Mary Osterburn

Hello.  My daughter and I would like to visit for two weeks in September.  She is interested in working in the boot camp but because of health issues I will only be able to partially help with things. She is studying architecture and is very interested in sustainable design so is really excited see and learn about everything you are doing.  We are both very interested in rocket mass heaters. I’ve been wanting to build one for years but would like to get some hands on experience first. We are also very interested in the wafati buildings.  We can’t decide if the tipi or the abbey would be better or if you would allow us to stay in each for one week to get the experience of both.  Is there a time in September that would  best to come to get experience with building rocket mass heaters?  We are interested in everything, but if possible would like to arrange our time there when those types of things are being worked on so we can get some hands on experience.

Thank you

Thank you Joshua. I will try to post some pictures of my multimeter. I can’t seem to figure out how in this reply

Joshua,

I think I could use a diagram. My husband seems to have it working, but it seems different than what you said somehow.  

The person who wired our house seemed to randomly decide what color of wires to use so the colors don’t seem to mean anything.  We had an electrician rewire our light switches in our hall a couple of years ago because they would turn each other off and he mentioned the colors didn’t match up which appears to be true in our bathroom as well which makes things harder.  


For others who have asked, we do want both the light and fan to come on at the same time and it is wired like Joshua suggested.  It comes from the breaker to the outlet which is GFCI, up to the light, and down to the switch.  It appears to be the only thing on that circuit and it does have a ground. I do have a multimeter but it’s been soooo many years since I’ve used one that I can’t remember what any of it means. I have to admit that the electricity portion of my physics class was the most confusing for me and electricity scares me so I probably didn’t put in as much effort as I should have to learn it since , at the time, I didn’t want anything to do with it. Maybe it is time to take a trip to the library because I really do like to thoroughly understand what I am doing before I do it.

All of this info has been so helpful.  Thank you all for your responses.

Thank you both. This was very helpful.

We purchased an older home that didn’t have bathroom fans.  We figured it would be straight forward to add a fan to the circuit but it is not and we can’t figure out why. Neither of us know much about electricity.  Currently a wire goes from the outlet to a light that has 5 bulbs and then to a switch.  We thought we could just put the fan between the outlet and the light but it doesn’t work.  We were able to get the fan wired without the light by looking at a diagram someone posted online  but now we can’t figure out how to add the light into it.  Can anyone direct me to an online source that explains how to wire this type of circuit  or give me a quick explanation. I’d really like to understand it so a source that explains it would be great.


I’ve attached two rough pictures of the way it was and what we are trying to do.


Thanks!

We have a thermal camera and look forward cold spots but haven’t been able to find any apparent bad leaks-  they are definitely there, though.  Ironically, our house is much warmer when it is -20F because all the leaks aparently seal from the cold.

We have tried closing vents and nothing seems to help.  We have traced every duct to every vent.  I do think the cold air returns are a huge part of the problem. The furnace is not undersized.  If anything it is oversized.

The upstairs is a good 10 degrees colder than the downstairs.  The cold room is below freezing in the dead of winter.  It does have insulated floors.  

I’ll look  into the direct vent gas heater.  That might be the best solution.  

Thank you all for your suggestions.  Feel feel to post more if you think of anything.

This is a great post.  I’m a COVID long hauler.  Have been struggling to recover since March 2020 (1.5 years) and one thing COVID does is damage your brain.  The damage it does is similar to a concussion. Infact, many long haulers have found doctors who are treating them for concussions.  those of us who aren’t getting help from doctors are using everything described above.  Two things that haven’t been mentioned yet are lymphatic message and grounding. Lymphatic message to get the fluids out of your brain and grounding for inflammation. Both sound a little  hokey but have really helped me in different stages of my recovery.

@Michael.  Thank you for the links.  The top one links to see through fireplaces which is basically what we currently have.  I don’t think they are inserts so wouldn’t produce much heat.

The second link had some potential options.  One of those we had looked at but they don’t make in the US anymore and I think was too big.  I will look at the other ones. I was only aware of one see through wood stove available in the US and it was too big. Hopefully one of them will work.


The other option we are considering is buying an outdoor wood stove that we could hopefully hack into the duct work that is already in the room. Then we wouldn’t have to deal with the mess inside and could  seal off the fireplace and throw an led fire in there for ambiance. From what I’ve read, an outdoor one could potentially hear the entire house which would be nice in an emergency.

I have also seen ventless gas stoves.  Not nearly as efficient as our furnace but maybe an option since we alreadyy have a gas line to the fireplace.