Category Archives: thermal mass

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, sun angles, thermal mass

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 12

September 7, 2015 Estwing Leave a comment

At the end of the last column I promised to include some more examples of thermal mass this week along with a photograph. As a reminder, thermal mass is part of the trilogy for passive solar design, which also includes solar gain and insulation.

Thermal mass absorbs heat from sunshine slowly during the day and then releases it at night. In this way it is a bit like the opposite of a night store heater, which stores cheap electric heat at night and releases it throughout the morning.

In modern houses, thermal mass can take the form of an insulated concrete foundation slab, but retrofitting a 100 year-old villa is a different story. Because an old villa has a raised floor (ie, built on piles) adding thermal mass inside of the thermal envelope is more of a challenge. During the renovation of our villa we added mass in three ways.

The first and easiest way we added thermal mass was to add a layer of plasterboard (aka “Gib”) to a number of north-facing internal walls that receive direct sunlight during the winter months. If you have ever lifted a sheet of plasterboard you would know it contains lots of mass. In other words, it’s heavy.

The next way we added mass was to install an iron claw foot bathtub in our northwest-facing bathroom. Like the extra layer of plasterboard, the iron slowly absorbs the sun’s warmth during the day and releases it at night.

Finally, and most dramatically, we installed an old Shacklock 501 cooker in the kitchen. The placement of the Shacklock ensures that it receives direct sunlight three times a day through three different windows during winter. The cooker weighs 300 kg, and is surrounded by another 300 kg of bricks. The insulated hearth accounts for another 100 kg.

All in, the 700 kg heater/cooker works great as thermal mass during sunny winter days. It moderates the kitchen from overheating during the afternoon and helps ensure the morning temperature is a little higher than it would otherwise be.

Oh, and on cloudy days we stoke the Shacklock with wood and cosy up with a big pot of soup on top and a loaf of bread in the oven.

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, thermal mass

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 11

August 25, 2015 Estwing Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: This is part of the continuing series on good home design from around the world.

In the last column I wrote about adding glazing to the northern side of an old, run down villa to increase the amount of free solar heating during the winter. Specifically, we made three of the windows larger and added French doors. At the same time, we reduced the amount of south-facing glazing by removing two windows and replacing them with insulated walls.

These steps were part of the process of creating a passive solar home while drawing on many of the examples of good home design that I have seen all around the world.

However, one of the main problems with passive solar design over the last four decades has been homes that overheat during winter because of too much north-facing glazing and not enough thermal mass. Thermal mass is the least understood aspect of passive solar design. I’ll do my best to explain it by comparing it to a rechargeable battery, but first some background.

During the 1970s some very well meaning hippies started building homes with heaps of glazing but overlooked the inclusion of thermal mass. The homes overheated during sunny winter days and the occupants had to open windows to let out some of that heat.

Here is where the battery analogy comes in. Thermal mass absorbs the extra heat (energy) during the day and stores it like charging a battery. Think of a curb or concrete stairs that have been in the sun all day long and retain some of that heat after sunset. If you touch them they are warm after the sun has disappeared.

To get an idea of what thermal mass is, think of water and anything that sinks in water. These things are “massive,” or in other words dense. In a home, common forms of thermal mass are concrete, bricks and tiles.

But don’t be confused by a home with brick cladding or stucco. The thermal mass must be inside of the home, not outside. Specifically, it must be inside of the building envelope, which includes the stud walls, windows and doors.

Another key aspect of thermal mass is that it should be struck directly by sunlight to be most effective. In the same way, rechargeable batteries work best when the charger is plugged into the power point!

With plenty of north-facing glazing and ample thermal mass, instead of overheating during a sunny winter day, the excess sunlight energy is stored in thermal mass during the day (charging the battery) and then slowly released at night as the home cools (discharging the battery). I am partial to thermal mass as a design element because there are no moving parts, and it effortlessly takes excess heat energy at one part of the day and tucks it away for another part of the day, or rather the “middle of the night.”

I hope that helps explain how thermal mass works. In the next column I will give some more examples.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, sun angles, thermal mass

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 2

June 10, 2015 Estwing 1 Comment

Editor’s note: This is the second of an eight part series.

