All posts by Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, sun angles

Passive Solar: Let the Sun Shine in

May 16, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

Although I was unaware of it at the time, my first birthday coincided with a significant number one hit by The 5^th Dimension on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles Chart. Here is a music trivia quiz:

• The song is a medley of two songs.

• It was the first medley to top the American charts.

• It remained at number one for six weeks in April and May, 1969.

• It reached number one in Canada and number three in Australia.

• It was replaced at number one in the U.S. by “Get Back” by The Beatles.

• It featured prominently in the musical, “Hair.”

Whanganui’s aging hippies will easily recognize this song as “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”

One of my earliest childhood memories was going to a high school production of Hair and absolutely loving it. Afterward, my brother and I dug out my parents’ LP and listened to it over and over again. What’s odd about that neither of us had musical talent or any inclination to be on stage.

To this day, we both remain avid music listeners while retaining complete lack of talent. I have given karaoke a go exactly twice: both in the last two years, and both accompanying my wife who has an amazing singing voice.

So what is my point in all of this? Two points: 1) you do not have to be proficient at something to appreciate it deeply; 2) let the sunshine in.

Whether or not this is the Age of Aquarius, I reckon it certainly is the age of designing homes to take advantage of free and abundant sunlight energy. One need not be proficient in eco-design to appreciate this. One need simply pay a power bill and wish it were lower.

The basics of passive solar home design date back hundreds or even thousands of years in some cultures, but the modern era of passive solar dates to around the time when The 5^th Dimension was at the peak of their popularity.

As I described last week, passive solar design consists of solar gain, thermal mass and insulation. During our renovation we increased solar gain by adding glazing (windows and French doors) to the northern sides of our villa. At the same time we removed glazing from the southern sides.

North corner before.

North corner during.

North corner after.

If we think of a home as a bank account for energy: in winter, the north facing windows make deposits during the day and withdrawals at night, while the south facing windows make withdrawals day and night (unless we happen to get an unseasonably warm day).

In the end, we had roughly the same amount of total glazing in our home but it was more appropriately placed to take advantage of solar gain and minimize heat loss.

Southern window before.

Southern window during.

Southern corner after, awaiting paint.

Our renovated villa has performed admirably of late. Up until this week we have not had to use any heat source aside from the sun. Operating only on solar energy, our indoor temperature remained over 17 degrees right up until the early morning of Mother’s Day.

From the 28th of April through the 3rd of May when the outdoor high each day was 15 or 16 degrees, our indoor temperature never dropped below 18. Put another way, over these six days our indoor low temperature remained at least two degrees over the outdoor high. This is the power of free and abundant sunlight energy.

If you happen to be a lover of music or free energy but do not consider yourself proficient in the latter, please join me at one of the free upcoming events made possible by our partners and supporters: Tree Life NZ, Sustainable Engineering, Black Pine Architects, Richard Collins – therivermouth.co.nz, Sustainable Wanganui Trust, Progressive Castlecliff, and the Josephite Retreat Centre.

Sidebar: Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training)

Today, 11 am – 1 pm: Drop in eco-design advice. River Traders Market, Taupo Quay

Tomorrow, 3 – 4 pm: DIY Double-Glazing Examples.

Eco Thrifty Life, garden, growing food, organic, tomatoes

5 Months of Home-Grown Tomatoes

May 13, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

We have just reached a milestone of five continuous months of fresh, organic, home-grown tomatoes without a glasshouse. Our first ripe tomato appeared on 13th December.

As of now, we have a small bowl of tomatoes on our counter and a few more outside on some very tired looking but still living plants.

We use a combination of sun traps, timing, compost, mulching and successive planting to maximize our production while minimizing inputs. I’ll include more details in another post.

Eco Thrifty Baby

Happy Mothers Day

May 10, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

We are celebrating Mothers Day with a beautiful, lazy, sunny morning and plans for an afternoon adventure. While I’ve got the chance I thought I’d share some recent images of mama and bubba.

As new parents we have discovered that Verti loves to mimic and she loves to help. As such, we design experiences where she can do both. For example, one of the first things we noticed was Verti’s fascination with clothes pegs. So naturally we engaged her to help hang the nappies.

Next we observed she wanted to help cooking. Carrot cake, yum!

More recently she has been totally into shelling dry beans.

She was a great helper collecting money for SAFE.

And she likes browsing at Hayward’s auctions.

Just this week she has joined us at the table for the first time sitting in a booster chair instead of a high chair.

However, a bit on the annoying side, whenever we tried to play a board game she just wanted to push the pieces all over the place…until we gave her a playing board of her own.

All that said, we still believe in the importance of play, although a lot of play is just imitation. Like mother like daughter like dolly like dolly’s baby.

Everyone likes outdoor play, although some need more sun protection than others.

That’s all folks. Happy Mothers Day.

design principles, Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency, passive solar

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Materials and Energy

May 8, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

In 1982, when I was 14 years old, Aretha Franklin moved into my neighbourhood. She had come back to Detroit to assist with the care of her ailing father who ultimately died two years later.

