All posts by Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, solar hot water

Passive Solar Renovation

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The other day we were driving home at about 5:30 – just after sunset – and could barely make out plumes of wood smoke exiting cowls on Heads Road and Cornfoot Street. The day had been sunny, but cool, as would be expected in July. Our curtains were still open, so we hurried along while remaining under 50 km/hr.
We parked, grabbed the bubs and groceries, and walked inside. Upon entering our old villa on Arawa Place, we were pleased to feel the warmth gifted us by the sun. The thermometer in the kitchen read 23 degrees Celsius.
By now, my wife is tired of hearing me say, “Wow, it’s so warm in here. I can’t believe all those houses had wood burners going.”
I chalk the difference up to legacy and sunlight.
 Before

 After
Unfortunately, Whanganui has been left with a legacy of thousands of homes built with seemingly no regard to the sun or even thermal comfort for that matter. Many of the dwellings I’ve audited during the last three months through Project HEAT share these characteristics: cold in winter and hot in summer.
Our home would have been the same before its passive solar renovation. As a matter of fact, we met a woman shortly after we bought the villa who told us, “I’ve been in that house before. I babysat there once. That’s the coldest house in New Zealand.”
While no longer the coldest home in the country, it is still far from the warmest. But on a sunny winter day, we find ourselves toasty warm inside long after dark, and with plenty of solar heated water – all free energy with no daily line charge!
The primary way we tapped into this free, abundant energy source required no specialist equipment and no specialist skills. As a matter of fact, the ‘solar collectors’ we used already exist in every home in the country: windows. The problem with most homes is that the windows are evenly distributed between the north, south, east and west.
On sunny winter days, only the northerly-facing windows have a positive energy balance. In other words, they gain more heat through sunlight energy during the day than they lose through radiation at night (if properly curtained, as you would). All of the other windows have negative energy balances even on the sunniest of winter days.
For us, the obvious solution was to ‘shift’ windows from southern exposure to northern exposure. While retaining roughly the same amount of total glazing, we were able to dramatically improve the solar gain of this old villa where – once upon a time – someone decided to put the toilet in the north corner.
 Before

After
Shifting the toilet to a more appropriate location was accompanied by opening up the north corner to create a bright, warm, cosy kitchen with French door access to abundant backyard vege gardens and an outdoor pizza oven. All of the work was done in accordance with the New Zealand Building Code, with special attention paid to weather-tightness and bracing.
At the same time, we insulated the ceilings as well as those walls that were opened up during the renovation. And finally, we added thermal mass inside of the building envelope to moderate and store solar thermal energy, but that, my friends, is a story for another day.

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Bad Advice – Good Advice

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Bad advice can come at a good price, or even for free. What appears cheap initially, can prove expensive in the long run. Of course we don’t know if advice is good or bad when we first get it – that’s why it’s called advice.
Be aware, however, that often times the person offering advice may also be offering a product or service to sell based on that advice. This is particularly true of the automotive repair and home improvement professions.
For example, most of us know little more about our car than where to put the key, where to put the petrol, where to put the wiper fluid, and maybe where to put the oil. When there is a problem, we take it to a mechanic for advice and, most likely, servicing and parts. I suspect this is why everyone says, “You need to find an honest mechanic.”
An honest mechanic will give you good advice at a fair price. She or he is, after all, a trained expert in the field and deserves to make a living.
The same should be said of builders and architects. They are trained professionals who deserve a fair wage. But from my observations in North America and New Zealand, very few builders, architects, or any trade for that matter, understand how energy flows through a home and how to optimize thermal comfort and the health of the indoor environment. Please note I said few, not none.

This is what is possible when good design is involved.  
There are those in Whanganui in the design and building professions who know much more than me. We might call them ‘experts’ and their advice will be excellent, but not inexpensive. Remember, you get what you pay for, and in cases involving the energy performance of your home, expert advice may pay for itself in energy savings over the course of ten, twenty or thirty years. That, I consider, is a good investment, and anyone considering a new build or a major renovation should budget the advice of an eco-design expert into the cost of their project.
I remember a project in New Hampshire – where I used to live – where a company was able to double the size of its offices without having to increase the size of the heating and cooling system. They did this by hiring an ecological design advisor who did some research, crunched some numbers, and made recommendations that saved them tens of thousands of dollars by not having to install a second heating and cooling system. On top of that, they enjoyed lower operating costs. That said, businesses tend to be more budget conscious than householders.
That said, I have seen more than a few examples of bad advice and bad design over the course of the last three months and 80 free home energy audits provided by Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training). That bad advice, in some cases, has cost homeowners thousands of dollars – money that could have been much better spent elsewhere. Unfortunately, that’s water under the bridge, or, rather, heat through the building envelope.

