Paul Miller

Troy Rhodes wrote:Automotive oil pumps (positive displacement gear pumps) are not really designed for a water environment.  Oh they'll pump the water fine, but you may end up with rust and corrosion problems.

Or not....hard to say.


Does that clarify anything?

Yes, that clears it up.  I may build the pump to use as a utility tool to pump diesel, veg oil and water once in a while using a drill motor.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I may have come up with a partial solution to my problem.  

I am most worried about putting 140F water into the artificial wetland and hurting the biology, particularly plants.   I realized from looking at 'The better bell siphon'  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyrvcCqv5V0 that a small storage tank that empties automatically when full may work.  A 4" diameter pipe 50' long will hold a laundry load of water and only adds 1/3 foot of head.  A bell siphon dumping into the stock tank will empty the pipe the next day/cycle allowing the water to cool and ensuring it does not stay for long. If we skip a day or two of laundry and it starts to smell, we can add water to trigger the bell siphon.

I am hopeful the output from the artificial wetland will be clean enough to use a clear water pump.  

Thanks for the clarification.

Love the SBC pump!  Will it work with laundry water?

I am designing a 'laundry to landscape' system on my hillside.  The first photo shows how a 1" pvc 'laundraduct' slopes down from my house to an existing 15 gallon surge tank. The green level line is from Sun Surveyor, a handy IOS app that gives an augmented reality view of the suns path and other useful things from your position anywhere on earth.

The existing laundraduct/surge tank system works but the area it feeds is too shady for a garden.  So I am hoping to water a garden which is about 50 feet away and 2 feet higher which gets good sun.

The second photo was taken with the elevation line at the top of the 2' tall stock tank. I plan to fill the 169 gallon stock tank with tire shreds I got for free on Craig's list to make an artificial wetland.  Again, the green horizon line is level with a 2" HDPE line running level for 50' along the sloping fence.  I am planning on using that to extend the laundraduct to a new shallow sump/filter located near the stock tank.  

My washing machine pump is already at the recommended limit specified by Art Ludwig (Create an Oasis with Grewater). Since this design seems so marginal I am looking for a way to augment my washing machine pump and get the water a little higher without shortening its life.

Any advice is welcome.
Paul

Kyrt Ryder wrote:So I was able to acquire an email to set a password by going to the 'login' link in the upper right section of the dashboard and telling it I forgot my password and getting a 'change password' email sent to me.


Hopefully this helps anyone else in the same predicament.

I got an Enrollment Success page on the Canvas Dashboard that said I was successfully enrolled. Checked my email several times but did not get confirmation email.

Then I LOGGED OUT of the Enrollment Success page on the Dashboard as Kyrt suggested and was presented with a login page. It had a "Forgot Password" field. I got an email but when I "Reset" the password the page did not complete. That is, the link did not change. I went to the Enrollment Success page again, got the email and this time the link worked.

After 40 minutes still no confirmation email. Must be some overload issues. I am on slow DSL and iPad OS9.

Anyway I am successfully enrolled and have a password. I am at the Welcome page thanks to Kyrt's workaround. A +1 for Kyrt!

Should be a busy month!

Paul

I vote for the nymph because I would like to heat water or oil.

Travis,
Kuznetsov is a Russian stove designer using the principal of 'free gas movement', a gravity concept used successfully in very cold climates. Kuznetsov stoves are used mostly in Russia and Northern Europe partly because boilers are highly restricted in North America. The 'bell' is an essential component of that system. The bell as developed by Kuznetsov is to extract heat from 'ballast gases' such as Steam, Nitrogen and CO2 to heat exchangers thereby increasing stove efficiency even from wet wood.

Bells have become popular with Rocket Mass Heater developers. Here is a discussion about how to determine the internal surface area of a bell for a rocket mass heater.

http://donkey32.proboards.com/thread/1878/calculate-isa-bell-system

This does not apply to the concept I suggested because your heat source has its own chimney so heat from ballast gasses won't be restored. However in my opinion extracting as much heat as you can from the stove into the surrounding materials makes it possible to store more of it which evens out the heating. The bell also feeds a natural (gravity) draft which distributes heated air.

Hope I haven't confused anyone with my opinion.