Like all things great and glorious, Franklin experienced a resurgence in popularity during the 1980’s following an amazing cameo appearance in The Blues Brothers (1980). She was inducted as the first female performer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

What does any of this have to do with eco-design?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

From my perspective, good eco-design is about maintaining a high level of respect for energy and materials. The reason that good eco-design is so rare in New Zealand housing, I suspect, is that most homes were built at a time when energy, wood, steel, concrete and glass were inexpensive.

When things have a low monetary value placed on them, human beings tend to respect them less than when things hold high monetary value. This can partially explain the abundance of poorly designed dwellings across the country and throughout Whanganui.

Maintaining respect for energy and materials when they are universally cheap is difficult. We can think of some idealistic hippies and back-to-the-landers in the 1970s, but few of them were able to carry on through the cultural and consumer shifts during the 1980s and 1990s. They can be forgiven.

More recently, the costs of energy and building materials have been increasing faster than wage rises for over a decade, with a particular jump in petrol prices since 2008. By now it should be common knowledge that power has doubled in price over the last 10 years, and mathematicians may suggest it is likely to double again in another decade.

From a purely fiscal perspective, we might see more eco-design creeping into the home building and renovation industry in two ways: smaller homes that require fewer materials to build and less energy to operate; well-designed ‘passive’ homes where the building materials are arranged in such a way as to result in very low energy use dwellings.

Our renovation may be considered a passive solar retrofit because we took a big old cold villa and transformed it into a warm, dry home heated almost entirely by the sun. The term passive implies that our home simply sits there taking in solar energy like a parked car or sunbather.

Converting a bog standard villa to passive solar requires three basic elements: more glazing that faces the equator than the nearer pole; thermal mass (ie, heavy stuff) inside of the building envelope that absorbs warmth during the day and emits it at night; and, insulation that reduces the rate at which heat escapes the building envelope.

We add draught-proofing to these three design elements, but the bottom line is that plugging draughts is just plane common sense and one of the cheapest things anyone can do to keep the warmth in and the cold out.

Over the next four weeks I’ll write in detail about these passive solar design strategies and how we applied them during our renovation. ‘Cause that’s what R-E-S-P-E-C-T means to me.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Life, growing food, permaculture, scything, weeds

International Permaculture Day

May 3, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

Kia ora koutou. This may be the first blog post on the planet celebrating International Permaculture Day. (Please note it is Sunday the 4th in New Zealand.) There are good waves this morning, so I’ll make it short and sweet.

In my practice of permaculture, the principles take a back seat. In other words, I never consciously think about the permaculture principles (Mollison’s or Holmgren’s) when designing and building systems. Instead, I engage what I call permaculture habits of mind, which can also be described as systems thinking.

All that said, one of Mollison’s principles is almost always on my mind: multiple functions. In brief, elements of a system should serve as many functions as possible. Mollison uses chickens as his example. I’ll use ducks, and specifically our duck tractor.

For six months – from autumn equinox to spring equinox – we tractor our ducks in our ‘back yard. They mow and fertilize the lawn for us.

I move them everyday. It takes 22 days to bring them back to square one. This is a small-scale of what may be called “rotational grazing” or “holistic land management.” Running the ducks on the lawn has improved the mix of grasses and decreased the unpalatable ‘weeds’. In other words, the ducks have improved the health of the lawn, and in return the lawn is producing healthier grasses for the ducks to eat.

During the six months from spring to autumn equinox, I scythe the grass and use it to mulch the garden. In this way, the ducks are indirectly feeding the garden. Over time, vegetable scraps from the garden feed the ducks.

Additionally, one day when I was in a hurry to hang the nappies, I found that the duck tractor came in very handy as an airing rack.

Our first intern, John, built this tractor over three years ago from scrap wood. That’s when our ducks we still fuzzy.

Keeping ‘multiple functions’ on your mind as much as possible is a great way to practice systems thinking and to develop good permaculture habits of mind. Give it a go.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, insulation

Layering up for Warmth

May 1, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Two weeks ago this column was used to announce the second year of Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training). Part of that column included data from evaluation forms filled out by Whanganui residents following free home energy audits. Of the feedback provided, the following statement stood out for me.

“It made me think about how to keep the heat in versus keep heating a cold home.”

One might call this a light bulb moment (compact fluorescent or LED, of course), because it appears that this client suddenly shifted their thinking about the thermal performance of their home. But this ‘new’ way of thinking may not be so unfamiliar to all of us. Let me give an example.

Like many local residents, Dani and I enjoy spending a winter Saturday afternoon at Cook’s Garden watching the Butcher’s Boys play. Like most Wanganui rugby supporters, as the temperature drops, the first thing we think of is adding a layer of clothing rather than getting something to eat.

