades with. Read the rest of this entry »
November 16, 2011 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid
Unless you have a need of a special material or materials, select insulation and insulating materials based on its cost per net square foot for a given R-value. As an example suppose that you want to upgrade your home’s energy insulation to both save you heating fuel costs and reduce your carbon footprint. Suppose you want to upgrade the values to an R-value of 19. You would or could then price out one kind of insulation that has a calculated and labeled R-value of 3.2 per inch of thickness and costs merely 7 cents per square foot at the 1-inch thickness. Another type, for this calculation exercise, has an R-value of 3.7 per inch of thickness yet costs 8 cents per square foot. Which is the better overall buy?
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October 25, 2011 at 9:48 am · Filed under DIY Projects
Composting is the best way to achieve two noble ideas into practical action. Of course, a kitchen compost bucket and other similar containers are necessary. Basically, a kitchen compost bucket can be anything from a simple manual bucket with a tight lid to an electronic device with a turning mechanism where the raw materials for compost can be mixed. Many dedicated do-it-yourself enthusiasts can make their own kitchen compost containers from scrap materials like old pails although many homeowners will also want to purchase ready-made composting containers for convenience. These ready-made kitchen compost buckets can be purchased from online sites and gardening supply stores. Naturally, online shopping comes highly-recommended.
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October 23, 2011 at 6:08 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Ecology
The sight of nature is such a stress buster that many of us are longing for that nature trip. Well, if we weren’t limited by our budgets, people would not be playing virtual farming games on the Internet just to get their dose of nature. And unlike what you see in Farmville, you really don’t need hectares of land to cultivate nor a special education on agriculture. Some have turned to their own backyards for a relaxing and nurturing activity which is home gardening. Not only it is a great hobby to get into, but it also makes any yard appearance priceless. And just like your online farm, they could be equally easy to grow and understand.
There are even apps that can work with your mobile device on how to nurse dying plants to health which is one of the most discouraging scenarios for new gardeners. So fret not, use your modern gadgetry for nature and check out the following apps that are all you need for a green thumb.
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October 18, 2011 at 6:51 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Solar, Wind Power
Add-on solar systems are another possibility as an auxiliary source of heating energy. Air heaters, to provide at least a portion of the needed winter space heat, built along south facing walls can be constructed of relatively inexpensive materials Solar water heaters can take much of the load off of conventional water heaters – on a year round – winter , summer , fall, springtime basis.
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October 15, 2011 at 5:45 am · Filed under DIY Projects, hybrids, Off Grid
The tightest door does not save much heat when it is wide open. Your grandmother may have well told you – when the home may have been heated by wood or by an old fashioned “oil burner” with bunker fuel oil – “Why are you heating the outside”.
It’s sort of pointless now – in our days of global warming. Why waste the energy.
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October 15, 2011 at 5:24 am · Filed under DIY Projects, Off Grid
Most homes, apartments & condominiums can save energy – indeed there are numerous opportunities to abound to save energy if we only look around and do a little legwork and money.
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