by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen

After seeing a short film by Deek Diedricksen linked on Energy Bulletin, which demonstrates his ultra-tiny dwelling called the Hickshaw, I was inspired to write to him for a review copy which, once he had had a look at this blog, he was generous to do a trade for.

In hand-written, home-made “zine” style, filled with sketches and whacky ideas of tiny shelters and dwellings as well as cool ideas for rain water collection and solar showers, this is probably one of the more unusual and original books on construction you will find.

More a collection of ideas from the clearly maze-like mind of Deek than a detailed step-by-step construction guide (the author warns off anyone looking for detailed plans in the first few pages) there is a wealth of inspiration for the would-be self-builder on a budget.

Especially useful are many suggestions for creating low-budget extra rooms, sheds and garden structures and kids hideouts. Many have design features for multiple-function and adaptability, such as the Expandable Greenhouse/shed/guest house/Back-woods Camp.

There are a couple of projects we might be able to try at the Kinsale College for Green Building students- Ill post up pictures if we do.

Deek specializes in tiny buildings, some of them on wheels, some floating, some underground, some in trees such as his own cabin in Vermont.

Unusual and innovative, with lots of tips on good uses for recycled materials, Humble Homes provides the perfect antidote to the cornucopian binge of McMansions we have seen on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years.

This is the introduction to  week seven of the Powerdown Toolkit 10-week community learning course created by the Cultivate Center in Dublin. It has an accompanying TV show with a 30-minute episode accompanying each week of the course, soon to be aired on Dublin Community TV.

Energy and the Household

Recent increases in energy costs have spawned a huge increase in interest in “sustainable” housing with considerable improvements in some aspects of house design and construction. With a plethora of new building products and systems emerging from the industry on one hand and a burgeoning interest in natural building materials such as cob and strawbale, housing has been one of the most intensely scrutinised areas in terms of energy conservation and use. The industrial revolution that downgraded the household to the edge of economic life; the time has come now for it to reclaim its place. David Holmgren has described how this might occur for many over the first years of energy descent in his paper Retrofitting the Suburbs.

In the future, the great challenge will be to retrofit the existing housing stock to be more energy efficient. New builds will decline to a fraction of what they have been during the years and decades of industrial growth.

House Design

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander {1977} is a design manual for convivial housing and town planning, compiling over 240 “patterns” or design solutions many of which will both help conserve energy and build community.

“Each pattern”, says Alexander “describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way as you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.”

Here are a few examples of patterns in house design and function that may prove useful in the low-energy future:

1.    Living space: The house needs to be a place where families – or the extended household – lives, talks and eats together, on a regular basis.

2.    Working space: There should be a workshop, and/or a study, and/or a potting shed.  Houses will be central to the economy of the future, power houses of the local economy, and not just places for leisure and sleep.

3.    Growing space.  Most houses will need a garden or contact with a garden.  They need some way of recycling food waste and, in the longer term, of recycling, composting and reusing human waste.  Not every householder will have the aptitude to grow his or her own vegetables, but there could be reciprocal arrangements with other households that do.

4.    Located in the community.  Every household will need to participate in the community’s material economy and in its social capital.  This will have a bearing on the design of houses: they will need to be compact in layout, saving space and forming neighbourhoods, all parts of which are in easy walking distance; the neighbourhoods should be held together by its busy, sociable streets.  Gardens may vary in size: terraced houses can have long/large gardens; other gardens can be a short distance away, or in allotments.

The design and placement of buildings in towns and the squares and meeting places they define will have a big impact on the development of the community.

5.    Local materials.  Houses in the community of the future will rely on local materials, wherever possible, for construction and repair.

Energy in Housing. By Andy Wilson

Andy Wilson is an independent energy consultant working mainly in renewables and off-grip systems, as well as energy efficient house construction and retro-fitting. He has extensive experience in many other areas of self-sufficiency  including woodland management and horticulture.

He is the editor of Sustainability Magazine and co-author with Paul Lynch of the  recent Mayo Energy Audit.

Andy gives workshops and talks around Ireland on energy in housing and solar DIY.

The housing sector accounts for some 20-30% of all energy used in Ireland today. Energy use in the sector can be subdivided into three categories:

Energy used in construction (the embodied energy) Energy used to heat the dwelling Energy used to provide lighting and to run appliances

Embodied Energy

The total embodied energy in a modest dwelling made largely from locally sourced low energy materials could be as little as one twentieth  of the embodied energy in a very large house constructed entirely from high energy products or ones imported from thousands of miles away.