I’m sorry if this is not a very exciting example, but here is my point. If we think about the human body as a home, we can consider clothing to be insulation, draught-proofing, and water resistance. In reference to the quote above, we naturally act to “keep the heat in” by adding layers rather than only adding more ‘fuel’, ie food.

But for some reason many of people think differently about their homes. Decades of cheap energy may have allowed most of us to grow complacent about simply pressing a button or turning a knob to warm up our homes instead of thinking about energy efficiency. Fair enough, but times have changed.

Power prices are up. Gas prices are up. Petrol prices are up. Even fire wood prices are up.

As our glorious Whanganui autumn tips toward winter, it may be a good time to think about ‘adding a layer’ to our homes. While ceiling insulation is a clear choice, it requires capitol investment that some may find difficult. On the other hand, Project HEAT offers many low-cost/high performance ideas for renters and owners alike. Many of these ideas focus on windows and doors, which can account for as much or more heat loss than ceilings.

Which brings me to feedback from a different client “Excellent explanations re: heat loss and cheap, effective solutions. How to fit a window blanket.”

Picking words from this quote, window blankets are a cheap and effective solution to heat loss.

The recipe for a window blanket is simple:

two battens cut to width of window;

old wool blanket or equivalent;

three or four screws.

Mix ingredients, add to single-paned windows, and keep on low heat until spring.

Like a homemade birthday cake, window blankets can also be decorated. Last winter I had the pleasure of working with amazing local artist Sue Cooke and art educator extraodinaire Andrea Gardner on a children’s holiday programme in coordination with The Paradise Project and funded by Horizons Regional Council.

As you can see from the photos, the children expressed their creativity using a window blanket for their bedroom as a ‘blank canvas.’ Ka pai!

Sidebar: DIY Window Blanket Workshop

Sunday, 4^th May, 3-5 pm.

Duncan Pavilion, Castlecliff Beach.

Please bring: straight wooden battens in the range of 2cm x 6cm or 4.5cm x 4.5 cm; wool blanket or non-cotton fabric.

Tools and screws provided free.

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Water Damage: Costly but Preventable

April 25, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

Hindsight, as we all know, is 20/20, and the leaky homes crisis in New Zealand lends itself easily to such clear retrospective viewing. According to Wikipedia, “The repairs and replacement cost that could have been avoided were estimated in 2009 to be approximately $11.3 billion.”

From an eco-thrifty perspective, this is infuriating because it represents such a waste of money and resources, mostly attributable to bad design and “changed building controls from a prescriptive system to a more self-regulated regime.”

We all know what happened when world governments allowed banks to regulate themselves over the last several decades: they crashed the global economy. But instead of reigning in banks, the US and Europe have allowed them to get bigger and to reward their executives with ever larger bonuses.

Thankfully, the New Zealand government did not respond to leaky homes in the same way. Some say the NZ building code is now among the toughest in the world, and building inspectors are known to be thorough in their attention to detail.

During our renovation, our building inspector was thorough and helpful with advice and suggestions, as were other members of the Wanganui Building Control team with whom I spoke over the counter at the council building.

I have praised the building code on a number of occasions as quintessentially sustainable. After all, a sustainable home is one that won’t rot, won’t fall down in an earthquake, won’t burn down unnecessarily, and has a level of energy-efficiency.

Architects and builders have known for hundreds of years the importance of shedding water away from wooden structures, and it’s not just about roofs. “Flashing” is the term often used for sealing up all the bits around doors and windows as well as unusual junctures in complex roofs or around chimneys, flues, relief valves, etc. In these cases it is the attention to detail that is important because any seam in the building envelope is a possible entryway for water.

Good, thorough flashing costs time and money, but pays for itself in ‘cost avoidance’ in the future (ie, $11.3 billion and counting). It is almost always cheaper to do something properly in the first place than to pay to clean up the mess and make repairs later on. Water damage is expensive.

To draw a parallel from housing to our greater community, the stopbanks (aka levees) along the Whanganui act as “flashing” for our city because they are meant to transfer floodwaters safely out to sea. Recently WDC reinforced the 50-year stopbanks along Anzac Parade while Horizons engineers have reported that because of climate change a 50-year flood is now a 25-year flood, a 100-year flood is a 50-year flood, a 200-year flood is now a 100-year flood, etc.

I’m sorry if this is all starting to sound like “The artist formerly known as Prince” talk, but it appears that we’ve entered a “new normal” that includes more frequent and severe droughts and floods as well as persistently high fuel costs to deal to the consequences of both.

This combination of more frequent damage to our local economy and higher costs of response would appear to require different ways of thinking than what local government has provided us with in the past. In other words, we may need ‘new thinking’ to address the ‘new normal.’

A prudent observer might say time is of the essence. With a halving of flood intervals, it appears the clock is now ticking twice as fast.

Eco Thrifty Life, environmental education, our story, permaculture, wanganui

Diploma Work in Permaculture (New Zealand)

April 23, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Editor’s note: This document was written over a year ago and submitted to Permaculture in New Zealand (PINZ) to document a two year diploma project in applied permaculture. PINZ has asked me to post it in the public domain. Please note that the links below will take you to our old blog. However, all of those posts have also been re-posted on this blog.

