Mike Haasl wrote:What about using a SS insulated chimney pipe to hold the high temp wool?
I'm using such a chimney pipe as the riser inside a grease drum (barrel) in a trial RMH in my greenhouse. It certainly works and hadn't shown damage after a month of use -- surprisingly. It's a 6" system.
r ranson wrote:For a very long time, I didn't have a microwave. I'm a bit scared of them, as I've seen some pretty nasty things including the famous incident of the exploding curry.
I wouldn't recommend that anyone use a tool that scares them, at least not without clear guidance. But a microwave is one of the most energy-efficient cooking appliances ever invented. The Instant Pot is a much more recent invention that is also energy-conserving and versatile, enabling even my bachelor son to cook good meals.
As for the dry heat needed for a rice bag, a heat lamp (such as a brooder lamp) could suffice if the bag is on an insulated surface. I don't think you would want to put the bag in direct contact.
Suzy Bean wrote:About this Movie Vandana Shiva In this documentary, we follow environmental activist and nuclear physicist Vandana Shiva
How can Shiva claim to be a "nuclear physicist"? She's definitely an activist, but here's her post-secondary education as stated in the Wikipedia entry on her:
Shiva studied physics at Panjab University in Chandigarh, graduating as a Bachelor of Science in 1972.[11] After a brief stint at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, she moved to Canada to pursue a master's degree in the philosophy of science at the University of Guelph in 1977 where she wrote a thesis entitled "Changes in the concept of periodicity of light".[11][12] In 1978, she completed and received her PhD in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario,[13] focusing on philosophy of physics. Her dissertation was titled "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory" in which she discussed the mathematical and philosophical implications of hidden variable theories that fall outside of the purview of Bell's theorem.
The "philosophical implications of hidden variables"? She can accurately be called a philosopher -- but not a physicist.
Thomas Vogel wrote:Has anyone considered using two adjustable elbows and a short piece of duct to make the interior mold of a castable burn chamber? There's gotta be something wrong with it. Seems too easy.
I decided to give that a try last winter, when it was too cold in the greenhouse (which is what the RMH is for) to cast anything. Using 6" round duct, I created an interior mold, and squeezed the straight section to try to make an approximation of the vertical port in the Peterberg designs. This is a 6" system, so I was able to make it in the basement -- compact and just light enough that my middle-aged son and I could get it up the basement stairs and outside.
It was only early this month that I was able to get enough time to actually complete the heater (and connection to the duct through the greenhouse bench) enough to start running it. I can report that it does work, but the feed tube/burn tunnel is frustratingly small for the amount of wood I need to burn to heat the bench. After less that two weeks' use, the metal is noticeably burning away as expected. I'm now trying to work out a way to convert to a batch box style. I already know that the perlite, castable furnace cement, and poor man's aircrete mixture of the casting can be cut with an old pruning saw, so it shouldn't be difficult to cut away the feed tube and open up the area. That should allow for a firebrick liner and better vertical port. I'll also be able to see how the back part and the insulated chimney section I used for the riser have fared.
With another cold night, I'd better go feed the fire again.
I'm puzzled by some of the skills supposedly relevant to operating a farm/homestead. For example, does anyone actually doing the operating have time for handmade cordage, for example? And is it likely to have the strength and longevity of factory made? If I had used homemade stuff for my granddaughter's rope swing, I'd be inviting an unexpected failure that would bum her out (or leave her injured). On the other hand, I can see utility in such skill for a survivalist preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Upgeya Pew wrote:
Iron/salt flow batteries, like those of ESS (https://essinc.com/), use benign abundant cheap ingredients. Materials are easily recyclable.
Flow batteries easily scale. Want more capacity? Add more tanks.
-- Upgeya
But did you notice what ESS calls long-term storage?:
By combining easy-to-scale technology with low-cost chemistry, ESS delivers the lowest cost across 4-12 hours of storage.
How can that work for shipping? This whole idea seems quite fanciful. My tool collection -- and my ability to accomplish things with them -- would be greatly reduced without modern shipping.