Size of Dwellings

The average dwelling size in Ireland is approximately 110m2. The average size of new dwellings however, is about 150m2. In tandem with this increase in size has been the gradual decease in the number of occupants per dwelling, down from about 4.0 occupants per dwelling in 1966 to only 2.9 today. Floor area in new build has now exceeded 50m2 per occupant. This compares with 20-25m2 per occupant in Eastern Europe. Heating

The energy required to heat a typical house, when measured as the quantity of energy per unit area of floor space, has been decreasing gradually in recent years owing to better standards of insulation.  This increase in energy efficiency has been largely offset by the larger size of new houses and by higher internal temperatures.  According to SEI data, the average household uses some 20,000 kWh of energy per annum for heating. Over 97% of this energy is derived from non renewable sources.

The heating requirement of a building is usually expressed as kWh/m² of floor space per annum. The figure may be as high as 500 kWh/m²/ annum in an uninsulated house,   but 50-70 kWh/m² / annum in  houses  compliant with current building regulations, and as little as 10-15 kWh/ m² / annum for a passive house. Houses described as passive often use electrical appliances for domestic water heating and for running heat recovery ventilation systems and micro heat pumps.

Reducing Energy Requirements for Heating

Keep dwelling sizes small both in floor area and volume. High ceilings waste heat: we only     occupy the bottom 1.5-2 meters of a room.

Insulate well

Minimise draughts: Airtightness in newly built houses can vary by up to a factor of six     depending on construction methods, choice of materials, design detail and standard of     workmanship.

Use the highest spec windows and external doors affordable

Avoid open chimneys

Make use of passive solar design

Improve air tightness -On average about 40% of heat losses from buildings occurs through ventilation and about 60% through the fabric of the structure, though the proportions can vary widely from building to building.

Insulation

It is estimated that about 20-30% of our entire housing stock has totally inadequate insulation (or no insulation whatsoever). Less than 5% of our housing stock is well insulated.

There are many insulation products on the market. Some are made from natural fibres and have a low embodied energy as well as being environmentally friendly. The synthetic insulation products generally have a higher embodied energy and carry a higher environmental price tag.  While some insulation products, notably the multi-layer foil insulation genre, perform very poorly, most insulation materials work well if they are installed properly. Unfortunately this is often not the case, with insulation being frequently applied poorly or not at all, for example many lofts have not been insulated at all.

In the case of retrofit on older buildings, space may be at a premium and compromises will have to be made. Even so, minimum targets to aim for should be walls 50-100mm, roofs/ceilings 200mm, and floors 50-80mm. It should be recognised that these are only ballpark figures and the depth required will also vary according to the insulation product used.

Beyond a certain point, the benefits of extra insulation are marginal, particularly as the heat losses through windows and doors may be almost as much as the losses from the floor roof and walls combined.

Thermal Mass

Thermal mass is the mass of a building which is available for use as a heat store, rather like a large storage heater.

Timber frame houses typically have low thermal mass, especially ones built on pillars which are not in contact with the ground. Houses built from stone, concrete blocks and cob all have high thermal mass. Thermal mass is only useful if it is insulated on the outside to prevent the heat simply radiating out and being lost.

Materials such as cob and hemp lime have properties which allow them to warm up more quickly than stone or concrete.

Windows and Doors

It is not widely known  that windows  (even double or triple glazed ones) conduct heat  five or even ten times as rapidly as a well insulated wall or roof. In the case of timber doors the difference is even greater. For this reason, windows should be sized according to their primary function, which is to provide light.  In terms of heat losses, timber frames perform better than PVC frames.

Almost all windows are net energy losers in wintertime, even south facing ones. For this reason, heavy curtains or internal shutters are an excellent idea.

Passive Solar

The idea behind passive solar is that solar radiation is trapped in the building behind glazing and is used as a supplementary or even principal form of heating. Most of the glazing should be on the south side of the building, but excessive glazing can lead to overheating and then heat loss through the glass at night time.

Insulation is more important than solar gain however as other heat sources- from cooking, the occupants’ metabolism (each occupant of a building is equivalent to a 80-100 watt incandescent light bulb), or electrical appliances may often warm the house more than the sun.

Internal Temperatures

No statistics are available for Ireland but in the UK,  the average internal temperatures of dwellings rose from only 12.6 ºC in 1970 to 18.9 ºC  in 2001. These averages mask the much higher and much lower temperatures which will be found in some dwellings.

