This is part learning, part experiencing, part designing + Building a lo-cost, no op-cost, close-the-loop Eco Home owner built + designed in the Sierra Mountains.
It is always a real joy to be at WinSol3 on Dec 22nd and watch the first single ray of sunlight (hopefully it’s clear skies!) reach through the forest from the SE and shine onto the entire southern window span of WinSol3. It is no accident that this first ray of sunlight falls into the bedroom and kitchen/sitting area first.
This morning I absorbed this ritual of the ancients. At exactly 7:43am the sun’s first rays graced WinSol3’s southern window expanse, announcing that the earth was shifting on its axis. As I stood out on the deck observing the sun’s rays changingly distributing its bounty throughout the forest, I felt a spiritual rush of the connection with our giver of life. Realizing that this event was observed for thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of years by most of humanity – until recently - I wondered if perhaps that internal rush was a connection with the ancients. After all we are all from the same stardust, and we all breathe the same air and all our exhalations.
Then my brain really kicks in with something like this (from Wikipedia):
The winter solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. More evident from high latitudes, a hemisphere's winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun's daily maximum elevation in the sky is the lowest.[2] Since the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, other terms are often used for the day on which it occurs, such as midwinter, the longest night or the first day of winter.
I wonder how the ancients figured out the longest and shortest days of the year – were they able to tell time somehow? They most definitely knew about solar angles and horizons. We'll never know. Why have we lost all records and insight into this ancient wisdom?
In Thom Hartman’s book ‘Last hours of Ancient Sunlight’ he states: ‘We once knew more than we know now’ Over the years I’ve found this statement to be so true. Our left-brained, highly technological and scientific world has given us many wonders and lifted many people out of poverty – but at what cost? Are we happier, more content? Are our technologically driven communities and children better off? Yes and no. Mr. Hartman now blogs about the 'Last hours of Ancient Sunlight' ,his latest about how trees are the 'canary in the coal mine' that we are ignoring.
and now... back to WinSol3 solstice ...
My usual routine is to light a big bonfire outside and then around 7:30am sit at the indoor granite fireplace bench looking at the ‘X’ mark on the French door glass that says 7:43am. At 7:40am I am skeptical, there’s no sun to be seen and I wonder if by some strange reasoning I marked it wrong, if the house shifted, or heavens forbid our planet is out of alignment! Every Dec 22nd I go through this same ‘Doubting Thomas’ routine. Then, as I go out onto the deck, sure enough, right on schedule, there is the first sunlight. And all is well with the universe.
The joy within my heart is immense at this moment. I feel a connection with the ancients, with a power indescribable, far greater than anything I usually have felt all year (although this year, the feelings I had at the temple ceremony in Indonesia ranks right up there). Each year, I allow my heart and spirit to linger a bit longer, before my brain kicks in. It’s getting easier each year to delay my brain kickstart. But sure enough, after a couple minutes, my left brain hints at the history of this moment going back over the eons – of the Stonehenge + Pyramid architects, of designers and computer software packages that can predict this event within a microsecond at any location behind any shading tree in the world.
Then slowly my mind and heart sift together in unison to realize that our home is right now shifting on its axis ever so slowly. Usually by the time I awaken from this trance, the entire inside of WinSol2 is flooded in sunlight and the sun has shifted a few degrees from the far SE horizon.
Then slowly I realize the ‘event’ is over and tasks beckon. I wonder how many urban people even know about this event? I know the farmers and many gardeners know - their livelihood depends on the sun.
For some reason, I am not that enamored with the counter solstice to this on June 21 each year, when the earth shifts back from the opposite axis shift.
Over the past few early mornings at WinSol3 (4300ft elevation) it has been about 50F outside and I am starting to feel warm without the fire stove or dressing like an Eskimo.
After returning from spending ~20 days at the equator and 88F = 24/7, I was freezing cold at WinSol3. I remember last winter I was comfortable around 45F, and I’ve heard other people say the same. But I know that most people would feel terribly cold at 45F. A lot of that has to do with our metabolism and cold/warm bloodedness, our age, what we eat, fitness and exercise, etc.
But I’d like to espouse a whole different reason: over the last few decades, we've reset our body thermostats
Ever since the invention of instant on-demand heating and cooling systems, we’ve slowly weaned ourselves from our body’s automatic thermostat. We used to be fine in temperatures from 50-90F with no problem.
But nowadays, if someone from the northern zone steps off a plane in the southern zone, they'd immediately complain about the god-awful heat (and humidity). They would head for the first air-conditioned space they could find.
And then when they got back home to their northern colder climate, they would turn up the heat so they wouldn’t be too cold. You get the irony here? It’s more psychological than physiological.
Let me repeat that: It’s more psychological than physiological. Notice the word ‘logical’ in each of those. Is there any basis for logic in the fact that the human body is designed with an automatic temperature control system (brain/heart and veins/arteries)? Yes! a resounding YES!
Our veins and arteries are very sophisticated heat exchangers trying to maintain 98.6F by opposing flow patterns along our skin. These are more complex than most hi-tech HVAC units. Our skin is one heck of a large absorber or adsorber temperature plate. Heck the skin actually forms beads of water on it own if it gets too hot (sweating :-)! It can serve as an alternating condenser or evaporator coil. And yet, we like to keep our outside temperature exposure within 65-75F, 24/7,365. In other words, we’ve gotten too comfortable over the years, and like to luxuriate in this narrow temperature range.
But this has allowed our body’s thermostat to go on hiatus and in some cases maybe even malfunction. I used to do this all the time myself:
Decades ago when I was logging 100k airmiles/year I used to never every take a winter coat to the far northeastern states in the dead of winter - why hassle with it? I step off the plane into a heated building, into a heating rental car, into a heated hotel, into a heated office building. In one 24 hour period i'd be lucky if I got exposed to more than 20 minutes of sub-zero outside temperatures. We've set up our environment to spoil our body's thermostat.
An energy saving tip: start allowing your body’s wonderfully complex and fully functioning automatic thermostat and heating/cooling adjustment system to work – on its own. Instead of heating an entire room to 70F so that your body (all of 10-20 cu.ft) can be spoiled, let it adjust on its own. Ok, so maybe you need to grab a blanket the first few days...
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It only took me ~3 days to start feeling comfortable when I first arrived (in Indonesia) at equatorial temperatures of 88F 24/7. Then it took me ~3 days of adjustments back at WinSol3 to the relatively frigid 45-60F. Had I opted for air-conditioning at the equator, or full-on heating at WinSol3 (sauna anyone?), my body would not be able to adjust so quickly.
Like an exercise/diet fitness program, we need to embark on a temperature adjustment fitness program – and just think of all the energy savings a 10-20F thermostat setting change would be on your monthly utility bill.
From my last entry here, I thought for sure that my next post would be in late December of April 2012... but here I am, back from an incredible experience in Indonesia. I hesitate to say that it is Bali, because I never once experienced what 90% of the world thinks Bali is. Let's just say that Hawaii is a heavenly paradise compared to Bali.