Last week I introduced the concept of passive design using the ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde (Colorado, USA) to illustrate the point. In a nutshell, the “Ancestral Pueblo Peoples” – also known as the Anasazi – chose certain cliffs that excluded the hot summer sun but welcomed its warming rays in winter.

The Anasazi first occupied the caves over 1,000 years ago. Warm in winter and cool in summer: they were no dummies. Here is what we can learn from them: design for the climate; use local materials; harness free energy.

During the 1970s as small group of hippies used these same design principles in the same region of the US Southwest but in a radically different way. Using beer cans, old tyres and soil, they built what they called Earthships. Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

“An Earthship is a type of passive solar house that is made of both natural and recycled materials (such as earth-filled tires), designed and marketed by Earthship Biotecture of Taos, New Mexico. Earthships are constructed to use available natural resources, especially energy from the sun. Earthships are designed to use thermal mass construction and natural cross ventilation, assisted by thermal draught (Stack effect), to regulate indoor temperature.”

Both the Anasazi and the hippies figured out ways to live comfortably in a climate that ranges from 40 degrees in the summer and minus 10 in the winter by using passive design. An Earthship is designed to allow low angle winter sun to reach deep inside the structure but to exclude high angle summer sun. Once the winter sun enters the structure some of it is stored in what is called thermal mass, such as an earthen floor, bricks, tiles and even the earth-filled tyre walls.

Believe it or not, thermal mass is essential for keeping these structures from overheating in the middle of winter on cold, sunny days when the temperature outside is right at the freezing point. Thermal mass acts as a battery in that it stores excess energy (in the form or heat) during the day and releases it at night. Of course the Earthships also contain plenty of insulation to hold that heat inside the structure overnight.

All of this falls into the category of passive design because it requires no moving parts such as fans or pumps, or the electricity to run them. Passive means it just happens by natural energy flows and cycles.

Earthships also employ passive cooling systems, but I see I am out of words for this week and next week’s column is all about passive cooling with examples from the tropical nation of Nicaragua.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Life, passive solar, solar cooking, solar hot water, sun angles, thermal mass

Equinox: Honoring the Sun

March 20, 2015 Estwing Leave a comment

We’ve reached the autumnal equinox and there is probably not a person in the city that would not say what a glorious summer we have had. Plenty of sunshine, light winds, and, after an initial dry spell, enough rain to green up the pastures and the garden.

But, like it or not, summer will come to an end, and the equinox is a reminder that we are tipping toward winter with the hours of daylight becoming shorter than hours of darkness for the next six months. It is also a timely reminder of how valuable the sun is to life on earth, and what a difference its absence can make.

But like every great Achilles, Solar energy has its heal: it only works when the sun is shining on our side of the planet. I often use a solar cooker as a way to engage people in conversation about the potential for sunlight energy. Inevitably someone will ask, “What happens when the sun isn’t out.”

Sadly, no one has yet to invent a lunar cooker, but there are many ways to store solar energy overnight and even for a number of cloudy days in a row. With solar cooking, the best place to store it is in your belly, but other solar storage systems include batteries, water and concrete.

Batteries are often used to store electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) panels in places not served by mains power. Whether it is a yacht at sea or a bach in the wop wops, these situations are often called, “off-grid.” The “grid” refers to the network of power lines that serve the vast majority of us.

Obviously, off-grid housing is not vulnerable to mains power interruption, and is therefore valuable for emergency preparedness. Even though our rural home is served by mains power, I am designing a hybrid PV system that will heat our water most of the time but also have a small battery bank for emergency lighting, water pumping, radio and mobile phone charging.

Without meaning to offend anyone’s intelligence, a traditional solar hot water system stores sunlight energy in the form of heated water. The energy itself (heat) is stored inside of an insulated cylinder overnight. Depending on the amount of insulation around the cylinder and a household’s hot water use, the supply can last for three or four cloudy days. Solar hot water would also be a treat in the case of a prolonged mains power outage.