One aspect of energy conservation is to change out habits and requirements- an extra piece of clothing could be just as important as extra insulation, saving money as well as carbon emissions.

Heat Losses from Pipes and Cylinders

Lagging of hot water pipes and cylinders is woefully inadequate in the majority of dwellings, irrespective of the method of heating water or whether the water being heated is for delivering to radiators or hot water cylinders. In many cases, transmission heat losses probably exceed 50%. The greater part of these losses could be eliminated by properly lagging all hot water pipes and connections, double or even triple lagging cylinders, and insulating hot presses. In most cases, the cost of doing this is extremely low. Energy Used for Lighting and Appliances

The   average annual domestic   consumption of 5000 kWh of electricity per household is at its highest level ever and is still rising as houses become bigger and are filled with an increasing number of appliances; notably televisions, computers, freezers and dishwashers.. The difference between the electricity consumption of the most energy aware households and the energy oblivious is in excess of a factor of ten.

Lighting may account for up to one fifth of the total electricity usage but this may easily be reduced by changing over to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs use less than 25% of the energy of conventional incandescent lights for a comparable light output. As a simple rule, if a light gets hot, it means a lot of energy is being wasted as heat.  Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are even more efficient than compact fluorescents and may be particularly useful for background lighting or small spotlights.

A huge amount of electrical energy (up to 50% in some households) is wasted simply by leaving things switched on when not in use or by leaving appliances plugged in when they are ‘turned off’.

Final words

Think small, think simple.

There is also an excellent clip here from the Nationwide TV programme available here, which was made with the courses’ founder Rob Hopkins in 2005, with interviews with the students and good coverage of the now famous cordwood amphitheatre.

Full details on the practical sustainability and other courses at Kinsale can be found here.

Crash Course- Preparing for Peak Oil

by Zachary Nowak

Green Door Publishing 2008

Peak Oil is upon us, and collective action on a large scale seems unlikely. Technical solutions are chimerical. Each of us must decide what the future may hold and begin working on a plan to face that future.

When Zachary Nowak began drafting this essential resource list oil was pushing $70 a barrel. Now nearly double that, peak oil seems ever more of a reality and its consequences are being felt even in the oil-guzzling west with an growing sense of urgency: the party really is over and all the chickens are coming home to roost (to mix metaphors): food riots, truckers strikes, inflation, rising unemployment, bankruptcies and the looming shadow of global recession.

It increasingly looks as if the time to prepare may have been yesterday, but as the title suggests, a crash course of emergency and more long-term preparation is still possible and Nowak provides an entertaining primer in the basics.

We are on a collision course with a difficult reality, an inconvenient truth that is much more immediate than global warming. Crash Course is an accelerated tutorial, a study-at-a-distance workshop on what you need to know to survive the Peak.

Nowak’s take on peak oil is essentially: prepare for the worst because that is looking most likely; your preparations will still be useful if the world negotiates a successful transition, but this is looking less likely. The book is aimed at the homesteader or would-be -homesteader, but anyone would do well to consider the advice he gives as much of it would be useful in any situation. The author brings six years experience of living the survivalists’ good life to bear onhis subject.

The first part is not so much for peak oil aficionados who might like to skip straight to the resource lists in part two, but is nevertheless well worth a read for the concise and informed perspectives Zachary provides.

Importantly, he takes an ecological perspective of human evolution from hunter gatherer to farmer to industrial consumer, and this helps shape his subsequent responses: the energy return changed as our numbers grew and we had to work harder for our food. Early humans had a considerable impact on their local resources as they migrated across the globe, apparently hunting to extinction most of the mega fauna they encountered and exacting a toll on the resources their environment could supply. This may have resulted in part of the push towards agriculture which allowed more total energy to be harnessed in the form of cultivated crops and storage – but at a cost:

It may come as a surprise, but the average hunter-gatherer, to get his 2000 daily calories, expends about 500 calories, whereas an agriculturalist “spends” about 1200.

Nowak challenges us, therefore, to think again about the romantic idea of growing all our food in a home garden- on its own, it will be too hard; we need permaculture- perennial agriculture with tree crops and fruits- alongside foraging for wild plants to get by.

I would question however the assertion that few people even amongst experienced back-to-the-landers are unlikely to be producing currently more than 2% of their food- I know several people who appear to be growing maybe 90% of their own vegetables for example which I would have thought at a guess could be nearer 15-20% of their total food.

