Catching up to the 21st century, part 7...permaculture & more home design

6-6-06
Cindy picked up a permaculture book at the library. Heavy stuff…it includes just about every progressive idea I’ve read about on all relevant issues: social, economic, agriculture, politics. My biggest take away so far is the idea of damming water and using it to gain more yield from a site rather than letting it drain off the site unused. In Santa Cruz, for example, the water could get harvested from the roof into a little pond near the home, then overflow in winter into a larger pond near the road at the western border of the site. Or, just have one pond for all water. The idea is that enough water is saved from winter rain to water the garden all summer until fall rains set in. Don’t let water run off the property without storing it for useful purpose - this would increase entropy! Get something out of the water. Plant a variety of shrubs and trees on the northeastern slope to make it more stable against landslide, get some nuts and fruits out of the deal, and create habitat for wildlife.

We have been talking about ducks. They hunt slugs and are natural habitants of a pond. The 2 could go well together. Same with coy. The pond could be an ideal final step in processing gray water after initial treatment in a constructed wetland.

Talked with Cindy about hands on natural building. She is not interested in talking classes. She just wants to be a worker bee taking direction, just like her gardening desires. I am interested in taking an extensive applied permaculture course. Need to read more and think about this.

6-8-06
Did a little research on Cor-ten. It comes in corrugated and standing seam forms. There is a distributor in norcal.

7-20-06 to 7-25-06
During tour 3 as volunteer rangers in the Alps (North Fork), Cindy and I came to the conclusion that a lofted pair of bedrooms on a 2nd floor would be the best compromise to reduce our floorplan but still provide a desirable space. Three visits to our friend's home in Ukiah let the concept of the loft and cathedral ceilings sink in. Cindy came with on the last visit and jumped all over the loft idea. I think this design with a 30’ wide floorplan may save Big Oak. A 30’x28’ first floor (840 sq-ft) is near square and has the best aspect ratio for thermal loss. Hopefully there is still enough room for up to 12% window area on the S wall to capture solar insolation. Some aspects of the design: approx 9x11 studio, full bath, kitchen, entry/pantry, great room and office nook on first floor, 2 symmetric bedrooms and closets in the loft. Approx 18’ cathedral ceiling peaking right above railing of loft. Approx 6’ ceiling on north wall of loft, 8’ on south wall of first floor. Close to 30 degree pitch on south roof face for optimum annual solar gain (assumes net metered). Either a very steep pitch stairway or spiral staircase to loft. Under and behind the stairs would be the library/office nook with built in bookshelves. Timber frame structure with strawbale or straw/clayslip infill. Adobe floor.

I ran HEED calculations on this design and although preliminary results show more electric heating required than a single story design, the increase is manageable. Operable thermal shades are an “ace in the hole” that can be used to reduce heat loss at night and should be incorporated. In fact, the use of these shades may allow for increasing the window area on the south face closer to 12% while maintaining the heat during the nights and decreasing the required radiant electric heating. ***The new version of HEED now has water heating incorporated. This allows better approximation of annual water heating needs by comparing summer usage to HEED’s summer usage. By multiplying the ratio of these 2 values by HEED’s annual usage, you arrive at your approximate usage. HEED assumes local average values for groundwater temperature. Our usage would be less than this when using solar water heating, but it is better to be a little conservative here than to shoot in the dark. The solar fraction calculator from Go Solar California (or similar tools for your local area) can be used to estimate how much of the water heating energy is replaced by various solar water heating systems.

Experts needed in our green home design: permaculture (me/us), tree, foundation, timber frame, plumber, roofer, strawbale, electrician , earth/lime plasters, adobe floors, finish carpentry.

Some thoughts on water. Harvest rainwater from the roof into a small pond near the house and above the elevation of the garden. The problem is that this amount of water would likely be gone before the rainless summer is over. A possible solution is to have a larger pond to collect land runoff. Could ultimately have a creek running down to a larger pond (near the road). The larger pond collects land runoff and neighbor’s roof runoff. A pump moves water from the large pond up to the small pond where it overflows via a little waterfall into the creek. This aerates the water and creates a unique habitat. Upper pond is used to water the garden by gravity feed off of a timer. The only downside I can think of is evaporation. However, evaporation is a natural characteristic of water features and will help create a unique microclimate.

Sept 16 to 29, 2006: OAEC permaculture class! I already posted about this class, but I need to say once again that it was a life changing experience for me. If you are interested in committing 2 weeks to a permaculture course, than I can't recommend highly enough the OAEC offerings.