The Eco-Thrifty Renovation

A project completed in fulfillment of a diploma in permaculture.

Nelson Lebo

Abstract: The Eco-Thrifty Renovation (ETR) was initiated in November, 2010 and continues to be ongoing. The project aims to demonstrate that an eco-home and organic food need not be prohibitively expensive. Over the course of two years, I transformed a derelict villa into a warm, dry, low-energy home, and a section full of weeds and rubbish into a thriving foodscape. At the same time, the project has been used as an educational outreach programme for our local Whanganui community and the world through the internet. The entire project was carried out in alignment with permaculture ethics and principles.

*Note: I use the term ‘we’ often in this document to honor Dani’s contribution to this project, which was less about time and effort, and more about support. Some of the things I write about below using the term ‘we’ she may know little or nothing about (because I usually have about 8 projects going at once and she has been working 40 hours per week for the last year). Still, I feel the ETR and the ECO School are a team effort.

Permaculture Ethics

The permaculture ethics have guided the project at all levels as described below.

Care for Earth: Low-energy homes and home-grown food can address many of the environmental problems facing the planet and humanity. First and foremost, are the issues surrounding energy, its extraction, production, transport and use. On all levels, this project has demonstrated a commitment to a low-energy ‘footprint.’ Additionally, organic growing practices cut down on artificial chemicals in the environment, and composting and recycling return resources to productive systems rather than relegating them to landfill. Finally, it is hoped that our educational outreach programmes inspire and teach others how to ‘care for the Earth’.

Care for People: The main focus of this project is to provide a working model suitable for low- and moderate-income families. There appears to be a broadly accepted misconception that sustainable lifestyles are prohibitively expensive. We have demonstrated that nothing is further from the truth when thoughtful design in included.

Many of our educational efforts are provided free of charge and some ask simply for a donation. Other programmes offer a sliding scale, with additional discounts for walking, riding a bicycle, or taking the bus. Recent funding allowed us to provide 80 free home energy audits for low-income families and pensioners in Wanganui. Additionally, a community garden in our front yard feeds families in our low-decile neighbourhood.

Share Surpluses: Up until now, the only surpluses have been those of ideas and enthusiasm, which were shared freely through the blog and a weekly newspaper column. Additionally, all of the fee-based education programmes we offer run at about half the price of comparable programmes elsewhere in the country, making them affordable for a wider range of people to participate. And we are finally producing surpluses of food from the community garden in front of our house, which we share with neighbours and friends.

Permaculture Principles

Although Holmgren’s (2002) permaculture principles were not intentionally or deliberately used during this project, it is easy to recognize their application across many of its aspects. Instead, I describe what are permaculture ‘habits of mind’ that are engaged automatically when working from a holistic, systems perspective. What follows is a discussion of David Bane’s (2012) recent interpretation of Holmgren’s 12 permaculture principles as they relate to the eco-renovation, the foodscaping efforts, and the educational initiatives.

1) Observe and Interact: Even before the ETR project began, observation and interaction were being employed in the design process. Dani and I looked at 30 homes in Whanganui in 2 days, ruling out 25 of them simply because they had very little potential for passive solar redevelopment. Of the five that had significant potential for solar gain, one also had advantages regarding section size, home placement on the section, and proximity to a bus stop and the beach. It also happened to be the cheapest house in Whanganui in the lowest-income neighbourhood. This set us up nicely to interact with a low-decile community with which to work directly.

The first step in the passive solar design process is to observe where the sun is at different times of the year and to plan for winter heating and summer cooling. Our villa offered a special challenge in that it was not broad-side to the northern sun, but pointing north with one corner, like a compass. Although not ideal, I was able to come up with low-budget / high-performance design and lifestyle strategies to maximize winter morning insolation – when it is needed most.

Those strategies are explained in the following blog posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/sunrise-sunset.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/retrospective-22-let-sun-shine-in.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/retrospective-23-drawing-in-light.html

2) Catch and Store Energy: In permaculture, the classic example of catching and storing energy is a swale. The potential energy of water is stored high on a property and distributed ‘for free’ using gravity. But our property is dead flat, and our soil is sand. So instead, I have adopted thinking like a swale. What this means is mimicking the function of a swale by catching energy when it is in abundance and storing it for times of need, and slowing the flow of energy and materials on our property. One example of this is the use of thermal mass in our renovation. Thermal mass stores excess insolation during the day and releases it at night. We used a number of innovative techniques for adding thermal mass to an old villa on piles, as explained in the following blog posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/thermal-mass-is-unsung-hero-of-passive.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/mass-ticate-on-this.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/keep-it-comfortable.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/retrospective-3-thermal-mass.html