In the second chapter, Nowak outlines the three variables that will effect how the crisis unfolds and define the kind of responses we may need to make: the speed of the onset of crisis; its severity; and duration.

Here he challenges the idea of community powerdown projects like Transition Towns: they may not be able to bring about in time the kind of localised, sustainable future in small communities that we may wish for, nor may they be able to withstand a sharper and more severe collapse:

Most people who share this vision of the future see a near-seamless transition riding on the crest of Permaculture teach-ins and community supported agriculture, but what if the duration is longer? What if a Peak event creates chaos which takes some years to transition from an urban society to sustainable communities? Look at your neighbors and imagine them hoeing weeds and making biodiesel before you answer this question (or imagine them hungry, and scared of the no-more-streetlights dark).

It is a mistake, Zachary points out, to have too much faith in our ability to develop the necessary skills to sustain ourselves when all around us may be chaos.

Belief in progress and the idea that “technology can save us” or that humanity will just come through some how, what with our extraordinary ingenuity and so on, Zachary lists as some of the “dangerous axioms” that pervade especially American society and culture, but are strong elsewhere as well.

This leads to his very interesting observation that rational arguments do not really work that well.

People often ignore incontrovertible evidence and airtight arguments because the result conflicts with their belief systems.

Zachary tells us that his experience of trying to “change people’s minds”- to accept the error of our ways and the inevitability of a collapse of some kind- have been frustrating and perhaps not really time well spent. In many ways I can confirm this from my own experience- three years on from when I first saw “The End of Suburbia” and began film screenings and talks on Peak Oil, along with many others, there has been little to show in terms of any wide-scale awakening of the general populace, much less amongst our politcal leadership. Im not sure that I ever expected any- I always felt that even if one person present in a room was reached, and maybe able to set off on a more appropriate trajectory in terms of their priorities in life, then it was worth it.

Nevertheless, the point is well taken: the time for conferences and committees may be over. It is time to seriously consider much more immediate preparations on a personal and domestic level. These may still have a wider effect in leading by example and putting structures in place to help ride out the collapse.

In the third chapter we are taken through a range of different scenarios that could unfold as we ride down the slope of energy descent: “New Green Revolution”; “Powerdown USA”; “The Great Energy Depression”; and “The Crash”, each one as seen through the eyes of a student, a middle-aged father, and an older woman. This is the most useful and interesting part of the first section and takes us beyond simplistic one-size-fits-all and run-for-your-gun discussions. Collapse will be a very personal, tailor-made event for each of us and our experiences will vary widely according to location and degree of preparations, as well as the way in which the collapse unfolds.

The section finishes with a round-up of the issues so far: Powerdown for a slow transition or Survivalism or Collapse? While Zachary clearly feels the second is the most likely he points to failings in either extreme and advocates a “middle ground” which basically consists of preparing for the worst by focusing on personal preparations and expanding one’s self-reliance skills, while at the same time working with a community wherever possible.

…given my personal set of axioms (severe crisis, difficult to convince people), a summer spent planting fruit trees and experimenting with lactic fermentation is much more valuable.

The second part is essentially a resource list of books and websites worth collecting and researching which provide information you may need in an energy hungry future. .

He freely admits that the premise that you have money and resources for buying a smallholding and building a sustainable shelter is not in the reach of everyone and offers little solace for those who are not in as position to relocate.

It is a fascinating and comprehensive overview of many of the best resources available in the areas of the house; food production; and food preserving; followed by a more brief outline of resources for home medicine and disease prevention, survival skills, and tools, accompanied throughout with good practical advice. It could serve well as an outline for a permaculture course or peak oil survival training, and I found the references very useful even though I have been looking at a lot of the material for years.

The book ends with a discussion on the limits to the idea of preparing a refuge of some kind. As already said, it is not an option open to everyone. In answer to the common criticism that remote places with good supplies are an easy target for marauders, Zachary comments:

I have no response to this other than to say that I hope that it does not get that bad that quickly, or that it gets really bad really quickly, so desperate marauders diminish in numbers. Yes, that’s a horrible thing to say but I will not hide that I have pondered it.

It seems likely to me that the desperate are more likely to flee towards the cities, where there may be some level of organization at least for a while- soup kitchens perhaps. Historically, the country has faired worse that the towns in times of collapse, although parts of the big cities may become truly desperate places. Hungry people who turn up on your doorstep may be far more likely to offer to work for food, and be keen to learn all the skills you have been developing. People who are ahead of the game in terms of preparedness will be very useful to their community- perhaps the most important survival asset of all.