Hurry, free advice ends this month.  

But for you, however, I may have something to offer in these the waning days of Project HEAT. Please note, I have nothing to sell but practical advice made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor along with community-minded Whanganui citizens Melinda Hatherly, Murray Jones and Jason Quinn.
And that said, Act Now! Limited time offer! Don’t miss out! Free advice for a warm, dry, healthy home.
Seriously, if you have a question, please ring me. 

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Creative Reuse and Eco-Art for Kids

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Creative reuse, or what some people call “repurposing,” is common practice among the ‘oily rag’ crowd. Seeing a practical and/or beautiful use for something in a second life exhibits a form of thinking that is simultaneously creative, ecological, and fiscally responsible.

Once a dangerous deck… 

… now a beautiful, functional fence. 
My talented wife spends many hours on a website called Pinterest, where other talented wives post digital images of their ingenuity and then feed off of the ingenuity of others. This feeding frenzy of creativity is called ‘pinning’ and probably also ‘re-pinning.’ I don’t know much about the site, except: 1) it eats free time; 2) there are some amazing photos from re-purposers far more creative and talented than us.
Nonetheless, we do our best to make things for our home that are functional, beautiful, and easy on the planet. One example is the pelmets I made from rusticated weatherboards that we removed while re-cladding. Turning the old, weathered cladding into an attractive interior feature required a lot of scraping and sanding, priming and painting, and then some more painting. This is what they do not show on Pinterest!
I’ve written about our pelmets before so I’ll put this briefly. I inverted the weatherboards so that the scallop was facing down (opposite of its orientation as exterior cladding), and ripped them lengthwise with a circular saw to suit the width for different rooms. The photos show 1 and 1/3 weatherboards screwed together to make a tall pelmet reaching from the top of the door in our ‘mud room’ to the ceiling.
 Once a tagged weatherboard…
… now a pelmet.
Regardless of whether you like pelmets or not, you’ve got to admit this was a fine reuse of a demolition material on site. Perhaps our best example of such.
But judging from the two overenrolled window blanket workshops we ran last month, the humble but effective window blanket appears to be the most well-known of our eco-thrifty creations.
Yet, as with anything humble but effective, it has it detractors. About a year ago – when I first wrote about window blankets in this column – someone at the Saturday market passed on a comment from someone else that went something like, “How many middle-class, middle aged, women are going to put blankets in their windows at home.” Judging from the number of middle-class, middle-aged women who came to our workshops, a fair number.
From my perspective, just because something is eco-thrifty does not mean that it cannot be attractive. From a friend of mine’s perspective (an eco-engineer working in the Indian Himalaya at 3,000 – 4,000 metres), “Warm is always beautiful.”
Well kids, here’s your chance to combine these two perspectives into one great holiday programme at the Sarjeant Gallery! I have the pleasure to be working with art educator Andrea Gardner and artist Sue Cooke to run a free holiday programme for children ages 10 to 14 to make window blankets that are also works of art.
The programme runs 24th-25th July, with other cool “Art Adventures with Recycled Materials” happening the 16th-18thas well as the 23rd (ages 7-12). The programme is inspired by Sue’s Paradise Project showing at the gallery, and funded by Horizons Regional Council. Let’s call it, “The Fun Plan.” Please ring Sietske at the Sarjeant to enroll. 

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Mid-Winter Gardens Update

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Even in the heart of winter, we see new growth in the gardens and around the section. The prime examples include garlic…

broad beans…

and olive trees setting new leaves.

We also see broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages growing well without pesky white butterflies around.

Finally, we see one ripe lemon on our world’s smallest lemon tree.

Figs cling to branches after the leaves have fallen.

But hungry birds are on to that.

Finally, check out what one of our plum trees has been up to!

There are dozens of these looped branches on the tree. Does anyone know why?

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Serious Composting for Serious Results

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When I was in intermediate school in the states, I took lots of nonsense state and national tests, but I didn’t need the government to tell me how dumb I was – my older brother was quite enough, thank you.
I was rubbish at these tests, and especially the “verbal” (English language) sections. I could never complete the “reading comprehension” sections in time, and was baffled by the this-is-to-that-as-the-other-is-to-what? I-was-like-wtf-mate!
Now that I’m no longer in school and have learned to think for myself, I understand the thought process of these types of questions. For example, the All Blacks are to winning as _______ is to losing. While there are lots of options here, I think most of us would agree that Wallabies is the most appropriate.
Try this one for yourself: Insulation is to an eco-home as ________ is to a garden.
While there may be a few possibilities, the best response is compost.

