30x40 Earth Berm Passive Solar in Maine

Started by Bishopknight, October 13, 2008, 09:33:23 AM

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HomeschoolMom

Actually my mom put together a simular unit for our stereo when I was a kid  :-[

On another note, did you ever consider slip form walls?  I just kind of came across them and wondered if you had looked at them?
Michelle
Homeschooling Mom to Two Boys
Married to Jason, Self Employed

Wanting an earth bermed hybrid timberframe...just need some inheritance  ;)  Will never have another mortgage again!

Bishopknight

LOL thanks jeff, you have good eyes to notice that. Ya, I've never seen 2" poly pipe at Lowes. When I bought my 2" Extruded foam for the foundation, it had to be high PSI load tolerant, so that of course meant I had to find it at a specialty dealer. Needless to say it was a major pain in the a$$. I had to drive an hour 40 minutes south of portland, me to pick it up and then strap down a ridiculous amount of sheets to my utility trailer, then drive back at 30 mph on the highway for an hr and a half.......not fun!

Michelle, I kind of went by Rob Roys book and avoided slip forms thinking it would be cheaper and easier to do. It probably wasn't in retrospect, I dunno.

Anyways, heres the 7 minute tour of my house I promised. I took this a week ago so it doesnt reflect the latest updates. There are other videos up on my youtube channel now also. 3 total so far regarding my house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSsYFwvXfI


Bishopknight

#402
I just thought I would share my experience reaching out to 2 other specialty forums for some setbacks I'm encountering at the moment ( and I've had quite my share already  d* ). I just posted the plumbing question but my Tractor question posted late last week has received numerous helpful replies. Of course it goes without saying that if anyone here has any advice on either of these subjects, your suggestions are welcomed.

Pink fluid leaking from my backhoe:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1674346#post1674346

Shallow well pump not being able to break 35 psi.
http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?p=204193#post204193

Edit: ( update on 7-29-09 ) I gave up and ended up paying a well installer $1200 to put in a submersible pump

ScottA

RE: Your pump pressure problem

If you open a valve will water flow steady or do you get spitting?

ScottA

Ok I got 2 theories.

1. You said the well is only 4' deep? What's the water volume above the foot valve? Any chance it's pulling the water down far enough to suck air?

2. You may have a leak in your pipe somewhere.

200' is a long ways for one of those little pumps but if the rise is only 4' it should be ok. That type of pump is only good up to about 25' of head.


secordpd

QuoteThanks for the link, BK!  Sounds like a great project.  One thing I noted from Gary's plan is that he emphasized that polystyrene would not stand up to the high heat and that there is another "poly-something-or-other" (technical term)  Grin that was better suited.

I believe the plastic Gary was referring to was the corrugated roof panels used for the collector - Pritch and BK.  There are 2 kinds

1)SunTuf polycarbonate
2)SunTuf pvc

The polycarb is more expensive, but made to stand up to higher temps, thats why he suggests using it over the cheaper pvc panels.  Just go to Lowes or HD and feel them, you can tell the difference.

The tubing he uses is not the pex that you plumb your house with. it's the radiant floor heat tubing that has I believe aluminum in it.  From Gary's site

QuoteWhy PEX-AL-PEX?

PEX-AL-PEX pipe is a PEX pipe with an aluminum layer sandwiched between an inner and outer layer of PEX.



I believe that its a better choice for collectors than standard PEX for the following reasons:

    *

      It is easily bent in to tight turns AND it retains its shape without spring back.  This is a very nice feature.
       
    *

      It has higher working and burst pressures than ordinary PEX.
      The PEX-AL-PEX I used (Mr. PEX) is rated for 160 psi at 200F.
      Standard PEX is rated at 80 psi at 200F, and 160 psi at 73F.
       
    *

      It has better thermal conductivity that regular PEX -- this should result in somewhat better heat transfer from the aluminum fins through the PEX to the water.
          PEX-AL-PEX 3.1 BTU/h-ft F for half inch tubing
          PEX  2.6 BTU/h-ft-F for half inch tubing
       
    *

      It has a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion than PEX, and is more compatible with the expansion rate of the metal fins.
       
    *

      It may be somewhat more tolerant of freezing.  It will probably withstand several freeze thaw cycles, BUT will NOT withstand continual freeze thaw cycles.