I barely saw the ocean twice for a scant 5 minutes driving to and from the airport in Denpasar. What i did see was the sad effect that 'eat, pray, love' has had on Ubud. I was lucky enough to spend 7 magical days in the highlands of central Bali with the local villagers and one world-famous retired American author.
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I learned so much about what WinSol3 means and why I spent the last 10 years rebuilding and living here. Being away give me new perspective.
Today, my 3rd day back, I am breathing hard and feel my lungs really marginalized from breathing continual diesel and motorbike fumes - even in the remote village of Pentahan.
Thankfully i had a 'green' drink and tropical fruit galore each morning, but the lack of exercise and actually doing anything physical has taken its toll.
I found myself breathing harder than ever walking up from WinSol3's zen deck, with a load of HUGE mushrooms I spotted... so now the house is filled with eight+ big trays of wonderful sliced mushrooms. The altitude and my lungs will take a while to transition.
WinSol3 stood up well to the first winter storms and first snowfall. It was my first experience putting WinSol3 'on ice' so to speak. The feral cats were all doing wonderfully, and the vegetable garden actually had beautiful things still growing - bigger pumpkins, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, etc. All the vines and grapes have since died away and oak leaves and pine needles cover the expanded courtyard.
So my new project, and to regain some physical stamina and muscle tone, will be working on the greenhouse. I keep thinking how some people go to a gym to work their muscles - and what a sad waste that is, when there is so much more enriching work that could be done on soil and useful things, instead of putting it into a steel machine.
One of my other big learnings about WinSol3 is that I live an enchanted life compared to expatriates and the other 80% in 3rd world countries. But i decided in Nepal 7 years ago, that i would work from within the 1st world to undo part of the damage our western technologies have done... and WinSol3 is just the start. The Indonesia project has really Kick-started my next chapter with CMGs and shown me how powerful this concept and learning center will become.
In attending a bamboo workshop in Ubud with a friend (Chakra), and the excitement I felt in realizing that WinSol3 was light years ahead of the sustainable compound (and green school)... well I am inspired!
Stay tuned to a new program involving WinSol3 in the coming years as a true international learning center.
The false siren of winter storms came early this year. Snow fell in the hi-Sierra on October 8th and Wolf Creek ski resort set an all-time record for earliest ever opening by a USA ski resort.But - for the past two+ weeks it’s been ~70F at Tahoe.Perhaps it will change this week as overnite temperatures are dropping into the teens. There's some snow today above 7,000ft.
The fall aspen colors are amazing as yesterday I ventured up to Sorensens and Hope Valley to take in the awesome view. Lotsa leafer-peepers, and a mere shadow of a New England autumn… but close enough.
Here at WinSol3, these fall + spring seasonal turns and ‘middle periods’ for solar gains and passive heating/cooling of the house are always a challenge.I’ve gotten good at it over the years, fine tuning and intuitively learning what WinSol3 needs to maintain a comfortable temperature ~60-70F each day and nite. It requires some minor manual adjustments:like keeping the loft curtains closed all the time, and maybe opening/closing windows in the day or night cycles.This is a fine intuitively honed balance. I’ve only had to turn the firestove on for a few days in early October.
Old timers say that this winter will be like last winter.Meteorologists are saying it can’t possible be like last winter – that was an all-time aberration.I believe the latter.And what convinces me of that, is that I just haven’t seen the proliferation of pine cones on trees that I saw last year.uI still see robins and squirrels all over the place – last year at this time they were already bunked up for the long cold haul.Mother nature has a few predictors around (I’m sure if I could communicate with any animal creature, they’d tell me exactly what kind of winter it will be).
So as the seasons change so do beckoning calls for projects in faraway places on community microgrids... and time to follow Bucky Fuller's adages:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
and “You may assume that you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to the highest advantage of others.”
What a surprise when I did my bi-annual maintenance on my battery bank. Every cell (all 12) was empty or water. Thankfully the plates looked wet, so they couldn't have been dry too long. It took close to a gallon of rainwater to fill them all. WOW! I've never experienced that before - and likewise, I've never shorted the PV panels directly to the battery bank either.
After realizing that the Xantrex C35 wasn't doing its thing on equalizing batteries, or charging them properly - i just shorted the whole system for the summer. I've found out since then that many others do the same thing - but not all summer.... just for a few weeks. This really juices up the batteries, equalizes them in a hurry and you're all set to reconnect the controller. Well, i waited 4 months for this... and boiled off a lot of the lead acid in there. So lesson learned - only a few weeks of shorting... not months.
These huge babies can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' - but they ain't cheap!My battery bank is fine and are they are all recharging properly. I'll be all set for a long winter - especially with the 400watt wind generator: I'll have power to spare.
Smart Energy
On another front: An energy monitor (with a shunt) is SO important when managing your energy usage. This is the one I have:
Simple and effective. Four numbers: % charge state, voltage, current amp hours, cumulative amp hours (resettable). Now, if I could just hook that up to my computer and have it log the data over time.
I constantly monitor the amp hours and all kinds of other numb3rs and trends for my energy system. It's gotten to a point where I play a game of guessing what the meter will say and then seeing how close i get to the actual number. Imagine my surprise when i discovered recently that my laptop computer external hard drive sucked up as much energy as the entire laptop on a dead battery (4.5 amp hours or ~45 watts)! That was a new one on me! So, now i copy all my files off the hard drive while I got plenty of juice (as in sunshine) - that way i use 1/2 the energy at night when watching the Daily Show or a movie.
Figure it this way (hey, I'm an engineer - in another life!) : 45 watts X 3 hours a nite X 250 days/year = 33,750 watts per year... that's a small chunk off a solar system, but every little bit helps.
As WinSol3's energy meter turns to 12.6 vdc at 7am of the first rainy day of the new winter season, the outside temperature reads 38F. My reflections turn to a summer filled with learnings and the upcoming winter season.This time I may not be spending the winter here - lifestyle changes beckon great adventures.
Some weather reports are predicting snow levels dropping to 6,000ft (on October 5th!).Kirkwood received 10 inches of snow! wheeeeee....The upcoming winter season is picking up where the last one left off – from snow on Memorial Day weekend to a trace of snow today.That’s 4 months without snow: No spring, no fall – just snow, heat, snow.And it was a VERY cool summer. I think Sacramento had 6 days over 100F (normal is 30 days). This is all new to my 30 years here, an all-time short season and cool summer record.I couldn't even get into the high country with all the snows lingering around. Who says there’s no climate change?
So what has transpired and what have I learned over the past short summer seasons?There is a shorter growing season sometimes, and I need to get the greenhouse warmer in order to grow more food.AND the big one: the 2nd biggest fire ever could easily have rendered me homeless and all my efforts negated.
Of all the things occurring over the past summer months though, I took the first big step toward shaking off the isolation and remoteness and started finding community.The WOOF and HelpNetx and other web networks have generated some interest, but nothing concrete yet.There have been over a dozen visitors (plus the September celebration) to WinSol3 from various areas.I am grateful to all of you who came up to visit, and I treasure your friendship.