Sunlight energy stored in an insulated concrete slab is called “thermal mass.” Like solar hot water, the heat is stored overnight and potentially for a number of cloudy days in a row. For any new home being built in New Zealand, passive solar design is an affordable approach to a high performance dwelling. Additionally – you guessed it – a passive solar home would serve its occupants very well during a mid-winter power failure if their only heating sources relied on electricity such as a heat pump or plug in heater.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking that solar cooking is only a summertime endeavour. We have cooked through the last six New Zealand winters with great success. Memorably, during the week-long cold snap in August 2011 when we had snow flurries in Majestic Square, I managed to burn a pot of rice and a curry on the very same day. That is solar power.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency, passive solar, solar hot water, thermal mass

Keep Calm and Think Different: It Takes Money to Save Money, Part 2

October 10, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Last week I introduced a new variation on an old adage: it takes money to save money. Of course this idea is not new to most people, nor is it new to this column, which has focused on the concept of ‘payback period’ since it was first published two and a half years ago.

But this concept is long overdue for the New Zealand housing sector that is known for high running costs and low performance. According to Nick Collins, the CEO of the housing performance research organization Beacon Pathway, “Much of New Zealand’s existing housing is cold, damp and unhealthy which leads to poor social and health outcomes. Poor quality, poorly performing housing affects residents’ health, education and quality to life, the resources we use, and general community wellbeing.”

I would suggest Collins’ words describe the situation in Wanganui to a tee, yet this issue does not seem to get significant traction in our community. As a self-described “struggling provincial economy” it astonishes me that, ‘zombie-like’, we voluntarily send millions of dollars to power companies in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch every year when we could easily retain them in our community.

Maybe it comes from growing up alongside the dying city of Detroit, or maybe it comes from being an under-sized gridiron (American football) player, but I have always made it a point to stand up for the ‘little guy.’ I hate waste and I like supporting local businesses.

The process of renovating our villa in Castlecliff ‘stimulated’ the local economy to the tune of $35,000. This total sum will be ‘paid back’ through energy savings and low maintenance costs over the course of about 12 years. The exceptional level of sustainability of this property can be explained through exemplary levels of energy efficiency, long-term durability of products, and the high productivity of fruits, veges and fowl. The entire property has been designed and managed to be low-input and high performance, ie, it takes money to save money.

As regular readers are aware, the villa was redesigned and renovated as a passive solar home. Between April and August, morning sunlight reaches deep into the structure, bringing warmth inside early in the day when the temperature is lowest. An abundance of glazing on the northeast and northwest sides ensure that free sunlight energy heats the northern parts of the home on most winter days to 20 – 25 degrees.

Throughout the day some of the sunlight energy is absorbed within thermal mass, ensuring that the interior does not overheat while storing the excess warmth overnight when it is released into the home. This extra thermal mass takes the form of a second layer of Gib on the walls, a cast iron claw foot bathtub, and a multi-fuel cooker with brick surround. When the sun is not shining, the multi-fuel stove easily heats the northern part of the home to 20 degrees or above on a few sticks of wood, with the added benefits of cooking and baking.

Two-thirds of the home is easily heated by this combination of sunshine and a small amount of firewood. (The southern bedrooms are kept cooler as is common in most Kiwi homes.) A super-insulated building envelope ensures that much of the heat remains in the structure overnight. Temperature in the lounge, kitchen and bathroom rarely drops below 14 degrees overnight with no heaters running. Some of this energy performance can be attributed to a combination of double-glazing, pelmets, and floor-length lined curtains, Roman blinds and window blankets. This combination of window treatments performs to a level of triple-glazing or better.

Other energy-efficiency measures we used in the home were Energy Star appliances, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and solar hot water. This combination meant that our power bills over the last year ranged from $17 to $35 per month. Contrary to what some of our critics claim, we do not sacrifice comfort or convenience. Solar hot water allows us to take long showers even in winter, while our appliances include the following: refrigerator, freezer, oven, toaster, electric kettle, cake mixer, wizzy stick, wifi, alarm system, clocks, radios, power tools, etc.

How’d we do it? By thinking different: it takes money to save money.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency, insulation, passive solar, solar hot water, sun angles, thermal mass, window treatments

Would You Buy This House? Part 1: Energy

September 8, 2014 Estwing 2 Comments

Sustainability at 10 Arawa Place

The exceptional level of sustainability of this property can be explained through exemplary levels of energy efficiency, long-term durability of products, and the high productivity of fruits, veges and fowl. The entire property has been designed and managed to be low-input and high performance.