Travis, Thanks for posting the details on your tiny house . Lots of useful info.

I love your use of steel sheet and concrete board to protect against the wood stove. I know from hard experience the value of stove safety. Your solution is very sound.

In addition to solving the clearance problem you get the benefit of thermal mass, natural convection and radiation.

One thing that intrigues me is the further possibility that one could use an enclosed stove area as a Kuznetsov bell that could provide some heat storage and generate a cross flow through the house with low ventilation air intake at one end, higher outlet at the other end. I would consider putting a water heater in the 'stove room'. Prevailing wind direction in cold season is important too.

I am lucky to have the space to store materials and have found most of the material needed for free in my area. I found a dozen free 4x8 concrete boards on Craigslist. Now I have a good use for them. In addition a local custom steel building fabricator often has usable cutoffs or usable pieces from dismantled buildings I get either free or at scrap price.

I'll have to buy steel studs but they are about the same price as wood studs.

I have a free source of rice husk to use for insulation.

Thanks again for some useful ideas.

Jesse Grimes wrote:

The insulation is something I am still trying to figure out. For the non-earth sheltered portions of the walls above the windows and door I can install wood on the other side of the posts, leaving a cavity that can be filled with some type of soft insulation material like wool or commercial denim insulation. I'd like to avoid purchasing any commercial products for obvious reasons, so I have thought about using wood chips or straw, but I would have to make sure it was completely sealed up to keep the critters out. For the earth sheltered portions, I am considering installing an insulation watershed umbrella as described by John Hait in his PAHS book. However, he uses hard foam insulation which is out of the question here at the Lab, so I have to figure out how to make some sort of natural replacement that wont be compressed under the weight of the earth. Paul uses wood chips in the Wofati umbrellas, but I feel like they will lose much of their insulating value once they are compressed. So I am searching for alternatives, perhaps I will start a thread about it.

Very inspirational building Jesse!

Is rice husk available in Montana? I got a pickup load near Sacramento for free last year to insulate under my waterproofed deck. Rice mills here seem happy to get rid of it. It has a pretty good R value, won't rot and insects don't like it.

It has been added to earth blocks so it seems a good fit for the umbrella.

Wonderful magic. Well presented. Why doesn't somebody do this kind of presentation more often? Wait a minute, I am somebody. I better get crackin'

Hi Paul & Willie.
I know Bill Mollison was very involved with wildfire planning and action in Australia where the fire frequency is very high. We are experiencing the 'King fire', the worst wildfire in the 40 years I have lived in the Sierra foothills. Fire Safe clearing is credited with saving numerous homes.

Having lost two homes to fire in other areas, I know the awful feeling people are going through. I would appreciate learning what can be done to reduce the chance of catastrophic wildfire and limit the damage. I am pretty sure there are folks around me that feel the same way. What can you teach us and how do we organize to spread the teaching?

I am inspired by both you guys!

R Scott wrote:

It isn't bad to load them if you can get them stood on end, back up to them, then push them over (TIMBER) into the bed. But not something I would do with a truck you like...

Miles, Thanks for the info on loading! My Yota can carry 1750lbs and the bales are actually 900 lb. 3x4x8 rectangles, not round as I first thought.

I may try the 'timber' approach but put a valveless, barely inflated inner tube as a shock absorber where it lands in the front. Also a come-along under the bale to prevent backsliding. Haven't come up with a way to make the bales vertical by myself however.

I have been working on a wheeled winch contraption to drag the bales up some Uchannels screwed to the tailgate. A farm jack and concrete form stake hammered into the bale can lift it to put a block under it. It only has to be high enough to get a 3" wide wheel under it with axle vertical. I'll route the winch line under the axle and attach it to the trailer ball. Then, pull enough tension to push a pair of foot long sharpened rods offset several inches above the axle into the bale. Once the winch contraption is pulled into the bale, I"ll put a longish pipe lever over the axle stub I left sticking out about 18" so I can flip the bale to rest on the wheels 3ft side down then pull it up the Uchannels onto the bed. The bale has to fit in the 39" space between wheel wells.

I have it half built so details may change. Hope my description is not too dense. If this works I"ll post pictures.

Hope I can get it built and tested while bales are still available.