The distance of this place to main urban areas is probably the single largest lesson I’ve had to come to grips with: don’t build too far out.Since this was initially picked to be my Kirkwood ski hamlet, I could have never guessed that the location of WinSol3 would be THE big issue.But people who frequent mountain resorts are not the same people who would readily live off-the-grid in a closed loop, self-reliant style.I believe they are more inclined to pay for the convenience of endless energy and conveniences next to hi-end infrastructure.So I am turning toward the Coloma/Nevada City area for possible future eco-village community networking since they are seem more enlightened and closer to ‘civilization’.
Here’s a list of WinSol3 accomplishments over the past 4 summer months:
Living roof connecting deck with hi-psf structural supports
triple sized courtyard patio with new firepit and sitting areas
five raised beds and bountiful veggie + grape + rhubarb + harvests
Greenhouse water feature and tile work
Demos of Rocket Mass heaters
Perimeter clean-ups, screened under deck storage
Outside LED lighting system
12vdc Sound system everywhere
Gravel driveway straw cover, weed prevention
Main area, loft, mudroom drywalled, painted
Main deck final bracing
Whew… I get tired of thinking of the hundreds of cement bags mixed, hauling of dirt buckets, the # of granite slabs,
Lessons learned:
It is possible to live self-reliantly with many hi-tech + modern comforts
It requires only knowledge and construction materials
More + more people are discovering reused, salvage, hospice,
My overall fire prevention strategy of not exposing wooden sill plates, masonry barriers, etc. to the surrounding forest area really paid off since it helped stop the spreading uphill fire (flame retardant helped too! :-)
So the shift from summer to winter is on.... and this is where WinSol3 shines. Solar PV panels and large windows + overhangs designed to let maximum daylight and sunlight in during winter months. It's nice and bright and soon to get warmer as i fire up the stove for the first time in months....
At the weekend's wonderful Sierra Nevada Alliance annual meeting, I was taken by one of the questions posed to a panel: 'what was your first memorable Sierra experience?'
There are so many Sierra experiences + memories and they continue daily. My first one was in the summer of 1977. I had just started my first 'big pay' job with PG+E and took a summer break before the job started, and backpacked deep into Sequoia National Park, you know - home of the giant trees. My goal was to cross over 100 miles of wilderness to the John Muir Trail and get some Golden Trouts.
A bit of background may help here: I had spent the previous 5 years in Laramie Wyoming (U of Wyo Cowboys) and every weekend I went backpacking, climbing and fishing into the Snowy Range close to town and did extensive mountaineering in the Tetons, Wind River Range, Yellowstone, etc. So long backpacking trips was my forte. Looking at the national park map and seeing the vast unspoiled wilderness made me more comfortable after experiencing the congestion (relative to Wyoming) of the Bay Area.
I remember how amazing it was seeing my first giant Sequioa. Nowadays, they almost look 'normal'.
What made this trip so memorable is my getting cited on the second day by a Forest Ranger for not having a permit. I was dumbstruck and naive. I said to the ranger ' i need the state's permission to walk on god's earth?' He laughed and we started talking and I got a quick introduction and learnings about 'wilderness' in California. What a difference compared to Wyoming 'wilderness'!
Since then I've pulled a few permits - mostly for peak bagging - and stay away from overused trails that require day permits.
I never did make it across to the Golden Trout Area and the John Muir Trail (i finally did get there in 1998), but I fell in love with the Sierras. They were WAY more friendly (weatherwise) than the Wyoming Rockies, and in California I eventually needed more time away from people congestion and the Sierras were the perfect antidote.
Eventually I settled on the Carson Range and that's right next to where WinSol3 is - outside my backdoor... pinch me!
Once again fire has gripped 7L. This is the third major fire in the last 10 years. All man made, all on the property. The first was from forestry slash piles after logging, the second was the 2001 WinSol2 burning, and now the storage shed and other minor structures. Perhaps there's an ancient curse somewhere close-by in the National Forest that used to be home to Maidu tribes. Then again, between all these fires on the east and south, and my thinning and burn piles on the West... there's nothing left to burn!
Storyline
I came home last nite after being gone for a few days, to my doors being wide open, and my thinking I'd been robbed. A sleepless nite - but for all the wrong reasons.
This morning i awoke to weird red stuff all over the deck - it looked liked it had rained red dust. After a few minutes, I turned south and saw the entire forest below burnt black, including the 1,000sf storage shed.
My neighbor noticed some smoke coming from down below, and thought that there's no way Fred would be doing a burn pile at this time of year (good to have such a reputation :-)... 10 minutes later he noticed flames. Two kids (who I know) on quads were on the other ridge and also noticed it. Two calls to 911... 20 minutes later ... 7 fire engines... multiple helicopter water drops ...several airplane retardant drops... later - it saved my house: WinSol3 I wonder what i would have done had I been here - totally freaked out or humbled?
The uphill raging fire (burned tree branches at 200+ feet up) stopped within inches of the main house... the plastic gutters on the greenhouse melted away (see pic below).
Timely neighbors (thank you Jack + Travis, ++), incredible reaction + coordination of the Amador + El Dorado Natural Resources (used to be called fire department) along with 7 engines, countless ground crew, multiple helicopter water and plane fire retardant drops kept the house from burning and limited the damage to around 1 acre.
'simulated' water drop
All remnants of any construction before 2002 has turned to ash. The storage shed, old deck, various stuff... all burned to the ground.
Personal note: It's interesting what an emotional and spiritual toll these events take on me. I had all these plans and projects to work on, and now all i can think of is gratitude and reaching out. My whole body + spirit feels like it's been drained + body kicked a few times - I've been there before. All things in life are transitional + temporary.
Gratitude
How can I ever repay all the hard work of the fire crew? What gratitude can i possbily give in thanks for all the state, county, equipment, personnel, etc. coordination that went into saving my house? In talking with the fire marshall, he said 'that's what we do, that's why we're here'. I know one thing for sure: I'll never bitch about 'controlled' and 'managed' burns, or about other fire fighting related issues. WinSol3 was one sudden windbreeze away from being a pile of ashes.
Until one has come face-to-face with such a disaster and benefited from these firefighters', pilots, truck drivers, etc capabilities can one really appreciate all their effort.
And a special thanks to Andrew for taking time out from his Supra rebuild biz, and getting ready for college days...to sooth my aching nerves: thanks buddy! And also to all my friends out there for your heart-felt emails + calls.
Top part of Burn... just down from the Courtyard
What's left of the 1,000 sf storage shed
This is how close it got...
Burnt Gutter right under the Greenhouse Burn Stopped here!
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Ok - so I gotta go back on firewatch and put out some smoking embers down below. The wind is kicking up, thankfully there are clouds and humidity.
Lately, life at WinSol3 took at turn downward. On Friday nite I got stung by some ground nesting wasps and then today on my walk in the forest, I took a major stumble and dislocated my shoulder. At least I haven't cut my arm or leg off (yet?) with my chain saw.
Murphy has a weird way of showing up around here. Usually he just makes things more complicated and longer, but lately he's been getting downright nasty.