Compost and insulation share the following characteristics:
Neither makes good cocktail party conversation.
Each remains slightly mysterious to many people.
Both are the unsung heroes of their respective domains.
Each must be done properly to function well.
An energy-efficient dwelling is only as good as its insulation, and an organic garden is only as good as its compost. There are many other factors that go into a home or garden, but these are the biggies.
Oh, and one more thing they have in common: Winter is a good time for both.
Obviously the colder months are when we rely on insulation in our homes to keep us warm, but winter is also an excellent time to make compost in preparation for spring planting. Nothing beats having an excess of high quality compost at the ready.
Making your own compost is the cheapest and best way to obtain a quality product. It’s not rocket science or brain surgery, but some knowledge and skills are required.
I usually make 1 cubic metre at a time, although at the moment I have six cubic metres going. Hot composting relies on a certain ratio of volume to surface area to stay warm – up to 50 or 60 degrees – which is reached at about 1 cubic metre. As the pile ‘cooks’ the volume shrinks as carbon dioxide and water vapor are ‘exhaled’ by the micro-organisms munching happily away.
Hot composting requires a balance of carbon-rich material such as shavings or brown grasses and nitrogen-rich materials such as manure, food scraps or green grass clippings. The materials should be layered so as to maximize the contact between carbon and nitrogen. Build a pile but don’t constrain it.
I am an advocate for free-range compost: no bins, no boxes. This makes turning the pile easier, as oxygen is the limiting factor. Turning a well-balanced pile once every 48 to 72 hours for one month will result in the best compost you’ve ever made. This has been the secret to my vege production for over a decade.
However, I have run into a challenge lately with some so-called ‘biodegradable’ products that are being promoted around Wanganui. After four months of hot composting they show no sign of decomposition. Upon contacting the supplier, I’ve learned they require 6 to 18 months to break down, which doesn’t fit my timetable. I guess the bottom line is that not all biodegradables are created equal. Caveat emptor.
Want to learn more? Check out these upcoming workshops:
The Carbon-Neutral Lawn: 13th July, 3-4 pm, or 14thJuly, 3-4 pm.
How to REALLY Compost: 13th July, 4-5 pm, or 14thJuly, 4-5 pm
Registration essential: 344 5013  –  022 635 0868 – theecoschool@gmail.com    

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Carbon Neutral Lawn

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I’ve been writing a lot about warm, low-energy, healthy homes lately, so I’ve decided to change things up for a mid-winter’s break and write about summery things like yard and garden. For us, the outdoor “renovation” of our weed-infested section has been as significant as the passive solar redesign of our old villa. We have used most of the same design thinking in both cases, and strive to create systems that both save money and a have low impacts on the environment.
Crediting my lovely and brilliant wife with coining the term ‘eco-thrifty’, I have no better way to describe what we have accomplished on our vast holdings of 700 metres squared: a carbon-neutral (well, actually we store carbon), regenerative (getting better, ie healthier, every season) and productive (ie, kai) landscape.
Boy, that was a lot of information after the colon. Let’s dissect it piece by piece.
Our lawn, 3rd March 2013, after 3 months of summer drought. 

 Castlecliff Reserve, 3rd March 2013, after 3 months of summer drought.
50 meters from our lawn, pictured above.  
Carbon-Neutral. Not that it is a big accomplishment, but we manage our 700 square metre section without the use of a mower. At the risk of offending some readers, I’ll put the next point as delicately as possible: In my opinion, petrol mowers are neither eco and nor thrifty. They cost money to buy. They cost money to run. They cost money to repair. They create noise pollution and air pollution. Just my opinion.
Regenerative. We take a holistic management view of our section wherein we retain about a third of it in grass, but avoid the use of a mower by using chooks and ducks to ‘work’ for us on a seasonal basis. During the colder months – roughly May through August – we ‘tractor’ our fowl across our lawn. You may have heard of a ‘chicken tractor’ before, but trust me, they work just as well for ducks.
If you haven’t heard of a chicken tractor, its just a mobile chook pen, and if I have communicated well with my editor there just may be a picture of one somewhere on this page. As an aside, one of my favorite all-time discoveries is Google Image Search. Type in ‘chicken tractor’ and see what you get!
Rosemary, Amelia and Eunice. 
As the chooks and ducks graze the grass, they stimulate root growth, which makes most grasses healthier. Additionally, their poos fertilize the grass and make it healthier still. These healthier grasses out-compete the opportunistic weeds that once thrived in our poor, dry, sandy soils. The more we have tractored the birds, the healthier the grasses have become, which then are even healthier for the birds to eat. This type of a positive ‘upward spiral’ is often called regenerative.
Productive. To go ‘old school’ on you for a moment, almost every square inch of our property contributes to the growing of food. How, you may ask, can that be when I’ve already stated that a third of it is in grass. Well, sure, the chooks and ducks eat some grass, but all of them prefer layer pellets. As you would.
More significantly, we grow our own mulch on our property. As mentioned above, tractoring the birds across the lawn for five cold months a year improves the health of the grasses. But we do not want to be stepping in duck poo all summer long. For the seven warmer months, we let the grass grow for three to four weeks at a time and then cut it with a scythe. The cut grass is dried and then used to mulch our vege gardens. It’s all part of ‘the circle of life.’ Hakuna matata, bro.
Want to learn more? Check out these upcoming workshops:
The Carbon-Neutral Lawn: 13th July, 3-4 pm, or 14thJuly, 3-4 pm.
How to REALLY Compost: 13th July, 4-5 pm, or 14thJuly, 4-5 pm