Hope this clears it up a little for you both.  The reason I knew this is because I studied it this winter hoping to make one this summer, but decided to build my screen porch instead.  Need to cut a few more trees down before I can build Gary's solar hot water heater. 

Just want to say howdy neighbor to you BK.  Luv your home, it's so cool. Helen~`~`~`

"Whether You Think You Can or Can't, You're Right"--Henry Ford       Just call me grasshopper Master Po.

Bishopknight

Thanks Helen!  ;D

So on with my update. I have power now!!!



I also fixed my backhoe last weekend. One pic is of diagnosing the leak and other is me feeling proud of fixing this myself, lol. My first semi-major repair. It only cost $75 to replace the hose





And here I am back to work and putting Grace to work  ;D

The weather is absolutely amazing right now. The black flies are gone and the horseflies aren't too bad at the moment. The house stays very cool because of all the thermal mass. No need for air conditioning ( yet ). The test comes in july/august of course and I'll report back. But I'm installing a ceiling fan this weekend so that will help for the warmer nights ahead. 







HomeschoolMom

I am so happy to see an update! :)  Your girlfriend is a cutie and looks to be a sport about it too.  Better hold on to that one. ;D
Michelle
Homeschooling Mom to Two Boys
Married to Jason, Self Employed

Wanting an earth bermed hybrid timberframe...just need some inheritance  ;)  Will never have another mortgage again!

glenn kangiser

Great to see the update, BK and Grace. :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.


Bishopknight

I took last weekend off but the weekend before I brought my 12v batteries home and charged them up with a Schumacher charger I bought at walmart for $44 that does 2/6/12 and it worked great ( I did have to charge some multiple times though ). They're all back to 12.9v again. So I'm bringing them back to Maine and hooking them into my new array. I'm going to build a shelf that will support 300 lbs where the horizontal 2x4 in this picture is. There really is no better place for them unfortunately. Its a utility room though so who cares.  ( They're AGM non-gassing ventless batteries btw ). I'm sticking with 12v ( rather than 24v ) so i can still use my 12v inverter. I'm just going to make sure my wires are the necessary guages to minimize voltage resistance.





Also, here is a picture of the wall inside my office where I can monitor the battery bank power via the Morningstar Charge Controller remote display. I basically ran a 50 ft wire up through the attic down next to the studs. They also sell a remote on/off button panel for my inverter as well for $36 which I may buy and mount next to the Morningstar remote.



sjdehner

Hey Bishop...

You're making some great progress. It must feel nice to be getting up some drywall. It can be a lot of work - I remember quite well!

And what's the story with the *sunshine* in those photographs? Good grief, we've not seen the sun over here near the coast in more than six weeks. Plenty of rain, fog and clouds.

Last night we had a thundering lightning storm that bowled across the state from the West (it seems).

Is your solar array working well through all the dark skies - or are you actually basking beneath the sun in the mountains?

Nice pictures.

Shawn
"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do" -Wendell Berry

Bishopknight

Hey Shawn,

Its actually disconnected right now as I move everything over from the little 12x16 to the 30x40 but if it was, based on past performance, it probably wouldn't be great. Certainly enough to keep the batterys charged but very little else.

My wonderful girlfriend got me a new camera for my birthday so I'll be displaying pictures in style from now on. 8 megapixel.  ;D

I plan on taking some pics this weekend to post :)

EcoHeliGuy

So after your house is done, how far is the drive to town? work?

Bishopknight

#413
Lewiston is 30 minutes away and they have a lowes, home depot, kohls, best buy, movie theater, 99, longhorn steakhouse, ruby tuesdays , applebees, margaritas, autozone, walmart, bj's, ect

Portland is 1 hour 20 minutes away.

I have a great job in Massachussetts, but if they laid me off I'd try to find work in portland. But with this economy, you have to hold onto what you have.

When this house is done, it will be easy to heat and require no air-conditioning due to the earth berming and insulated slab, produce its own water ( natural spring), heat (wood) and food (garden) as well as power ( micro hydro & solar ) and have free HDTV ( roof antenna ).

Anyways, onto the pictures.