Peak Oil is upon us, and collective action on a large scale seems unlikely. Technical solutions are chimerical. Each of us must decide what the future may hold and begin working on a plan to face that future.

This book is an excellent place to start.

Just last night Sherry and Andy joined me for the first trial run pizza making session, which was a great success and resulted in much happy chomping. We also enjoyed sitting around the ultra-hot oven for some hours afterwards and watching the remarkable patterns of the flames inside curling around the oven while discussing the finer points of Quantum Theory.

I had actually begun construction of the oven last summer at the 10-day permaculture course here, when we made the shelter and began the stone base. More progress was made during visits here in the autumn from Kinsale students, but the main driving force behind its completion was Sherry who kept at me to complete the project and did loads of the work, so many thanks Sherry!

The main source of information on earth ovens is Kiko Denzer’s Build Your Own Earth Oven which has easy to follow instructions which I followed fairly closely for this oven. Once the stone base is made and the firebricks set in place as above, the next stage is to make form or “void” of moist sand which the oven is built over and then excavated later. My sand was very course and would not hold together well until I mixed in some clay; however, maybe i used too much clay as it had set quite hard and took 2-3hours of hard hacking to actually remove from the oven! Finer sand for the void is recommended, but you could just use earth which would be much easier to work with.

The void is covered with moist newspaper and then the fire layer is constructed. This is just a mix of clay and sand. I used bagged powdered pottery clay for this layer, at a mix of 4 1/2 parts sand to 1 part clay, in the recommendation of Saul, who has made several ovens. However, the inside of the oven has got some cracks already; maybe less clay would have been better. Ianto Evans suggests 7:1; maybe I would try 6:1 on the next oven (!).

Next comes the cob layer, which has some straw in it. We also decided to put a chimney in the from of this oven. but it seems it is not wide enough so most of the smoke comes out the door anyway. A 4″/ 10cm diameter flu pipe would be better I think.

The outside of the oven gets fairly hot; having used the oven now I am inclined to add a third, insulating layer, that could be a clay-straw mix, mainly straw. This could then be finished with a clay or lime plaster. Since the oven stays hot for some hours if insulated, it is possible with one firing to bake first pizzas, then bread, then scones perhaps; maybe even yogurt as it cools down! The oven does take 2-3hours of heating and most of a barrow load of firewood, so it is important to use them as efficiently as possible. Ideally of course the oven would generate heat inside the building. This could be achieved if it was constructed with a proper chimney and stove door with vent so smoke doesnt come inside. All ideas for future projects. One thing is for sure: there is really nothing quite like fresh pizza!

Jackie and Emma, friends of mine in North Mayo, are urgently looking for volunteers to help with the completion of the cob/cordwood walls in their new house.

They have been doing most of the work themselves over the last four months but now with the weather turning and the days for drying getting shorter they would appreciate some extra hands for the last few weeks. Once the walls are completed they can be protected for the winter. If anyone is able to go up there and work for your keep please phone Jackie and Emma on 096 45353

The construction technique is the same as for my own roundhouse Anyone can learn it and its great fun!

This has been constructed using clip-fins from CAT and following instructions in their booklet Solar Water Heating- A DIY Guide by Paul Trimby.

The basic principle is straightforward: an insulated box is constructed-

we used warmcell which is then covered in aluminum reflective foil on top of which the clip fins (painted black to absorb more heat) are placed with the pipes clipped onto them:

A sheet of toughened glass is fixed on top of the box which is then ready for installation. My panel is located immediately below the water tank which allows thermo-siphoning an therefore avoids the need for a pump. This week has seen some of the best weather in living memory and certainly the best of the summer, giving the perfect time to check the panels’ performance.

A single good day of sunshine heats the water to 40 degrees Celsius, which is not really warm enough for a comfortable shower, but two successive days have heated the tank to 50 degrees which is just right. It may be that the 200litre tank is too large for the panel in which case I may have to ultimately make a second panel; or I may still be able to improve performance with extra insulation. Solar panels like this wont do much on cloudy days or through most of the winter so I will also have a wood-burning stove with a back-boiler to heat water for these periods. Total cost of the panel (excluding all the plumbing) is about 150 euros. You could certainly make one for less if you use an old radiator- instructions for this design are also to be found in the CAT booklet.