As I was ripping and clearing out the old firepit to make room for the patio tile expansion (20+ cement bags, and new circular firepit with integrated rocket stove and future pizza oven), I didn't even notice that I'd disturbed a whole bunch of in-ground wasp nests. Those little bastards can really dig long tunnels with multiple entrances. So drinking my wine and talking with friends on Friday nite, I didn't even notice the little guys circling around my bare feet - they were sizin' me up! I got stung once... no biggie... i brushed it off and thankfully didn't feel any pain. And then 10 minutes later 3 more bites under my swim trunks and sandals. OUCH! And then the swelling started.
Last time I got stung by a whole nest of wasps at the white water tank, the entire left side of my body swelled up for a week... i was told that I could go into epilectic shock if it happened again. Somewhere I had an old bendryl hypo somewhere, but didn't care to use it... unless the swelling didn't go down.
So my entire right leg swelled up... the more I used it and walked around the less swelling, the more i rested the bigger the swelling... so I started working and walking... and two days later... my body is TOTALLY NORMAL and I have 5 red souvenier marks.
Cure for Wasps
After reading up and chatting with people... I went out around midnite with heavy boots and clothing to the max. Armed with shovel, rake and gasoline... I cleared the entire area, poured gasoline on the ground and inverted some large pans (cement mixing pans). Next morning they were all gone. Only to pop up again about 5 feet away... so tonite I gotta do the same thing.
Humpty Dumpty
On my walk today in the forest - which I've taken hundreds of times... I stumbled on a tree stub in the middle of the road that just sent me reeling... I mean launched me and put me down straight up. Luckily I rolled and came down on my shoulder... pop! I've done that before skiing... but never on dirt! Easy to pop back in. It'll be hurtin' some tomorrow.
So now to getting more of my garden fresh salad in me (biodynamic vegies) to boost my immune system and give it a little boost.
That's about as risky as it gets here. There's no cars, hi-speed roads, stoplights, people running around... so not much happens in comparison to the city. Wasps and stupid walks are about it.. except for the occassional drifter... :-)
It's finally getting hot at WinSol3. about time! I've only tapped my large white tank once to fill the holding tank. What that means, is that until August 1 the irrigation has used less than 500 gallons of water... and i've got more vegies, strawberries, fruit trees, berries, etc. than ever before. What a wet year.
I think all my tanks will still be 1/2 full when the rainy season starts. That's good, because one of these years we will have a VERY deep and long drought....we've been in a wet cycle for pretty long now, and nature always does things in cycles. When that dry cycle comes, I'll be smiling and singin' in the stored rainwater.
Yesterday I had to pull out all the blooming radish plants and harvest their seed pods. As the queen song goes... 'another bites the dust.'.. i will never again have to purchase radish seeds. i have over thousands of harvested radish seeds and now will focus on storing them in large jars with dehumidifiers (natural desiccants - like rice, etc) inside. My goal is to have 1/2 my pantry filled with seed jars, and then start sharing and trading seeds. Next up will be dill, beet, tomato seeds. From the permies forum it doesn't seem to much matter about following a darwinian approach to seed harvesting.
My next big job is the triple the amount of patio tiles in the courtyard to have a bigger gathering area - especially for the upcoming open house. I am getting a steady stream of visitors up here, and the courtyard is getting to be the favored sitting area. I've already torn down the 'temporary' fire pit that was there for 5 years... and am extending a masonry wall (fire barrier also) down the ridge, building a circular fire pit and sitting area (with a small rocket stove mass heater in it), and leave some room for a pizza oven (way, way later).
The Living Roof deck structure is finished. I have already put down 7 layers of hi-thickness visqueen and roofing tar paper left over from WinSol3's original construction. And now there's two layers of thick EPDM single ply roofing, drain pipes all around, and i've already started the big and long job of hauling up soil to cover it all to about 4" to 6" depth and then native plantings and sedum in the fall. it'll be interesting to see how this living roof fares over the years and how much maintenance/repair is REALLY required.
I've finally figured out where to store all the big stuff out of sight... a long lived dilemna since all the unsightly junk was piling up on the east side of the house. So I've built some posts+rails to put in the redwood pallets (from HP) lying around and am putting up some bamboo and cedar bark screening.
I hope those of you who are reading this will come over on the September open house and help celebrate another year of progress at WinSol3 and it's slow evolution as a true closed-loop and energy-plus learning center.
Now that we are in the midst of typical rainless summer, WinSol3's designed water system starts shining. And this year, I will probably still have all my tanks 1/2 full by the time the first rains start - hopefully in late September.
It's a fairly cool summer while the rest of the country sizzles.. i just watch the hurricanes spinning in the eastern Pacific (as in Western Mexico) and that has a big influence over our low+high fronts. that's my theory and I'm stickin' with it.
It's been lessons of hard knocks over the past 30 years in keeping a water system going - reliably with minimal maintenance. i think i'm getting close with WinSol3's current system.
This year, i've got the black greenhouse (GHS) tank working (since andrew + i switched it with the lower tank) - so for the first time the GHS has it's own 2500+ gallons of rainwater. It's got double valves on it too... actually three valves. One at the outlet, one main valve inside the GHS and then the hose bib valves. So three things gotta fail before I lose all that water.
That's what freaks me out here... losing water. A couple years ago I left a valve on by the washing machine, and before I knew it I'd emptied out a holding tank of 500 gallons... totally wasted. shame... shame...
So with my engineering worse case scenario mindset, I've got multiple tanks, holding tanks and every one of 'em is double valved. I even considered someone doing target practice on the lower part of my tanks... but that wont' happen, right?
Some year, I'll get the slow sand filter going. I have the special barrel, I know how to do it.. it's just of a matter of doing it. In the meantime, maybe this summer I'll explore around a bit and discover a high mountain spring where I can fill up my drinking water bottles. That's the one area I want to change this year... stop filling those bottles with city flouride/chloride and other unknowns 'safe' chemicals.
I love this version of a slow sand filter from 'surfers without borders' they gotta be cool ...or crazy...
Drip, Drip
This will be the third year that i will be putting in another, yes: another! drip system. the last one in the GHS froze and cracked in the suprise early November blizzard. And I had put a low drain valve in there. A freeze prevention valve only works if you use it!
There's a few things I don't like about drip systems at WinSol3. Seems the critters always get into them and chew them up around August/September when there's not a spot of water within miles of here. And then in the winter time they freeze and crack... so either way, each spring there's lotsa leaks. But they sure save time and make things grow better.
I finally designed a new system to minimze leaks: I've run 3/4" PVC to each raised vegie area (there's five now... each about 4' x 10') and come up only at the planters where the drip tubes hook in... so I am exposing minimal poly tubing above ground for leaks.
The GHS is a whole other matter. I'm still working on sealing the water feature... had a lot of leaks in the deep basin... but now it's holding it. A guy's only got some much time and way too many projects. The Tangelo citrus tree survived the winter and it is flourishing in the SW corner. Grapes and rhubarb are taking off like crazy all over... I will have oodles of fresh grapes for the first time this year.
Once again it's a relatively cool summer. It's around 80F these days after getting close to 90F a couple days. Last summer was also cool. Is this the future global weirding effect? I like that part of it - the long winters I can do without.