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Winds and Wind Protection

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First the bad news: We had gusts of 126 km/hr last week.

Now the good news: Our roof is still on.

And finally, a question: If homes are built to sustain maximum wind gusts, why aren’t many gardens?

Living about 300 meters from the Tasman Sea, we believe they must be. In these parts, the winds are strong enough to blow the Blacks off the All Blacks.

So we have put a lot of time, effort and money into erecting wind breaks.

We have also braced the windward fences to account for the additional wind load caused by the netting. 

Our neighbours did not.

Their fence came down and pulled part of ours with it.

See here, their fence posts snapped at ground level.

And that force snapped one of our rails.

Biologically, here is evidence of wind damage to the ‘wild’ bush lupine growing unprotected in front of our home.

Another legume, tagasaste, also suffered some minor wind burn.

To compare like with like, the next photo is of a native hebe without wind protection.

This hebe is protected from the wind.

Overall, our fruit trees and annual gardens suffered negligible damage. After a storm like last week, I’m glad for our extensive efforts at wind protection.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation

DIY Double-Glazing

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Let me begin with the following statement: Taking pictures of windows is extraordinarily difficult.
Now that that’s established, I’ll follow up with this statement: DIY double-glazing can take many forms.

Regular readers of this column will be well aware of plastic window film DIY double-glazing. Local man, Jason Quinn, was recently selected as a finalist in the Innovation awards for his product, Space Window Insulation.
We have used his product in our home to a certain extent, but lately I have been experimenting with DIY glass double-glazing as a more permanent way to reduce heat loss through windows. I believe this would be considered “retrofit” double-glazing, because we are doing it to our existing windows – both aluminium and timber.
Before I describe the different ways I’ve done this, a reminder: insulation in ‘trapped air.’ In other words, the second sheet of glass or plastic does not add any significant insulating value, it is the air trapped in between. The aforementioned Jason – literally a former rocket scientist – tells me that the optimal air space (gap) to the second sheet – be it plastic or glass – is about 22 mm. Typically, timber windows have a 25 mm gap between the glass and the interior frame, but aluminium windows offer only a 5 mm – 7 mm gap.
So far I have retrofitted five windows in four different ways. The first one was an aluminium window with Space Window Insulation. The good news is that it was cheap and easy, but the bad news is that there is only a 6 mm air space. Then again, 6 mm of trapped air is better than none.
The next window I retrofitted was in our bathroom. The building code required us to have safety glass, but instead of removing the original glass and replacing it with safety glass, I commenced my first attempt at glass DIY double-glazing. Here is where the difficulty in taking pictures of glass comes in. Follow along the numbered photographs as best you can.
1) As with any DIY project, it pays to organize all your tools and materials in advance.
2) I glued vertical timber battens – primed and painted on all sides – to the aluminium frame. These take up the space of the trough at the bottom of the frame, and provide a 22 mm gap between the two panes.
3) I set the glass with a bead of silicone on both vertical battens.
4) I screwed two horizontal battens – top and bottom – into the timber frame to hold the glass against the vertical battens.
This design worked well, so I repeated it on an identical window in our kitchen, but I was forced to change plans when facing our large lounge window because there was no aluminium trough. I could have used timber battens again to create an air space greater than 6 mm, but the process of measuring, cutting, priming, and painting (two coats) is long and drawn-out. Instead, I used a roll of 12 mm adhesive foam to make an 18 mm gap (6 mm + 12 mm) all around the window. Then I simply used timber battens top and bottom to hold the glass in place.
Finally, in our bedroom – where we have timber windows – I used yet another design. Here it was a combination of adhesive foam and right-angle timber battens. It would take a thousand words to explain it, so I’ll refer you again to a photo: 5) side-by-side single-glazing and double-glazing.
Want to learn more? DIY Double-Glazing Workshops: 25thJune, 5-6:30 pm. 29th June, 9-10:30 am. 30th June, 4:30-6 pm. Registration essential: 022 635 0868 – theecoschool@gmail.com

