Winter

[Capt Slog]

The last time I wrote an entry here I was starting to insulate walls of my house.  After doing one section of this (a four foot alcove) I was happy with the result and decided to carry on.

The first time I just used bubble wrap as the insulation behind 12mm plywood.  Having seen some commercial insulation consisting of bubblewrap sandwiched between layers of foil, I thought I'd try my own (cheaper!) version of this.  So I papered the wall with aluminium foil using gluestick adhesive, followed by three layers of bubble, and then added a final layer of foil before adding the wood.

This sounds a bit of a procedure, but it went very easily and the whole job was done in an evening and decorated over another two.

The result is a much warmer room.  So I did the same in another bedroom, covering an eight foot section of wall with two full sheets of ply.  Other than manouvering these through the house, the actual job gets easier each time and the rooms are so much warmer that I'm not likely to stop untill I've made every room that tiny bit smaller!

On the power front, things haven't been so good.  Besides a small turbine I have two 80w panels and hoped that these would be sufficient for most of my lighting through winter.  I had planned to have converted the house over to RE (lights) by now, but I'm now pleased that I hadn't.  I've been unable to keep even the couple of rooms I had converted adequately lit.

It's been a disappointment, but a good learning exercise.  I hadn't realised just how little sun I was going to have during the shorter days, and boy! weren't they short and dark? I did some measuring and worked out that one day I probably had less than 50 watt hours , nowhere near enough when some 1 watt lights were on 24 hours a day.

It didn't help that the turbine wasn't spinning from around mid december untill this last weekend, nothing wrong with it, just 4 weeks of windless days. (or not enough to get to cut-in).  I ended up putting the batteries on charge from the mains just to keep them topped up.

So, I'm a bit stuck. Either I'm not making enough power or I'm not storing it well enough.  The batteries are getting old now I know, and I lost one this winter.  Not sure where to go next.

[Bruce S]

Capt;

   Sorry to read about losing the battery, but on a good note, your write up should help those looking at RE as a possibility. By reading what you've put here, hopefully others will realize that when planning, one should plan just for these problems.

May thanks about the bubble wrap update too :-!! do you have pics to post?

Are you laying the bubbles to bubbles or flat to flat?

Those foil wrapped units do get a bit $$$ do you have a rough estimate of your cost for say one 8x8 wall covering.

Hold on spring is coming!!

Bruce S

[Flux]

If you have grid power then you might as well live with it or just play with the batteries for fun. You are never likely to break even let alone save anything, the batteries alone will cost more than you save unless you get them at an unrealistically low price.

Even with grid tie the pay back is very long and not practical for low power installations, just one thing not making its intended life may negate any likely saving. RE comes into its own for those with no grid connection.

Flux

[oztules]

Flux,

I have finally found a way to make this pay for itself

(It's not pretty though) http://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/articles/OzEV.asp

............oztules

[DamonHD]

Good stuff!

In principle wind+EV is a very good combo if your charging can wait until you've had some wind, so a flexible schedule helps.

I'm sure you've seen the V2G stuff on the Web, and maybe even Zerocarbonista's rather upmarket wind car!  But yours does just the same IMHO!

Rgds

Damon  

[Capt Slog]

Many thanks about the bubble wrap update too :-!! do you have pics to post?

Someone else asked me this last time, so I sent him some as I didn't want to burden the post with pics.  But since you're interested......:-)

A section of north facing wall just under 4 feet wide.  To the left is a chimney flue (chimney breasts in the uk) and to the right is the corner made by the eastwards wall.  The black thing is a tv stand.  Either side of the alcove you can see wooden battons screwed to the wall. I left a space because it's easier to fix them that way, and later I used the channel for wiring to the TV.

Here I've added the insulation.  A layer of aluminium foil stuck to the wall with glue stick, three layers of bubble wrap (bubbles all to the wall), and then you can see that I'm working up from below applying a second foil layer cross ways (which has caught the flash!).  This last layer is stuck directly to the battons with glue stick.

Lastly the 12mm ply is cut to fit and nailed to the battons.  I then finished this by sealing with emulsion paint, covered with a texture wallpaper and finally pianted tp match the room.

You asked for cost for the 8 x 8 wall.....

The 2 sheets of board were £15 each

battons 6 to 8 at a £1 each

Foil 50p a roll, perhaps 2 rolls  :-)

Bubble wrap about 1/2 a roll which I once bought for the greenhouse but never used (£13 a roll years ago).

I make that around £45, then I had to decorate on top of the wood, but the wall was ready for that anyway.

In another part of the house I will use plasterboard which is MUCH cheaper but comes in smaller sheets.  I wanted to avoid all the joints.

.

[zap]

Cool car oztules!!!

I love the vegetation(it gives it a "home grown" feel) and I love the lack of glazing(makes it easier to judge the weather).

A nice job all the way around, except someone put the steering wheel on the wrong side!

It would do nicely over in this country as a mail delivery vehicle.

[ghurd]

Very Cool car!

Zap, the steering wheel is on the wrong side because someone installed the pedals on the wrong side.

G-

[ghurd]

Don't you have blown-in cellulose insulation in the UK?

Cheaper, more effective, easier.

G-

[Capt Slog]

Perhaps, I've not heard of it though.  

We do have blown in glass fibre (for roof spaces) and a two part foam thing for cavity walls, but for that you have to have cavities and I don't.

.

[ghurd]

Polyurethane rigid panels (CFC/HCFC expanded)?

G-

[zap]

LOL

I see... so it's a 'lemonade from lemons' kinda thing!?!

[pepa]

ghurd, i love when somwone can see at a glance, what went wrong. pepa

[oztules]

That must be why it was at the rubbish dump...it was the pedal position, not the carnage as I had first thought.

Wanders off wondering how I missed that detail........

........oztules

[mixerman]

I guess this makes the Chookmobile a "Blowen Fuel Suzuki" LOL! I love it!