Here's my new ginormous UHF 60 mile range antenna mounted to the roof with a tripod mount. I ordered it from www.solidsignal.com because they had the cheapest prices I could find. The antenna is a Winegard and is VHF only. I chose VHF and not a UHF/VHF combo because the channels I wanted were in the lower frequencies and it was more expensive for the combo units. For the mount, mast and antenna, it was around $100.


Grace taping and bedding joints in the living room, and doing quite a good job at it!


Another picture of our drywall taping progress in the living room. I'm using metal flex tape on the corners by the way. I tried using 45 minute setting compound this weekend. Boy oh boy, that stuff dries QUICK. I mixed way too much. But I used about 30% of what I mixed.


Here's the tub surround done in Durock. I'm going to tile it, but I'm not sure with what yet. 


Lastly, my local well contractor and I installed my 2 4' well tiles as well since we had good weather ( finally ). Here he is laying the gravel bed which the tiles now sit on. I just have to finish backfilling around the 2 tiles with sand. My well installer said I was getting 50gpm from the well. In this picture, we had pumped it out with a 200gpm pump.


All in all, a very productive weekend.




EcoHeliGuy

Oh I hear you about the job.

I'm an Aircraft maintenance engineer in Alberta, I work on helicopters, 25% of our work is oil, gas, forestry, and minerals. I'm very much feeling this economy.  :(

MaineRhino

Looks great BK!  How do you like that antenna?

glenn kangiser

Great job, BK and Grace.  


The well is a developed spring then?  Total depth is 8' ?  I'm always interested in well details.

Sorry if I missed details somewhere - not enough time to get to everything anymore.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Bishopknight

The Antennas excellent for bringing in channel 8-1 and 8-2 ( ABC ) in Waterville to the south about 50 miles away. I bought a Channelmaster Titan 7777 Pre-Amp for $60 which should allow me to get nearby channel 7 ( NBC ) and 10 ( CBS ) as well. I will report back on how it works. Fox and PBS come 30 miles away out of Augusta to the east so I wouldn't need as strong an antenna for those.

Ya, so the total depth of the well is 8'. The reason its only 8' is because I hit a large unmovable rock at that depth but the whole spring is in a sand/rock vein unlike the clay on the rest of my land. Once we pumped out the water after removing as much sand/rock as possible, my installer wanted about 2 feet of gravel laid for base and as a "reservoir" for resupplying the tiles faster. I like the theory behind it and trust he knows what hes doing after 30 yrs of exp. After we carefully laid and leveled the tiles, I had a load of sand delivered and I used the backhoe loader to bring it over( again another reason to own a backhoe ). The installer wanted clean sand and rock surrounding the tile. Also, between the 2 well tiles, he used a sealant to prevent infiltration and contamination. Lastly he suggested clearing trees from around the well to prevent leaves from dropping and decaying and bringing with it eventual water contamination, which he said was a major culprit.

Well costs

$450 - (2) 4' tall x 4' diameter cement well tiles & (1) 4' diameter cement cap w/ removable center
$200 - 12 tons of 1 1/2" rock gravel
$100 - 12 tons of sand
$1200 - Installer cost for 4 hrs labor helping with tile install, myers SS 1/2 HP submersible pump, 200' UG 12-2 wire, tank-t and installation
$100 - 200 feet of 1" poly tubing and hose clamps
$50 - diesel for backhoe
------------------
$2100 total


MountainDon

Quote from: Bishopknight on July 14, 2009, 11:45:42 AM
The Antennas excellent for bringing in channel.....


We lost half of the channels we had in the mountains with the digital changeover. There's enough to serve for the time we spend watching, but no more PBS or CBS. Way down the list of things to do is investigating a new antenna or raising the old one.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Bishopknight

Depends how far you are from the broadcasting station and what channels you want to pull in. If you're 60 miles fringe range like me, you'll probably need a huge antenna and a pre-amplifier. I did quite a bit of research before I purchased, reading lots of forums and discovered I only needed a VHF antenna.