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Upcoming Workshops

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ECO School Workshops June/July 2013

DIY Double-Glazing Workshops:
25th June, 5-6:30 pm.
29th June, 9-10:30 am.
30th June, 4:30-6 pm.
Choose one that suits you.
This workshop provides examples and advice on DIY retrofit double-glazing including plastic and glass options for both timber and aluminium windows.
Registration essential: 344 5013  –  022 635 0868 – theecoschool@gmail.com    
Waged $15, Unwaged, $10. 
The Carbon-Neutral Lawn
13th July, 3-4 pm
14th July, 3-4 pm
Choose one that suits you.
Save money and help the environment by managing your lawn as an organic system that produces food and does not pollute. This workshop introduces three techniques we use to improve the health of our land and grow abundant food with little effort while using no petrol or noisy, smelly, expensive lawn mowers.
Registration essential: 344 5013  –  022 635 0868 – theecoschool@gmail.com    
Waged $10, Unwaged, $5. 
How to REALLY Compost
13th July, 4-5 pm
14th July, 4-5 pm
Choose one that suits you.
Most organic growers worldwide will tell you that growing great fruit and vege requires great compost. From my experience, the best compost is that which I make myself. It also happens to be the cheapest. This workshop provides the best advice on making your own high quality compost, trouble-shooting a compost heap, and the bust uses of compost to enhance fruit and vege production.
Registration essential: 344 5013  –  022 635 0868 – theecoschool@gmail.com    
Waged $10, Unwaged, $5. 

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Moving Warm Air within a Home

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Last week I described many of the common pieces of advice I offer householders during the home energy audits I’ve performed as part of Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training). When I walk through the door and meet the householders for the first time, I make two statements:
1) Every home is different and every occupant is different.
2) For a warm, cosy home, holding heat is the least expensive, and generating heat is the most expensive…but there is also the option of moving heat inexpensively.
The rest of this column is dedicated to explaining the addendum to the second statement: moving heat inexpensively.
About half of the homes I’ve audited have a single, fixed heat source at one end – usually the lounge – and cold, damp bedrooms at the other end. This hot lounge/cold bedrooms syndrome is probably what inspired the development of heat transfer units, which consist of insulated ductwork that runs above the ceiling with a small fan to push the warm air where it’s needed.
The electricity required to run a small fan is negligible. If you were to shut off every device in your home and turn on a small fan, the power meter would not even turn. However, if you put an electric heater in a back bedroom, you’d see the meter spin like an old Neil Diamond album. Hot August Night!
But, you point out, installing a heat transfer unit costs hundreds of dollars. True…and that’s why I have an eco-thrifty alternative.
Keep in mind that the idea here is to move excess heat from a room that has a fixed, economical heating unit – a wood burner, gas fire or heat pump – to other cold rooms. What good is having one room at 23 degrees and others at 14?
I have seen dozens of homes that are rectangular in shape, where the heater is at one far end and installed on an exterior wall. Given the age of these homes, it is safe to say the walls are uninsulated. This is a terrific example of terrible design. Even Mark Bachelder, the man who built my farmhouse in the states in 1782 knew enough to put the heat source in the middle! This style of home is called a “Centre-Chimney Cape” (short for Cape Cod).
In our home in Castlecliff, we installed the second-hand multi-fuel cooker on an interior wall next to the double-doorway to the lounge. We use an amazing self-propelled device called Eco-Fan to move the heated air from the kitchen into the lounge.
But we had the luxury to redesign our home and place the fixed heater appropriately. For those without this option, here is the eco-thrifty way to move warm air that anyone – owner or renter – could start using today. All it takes is two small desk fans with the bases removed.
I’ll use the common example of a heated lounge and a long hallway with two or three bedrooms at the far end. First, hang one fan in the top corner of the doorway from the lounge to the hall. This takes warm air from the ceiling and pushes it in the general direction of the bedrooms. Cool air will flow along the floor into the lounge where it is heated by the economical heater.
Next, hang another fan in the top corner of a bedroom doorway. This pushes the warm air from the hall ceiling into the bedroom. Switch the fan to another bedroom every 30 minutes between the hours of your evening meal and bedtime. That’s it!
But be aware, if you have a giant hall with high ceilings, it may be better to think about a heat transfer unit that would bypass the hallway. As someone once said, “Every home is different.”
Peace, Estwing