Interesting. But no consideration is given to the vast quantities of additional, hard-to-recyle material involved. Besides the expansion of mining, usually considered undesirable, there's the energy efficiency question to ponder. Batteries don't get lighter as they're drained, and the lifecycle energy consumption embodied in such massive projects makes it unrealistic for more than a demonstration. It's scary to contemplate what would happen when a battery catches fire, considering that putting out a flaming Tesla is a challenge.
We need to think about the big picture rather than only runtime CO2 emissions. Conventional ships have gotten more energy efficient and are highly recyclable.
Douglas Alpenstock wrote:You won't believe how much heat a high efficiency wood stove insert will put out compared to your current setup. Make sure it has an outside vent for combustion air. Amazing!
Love the Irish Wolfhound BTW!
A stove insert might be the easiest, most economical way to go, too.
I can confirm that a fireplace insert is a huge improvement over an open fireplace. The aesthetic may be a bit different, but the warmth and much better efficiency made it truly beautiful to us when we were able to have one installed during the 10-day power outage caused by the Great Ice Storm in January 1998. We didn't have a special air intake, but the space between the masonry chimney liner and the corrugated flex chimney for the insert allowed some of the combustion air.
mud bailey wrote:...hefty price tag for 350lbs, which is what we need to fill our two queen size mattresses.
Wow, those would be some hefty -- as in heavy -- mattresses! For several years of our early marriage, my wife and I slept on a double bed I built that used a 4-5" (I can't recall now) slab of firm foam as the mattress, with a covering of unbleached fabric my wife sewed up. If it was toxic, it wasn't enough to keep us from reaching well into our 70s in good health. (We've used store bought foam mattresses following that original one.)
Jt Lamb wrote:...our current CO *alarms* (sort of like car idiot gauges, as in "hey, idiot ... if you aren't dead yet, I sense a build-up of CO in this area!")...
LOL! The CO alarms are intended to sound before a dangerous level is reached -- not really like car warning lights (except for the nebulous "check engine" light).
Corey Schmidt wrote: I also bought a radon test kit, which is on the way. I have plastic on the basement floor, but its not sealed at this point. Would it be better to put the charcoal radon collector under the plastic, or just in the air in the basement?
The danger with radon gas is inhaling it over a considerable period of time, so testing your basement air is the way to go.
As Cecile noted, those of us who live where winters are cold can't afford to leave windows open in winter. Apart from wasting heat, the resulting low humidity would contribute to nosebleeds and dry, cracked skin (especially for us old-timers).
Jt Lamb wrote:All good questions and concerns ... thanks for all such comments, as it helps us figure out all aspects of both our choices and manufacturers' equipment. Our ventless heater brand, Mr Heater 30k btu blue flame models work great ... we've used them for years; safe, O2 sensor and cutoff, thermostat, etc. Vented models have a number of features that didn't work for us, such as complexity of installation, visible flame, and so on ...
Short-term fixes include just getting more air exchanges, by manually opening doors/windows ... the outside air is better (wrt CO2), and monitoring shows that it works. Problem solved, air quality rapidly improves. If you aren't monitoring (and who is?), and don't have automatic air exchanges by some other system (hvac of some kind), then just do the same opening/closing of doors & windows.
Other short-term fixes would be something that addresses the kinds of heating/cooking devices we have (ventless heaters, wood stoves, cooking appliances) ... now that I know there's a problem, based on our choice of these devices, we'll implement the fixes, as we find them. We *do* have a vent hood over the propane range, but we don't use it all the time ... we'll now test that, and hopefully solve the cooking issue of IAQ, w/o giving up cooking on gas,, which we love and would never give up. Thanks for that reminder!
Long-term, an automatic air exchange system of some kind seems the best way of ensuring we get air changes without lots of effort, and would also solve the winter problem ... just now looking into this, given that monitoring reveals problems.
Curiously, first monitoring, and then *research* into the results, reveals that CO2 *is* an IAQ problem, with health effects. I don't believe we can trust the old "1200ppm, 2000ppm, or higher levels" in homes, businesses, and subs are still "good enough per EPA and others"; I'm not sure I can trust a government or other agency that values business more than people. If outside air is 400ppm, then that is *my* target. We have CO alarms, but no direct monitoring yet of CO values ... good news is that our generator isn't in the house with us!
