Zoidberg McCoy

Yup, the "Peter Channel"!

http://donkey32.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=experiment&action=display&thread=355&page=1

Don't know about greenbrier, but I have composted a bunch of blackberry (along with lots of grass) and there was no thorn nor anything resembling a plant after a couple years composting (we did not need the stuff earlier than that). For what it's worth, in my neck of the woods (northern Spain) the local blackberry is definitely much thornier than the local greenbrier.

Drug Mile wrote:...
On top of the site there is a road, then a hedge, and here I plan to dig a big cold water storage. On top of it I would build some workshop or kind of a storage, and use it's roof to harvest the rain. Since it is above the house level, I guess water will flow down by itself, no need of a pump.

Definitely.

Drug Mile wrote:On top of the house will be lawn and solar collectors to heat this big hot tank. Still not sure if convection will work that way, but it does not have to, solar powered pump is part of the plan. Since cold water is above the house, it will push hot water up to the shower, right?

Thermosiphon will not work with that arrangement, so a pump will be needed to drive the circuit between collectors and tank. On the other hand, hot water will be pushed up if everything is correctly piped.

Drug Mile wrote:Water from toilet would go somewhere down, didn't think of it much so far. Is there any major problem in this plan?

Depending of how much head there is beween points of use and the storage up the hill there might be problems with appliances with internal valves that expect a certain pressure to open and admit water in (washing machines come to mind).

Zoidberg wrote:
Collector up, storage down.

http://www.google.es/images?q=thermosiphon%20solar%20collector&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=es&tab=wi&biw=1152&bih=676

Silly me. Of course I meant collector down, storage up, as in the pics.

Collector up, storage down.

http://www.google.es/images?q=thermosiphon%20solar%20collector&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=es&tab=wi&biw=1152&bih=676

Worrying to say the least. I just learned about the mercury in them and considering to replace the ones I have at home. For chrissake, we are talking about friggin' light bulbs, they break if you just look at them sideways! Now I cannot stop thinking  how I would clean the mess if one breaks over the sofa, the bed, the cooking wares, the computers (with their air blowers blowing the evil dust in and out).

http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.pdf
http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeown.../appendixe.pdf
http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/cflreport.htm

If these things were written on the package I doubt many people would buy them. I definitely would not.

You are going to love this: http://donkey32.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=discuss&action=display&thread=11

rose macaskie wrote:It is not just farming that makes for the destruction of the natural flora in Spain it is also cultural, many  people want spain to look like the north of europe, as far as i can make out. They despise their natural plants such as enebros and usually know very little about plants so they dont even recognise the wild life. They laugh at me for not knowing all the rivers and mountain tops, even of england,  well they are incredibly ignorant about plant life so you get people who in theory protect the local fauna and who in fact know nothing about it and dont notice if its disappearing, only if i am

It is even worse than that. The north of Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja ...) does look like England or Ireland, generally cool and wet all year round, but wherever new land is open for development and houses built first thing people do is take away the rich local soil (it gets muddy when machines and construction workers start messing about, so better get it out of the way), replace it later with new soil (to some 5 inches deep instead of the original 18 inches or more), and put in it some foreign grass which encroaches all over the place. Then poison the soil to prevent the local weeds from taking root. People get all fussy when something other that their graminacea of choice appears in their lawn, literally burn everything they mow in the open air, chase and kill lizards, toads, snakes, moles and everything they consider "evil". Spread poison by the roads and on ancient stone walls to get rid of the rich vegetal life that finds cover in them, just to prevent wasps and other social insects from nesting there. Makes me wonder why in the world they are living in the countryside, seeing that everything around them is so much bothering them.

I believe I read somewhere that a closed feed magazine (i.e.: no air coming through it) becomes a smoke trap, which means smoke comes out of it every time you open the top to feed more wood.

Also, I wonder about proper mixing of gases in the combustion chamber (due to reduced turbulence) if air comes from the side. Just speculating here.

I would like to ask you what your thoughts are on water condensing inside the barrel and exhaust channels, since having water all around is certainly not the same as having air all around.

Maybe you know the place, I would suggest posting your design in http://donkey32.proboards.com, I bet they will happily comment on it.

paul wheaton wrote:Here's a thought:  why is the incandescent bulb being banned, but the humvee isn't?

You can't scare other drivers out of your way with a bulb.

Just *half* kidding.