[Off Topic] What else can we do?

[Mark Z]

A Hastens bed is made with natural materials. Something to consider when money is no object for a luxury bed.

Discover Hastens Luxury Beds and Mattresses

 

[WannabeOwner]

(Put gaskets behind all your outlet and switchplate covers.) Probably doesn't apply to UK wiring.

Never heard of it in the UK, but I am sure it applies, albeit maybe differently to USA.

When we were building extension to Passivhaus standards we employed a Passivhaus consultant to advise the builders, and a particular situation cropped up which surprised me, hopefully its possible to imagine the scenario from my explanation:

So: Outside double-walls (brick outer, block inner, filled with nearly half-a-metre of insulation, no thermal-bridge connections, so for example brick-ties were glass). Inner surface subsequently plastered, which creates air-tight layer.

Builders were constructing the internal walls for the rooms (using dense block for thermal mass - studwork internal walls are more common in the UK, a timber frame with boards for the walls, but it transmits sound and has negligible thermal mass). So this internal wall is being built at 90-degrees to outside wall and has a recess for a power socket a couple of metres in. Consultant asked if the joint between [inner surface of] outside wall and internal wall had a parge-coat (plaster layer); normally the internal blocks are just laid with mortar, and some seeps into the end joint with the outside wall, but internally that joint is usually a mess of whatever was stuffed in there, seeped in there, and air gaps.

The consultant said that air would travel into the power socket, ALONG 2M of blocks and OUT through the external wall - in the absence of a parge-coat barrier between internal and external walls. I was amazed that air could travel through blocks like that ...

there is more land planted in 'lawn', than the top 10 commercial crops,

Sounds like the "Dig for Victory" that we did during World War II ... I still think its a bit extravagant using my land for low yielding varieties ... but maybe the additional genetic diversity I am sponsoring and helping to maintain is a sufficient gain to offset the poor yields

 

[WannabeOwner]

small plots or tree ridden landscapes are better off with solar panels

Been thinking about that too. We have the "normal maximum UK domestic amount" (can't remember what that is though ...) of South facing PV panels, the rest of the South facing roof is taken up with Solar Thermal (as is a bit of the West facing). We have a lot more East and West facing roof, and my understanding is that Solar PV has improved to the point where East and West is very worthwhile (compared to fully South-facing). So I should consider covering the whole of the East and West roof surfaces with PV.

That said, Solar is pretty lousy at our latitude in Winter (only 10% of the Summer amount), whereas Wind doesn't have that issue of course

We also have some fancy interlocking slates on East and West faces, which will no doubt be a nightmare to retro fit Solar Panels too ...

Either way, Step One should be to get off my butt and erect the tower and wind monitoring kit. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many years ago I bought the tower ready for this project and, slightly fewer, years ago I constructed the concrete base for it ...

 

[Topher]

The consultant said that air would travel into the power socket, ALONG 2M of blocks and OUT through the external wall - in the absence of a parge-coat barrier between internal and external walls. I was amazed that air could travel through blocks like that ...

Air travels anywhere it can. I don't know what sort of blocks you are using, but generally insulation is very permeable to air.

I still think its a bit extravagant using my land for low yielding varieties ... but maybe the additional genetic diversity I am sponsoring and helping to maintain is a sufficient gain to offset the poor yields

The highest yield spaces are small city gardens. Since it is small, you can optimize the space and give it the attention that no large scale cropland can. Also you can select vegetables for taste rather than shelf life.

my understanding is that Solar PV has improved to the point where East and West is very worthwhile (compared to fully South-facing). So I should consider covering the whole of the East and West roof surfaces with PV.

It hasn't improved so much as gotten much cheaper. For my area, I created a town map showing for each house how much of the roof could be covered with PV, how much electricity it would produce, and the cost per kWh. I was surprised that basically EVERY clear, unshaded roof would benefit, even directly East-West (which made electricity about 3 cents cheaper than the power company). Things like this are location dependent, but it could well be that panels on the East and West slopes of your roof could be beneficial.

Step One should be to get off my butt and erect the tower and wind monitoring kit. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many years ago I bought the tower ready for this project and, slightly fewer, years ago I constructed the concrete base for it ...

Yes, the hard part of evaluating Wind is the monitoring kit. If you already have one, get it up into the sky. And sell it to a neighbor when you are done.

Thank you kindly.

 

[WannabeOwner]

ou can optimize the space and give it the attention that no large scale cropland can

Yes, that's true, I was comparing the yield I get with what I could get with a high yielding variety, but even with a low yielding variety I'm probably matching what a commercial grower gets; I do spend more hours at it than they do of course , everything is grown in raised beds, has space around to maximise growth, and so on.

sell it to a neighbor when you are done

Yes, I really must do that. I'll make it my New year's Resolution for 2017

 

[jbcarioca]

... The Amazon, the "lung of the earth", is being cleared to create grazing pastures for cows. Changing your diet is the easiest and most effective way to have a positive impact on the environment and global climate change. ..

I do agree with you, although I have just eliminated red meat, do don't consume the methane producing bovines that use so much water and land also. However, the Amazon is also being converted to use for growing soya, with cattle fed with it. Cattle themselves are a distant second. Sad, since soy products are so positive otherwise. Most Brazilian production is in the Cerrado, vast interior plains and the Amazon region. Short term economic benefits are huge, long term consequences are already devastating.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

@ReddyLeaf very very impressive. I don't mean to get too personal but how does your family take your obsession with being non conventional and green?

Hmmm, I don't really think of it as an obsession or non-conventional. It's everyone else who's wierd. I've only started being more active since getting the Leaf and more so since the fall. But as for the family, I'm downright frivolous compared to my grandparents who lived through the depression.