BTW, don't monitor, if you aren't ready to tackle what such monitoring might show ... that was our first mistake : )
I know government information isn't always reliable, but safe CO2 levels have been determined scientifically. You may be confused by climate alarm material, irrelevant to IAQ (although alarmists may insist otherwise). But always use your range hood when cooking.
Jt Lamb wrote:We consciously chose to live rural, with one of the benefits being better outdoor air quality than that found in the city ... but, what about indoor air quality? Up to this point, I've been guessing, and hoping fot the best.
I finally got the first of many sensors, so I can see what is happening, stop the guessing, and actually record some data. Our first sensor, a CO2 monitor/logger "IAQ Max" from co2meter.com arrived, and with minimal fiddling, we were recording data. Outdoor CO2 is in the low 400's (a green category), and after calibration, it showed the same inside ... all is well.
Until we started doing things ... cook a meal with the propane stove ... numbers went up into the yellow cat egory. Heat a room with a propane heater ... numbers go up. This got us doing remediation, like opening doors and windows ... sure enough, numbers went down, and we were back in the green.
So, this will take some integration effort ... recording data, correlating to activities, and figuring out remediation steps throughout the year. But, it's a start ...
The next sensor we have coming is for radon ...
Both can be moved around as needed ... different rooms or spaces, other buildings, etc.
I don't know why you have concern about CO2, because CO is the danger indoors. That's the gas that can kill people in their sleep and should be monitored with an alarm near open combustion heaters. (Closed systems such as high-efficiency gas furnaces and water heaters vent all gases outdoors and aren't open to indoor space.) As for CO2, it has to go very high to be dangerous; submarines allow something like 1200 ppm.
It's smart to test for radon in the soil your house is on, which can accumulate in a basement. If present, it's worth remediation. If it's not detectable, you can then forget about it.
Jenny Wright wrote:Sigh... It sounds like I need to make a trip to my allergist and have a talk with him. I do have epipens and medication since I'm allergic to so many foods.
I had childhood allergies until puberty, so I have only a distant acquaintance with your situation. I've read of desensitization treatment that starts with tiny amounts of the offending allergen and gradually increases the exposure. Apparently some people desensitize themselves to poison ivy by eating an emerging leaf and continuing daily as the leaves grow.
It sounds like you need to be wary of enjoying generous amounts of favorite foods -- and to consult your allergist.
Jerry McIntire wrote:... when delicata are fresh, their soft skin makes them easy to eat as a squash pancake.
I don't understand why anyone would consider Delicata to be anything but tasty. I wouldn't call the skin (rind) delicious, but it's pleasant enough and makes eating sauteed or baked rings easy and a sweet treat. A friend we introduced to Delicata rings said it was like dessert.
Although I haven't tried it yet, this being my first year growing Delicata, I've read that sun-cured ones can be stored for at least three months.
I planted a Liberty apple tree about 20 years ago in rural Ottawa, Canada. According to my research at the time, it had good disease resistance, flavour, and storage characteristics. It took several years to give a crop, but the fruit is tasty. Unfortunately insect damage keeps me from getting much storable fruit. Plum curculio is a serious problem for organic culture here, and dormant oil has been no help for me.
Animacy? That's a word to remember! Thanks for the smile.
As for the original question, I'm reasonably comfortable with using plural pronouns for unspecified singular gender, at least in speech. (I try to word my writing to avoid the problem.) If could learn to write email without the hyphen, it seems I'm no longer the stickler I used to be. ☺
tel jetson wrote: I imagine a good strong spin cycle can get as much moisture out as a wringer and without risking fingers, but as long as we're saving electricity...
Clothes wringers were certainly an advance over wringing by hand, but as you mentioned they have a safety issue. The crushing force that they're based on is hardly friendly to fabrics. For speed and human energy cost, high speed spinning is a winner and is relatively gentle on clothes. Our new front-loader spins faster and leaves clothes noticeably drier than the old one, shortening the final drying time.
Pearl Sutton wrote: They are sluggish and fall rather than fly on cool foggy mornings. Those days are beetle slaughter days here
It's interesting to read how different the JBs preferences are in different gardens. They're murder on my plum saplings struggling to get established, but they're most numerous on the asparagus ferns, where I can easily see them. I hold a small pail with soapy water under one (or often a mating pair) and knock it down. Mine tend to drop rather than fly at any time of day.
