Eric Hanson

I just tinkered with an idea about having a wood stove with flush containers of sand mounted to the sides and back.  It would still have extra mass to gain heat, but it wouldn’t exactly be a rocket stove.  But I see no reason why the basic design couldn’t be adapted to fit a rocket stove.



Eric

Mark, thanks for the improved write-up over mine.  Excellent job!



Eric

A thought about this specific situation and other, similar cold-weather battery operations.

LiFePO4 are great batteries with two significant drawbacks.

1). The C rating, how fast they can discharge or how much energy can be given off at once is 1C.  1C is a pretty low rating and basically makes it the same as whatever the battery Amp-hour rating is.

2). Operating below freezing—32F/0C—is a strict no-no and can damage the cells.


The good news is that there is an alternative, Lithium Titanate Oxide (LTO) batteries.


LTO cells have a very high C rating (they can be used as a car battery in some instances), and they can work in temperatures down to about -40F.  Check for exact specs, but LTO batteries are not going to run into freezing problems easily.


As for energy density, they are about 2/3 the energy density of a LiFePO4 cell, so that needs accounting.


Just a thought,



Eric

Ahmet,

Actually, nice job with a full 10 meters—that’s a decent water head to work with.

I used drip irrigation from Dripworks.com, and you might consider constant flow emitters as opposed to pressure compensating emitters.  the constant flow emitters will emit a very consistent flow over a given length (maybe 7 meters or so, I would have to check).  They can work from a very low head of just 1-2 meters and sometimes even less.

But at 10 meters you might be in the range for pressure compensating emitters which are very, very precise and can make some very long runs.

As far as critters pecking or chewing holes, I would think seriously about getting some solid pipe from the tank down to the ground—and then bury a bit underground.

Hope that helps,



Eric

R,

On my DSLR, the autofocus has to be turned off with a separate switch.  

Again, on mine, I have have full manual control of things like exposure.

Even if on auto settings, I aim directly at the blue sky, press halfway and don’t release, then aim at intended targets and press fully.  This locks the settings on the blue sky but now aims at intended targets.  It took me a while to figure this out.


Eric

Hi R,

I guess that I, too, love Skying, but my preferred medium is photography.  And I share your frustration with getting the color, brightness, saturation, etc. correct.

Do you have a DSLR?  I seem to remember that we had a discussion a loooong time ago about you getting one.  If you do, you could do a couple thing.

1). Adjust the white balance.  By far, that modification alone has helped me take accurate pictures of clouds and views of the sky.

2). The other option is to use a patch of blue sky as the white balance.  I have used this with lesser cameras and generally gotten good results.

My favorite sky views are early sunrise—I like the way the red rays of the sun light up the underside of a cloud layer.  It takes very specific conditions.  But if I just point at a bright red or pink section of sky and fire, then the automatic white balance reads the brightest source of light (the bright pink/red in this case) and determines that’s white and the outcome is not at all impressive.  These two techniques helped me a lot.


Eric.

Hi Mikel,

I feel better if I can make my corner better without having to intentionally hurt any other corner.  If I can recycle, that’s a little point in my corner but not a negative in any other corner.  I love to make my topsoil from woodchips which I decompose with Wine Cap mushrooms.  I have hurt no one, but my soil is magically better.  And I need no artificial fertilizer.  I don’t even need natural fertilizer like bone or blood meal.

I try my best to stay self sufficient on my patch of ground.  I am not perfect.  But perfection is a foolish goal—by its very definition, it’s is unattainable.  I do strive for excellence,  but I am human and I will fail sometimes.  Good,  Failure is the best teacher and I will learn from my mistakes and be better in the future.

I can’t, nor would I, tell you what to do.  My suggestion is to do the best you can with what you have where you are.  And if you have some guilt for what could have been done better—good!  You can do better next time!

I wish you the best of luck.  And if you need to come here and vent, by all means do so.


Eric

Another thought, not so much for the OP, but for anyone building on a lot, or any parcel of land—I would have purchased a tractor either at the time I purchased the land or maybe even before.  There were so many times during construction (9 months) that I wished I had a tractor with a loader, box blade, rough cutter, maybe grader blade (which was a necessity later anyway).

Just a thought,



Eric

I would have started wood-chip/mushroom gardening immediately.  Of course, I only figured that out after a lot of inquiry here on Permies.  The short version:  I don’t till at all, and I make my own topsoil from woodchips/mushroom mulch.  If you want more info, let me know and I will walk you down the rabbit hole.


Eric

I definitely agree with getting shade on the unit.  It’s cheap and effective.  I personally like a wooden fence-like structure (broad, thin pieces of wood stapled together—it allows airflow but blocks almost all direct light).

Also. Consider some living structure (vines) climbing up a fence.  Just leave room for access and carefully watch for stuff that will fall into the unit.  An occasional hose-down and wash-out is also good.  It keeps the unit free from stuff that blocks heat flow and drops efficiency.  Also, make whatever light-blocking barrier you create big enough to block light from many angles.



Eric