Progress is slowing down on projects at WinSol3. I poured the last of the cement and tile walkways for the greenhouse - and now I can clean-up and do a bit more landscaping in there. The living roof deck is really progressing big time. It should be done in a couple weeks and then the odius job of hauling up dirt for a 8-10" base will begin. It'll take about 6 months for that to be done along with the test of deep snow.
The vegetable raised beds are doing great. I put in my 4th potato tire/cage today. Radishes are turning to seed along with the poppies and winter beets + spinach. One of the raised beds is growing things so quickly I'm amazed... dill that's 3' tall along with beets and beans that are really growing tall.
Electric and solar wise, I have more energy than I know what to do with. If I was anywhere close to 'the grid' I still wouldn't tie into it and sell it back. I'm all about disconnecting from the main grid on many dimensions and living a bit disconnected from the craziness.
I started reading a book by Albert Brooks '2030 - the real story of what happens in America' and it just reaffirms that we gotta do something! We can't continue this apathy. I also heard a talk given by the USA German ambassador about how they are at 18% renewable energy, and will be 80% by 2050. They've created 350,000 jobs in renewables, and are constantly innovating. He said one of the big differences between Germany and the USA was that Germans can't move to a new place that much - there is no more open land... whereas in the USA we have plenty of undeveloped land and so we constantly develop and expand. Fair comparison. But Germany's investment in education and research vs the USA give me pause for concern.
So, with the big Solar conference in SF going on, I am taking a quick break and heading in to see what's new on the global horizon. I'm sure this year the conference will be twice as big as it has been the past two years. Mainstream renewables.
With the last two days of rainfall, I am tempted to splurge on water usage. Heck it's July all my water tanks are full and I won't need any irrigation for a few more days. I could splurge and start irrigating the small courtyard lawn, water hose + clean everything down, etc. And with all that extra 'free' solar energy this summer, maybe I'll even leave the lights on all night. Not!
First of all, if I start watering things like buffalo grass that's fine without water, it will die. (permaculture 201). Next, by pressure washing with water, I'm saving myself some elbow grease and time - which I have a lot of.
The bigger question that lingers for me is: What do we do when we have more water, energy, food, gasoline than we need? Is this really the ultimate green test? Why change our behavior when we have more than needed? Most farmers and depression era elders know that we need to save up for a rainy day. But for many younger generations who have never really experienced a long drought of energy or food or water - why should they bother?
So, now at WinSol3 I am not changing a single thing. I remember the long drought in 2006 when there wasn't a drop of rain for 6+ months, I remember in the late 1970's walking down to the bottom of Lake Shasta to access a friend's houseboat. Everything goes in cycles, and we can do fine with just continuing to do fine. No need to party on excess. Won't be long before the next downturn.
So now we turn from winter to summer... from snow and 30F, to sun and 80F. It's nice that the 'big boss' gives us transition zones like spring and fall, but I guess the boss was asleep this time... no spring! But wait, tomorrow it gets down to 60F and rain... so maybe we'll have spring in July this time. And then 80F again... need I say it? (global weirding).
Each morning starts around 6am with the wonderful task of walking the garden and doing some useless water spritzing.... note to self: put those drip systems in. For the first time in 6 years, I am back to where I started with plucking sweet strawberries for breakfast - is there anything sweeter? Especially since i saw that they are #3 on the most pesticide laden fruit we buy. So now I have my 100+ strawberry plants in the raised beds, protected from deer and squirrel (called cat)... and breakfast nutrition is renewed.
I love all the work here, it's the life of a farmer - no the life of a human connected to the soul of the soil. I am starting to enjoy this place more - rather than working on projects. Thankfully the BIG projects are over with, like the 1,000 sf deck 20ft up in the air and the courtyard - I get tired just thinking about doing that last year. Now, if I can only start my daily deep forest + creek walks again... oh come-on, there's work to be done... not?
It's cool to see the rebirth of small farms with a younger generation and with their permaculture twists - I hope is reaches a tipping point. Lately I'm listening to the permies podcasts with Paul Wheaton - very cool. I also saw where France just had an e-coli breakout (and organic sprouts again?). Our food supply chain is awfully broken. So much the better for my goal of 80% self-raised uber-biodynamic garden. I don't even trust the local farmers markets anymore... except for a couple farms I know.
My three new raised beds are producing more delicious salad stuff than I can dream of. My new soil mixture of wood ash, biochar, Berkeley marina groung mussel shells, deep forest peat moss, etc. AND plenty of pitchfork soil turning without any soil compaction; have resulted in the most productive vegie growth I've ever done. Maybe the 100% rainwater has something to do with it also.
I've abandoned two lower raised beds to replenish their soil and fix some nitrogen - and ya know what - the poppies and blue cone flowers just took off! Native seeds I had thrown out this past winter - boy they really don't like water! It's a gorgeous site. That sets up my long term plans to always rotate multiple raised beds and let the native wilds do their Nitro fixing. Permi principle #1 at work.
Technical stuff
I always like April to October because I can squander electricity like there's no tomorrow. Although running the ice maker for 4+ hours does take a toll on the day's energy budget. I figure I have at least 1800 watts of 'free' power each day, and probably use less than 500 watts (wifi, movie, lites...) each day without the icemaker or juicer going. After October though I really crank back and start charging the batteries for the long winter - who knows what November to April will be like. This past year those months were some of the most vicious/stormy months since I've been here ('86). Thankfully the wind generator was in place.
My solar PV system has been without a controller for over 6 months now. And guess what - my system is more charged up than ever before - go figure! Ever since I noticed I was losing wattage during a sunny day, and tried to recalibrate my Xantrex C35 controller only to find it non-working; I shorted out the PV to Battery wire and you know what? it is charging the batteries WAY more than last year. Never again a Xantrex controller! I've noticed over the last few months that outside temperature has so much to do with battery voltage and charge state. At 40F or below and with 8+ hrs of sunlight I get about 12.3vdc or less. At 70F or above and with 10+ hrs of sunlight I get about 12.7vdc or more. Interesting. I think an MPVV type controller - probably Morningstar will be my next choice - they are just damn expensive.
The solar hot water (SHW) system is in transition. Let's see, at last count I've got about four options. And I'm using the simple ICS (batch) SHW heater... two valve turns I had (sometimes scalding) hot water. I've had to be careful to schedule long rainwater showers before the sun overheats the ICS. I'm still on the fence about the big drainback system after the stupid fire last year: Dreams of my spa were dashed by one last brazing task. I'll probably redo that system, but more urgent projects call.
Greenhouse + Courtyard update
The greenhouse is getting a major do over. In April I started clearing it out only to be faced with weeks of rain. So now, that I've cleared it out - guess what? - rain predicted for tomorrow... we'll see. I built an extra cedar shelf above the worm bin, repotted several big plants, more concrete pours and tilings later - the greenhouse is starting to feel like the most magical space I could have ever imagined. The willow tree is wonderfully minding its biz and along with the vines + grapes starting to provide needed summer shade. The ivy is starting to curl up the back posts, and the knock-out roses provide plenty of red color. I'm not much into maintenance - so all this stone and concrete work is mainly to just wash it down to keep it clean without inviting mold and little critters inside (again, note to self to thank the cat :-).