Insulation is also an example of slowing the flow of energy through a property. Thinking like a swale, insulation functions as the permeability of soil, slowing the flow of heat rather than slowing the flow of water. We have employed a wide-range of innovative low-cost and high-performance insulation strategies, as explained in the following blog posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/design-principle-3-insulation.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/warm-and-fuzzy.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/retrospective-4-insulation.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/retrospective-6-window-battens.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/retrospective-7-window-film-insulation.html

Other ways to slow and hold resources on the property are practiced in the gardens – adding a small amount of topsoil and heaps of compost to slow the drainage of water away from vegetable plants. This post summarizes some of our efforts, and highlights the impressive results:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/eco-thrifty-gardening.html

3) Get a Yield: Obtaining a yield is a natural human expectation for putting forth effort toward a goal. In the gardens, a yield can take the form of abundant, healthy food, as seen in the above post, reposted here along with others. By using a strategic combination of tools, timing and technique, we have been able to produce abundant kai for very few hours of work.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/eco-thrifty-gardening.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/late-winter-garden-tour.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/abundance.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/low-maintenancehigh-productivity.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/perspectives-on-permaculture-abundance.html

Obtaining a yield in an energy-efficient renovation takes the form of a warm, dry home, and cost savings on a power bill. These can be seen as a return on an investment of time and money.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/coldest-house-in-new-zealand.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/power-of-one.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/still-one.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/2020-hindsight.html

Specifically, getting a yield can be understood through the concept of payback period – the amount to time is takes for savings to pay back an investment. I have chosen to emphasize the concept of payback period in an attempt to appeal to a broad swath of the general public who may not necessarily be concerned about the environment, but are interested in lower power bills.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/retrospective-1-as-published-in.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/eco-thrifty-thinking.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/eco-is-almost-always-thrifty-but.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/bright-ideas.html

4) Self-Regulate & Accept Feedback: Most learning processes involve both positive and negative feedback loops. During this project, I have experienced many feedback loops, primarily involving growing food in a coastal zone and involving the educational projects we have launched from the platform of the ETR.

Regarding growing food in a coastal zone, the challenges are sand and wind – two circumstances I have never faced as a grower. I made some good mistakes on my way to learning more about this ecosystem and microclimate, as shown in the following posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/gimme-shelter.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/eco-thrifty-gardening.html

Regarding the learning involved in our community education projects, woah! Previously I have been a classroom teacher that dabbled in garden workshops for adults. But I have never done anything like a whole community approach to sustainability education. An overview of this approach is described in these posts, while some more details are included below.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/model-for-whole-community.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/learning-what-works-in-community.html

We have experienced varying levels of success with our different educational initiatives. Because we’ve taken an ecological model to education, we can accept high failure rates without being fussed about it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Most people will say they learn more from failures than successes, so why not embrace failure instead of avoiding it? Perhaps 80% of my ideas go nowhere because I cannot find community partners. That just means that a particular idea is not appropriate for this place at this time. OK, shift gears and carry on.

Most importantly, I am learning what really works, what does not, and why that might be. The keys, I have found, are to be responsive to needs and not prescriptive, and to build partnerships in all endeavors.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/partnering-for-planet.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/takin-it-to-streetser-schools.html

Sadly, I have learned that part of the failure of environmental education appears to come from the environmental movement itself, as described here:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/failure-of-environmental-education.html

5) Use and Value Nature’s Gifts: Nature’s gifts come in the forms of matter and energy. We accept all nature’s gifts, and try to hold them (slow their flow) on our property with a previously porous home and previously porous soils. These are explained in the principle Catch and Store Energy, above. The best way to value a gift is to steward it mindfully. Some ways we do that are described below.

For a passive solar renovation, nature’s best gift is free sunshine! The redesign of our villa is based on winter sun angles, as described above, and reposted here:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/sunrise-sunset.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/retrospective-22-let-sun-shine-in.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/retrospective-23-drawing-in-light.html

With this addition on free, solar energy:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/power-of-sun.html

But beyond, free and abundant sunshine, nature served as the inspiration and model for the entire renovation, as seen in our design principles, as seen here:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/nature-as-model.html

Another way we use and value nature’s gifts is by composting. As Geoff Lawton says, “If it lived, it can live again.”

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/compost

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/get-your-together.html

Especially awesome has been a resent partnership with the New Zealand Masters Games: an 11 day event with over 6,000 participants. Working together we were able to reduce the landfill waste from the games village 95% versus the last Games in Whanganui in 2011 when their rubbish tally was: 228 wheelie bins and 4 jumbo dumpsters. This year there was a total of 14 wheelie bins and less than 1 jumbo dumpster. See more details here:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/from-power-of-one-to-power-of-community.html

Finally, sometimes, nature delivers free gifts nearly to our doorstep, such as firewood flowing down the Whanganui River and washing up on the shore in front of our home.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/beach-logging.html

6) Waste Not: Composting has been covered in the previous principle, so I will focus on the three R’s here. Reducing, reusing and recycling come as second nature to permaculturists. Some of the ways we put these into use can be seen in the following posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/3-rs.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/it-does-not-take-much-to-become-world.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/r2-no-d2.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/r2-e2-ie-2nd-edition.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/r-e-c-y-c-l-e-find-out-what-it-means-to.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/recirculating-materials-and-wealth-in.html

Additionally, I have collaborated on waste education initiatives in our community, as described here. These provide some background for the amazing result from the NZ Master’s Games described above.

