Carmichael
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# Posted: 31 Jan 2012 16:32
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Hello, new. I am surprised that all but one (if there's more sorry) of the forum letters I've read has planned ahead of time. It must be hard trying to make things work after you're out in the bush. I am a single dad with three kids and am on the way out within two years. I decided to pre-plan and pre-build everything before I go. Have purchased a container and fully insulated it and turned into a workshop that contains a welder, mill/lathe, generator etc.etc. Some people convert these into living quarters, however heat loss thru a square corner in any structure makes them inefficient in an application where the heat is wood and self chopped. I plan to have it dropped of on a rural property, it will be costly but in the lond run worth it.
I also have registered with our local car insurance company to be able to go the their auction, my interest is the SMART car, it has the best diesel ever made and can run on one tbsp of fuel for an hour, it doesn't get any better than that, it runs on the old diesel. I will modify it to run a generator. On the subject of fuels i saw a discussion of fuel comparison for a generator. This new sulfur-less diesel was developed so that it could not be stored for a long time.
The old diesels run on everything, cooking oil and heating oil (which is actually diesel come pre mixed with anti gelatin). Heating oil is also less than 1/2 cost since it does not have a road tax added on.
The wind power set ups, are you looking at horizontal systems? Vertical is much better and runs on less wind. I have built a small one and am surprised at how well and power it produces. I am now building a large one, it will not be tall but wide, it has two blades that are a copy of a sail and are 6 feet wide each. Total cost will be about $300 which includes a few car alternators.
The guy asking about humanure book, you can download it off the web, it's free, I know you were concerned about cost. It will be hard to build one if you are already in the bush with limited power, good luck!
The fridge problem you are all having. As the cabin planning is everything. Majority of the heat loss in a cabin or fridge is actually thru the floor. I plan to have my fridge and freezer as a knockout (of course not on the sun side) of our cabin. I am not buying a fridge or freezer, but building my own incased in foam. Fridges you buy have at best 1 inch of insulation, it should be at least 3 inches-this also applies to the cabin the floor should have under it at least 3 inches and come out past the outside wall then straight up to creat a total heat/cold transfer barrier. Anyway my fridge will be geothermal.
My butcher friend here got a grant to expand his operation and he was looking for something totally different. I suggested geothermal, the heat exchanger works better than any propane flame. He has a walk-in 30ftx30ft freezer, and a 20ftx30ft cooler where he hangs the cows. The cooler part requires no compressor and is solely run on geo, the freezer requires 1/4 the hp he had before and its twice as big. This can also be applied to a fridge in the boonies. Just put a 3/4 hose at least 4 ft under ground and make a small heat exchanger which runs of a 12volt pump. I have run a small RV style 12 volt pump and its amazing how many days it can run on a single charge. Can also have a dedicated solar panel for the pump. The other advantage is that I also plan to put in a greenhouse and will be running the geo and hot water hookup to my wood stove in the house to keep the ground and area warm and have veggies all year.
About the water problems that is bacteria. Old school is chlorine and bleach Sure bleach is a sterilizer, but no matter how much you rinse residue is left behind, chlorine is a poison. The best way is to buy a gallon of food grade peroxide. 1 tbsp in a gallon will kill anything and everything, best part it dissipates and leaves zero residue. Oh by the way OXY clean this suppose great detergent has peroxide in it.
About your power consumption, I plan to run LED in a high mirror reflective fixture which make them very,very bright. Just make sure the set up you use is for the voltage you are running
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