Part 1: Energy Efficiency

10 Arawa Place has been redesigned and renovated as a passive solar home. Between April and August, morning sunlight reaches deep into the structure, bringing warmth inside early in the day when the temperature is lowest.

An abundance of glazing on the northeast and northwest sides ensure that free sunlight energy heats the northern parts of the home on most winter days to 20 – 25 degrees.

Throughout the day some of the sunlight energy is absorbed within thermal mass, ensuring that the interior does not overheat while storing the excess warmth for overnight when it is released into the home. Beyond the mass already in the structure, we added approximately one thousand kilograms of thermal mass that receives direct winter sunlight from sunrise to sunset through three large windows and the French doors.

This extra thermal mass is essentially invisible because it takes the form of an extra layer of Gib on the walls, a cast iron claw foot bathtub, and a multi-fuel cooker with brick surround. When the sun is not shining, the multi-fuel stove easily heats the northern part of the home to 20 degrees or above on a few sticks of wood, with the added benefit of cooking and baking.

The walls in the northern parts of the villa are insulated to R-2.8 and the ceilings are insulated to R-3.6 above the kitchen and bathroom and to approximately R-5 above the lounge and all three bedrooms. These all far exceed the building code. (The underfloor insulation is incomplete at the moment.)

We spent two winters in the small bedroom and never used a heater. Our body warmth alone kept the room above 15 degrees all night long. Temperatures in the lounge, kitchen and bathroom could drop to 14 or maybe 13 on the rare morning with a frost. Some of this strong energy performance can be attributed to a combination of double-glazing, pelmets, and floor length lined curtains, Roman blinds and window blankets. This combination of window treatments performs to a level of triple-glazing or better.

Other energy-efficiency measures we used in the home were Energy Star appliances, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and solar hot water. This combination meant that our power bills over the last three years ranged from $17 to $31 per month including the daily line charge. The appliances we operated were: refrigerator, freezer, oven, toaster, electric kettle, cake mixer, wizzy stick, wifi, alarm system, clocks, radios, power tools, etc.

The solar hot water system is set to a winter sun angle to maximize performance when hours of sunlight are shortest. The 240-litre tank allows ample storage to bridge three winter days without sun. We placed the temperature monitor in the hall next to the bathroom so it can be easily referenced. Over three winters, we only turned on the electric boost for the hot water a handful of times for 20 to 30 minutes each.

To be continued…

Part 2: Durability

Coloursteel Maxx roof, November, 2011.

New, low-maintenance exterior cladding, 2012.

High quality exterior paint.

Walls braced against earthquake and wind.

Sistered bearers and joists fro added strength under floor

All floors treated for borer

All new wiring, November, 2011

Capping on fences to protect end grain from rain

Wind-hardy trees to protect netting from long-term UV damage

Earthen pizza oven protected from rain and wind

Brick patio instead of wooden deck

Driftwood – durable native hardwood timber for landscaping

Part 3: Productivity

Topsoil: 6 cubic metres for garden beds, trees and top-dressing lawns.

Wind protection: double-layer of wind cloth with new treated posts.

Rainwater collection

Compost: 8-10 cubic metres.

Native plantings for privacy and wind protection.

52+ Fruit trees: 7 feijoas; 11 olives; 13 apples; 5 peaches; 3 plums; 1 apricot; 2 guavas; 4 grapevines; 2 figs; 1 banana; 1 tamarillo; 1 orange; 1 loquat; plus rhubarb, cape gooseberry, strawberries, summer and autumn raspberries,

Vegetable gardens:

Rotational grazing of ducks and chooks:

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, thermal mass

It is Heavy, It’s Thermal Mass

May 23, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

A decade and a half before Paul Simon’s innovative album Graceland (1986) exposed Western listeners to unique and original African sounds and rhythms, the incomparable Neil Diamond did the same with the lesser known album, Tap Root Manuscript (1970). Side two of the album is called “The African Trilogy (A Folk Ballet),” and includes two of my all-time favourite Neil Diamond songs: I Am the Lion, and Soolaimon.

Side one, however, is more likely to be memorable for most people due to a series of Top 40 (US) hits: Cracklin’ Rosie; Free Life; He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. The last of these hits – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – was ‘recycled’ from The Hollies, whose version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles chart in 1969.