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/perfection.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/education-is-no-waste_16.html

Finally, I also found a way to make use of the untreated timber that we had to remove from the villa during the renovation, and a crappy old skil saw from the local auction house

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/urban-chainsaw.html

7) Design from Pattern to Details: The patterns of the Earth include day and night, the seasons, climatic patterns (although changing), as well as hydrological, geological, chemical and biological patterns. In a passive solar redesign, we begin with the natural, repeating patterns of the sun and finish with things like: adding glazing to the north and removing it from the south (as described above); and the strategic placement of thermal mass (also described above).

On the land, I have mostly designed around wind patterns, making some mistakes and then having to redesign based on the wind-hardiness of different plants. For example, even though all of the literature says that olives and feijoas will stand up to coastal winds, I found that they do need some level of protection. I moved 8 olives and built wind protection for 6 feijoas.

I also learned that summer raspberries and persimmon will not tolerate any salt winds. I transplanted the raspberries to a more sheltered position, but the persimmon died due to three weeks of onshore winds right when it was leafing out.

There are lots of good insights into our landscape design strategies including wind protection and sun traps in these two posts:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/retrospective-21-eco-thrifty-yard-and.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/addition-to-retro-21-more-yard-and.html

8) Integrate: I see this as an umbrella term over the entire design process, which includes 4-dimensional design, and re-design. In my opinion, this principle represents the concept of systems thinking, or ‘ecological thinking.’ This is reflected in the famous Native American saying, “Everything is connected in a web of life.” It is embodied in the Lakota (“Sioux”) phrase, mitakuye oyasin: all my relations. This represents a worldview that recognizes a relationship to all living and non-living matter in the universe during all of time.

I believe this is a permaculture ‘habit of mind’ that can be developed through practice until it is done unconsciously all the time. Because of my learning disabilities, my brain naturally recognizes the space in between objects easier than the individual objects themselves. While the American school system tried to beat this out of me, I was able to retain enough into adulthood to re-awaken this way of seeing, and to cultivate it into a more developed form. In my twenties, I practiced systems thinking exercises (not knowing it was such at the time) that have re-trained my brain to ‘see interconnectedness’ including the 4^th dimension.

Long before I ever heard of permaculture, I was thinking in ‘permaculture ways.’ Maybe that is why, when I unexpectedly met Bill Mollison at Schumacher College (Totnes, England), permaculture made so much sense to me. It may also explain why I have defined permaculture in this way:

Permaculture is an eco-design system that seeks to recognize and maximize beneficial relationships while minimizing or eliminating harmful relationships.

On our section, and beyond our section, we seek to integrate systems of energy and matter, as well as human systems. Socially, we have done well at integrating with some non-greenie groups, such as the softball club, mental health organizations, the regional PHO, and the YMCA, as well as some local Maori groups. Regarding my PhD thesis, I have spent four and a half years studying the integration of a permaculture approach to science teaching and learning in New Zealand secondary schools.

9) Choose small and slow: I could write on many different topics, but this is the one I think deserves the most attention. Here is where I can raise an observation I’ve made over my last four and a half years interacting with the permaculture community in New Zealand. Hardly any permies I’ve met (quite a few for a small country) ride bicycles or take public buses instead of driving. I know that everyone has an excuse for this, but I’m not really interested in hearing excuses. I have heard lots over the years.

In my opinion, riding a bicycle instead of driving is the single best example of choosing a small and slow solution, especially as it directly addresses the two biggest identified challenges addressed by permaculture: climate change and peak oil (Holmgren, 2009). My history with bicycle commuting (over 100 kms at times) goes back over 20 years, and I named my farm – developed over 8 years into one of the most sustainable properties in North America – Pedal Power Farm.

We chose the location of our current home for three main reasons: walking distance to the beach; walking distance to a bus stop; and, flat, short bicycle ride into the central city. These are all small and slow approaches to eco-thrifty living. Dani wrote this post ages ago:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/answer-bike-on-bike.html

Here are some I wrote:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/hauling-brass.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/eco-thrifty-thinking.html

10) Work Diversity: In this project, we have worked diversity in two primary ways: ecological food production; and, a holistic approach to whole community sustainability education.

The former has been described above in some of our approaches to designing from patterns to details. We currently have planted 118 edible perennial plant species of many different varieties and cultivars. We always plant multiple varieties of tomatoes, and always have our first ripe ones well before Christmas. Talking to others around Whanganui, including professional market gardeners, this ‘beat the local market’ by many weeks. We managed this not with a glass house, but by using microclimates and selecting the best varieties to plant at the best time (observe and interact; self-regulate and accept feedback; get a yield).