The water feature will get tested tomorrow = the inaugural for: deep basin + pump, large river rock pond and 6' terraced water fall. It'll be fun getting that all balanced out.
As for the courtyard: I am just letting it go, except for lawn clipping. It was so much work last year getting 1000's of herringbone bricks in place, the tiny lawn area and sitting alcoves for the big grand opening... I am still mentally not ready to dive in again. I really enjoy all the fruits of that labor with the colorful bursts of vines, lilies, sedums, wildflowers, magnolia + fig tree, and that ONE magical red rose yesterday that stopped me in my tracks. I can't remember the last time I smelled such an authentic old-fashioned rose fragrance.
More work later this year will be with the help of friends during the open house to relocate the big firepit, put in a rocket mass heater with connected pizza oven.... but that's another story.
-------------------------------------- Parting note: I get tired just writing and thinking about all these projects, but they are all labors of love. There is nothing urgent or required - so it's all voluntary 'busy-work'. I'd rather be doing these projects directly myself than sitting in an office and paying someone else to do them. But then, I designed my lifestyle this way years ago... ok, now for that forest walk.
It's finally summertime at WinSol3. and the livin' is easy. Enjoying the incredible blooms of the wildflowers. Most of them are perennials which have automatically reseeded themselves from last year.
The more i learn about Sepp Holzer's permie style, the less work I am doing.
I just announced two open house weekends here. If anyone is interested in an invitation, please email me (fredk at gmail)
So I will be doing three main projects this summer: The pizza oven which will require moving the firepit and replacing it with a rocket stove mass heater... which will be smokeless and keep people way warmer for 1/10th the wood. These rocket sotves/heaters are one of the most amazing things I've learned about this year - thanks to Sieben Linden's Ole. And also from the same source - I'll be digging the foundation for the PAHS guest house. PAHS stands for Passive Annual Heating Storage, this one is Dr. John Hait from RMI book from the 70's.
Always learning and movin' at WinSol3. Non stop fun + curiousity.
Someone emailed me using the word 'Junuary' and it is so apropos. January in June is where it's been at until today - hopefully. The last three days it rained almost continuously. As I hung up my winter parka and stowed my Sorrel winter boots this morning - I wondered outloud if this will finally be the last time this season, and reminisced about how many times I've said the same thing this season. I don't even know what 'season' to call it - it sure as hell isn't spring or summer.
I opened up the loft curtains on WinSol3 for the first time in 2months - they have been drawn 24/7 - day + nite. That's the last time it was warm inside (without the fireplace churning). Since WinSol3 is specifically designed for optimal solar angles - this cold May + June are not 'normal'. The loft curtains are my simple version of adding thermal insulation on the fly. They came in handy for the past two months, and they trapped more heat inside the main area. Unfortunately this also cuts down on the daylight so it's real nice to have them open.
The next 10+ days are supposed to get over 70F and things should really start popping in the garden, the courtyard and the greenhouse. How many times have I said that before? Heck, even January with its 70F days had some things starting to pop out of hibernation.
Permies+
I am using my new-found permaculture knowledge to build wonderful potatoe rings, unique quick in-place compost piles, splitting many many lavenders, rhubarb (baked another delicious pie yesterday), etc. I think once I get my 'gated' gardens going well with ALL my own vegies + fruit without interference from the deer and racoons; i will venture into the woodlands and open areas and start putting a lot of effort into creating a perennial forest garden the way Sepp Holzer does it. He is my new 'god' - amazing that he can grow banana trees outside of Salzburg, Austria. He has taken the permaculture and Steiner biodynamic principles to a whole higher level.
The weather continues to be extremely weird. It snowed a bit three days ago, and will probably snow again today. Watching the mainstream weathercasts leads me to wonder if I am the only one noticing this continual shift to weirder and weirder weather patterns within Northern California as a whole. I think 'somebody' is trying to tell us something, and we are not listening - or we can't even hear.
Gratitude
At WinSol3, I am thankful for no super hot days. It is giving me more time to dig in the dirt before it gets bone dry. It saves from watering all my new raised beds. it allows me to work during mid-day periods which are usually very warm.
Current Projects
Worm Bin
Yesterday I finally got aroung to building my worm casting bin. I was all set to make it out of wood (cuz I really hate plastic) - and ended up using plastic for one simple reason: maintenance. With the wood bin, I would've needed to water it every week or so, and eventually would've forgotten and lost a whole bunch of the wiggly guys. So, hey- plastic to save the worms! After shredding the newspapers, putting in leaves and some deep forest peat moss along with coffee grinds and egg shells, i think the little guys are off to a good start. btw: I got the worms through a TimeBank exchange for some carpentry work I did.
GHS WaterFall + pond
Construction continues on the large water feature in the middle of the Greenhouse. Let's see, I must have about 1200lbs of concrete along with dozens of colored tiles in there by now with the side steps, deep catch+pump basin, river rock floor and the very cool terraced, six feet high water fall. I can't wait to test it! There remains an incredible amount of gardening work to do. The willow tree is doing nicely, the Virginia creeper really loves it and is vining like crazy. I transplanted all the blue beard iris out into the garden and put the knock-out roses at the southern most planter - it's not a very hospitable place, so those knock-out mutation roses should prosper!
Vegie Garden
The three new raised bed areas are doing nicely, the strawberries are quite confused with the weather + snow! I put in two rubber tire based potatoe planters and if they work out, there will be MANY more - they are so easy. Work continues on carving the native mountain misery landscape into terraced, walkable garden areas. I continue to harvest fresh salad material each day with radishes, spinach, root beet, lettuce and various other fresh leafed candy.
The lavendar, thyme, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, rhubarb, etc. are all prospering.
Indoors
Final wod trim,drywall and painting was completed last week on the main living area wall. YEAH - that only took a few years. I've re-opened the basement door access and will start organizing that and clearing out the entire unsightly eastern area, and close off the entire skirting. Loft, Trombe + chimney work
My work now shifts to the loft. Yesterday, I hard wired the entertainment center along with convenient switches, along with my keyboard area.... oh do I wish I had time to appease my musical piano yearnings. Soon, grasshopper, soon.
The Trombe loft wall will get its entire face done with granite rock later this week, then the final floor boards get put in, and walhla! another two rooms done. Just in time for summer visitors. Then there's the big, big project around July (sometime when there's guarantee of no rain) and the middle of the big green roof gets opened up to allow the final stone chimney to reach to the blue skies. Oh, do I look forward to no more collapsed steel chimneys in the middle of winter blizzards. And it will look so cool to have the stone work coming out of the roof.
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So today, I do hope to finally take a walk in the woods even in the rain. The last few days there were the usual suspects revving their dirt bikes on the holiday weekend, and i do not care to run into them at full throttle on the forest roads.
Another day, week in the life of WinSol3 nature sanctuary.
May 15th!! and there’s 8inches of snow on the ground and -snowing hard!Talk about global weirding and the weather forecaster missing it.Sure they predicted a cold front and1”-3” of snow at SLT (6200ft) going as low as 3500 or 5000 feet.This was supposed to be a quick little storm that just ‘snuck in’.With the AMGEN( bicycle race scheduled to start at South Lake Tahoe this morning – ha!I wonder what all the event coordinators (not to mention the $ sponsors and $ profiteers) are cussing about California weather - and they moved the race from April to May. Yeah – here’s the world's smallest violin.