Like this well-known song, our Shacklock 501 is: a favourite feature of our home; it is ‘recycled’ from another dwelling; but critically, it is very heavy. And that is the point.

Along with acting as a heating source for our home on cloudy, cold winter days, the 700-kilogram coal range/brick surround/concrete and tile hearth acts as a ‘heat sink’ on sunny winter days. In this respect, the combined heavy stuff that makes up the building code approved unit functions as ‘thermal mass.’

From a purely physics perspective, everything that has mass can absorb heat. In the extreme, air has mass so it can absorb heat. But ‘light’ things like air gain heat quickly and lose it quickly. ‘Heavy’ things, on the other hand, absorb heat slowly and release it slowly.

Water is a good example of a substance that has significant thermal mass. One of the main reasons that Whanganui has such a wonderfully temperate climate is because the Tasman Sea is a giant heat sink. While Palmerston North experiences higher highs and lower lows than our fair city, we remain comfortably in between. That is one reason we all love living here.

When I teach eco-design, I make these general statements for people to wrap their heads around:

Water and anything that sinks in water has good thermal mass, but anything that floats in water acts more as insulation. The faster something sinks in water the more thermal mass it has, and the higher something floats in water the more insulation it probably provides. Think polystyrene.

At its heart, a good song serves multiple functions: it moves people with its beat; it engages people with its lyrics; it rewards its writer with financial success.

Designing for multiple functions is at the heart of good eco-design. A clear example of this is the placement of the Shacklock 501 at the heart of our home.

The 700 kilogram heating unit is situated approximately at the centre of our living spaces – lounge, kitchen, dining – so that the heat can radiate in all directions. While this may seem like common sense, a quick trip down Polson Street in Castlecliff may surprise you: at least four out of five chimneys are built on an exterior wall.

As you can see from the photos, our Shacklock is built along an interior wall next to French doors that lead from our kitchen/dining to the lounge. Additionally, this location allows the sun to strike it three times during each winter day: morning, mid-day and afternoon.

Like the Tasman Sea, the Shacklock’s thermal mass is a temperature moderator powered by sunlight energy. But, in the event of a day or two without sunshine, we can always load it with wood, which is really just sunlight one step removed.

Peace, Estwing

bathroom, Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, thermal mass

Retrospective: Bathroom

February 21, 2013 Estwing 1 Comment

Editor’s note: This is an early posting of tomorrow’s article in the Wanganui Chronicle. I won’t have time to post tomorrow.

Many renovations are heavy on kitchens and bathrooms and light on everything else. It appears that there is a belief that these improvements will increase the resale value of a home while also improving functionality and/or style for the current occupants. That thinking is hard to argue with, except that new kitchens and bathrooms can cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and that the housing market appears to be stalled in Wanganui, and it could take quite a while for dwellings to appreciate enough to ‘pay’ for the renovations when ultimately sold. (Wow, that was a long sentence.)

Old kitchen before conversion to bathroom.

Large expenditures on new kitchens and bathrooms may exhaust a homeowner’s funds available for renovation, and preclude them from investing in strategies that will definitely pay for themselves in a matter of years, such as insulation and solar hot water. But let’s face it: insulation is not sexy. A new bathroom or kitchen is.

Old kitchen before conversion to bathroom.

Eco-thrifty renovation is about finding the middle ground between serving the needs of a home’s occupants, keeping expenses reasonable, and putting less pressure on the planet. Instead of, say, spending $10,000 on a flash new bathroom and another $10,000 on a flash new kitchen, we were able to get functional and attractive versions of each, plus insulate our home and install solar hot water for under $20,000.

Terry Lobb wrote a guest column here on our kitchen a couple of months ago, highlighting some of the unique design elements made possible by shopping for second-hand, quality items, such as our antique leadlight cabinet doors purchased at Hayward’s Auctions and our Shacklock 501 coal range purchased on TradeMe. We used both of these sources, along with Wanganui’s Renovator’s Centre, when outfitting our $2,000 bathroom. Purchases included a claw foot bathtub, a toilet, a pedestal sink, a laundry tub, and a wall cabinet.

Temporary shower.