Regarding an ecological model for whole community education (see above in #4), we have partnered with a diversity of community groups and businesses on many projects. Most of these entities have no overt green mission, but we were able to find common ground (kaupapa), on issues of wellness, poverty, mental health, spirituality, etc. Two of our most amazing partnerships have been with the New Zealand Masters Games and the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Meanwhile, some attempts at partnering with many green groups and all attempts to partner with the Wanganui District Council have failed. Who woulda guessed? There is no way to know unless you try. That’s why I am happy with an 80% failure rate, because I know those efforts that do work are the most robust, and, above all else, I am learning the truth about sustainability projects in a community, not some theory written by someone else or a belief I might have held because ‘it seemed logical.’

In nature, diversity often leads to stability. I believe our efforts described above will provide a high level of stability (resilience) in our lives. We are likely to have food in the event of a disruption to the food supply, and we are likely to have support from a wide swath of the community if our family falls on hard times or suffers a tragedy. In three years we have been lucky to be adopted by a large and divers whanau in Whanganui.

11)Push the Edge: How about taking a crappy, old villa and turning it into a warm, dry, low-energy home? How about power bills averaging $22/month, including a line charge of $13? How about 118 edible perennials on 900 square metres? But these things are secondary to what is really significant about this project.

In terms of making a unique contribution to the global body of permaculture knowledge, the education efforts in our community are by far the most significant. We are pushing the edge by developing a new model for community sustainability education as described multiple times above. Nowhere in the world that I am aware of is anyone taking this type of approach, especially with no initial funding source and only modest ongoing donations from local individuals and organizations.

The only way to push the edge is to take risks and accept failure. I’ve done both many times over the last three years, but the learning is worth it. Be warned, however, that when you push the edge publicly as we have, you’ll get blowback from the left and the right. That’s no problem, as we’ve received amazing feedback from the middle, where the vast majority of people reside, and where I think permaculture has largely failed to make inroads. Ha, it just occurred to me that we are pushing the edge by going to the centre. Beautiful!

12) Respond to Change: This principle gets to the heart of dynamic design and what I call ‘four dimensional design.’ We employ this principle in a number of ways, including: window treatments; annual vege production; and, refining our approach to community education.

As described above, we use a combination of pelmets, thermal curtains, and window blankets as part of our holistic strategy for reducing heat loss through windows in winter. But we also use them to prevent heat gain in summer. In both cases, change is represented by day/night cycles of sunshine and temperature fluctuation.

On a winter’s morning, all curtains are drawn and window blankets are in place. With the sunrise, I open the curtain and remove the window blanket on one double-glazed window (northeast-facing) beside the breakfast table. Later, when the sun has risen more and the outdoor temperature probe that receives direct sunlight reads higher than the indoor probe in the lounge, I open the lounge curtains (also northeast-facing). At around 11 am, I then open the northwest-facing curtains. At about 2 pm, I close the northeast-facing curtains. At sunset I close all curtains and replace the window blankets.

In the summer we can reverse the pattern, as well as open windows to encourage cross-ventilation.

Regarding low-input / high-productivity methods for annual vegetable production, it is all about tools, timing and technique. These would be familiar to any small-scale market gardener worth his or her stirrup hoe. I have developed a decade of experience and learning into a design/management system that I use and have presented as a workshop in New Zealand and Australia.

The system relies on designing and managing for weed control, and getting multiple other benefits along the way. In my travels around the world as well as my reading, learning, attending workshops, etc., I have never come across a better system for low input (time, effort and money) and high productivity. If I had, I would be using it.

Finally, as described above, our ecological model for whole community sustainability education is holistic, cooperative, and adaptive. Regarding its adaptability, it is open to self-regulation and feedback to improve and expand.

For example, I approached the local primary school (low decile) to offer my services to help integrate sustainability across the curriculum. I met with the teachers at a staff meeting where they all showed great enthusiasm and said all the right things. I went home excited but then waited a month to hear that the teachers had decided that they needed to focus more on behaviour education and would not have time for sustainability education. My heart sank. Then I changed my approach.

With funding through the Sustainable Whanganui Trust I was able to offer the school a solar sausage sizzle for each classroom. The principal said yes on the spot, and two weeks later every student in the school had learned about some of the applications of solar energy to power an ipod and to cook kai. Fun and learning were had by all. See some cool pics and more info here:

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/solar-sausage-sizzlers.html

http://www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/retrospective-24-win-solar-sausage.html

Conclusion

While the permaculture ethics and principles were not overtly used during the ETR, I hope that I have made it clear that those permaculture ‘habits of mind’ embodied in the principles and ethics were used at every step. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have found it helpful.

References

Bane, P. (2012). The permaculture handbook. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society.

Holmgren, D. (2002). Permaculture: Principles and pathways beyond sustainability. Hepburn, Victoria, Australia: Holmgren Design Services.