Heres my VHF only antenna. If you want a VHF/UHF combo, expect to shell out big money.
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=HD-5030&xzoom=Large#xview

and my tripod...
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=MT3092&xzoom=Large#xview

and the 5' mast that connects the tripod and antenna
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=TB-0005

and recently I just bought the cadillac of pre-amplifiers, the Channelmaster Titan 7777 , although I bought at summitsource.com because they were $20 cheaper.
http://www.summitsource.com/channel-master-7777-titan-2-uhf-vhf-preamplifier-high-gain-mast-mount-preamplifier-with-power-supply-cm7777-offair-outdoor-hdtv-amp-local-signal-television-aerial-antenna-booster-part-cm7777-p-5724.html


MountainDon

Thanks for the summitsource link. I've bought from solidsignal before. Our big problem are the tall trees; 55-70 footers. They also create problems for wind power generation.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

glenn kangiser

Quote from: Bishopknight on July 14, 2009, 11:45:42 AM
The Antennas excellent for bringing in channel 8-1 and 8-2 ( ABC ) in Waterville to the south about 50 miles away. I bought a Channelmaster Titan 7777 Pre-Amp for $60 which should allow me to get nearby channel 7 ( NBC ) and 10 ( CBS ) as well. I will report back on how it works. Fox and PBS come 30 miles away out of Augusta to the east so I wouldn't need as strong an antenna for those.

Ya, so the total depth of the well is 8'. The reason its only 8' is because I hit a large unmovable rock at that depth but the whole spring is in a sand/rock vein unlike the clay on the rest of my land. Once we pumped out the water after removing as much sand/rock as possible, my installer wanted about 2 feet of gravel laid for base and as a "reservoir" for resupplying the tiles faster. I like the theory behind it and trust he knows what hes doing after 30 yrs of exp. After we carefully laid and leveled the tiles, I had a load of sand delivered and I used the backhoe loader to bring it over( again another reason to own a backhoe ). The installer wanted clean sand and rock surrounding the tile. Also, between the 2 well tiles, he used a sealant to prevent infiltration and contamination. Lastly he suggested clearing trees from around the well to prevent leaves from dropping and decaying and bringing with it eventual water contamination, which he said was a major culprit.

Well costs

$450 - (2) 4' tall x 4' diameter cement well tiles & (1) 4' diameter cement cap w/ removable center
$200 - 12 tons of 1 1/2" rock gravel
$100 - 12 tons of sand
$1200 - Installer cost for 4 hrs labor helping with tile install, myers SS 1/2 HP submersible pump, 200' UG 12-2 wire, tank-t and installation
$100 - 200 feet of 1" poly tubing and hose clamps
$50 - diesel for backhoe
------------------
$2100 total



Was there any kind of seal material - clay etc, put around the outside of the tiles to keep surface water from getting in or was his plan just to filter any water that came in from the top outside of the tiles?  Thanks, BK.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Bishopknight

Pics!

installing the water line and power into the well tile. I need to backfill around it more to raise the water line inside.


rock heating up the poly tubing end before slipping on the elbow joint and ring clamps. I had to use chains hooked to the backhoe bucket to lift him out.


Rock installed up to the brass shutoff and I installed the 1" PVC, filters and white pex connections in 3/4". Unfortunately I could not pressure test because I lost the O-ring for the whirlpool house filter. When I get my water heater setup, I'll re-route the line that points down after the filter to it.


I put up some drapes to make the bedroom look nicer


I installed the bathroom roof vent and tubing, then covered the inside back up with insulation.


Grace brought her dog up for the weekend


The living room drywall is progressing. We're doing it ourselves to save money. Its the fallback project.


my neighbors dog came down to watch and relax in the mud


I'm going up again this weekend. Hoping to pressure test the water lines ( finally! ) and address any leaks that occur ( hopefully none! ).

ListerD

Bishop -

What exactly are you doing as far as water filtration? I only ask because I just posted that on my thread the other day (http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=4752.60).

That's our current phase of design: the water/waste systems.
"We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us" -- Winston Churchill

Bishopknight

I have a sediment spin down pre-filter and then a whole house 25 micron filter by Whirlpool. Both sold at Lowes. Word is, you never have to replace the sediment filters, just clean and rinse them. The whole house filter only lasts 6 months.

Special notes: I used a 1"Male to 3/4" pex zurn brass connector on the house filter outlet, then branched to a 3/4" T for hot and cold. I'm no plumber but I recommend 1" unions on both sides of the pressure tank inlet and outlets incase you have a bladder failure in the future. Lastly, don't be shy with the teflon tape, I usually make about 6 revolutions around a thread.