But quality, second-hand goods are just part of eco-thrifty renovation, which also includes efforts to improve thermal comfort and energy efficiency. Our bathroom has a large, northwest-facing window that receives a lot of winter afternoon sun that could potentially raise the temperature of the room to the high twenties, unless heat-tempering strategies were used.

We ‘capture’ some of the sun’s heat in thermal mass that takes the forms of a heavy, iron tub, and two layers of plasterboard on the wall opposite the window. Thermal mass absorbs excess heat in the afternoon, ‘stores’ it, and then releases it when the temperature of the room drops overnight. In order to slow the cooling of the room, we insulated the ceiling and the two external walls. We also installed a pelmet over the window, and use thermal curtains and window blankets during cold weather.

Extra layer to plaster board going being installed.

This combination of materials and design strategies has provided us with an attractive bathroom (color choice made by the wife) in which we can take an evening shower in the middle of winter using free solar hot water, and then step into a 23 degree room also heated free of charge by the sun.

Fully installed tub and vanity.

All this was done in a tired, old villa. Imagine what one could accomplish if starting from scratch.

Peace, Estwing

design principles, Eco Thrifty Renovation, thermal mass

Mass-ticate on This

November 28, 2010 Estwing 2 Comments

To review, my last 2 blog posts discussed 3 of our strategies for adding thermal mass to the northern side of our home in an eco-thrifty manner. (A reminder to all ya’ll Yankees up naaath, weez in ta southin hemisfiyah.) Those include: a multi-fuel stove with brick surround that will serve multiple purposes beyond thermal mass; an extra layer of gib/drywall/sheetrock on top of the existing layer (see Mas Mass); stackable green wine bottles filled with water added and removed seasonally (see Every Bit Counts). Our next two strategies include an antique cast iron claw foot bathtub and some sort of dark floor tiles/slate/polished concrete.

We picked up the tub on Trade Me (Kiwi version of Craig’s List/EBay) cheap as chips and our lovely, lovely friends Murray and Lindy picked up the tub in their truck on their way to our house for dinner.

It is a beautiful tub that needs only a little cleaning up. A mixed blessing that I only discovered while looking over our ‘Alteration to Approved Plan’ (future blog post) is that the lovely, lovely feet are destined to disappear behind an ‘impervious wall lining as per Para 9.2.3.2’ as explained in Figure 9.4 of Paragraph 9.2.4 of SH/AS1 for a ‘Simple House’ (Department of Building and Housing, 31 March, 2010).

First of all, the last sentence is the absolute truth. Could a Kiwi builder please post a comment confirming this? Second of all, if this is the regulation for a ‘Simple House,’ I am glad I am not renovating a ‘Complex House.’ But I digress.

The other side of the coin regarding covering the feet is that the ‘impervious wall lining’ would also hide everything above the feet, which is where the tub would require sanding, priming and painting. It’s a little like an old woman with varicose veins simply putting on long pants instead of having expensive surgery and wearing shorts.

The tub’s position in the bathroom was chosen specifically because it will receive direct sunlight during the 3 coldest months of the year but not during the other 9. This solar gain will make a difference – no matter how small – to the thermal comfort of our loo at zero additional cost. I’m just trying to convince my wife to paint the obligatory ‘impervious wall lining’ a dark color – maybe a nice ‘mildew green’ would serve multiple purposes. (See outcome in future blog post sometime in 2015 when the bathroom is complete.)

And finally, as we inch our way toward a day when our kitchen and dining room floors will want for something other than borer-infested ancient rimu and a patchwork of particleboard flooring, we troll Trade me, the Wanganui Chronicle and Hayward’s Auction House for a large box lot of – and this is important – matching, dark slate or tile squares.

Patience is another key to eco-thrifty building and with about 10 weeks before the floor must be laid, we can wait and see what comes up. Additionally, while looking at websites about building concrete countertops a thought occurred to me: Could we pour a thin concrete floor over the 15 square meters of the kitchen and dining room? This option could be a) cheaper, b) thicker (more massive), and c) any color we like (just add pigment). I may need to add a few more floor joists, but that would be a small price to pay. Any advice or suggestions on this one?