Holmgren, D. (2009). Future scenarios: How communities can adapt to peak oil and climate change. White River Junction, VT., USA: Chelsea Green.

Eco Thrifty Life, growing food, permaculture

Mid-Autumn Permaculture Update

April 21, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

After a long, cool and windy summer, we have had an amazing autumn. Overall, I would say we have had a good growing season.

For example, we have had ripe tomatoes continuously since 13th December – over 4 months and still going.

Our chillies are ripening.

These are yellow capsicum (peppers), but they may not ripen this late in the season.

But the guavas have had no trouble ripening. For the red guava we have noticed that it fruits in April and then again in July. In this photo you can see ripe fruit next to blossoms.

Oddly, one of our plum trees is blossoming – not a good sign.

The banana has had its best year, but still no fruit yet.

Strawberries are making an autumn push. We have had fresh strawberries since October – over 6 months.

This corgette (zuchini) has been producing for about 3 months and still going strong.

We’re giving the melons as long as possible to ripen.

Despite a wind storm in January that caused this tamarillo tree to drop half its fruit, it is still laden.

And finally, even in autumn, love is in the air.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency, updates

Our Weekly Newspaper Column Marks Two Years

April 17, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of this column – 104 weeks of eco-design thinking, advice, maths, science, Neil Diamond tributes, and the tiniest bit of constructive criticism. To mark the anniversary, I’ve decided to remind myself and readers how this column came about in the first place.

In February 2012, former editor Ross Pringle rang me to ask if I’d be interested in writing for the new-look Chronicle that would launch in late April. He said that a column I wrote for the weekly Conservation Comment – which appears on Mondays – in December 2011 struck a chord.

Funny thing, I hurriedly wrote that column for Peter Frost who was trying to fill a gap in the Conservation Comment rotation of writers because someone could not produce a piece that week. Here is just the beginning of that column from two and a half years ago followed by updates and an exciting announcement.

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight: A Year of Living Lightly on the Planet

“We are now over the 12-month mark of renovating an abandoned villa in Castlecliff into a warm, dry energy-efficient home. When we set out on this low budget / high performance retrofit we had no specific numbers in mind for energy savings and waste reduction. We simply wanted to push the envelope and do the best we could.

As it turns out, our power bill has averaged $20 per month (this includes the daily line charge) and we have spent a total of $20 in rubbish fees for the entire year. I’ve come to call this our “20-20 hindsight” but there is no reason it could not also be a 20-20 vision for others to work toward by the year 2020. Of course electric rates will increase by then, but that is all the more reason to invest in efficiency now. (At current rates of annual change, electric rates will double in under ten years.)”

That was then and this is now. Our power bill has skyrocketed to $25 per month on average, but our rubbish fees have decreased to about $15 annually. 25-15 hindsight?!? Not so catchy.

But since it is an election year, I’ve decided to start my own political party. All important, as one would expect, is the name. It’s got to be something people recognize; something people like; something people will be remind of constantly.

The Chocolate Party? The All Blacks Party? The Sex Party – no, scratch that.

I know, I’ll call it the Internet Party. Everyone knows the internet. Everyone loves the internet. What could possibly be wrong with The Internet Party? Oh, taken already, eh?

Which leaves me with no option than calling it the Eco-Thrifty Party. Based on my calculations, we can offer our followers up to $50 per week (in power savings) in their pocket – almost as good as what Labour has pledged. We can pledge to out conservative the National Party by employing the Precautionary Principle when engaging any science and/or technology that may have consequences that ultimately outweigh the benefits.

Calling on my American roots, we also pledge a free-range chicken in every pot, home-grown tomatoes in every salad, an energy efficient light bulb in every socket, a bicycle in every garage, and free, independent ‘Healthy Home’ advice for every resident of Whanganui.

Seriously, we are offering free, independent ‘Healthy Home’ advice for every resident of Whanganui. No politics required.

Nelson Lebo is not the founder of the Eco-Thrifty Party, but does enjoy parties as long as he can be home and in bed by 9 pm. He is co-founder of The ECO School.

Upcoming Events:

Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes. 19^th April, 10 am – 1 pm. Drop in advice at the River Traders Market, River Exchange and Barter System (REBS) stall, Taupo Quay.

Seven Easy Steps to a Low-Energy Home, 22^nd April, 6:30-7:30 pm. Community Room behind Gonville Library, 46 Abbott St.

Window Blanket DIY Workshop. 4^th May, 3-5 pm. Duncan Pavilion. Please register.

Eco Thrifty Living

All posts by Estwing

Passive Solar: Let the Sun Shine in

5 Months of Home-Grown Tomatoes

Happy Mothers Day

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Materials and Energy

International Permaculture Day

Layering up for Warmth

Water Damage: Costly but Preventable

Diploma Work in Permaculture (New Zealand)

Mid-Autumn Permaculture Update

Our Weekly Newspaper Column Marks Two Years

Wedding Renovation Baby Life