Apparently you don't have Japanese beetles. Count yourself lucky! They've been a plague in my area (Ottawa, eastern Ontario) in the past three years, making it very hard to establish apple and plum saplings (but they'll eat almost anything). In fact, the native Canada plum is the hardest hit, quite disappointing, as it's needed to pollinate the cultivar that's supposed to give superior fruit. I pick off the bugs when I see them, but they're voracious and stay ahead of me. I tried tenting the apple with floating row cover material last year, but that made it hard to monitor. If it makes it through the coming winter, I'll try tenting early, before the beetles show up. (The plums may be a lost cause.)
...recognize that in many places the government and private industry have been doing their level best to get us all into cars for a long time now and
those are some very powerful adversaries.
I've heard similar claims before, but I think the impetus for cars comes from the people who use them, not "adversaries". How many car owners have you heard say they wish they didn't have or need a car? I enjoyed bike commuting (outside of winter) for the years when it was about as fast as taking the bus, but the freedom to travel and transport more than myself came from my car. Now that I live in the country, a car allows me to be far more productive by saving the ridiculous amount of time required to use the rural bus service or waiting for delivery of project materials. It also allows me to chauffeur my "car-free" non-driving son and my granddaughter to Grandma and Grandpa's for a Sunday dinner. Rather than being "enslaved" to the oil industry, I feel liberated and grateful to have ready access to such energy and transportation.
As for fuel, I think whatever your vehicle runs on is the right kind. I've generally bought compact used vehicles and maintained them until that was too expensive or became unsafe. Considering how good its current condition is, it wouldn't surprise me if my 12-year-old gasoline-powered car can stay out of the junkyard another decade. I'll see what the choices are then. Right now I would consider a hybrid, combining the good low-speed torque of an electric motor with the anxiety-free range of gasoline. But I know from reading and my brother's Prius experience that battery replacement is a major expense and would have to be factored into the cost. That brother also has a dual-fuel pickup that he's run on waste cooking oil, but processing that makes it more a warm weather hobby than a practical fuel.
James Alun included a video regarding winter cycling
The video by a London, Ontario resident included a remark that people think winter cycling isn't realistic because of the cold. My experience from bike commuting was that slippery conditions are the real problem and a serious hazard when cycling in traffic. I once wiped out on black ice when carefully turning a corner on downtown streets, which convinced me to give it up until spring. Snow, of course, is a big factor, as well as terrain. As for holding up Oulu, Finland as a model for Ontario, it's worth considering the climate differences. As https://weather-and-climate.com/ says "Finland is still much warmer compared to other countries at the same latitude. This is mainly due to the proximity of relatively warm seawater and the absence of high mountains."
I can't readily find snowfall data for London, Ontario, but Ottawa, where I live, commonly gets a foot and a half (~50 cm) in January and somewhat less in the other winter months (including March). Without the phenomenal bike path network of Oulu and assiduous snow clearing, winter cycling in eastern Canada is closer to sport than transportation -- best done by motivated, athletic young people.
I definitely gained useful ideas from Jeff Ball's book in the 90s and still make use of some of the plant supports I built then. My eastern Ontario climate has a distinctly shorter growing season than his Pennsylvania area and doesn't allow the early crops he gets, but the principles still apply. I never managed to get away with just 60 minutes a week, but that doesn't matter -- gardening is satisfying in many ways, as long as critters don't get your crop.
Thanks for that explanation, Phil. It really helps explain why CO2 is the favourite scare gas of climate alarmists or anyone with animus against combustion. A little goes a long way in enabling reference to tons. Of course, the amount of carbon itself isn't being increased, so talking about "tons of carbon" is misleading. But then again, we're living in an age of misleading claims and campaigns, so the best we can do is to ignore the scares and to focus on our "backyards".
According to US Energy Information Administration, a gallon of gasoline is 19.60 pounds of COs per gallon.
This is very strange, considering that a gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 pounds. What are the folks at the EIA on?
Frankly I find the carbon footprint calculations all suspect. At best they're estimates, but some seem more like wild guesses, especially considering the complexity involved in reasonable estimating.