Anyone that thinks we aren’t in the onset of real climate change, and that we didn't have a hand in it, is smoking tea party dope. Pass the coffee for me. Watching the NTV Japanese news show the other day, they talked about scientists saying the El Nina (pacific warming) is over and a repeat of last year’s scorching summer heat killing hundreds would not happen this summer.I predict that it will be back with a vengeance and even hotter than last year – sorry to say.Empirical evidence suggest so.
Last year was the first year (since 1986 observations) it snowed lightly on May 1. This year it snowed on May 9th and now is really dumping on May 15th.I cannot believe the heavy flakes that are coming down outside!
Luckily, I spent the last three days knowing there was a weather event coming.As rural homesteaders have done for centuries, you always prepare for the worse and enjoy the better.This past winter, I enjoyed only a few betters.
This 2010-‘11 winter season has started the earliest and latest along with the longest and heaviest on record.I don’t really care for the way weather people keep records= data measurement misses so much.It’s the combination of factors – such as intensity of untimely storms – that are more important.I can see the myriad of data and metrics meteorologists would be gathering to measure intensity of untimely storms.Yet we can saunter up to the coffee counter and bitch about this late heavy snowfall destroying all the tree buds, pushing back seed germination for weeks, resulting in another pain-in-the-ass growing season.Something you can't easily measure.
WinSol3 Progress update
I had just gotten all three large raised beds done.Hauled bucket loads of deep forest rich peat moss (free and best!) and combined it with buckets of biochar laden soil from the firepit. Then yesterday I put in the seeds and put down the straw.Wish I had put a couple extra inches of straw down.
The large living roof underdeck is coming along nicely. With fir posts 3' OC, 2x6 cross beams every 1-2', topped by 2x6 odds+ends for top decking and then odds+ends of OSB and plywood decking - this sucker'll hold 6' of snow and then some. The raised underdeck already came in handy as I could easily clear the PV panels of snow - an extra design feature I threw in. Synergy for all.
It got down to 30F this morning.It’s a nice 62F inside without the fireplace on overnite.Trust me, I fired it up this morning.WinSol3 is perfect for this kind of freak temperature event.All the thermal mass (14+ tons)can easily transmit back its stored warmth for two or three days.And then we’re supposed to have sunshine and 80F in a couple days.
It snowed here yesterday = one for the record books. Last year (2010) is snowed for the first time in May, on May 1st. So yesterday (May 9th) is the new record. First it started as sleet (45F outside) and then the temperature dropped suddenly to 39F and it was snow flurries all around. Two hours later it was sunny and 50F! go figure.... global weirding.
Progress in the enlarged garden is coming along nicely. All the transplanted fruit trees are blossoming nicely now that the deer are not nibbling them. The split rhubard is popping as usual - it really likes it here! This is not a good year for tulips and other bulbs... very weird weather after the 70F January and cold March.
Progress on the living roof (greenhouse to main house) connector is coming along nicely. With 3-4ft OC fir posts and heavy 2x6 criss-crossing beams, this should be way more than needed for 12"of soil, sedum, and the inevitable 5+feet of heavy snow that will not go anywhere for weeks on end.
The brown steel panels in the right of this picture will be removed to reveal 4" piping that connects to the underfloor array of cinderblocks. The top heat from the greenhouse will naturally flow under the living roof into these cinderblocks, thereby naturally heating the subfloor of the main living area. It doesn't get simpler than that! It's all about design.
After taking my first deep forest walk since the start of the winter season, it is time to reflect. The winter of 2010-11 started and ended with very strong and intense storms. More intense than I have seen in 30 years.
~November 15, 2010 saw over 5 feet of snow dumped in one storm at 7L. It was great for skiing at Thanksgiving, but made life difficult for several weeks. There were more broken trees and blocked roads that are still being cleaned up 6 months later. Then in March 2011 (I was in europe) there were even more intense storms that had more high winds and a lot of snow. This broke more large trees and blocked more roads.
In January 2011 we have 5 weeks of very warm and sunny weather. It was 60F here (at 4200ft) in January! A lot of the trees started to blossom and then had to retreat. This sudden warmth did not fool too many trees tho. Most trees blossomed more in early April and hopefully there will not be another snow storm. (Last year it snowed on May 1st).
I consider these extreme weather patterns to be part of climate change: global weirding. This is great for providing California with a lot of water. Everything goes in cycles, and there will come the opposite cycle of NO WATER - and that is when WinSol3 will shine, because it was designed with this in mind. The only issue will be that I need to be here during each small winter rainstorm and make sure that all the systems capture and store the little rainwater/snow that will be available. A small price to pay for 'free' rainwater.
As summer draws closer, the last remaining challenge at Winsol3 rises up again: providing energy for food refrigeration. Summers here can get up to 90F in July and August.
Over the years my biggest nemesis in balancing a comfortable lifestyle with net-zero energy remains food refrigeration. This is a long blog on a very important issue for all net-zero and off-grid dwellers.
Let me start by reviewing common food storage techniques and then relate my attempts at solving this challenge over the last few years at WinSol3.
Food Storage:
In the old days (60% of households in the US owned a refrigerator by the 1930s, it was not until 40 years later that the refrigerator achieved a similar % in the UK) there were no refrigerators in most households. Mothers (usually) did summer and fall canning of foods, some people dried or salted their foods for winter storage. Nearly every household had some type of root cellar, and consumed seasonal and local foods only.
With the advent of cheap electricity, transportation and then cheaper labor, the green (agricultural) revolution bought food from faraway places to every ‘super’market in the world through a complex global supply chain. In the USA every one calorie of food requires 7 calories of fossil fuel to get it there! After 30+ years of this fossil-fuel driven supply chain, we are accustomed to having any food at any time - and we feel entitled to it.
Bigger is better?
Gone are root cellars, cold boxes, ice houses/ponds and seasonal/local consumption habits.
Instead we have twenty+ cu.ft. double-door 'french' refrigerators that defrost automatically with an endless array of temperature and humidity controlled compartments. Additionally, American suburban homes have at least one big chest freezer (usually in the garage) where endless cold meats are stored endlessly. Some buy a whole or half of a cow and keep it in those freezers for consumption months later. One of the sad facts is that over 50% of the food pushed to the back of refrigerators usually ends up in the garbage can.
The rest of the world is slowly catching up to the USA. Even though most European and Asian households have small 2-4 cu.ft. refrigerators, I've noticed many of these new households having bigger and bigger refrigerators.
We have grapes from Chile available in all USA/Europe/Asia supermarkets in January. We can have any food available to us from anywhere in the world 24/7/365. With peak oil in the past, and rising prices and shrinking supplies inevitable, what will the future of this food supply chain look like? One can only imagine its slow demise. Are we going to go back to root cellars, canning, and ice ponds? Probably not.
So what are the solutions? That is where eco-village and local off-grid visionaries may provide some possible solutions.