Peace, M.C. Estwing

design principles, Eco Thrifty Renovation, thermal mass

Every Bit Counts

November 22, 2010 Estwing 1 Comment

I mentioned mindfulness in my first post as being central to eco-thrifty renovation. Mindfulness in this respect relates to energy consciousness, attention to detail and stewardship of materials. When I was growing up outside of Detroit, the Mormons had a TV advertisement with the tag line, ‘In life, the little things are the big things.’ Maybe Mitt Romney was thinking about that when he signed the Massachusetts Health Care Bill aka ‘Romney-Care.’ (By the way, thanks Mitt.)

Being eco-thrifty is all about the little things, as you’ll see through our ECO School projects. But in a world of cheap, abundant fossil fuel, humanity can afford to ignore them. ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ we’re told.

This week, while I was sweating the small stuff, on three separate occasions I was reminded of mindlessness. A local builder who has been helping me on occasion make sense of the NZ building code told me at least 300 times one day, ‘The fastest way is the best way. That’s what I reckon.’ One of those utterances came while he was wreckin’ a perfectly good ‘four-ba-two’ rafter we were removing. While I would have carefully pried it from the wall and de-nailed it for future re-use, he grabbed a circular saw and ripped through it twice and dropped it to the floor before I could protest. (Not that he would’ve listened anyway.)

(Note: I am paying him hourly, so I appreciate his need for speed, but personally I do not like to work at the pace of a conventional builder. I often call this type of attitude ‘dumpster mentality’ because most everything ends up in a dumpster which is not necessarily so eco or thrifty.)

(Sub-Note: I thrive off dumpster diving, aka tip-stripping. I have a long and beautiful relationship with it. My mindfulness thrives off of others mindlessness. My greatest joy in life is making something beautiful out of what another has considered worthless rubbish. However, I will welcome the day when ‘dumpster mentality’ has been retired.)

The second reminder came when I was taking a VERY SMALL load of demo material (not reusable, compostable or burnable) to the transfer station. I dropped off two bags, emptying our rented cargo van and then proceeded to re-fill it with shipping palettes, old bricks, 4 x 2s, concrete fence posts, grass clippings and little squares of sod. All of this material was in a small mountain in a corner of the yard, destined to be landfilled or burned. As I loaded the van, the attendant came over to see what I was up to. Referring to the sod, I joked that I was picking up my new lawn. He told me to be sure to water it when I got home. That’s when I explained that I planned to compost the grass clippings and sod in case there was any persistent herbicide and/or noxious weed seeds. He looked at me and said I should just order a load of compost and have it delivered.

And finally, the last reminder was in reference to what was supposed to be the topic of this post: thermal mass. At one of my favorite op shops (‘opportunity shops,’ ie second-hand stores) I found a pair of stackable wine bottle holders.

Minutes later, at another of my favorite op shops the woman working there commented on my recent purchase. I proudly explained my plan to incorporate a human-scale, seasonal, moveable, eco-thrifty form of thermal mass (water in green wine bottles) as part of our plan. These wine racks, I explained, would be used as a template for others that I would make from scrap wood. In multiples of 4, bottles could be stacked to any desirable height where they would be struck by the low winter sun, and then removed entirely for the summer season. To my enthusiastic description she replied, ‘Why bother. That won’t make a bit of difference. You should build a trombe wall instead.’

I told her that a trombe wall was an unrealistic option in our case and that the water-filled bottles were just one of five small measures to add mass that, cumulatively, would make a difference. Every bit counts.

If perception is reality, why is it that we perceive the world differently? Each of the well-intentioned people above was genuinely trying to be helpful by offering their sincere advice. But at its heart that advice comes from a lifetime of experience in a world of material abundance. Would their advice to me change had their life experiences been different?

Almost all environmentalists and economists describe a future with higher population and fewer resources to go around. What would someone who grew up in a developing country think of dumpster diving? What would be the advice of someone from the future, living in a resource-constrained world coping with the wastefulness of their forefathers? What’s your advice?

Peace, M.C. Estwing

Eco Thrifty Living

Category Archives: thermal mass

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 12

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 11

Around the World in Eight Designs: Part 2

Equinox: Honoring the Sun

Keep Calm and Think Different: It Takes Money to Save Money, Part 2

Would You Buy This House? Part 1: Energy

It is Heavy, It’s Thermal Mass

Retrospective: Bathroom

Mass-ticate on This

Every Bit Counts

Wedding Renovation Baby Life