Added note: Off-grid homes usually have a propane powered Sun Frost Refrigerator. These units cost well over $1,200. and use a substantial amount of propane gas each year. They are 80% more efficient than off-the-shelf electrical refrigerators.
Now, back to WinSol3’s food refrigeration history. Here's the story of my food storage journey over the past 5 years, summarized into four main areas: (Note: I had a digital thermometer inside each cold box.)
#1 Try= small fridge
My first attempt 5 years ago, was to use a small ‘bar’ refrigerator. These small refrigerators provide ~two cu.ft. of cold storage with a tiny freezer. Their compressors draw about 3.5 LRA (locked rotor amps) as opposed to 20+ LRA for big fridges.
Since there is an inductive load presented to an inverter, fridges have a high amperage surge as they startup. My 3,000 watt inverter usually beeped (draws more than it’s rated amps) for a few seconds while the compressor surges on startup. As long as I have bright sunlight (no problem in California summers) the small fridge worked fine. After sunset, each time the compressor cycled on, the inverter load was exceeded and eventually the battery voltage went below 12.1 VDC (my low voltage setpoint). I tried putting frozen water bottles in and keeping the fridge off overnight, but could not continuously freeze enough water bottles during the day for the small freezer.
#2 Try = two cu.ft. cooler inside a cold box
My next try was keeping the food cold in the fridge during daylight hours and transfering critical foods like chicken, seafood, etc into a cooler overnite. That lasted one week before I realized that doing this every summer day was going to be labor intensive. I tried transferring frozen water bottles into the cooler and eventually transitioned totally to the cooler using the fridge to occasionally freeze water bottles. Several people on the internet commented this was their preferred method. Again, after a few weeks I also gave up on this, because it was still too labor intensive.
I purchased a new, bigger, more insulated cooler. I made a cold box under the kitchen counter (the bottom of the cooler was in direct contact with the cold basement) and put in extra 4”of XPS insulation all around it – except for the bottom; and placed the cooler into the box. This ‘cold box’ is still used to this day with #3 ice added.
#3 Try = Success! Cold Box + purchased Ice
Every time I went to the local grocery store I started buying ice blocks to put into the cold box cooler. This worked great – the cooler inside the cold box would stay below 40F for over 7 days with the ice block. Eventually tho this was tiresome, as spending money and transporting ice blocks from a store was not my idea of sustainable living. So I purchased an electric ice maker.
#4 Try = Cold Box + PV produced ice.
My thoughts turned to what other mainstream consumer products were available that could make things cold without upsetting my solar powered inverter. I researched various portable ice makers and purchased one for $99.
It works great, and I can make about 3 pounds of ice each summer day in bright sunlight with my PV panels. I use the ice for my cold drinks and put the rest into the cooler inside the cold box. It’s still a bit labor intensive, but it works.
(Note: from November to April at WinSol3 there is no issue since snow is readily available)
Changing lifestyle cooling practices
The real issue in food cooling is having the convenience of cold storage at our finger tips with minimal efforts. As RMI + Avory Lovins recently have stated: 'We don’t use energy, we use energy services.'
The energy service I wanted was to keep certain foods cold.
I started researching how others had done it before compressors and cheap electricity were available. There’s a lake off Hwy 50 between Placerville and Tahoe called ‘Ice House’ named appropriately because here pioneers of the 1800’s skimmed ice from the top of large ponds specifically designed for this use – and delivered the ice via heavily insulated cold boxes to the supermarkets in the hot summer California Valleys. Image the embodied energy of human labor on each ton of delivered ice!
But the real solution to refrigeration lies much deeper: our lifestyle of eating and preparing food and basic physics. Language is also important: instead of calling it refrigeration, I like saying ‘cold food storage’ – which is really the energy service we want.
The key questions are:
(a)which foods need which temperatures for how long?
(b)Which foods do we need for nutrition? And how long from harvest to eating?
The latter is all about choice. As in any lifestyle choice, this is a personal question and no science or debate can convince someone to do with or without a certain food. But once I had the answer to (a),which can be found through siteslike this one from Virginia Tech:
"For optimal quality and safety, dairy products should be stored at refrigerated temperatures between 34°F and 38°F, meats between 33°F and 36°F, and eggs 33°F to 37°F. Fresh vegetables and ripe fresh fruits should be stored between 35°F and 40°F. Always store refrigerated foods at temperatures less than 40°F."
It was really easy to change my lifestyle choices with some knowledge of the refrigeration energy it takes to cool foods and to change a little bit of lifestyle.
My keys to net zero energy Food cooling
The first step to reducing an energy profile for cold food storage is to inventory your households eating habits (especially during hot summer months):
My personal food habits include:
Eating ice cream in the summer
Seafood once a week.
Papayas, pineapple, yogurt, eggs,
Given these personal food habits, I had to adjust my life style a bit. Instead of ice cream, I make smoothies with fresh berries and ice cubes from the icemaker. I only store seafood about once a week and use the local grocery store as my 'outsourced' freezer supplier - its free! (cold storage only :-)
A personal note:
I don’t freak out about having 'perfect' food - I don't understand why a little blemish on a strawberry or apple make some people throw the whole thing away. I am a firm believer that farm kids are much healthier than city kids because of their exposure to all kinds of bacteria at a young age. I also believe we need to continue this throughout our adult lives keeping our immune and other systems tuned-up. So, I do not abhor eating a little 'dirt' every now and then. Since all my vegetable beds are biodynamic (no chemical fertilizer or spray, +++), a little bit of dirt on the lettuce or radishes is no biggie!
If it wasn’t for my experimenting through steps #1-4 above, I don’t think I can go into step #5 below.
Step #5 – my ultimate solution for cold food storage
It’s a five step process:
First, and foremost are WinSol3’s gardens, greenhouse and hotbox. These three places can provide me with green leaf veggies and more, year round. Nothing, and I do mean – nothing! – beats freshly picked produce from a garden where biodynamic principles are practiced along with local rainwater.
Second, are my de-hydrators and canning processes. This takes either my, or a local neighbor’s excess harvest and prepares it for long term storage. I like to store dried herbs and mushrooms this way.
Third, is the root cellar which is currently under construction in the basement of WinSol3.
Fourth, is the cooler within a cold box and summertime PV driven Icemaker (#4 above). Right now that is located below the kitchen counter, and is a bit awkward to access. I wish I had built an upright vertical cold box. I am still contemplating on doing this – the added convenience of not having to stoop down to access cold food as I get older (20" is the lower limit).
Fifth, are for special occasions for parties, tours, weekend visitors, etc. This is outsourced to the local grocery store and perhaps an ice block.
I wonder what will happen first: Changes to our food supply and habits, or new hi-tech, appropriate + balanced solutions?
Personally, I’m not waiting for the promise of hi-tech. Changing my cold food habits has been a long journey, and I still have a ways to go. Change is difficult, if it’s not – you’re not changing. Try putting your sweater or coat on with the opposite arm – see how weird it feels? That’s change.
Adsorption refigeration is making big inroads in the cooling industry. This proven technology has been used by industry for decades. With the advent of affordable solar thermal systems and California’s sunny summers, solar hot water with adsorption chilling is a huge promising industry. Stay tuned.
