The sun-drying case on our grounds has undergone a fundamental revision after 10 years. It’s not that it no longer works properly; but rather it’s just that the wood frame was wearing out in places. Luckily, a lot of work was saved by a hardening process that involves using pieces of wood covered with a polyurethane layer. At the moment when we were busy making our box young again, we received a phone call from a friend and supporter in equatorial Africa. “They want to make sun-drying box here. Do you have a suitable design?” he asked. We immediately drew up a design, and what we came up with is the following:
In the first place, the sun-dryer we use was intended for use in our region (northern Europe). Consideration was made for an angle of from around 58º, which we use to denote the average position of the sun in the spring, summer and (early) fall. The sun-drying case is made in such a way that direct sunlight cannot reach its contents (vegetables) and therefore no quality is lost, which is especially important with mushrooms. In our sun-drying case there is as much a warm convection stream as radiant heat*, the latter resulting from the (painted) black metal plates (we use an old aluminum offset plate (size A1)) behind the glass, which serves as a repository. The plate is positioned in such a ways as to leave an opening on the top of the case (of around 10 cm), through which the hot air streams into the box. Deeper inside the box is a partition with a comparable opening, which opens out under the lower drying rack. Via this opening the (moist, cooler) air is sucked out of the box; this occurs as a result of the flue in the top of the box. We use a short flue of approximately 1 meter in length, which in practice works very well. The Plexiglas tube is sealed off from the innermost tube.
The box is made of concrete-plex (plastic multiplex). The box
is made so that it can rotate. Inside there are five drying racks,
covered with wire screens. Underneath is the largest rack: 100
x 110 cm. The smallest rack, on top, is much smaller: 55 x 110
cm.
Our ‘equatorial drying case’ is square-cornered and
has five equal-sized drying racks of approximately 100 x 100 cm
and a sun-collecting pointed roof, which catches the sun’s
rays when the sun is medium-high in the sky and also late in the
afternoon. The sun flues are placed at an angle on the sun-collecting
roof; we recommend that angle to be 45º to 50º. Further
construction and operation is the same, except that the zenith
case does need to be rotated.
To utilize solar energy, you can use all kinds of complicated ‘active’ systems, involving pumps, pipes, collectors and boilers full of water. But you can also achieve the same results ‘passively’, in any home that has a wall (more or less) facing southwards. Ideally, you’d take this into account when building your home, orientating your home’s living quarters southwards, thus creating greater possibilities for ‘catching’ the sun, especially in the winter. The following illustrations speak for themselves.
No matter how vital the sun is for us, we try to keep sunlight out of our homes on hot summer days, and this can be done very successfully with a large roof overhang, which will keep out the ‘high’ summer sun yet lets in the ‘low’ winter sun.
We are then faced with two possibilities: We
can let absorbed infra-red radiation heat the floor, which is
made of dark colored or dark gray/black tiles and is insulated
from below, or, we can let it be warmed in another way, by using
a wall made of the same materials and covered by glass sheets:
a so-called ‘Trombe wall’. Such a wall is ideal for
homes located in areas where there is often strong wind and in
homes that have many draft-producing windows and glass doors.
A greenhouse located on the sunny side of
the house catches lots of heat in the autumn and winter and distributes
it to the rest of the house. The roof specifically, but also the
greenhouse walls, must be screened in summer (ideally on the exterior,
using a blind) to prevent the interior from becoming too warm.
A tree could eventually be planted on the southern side, the shade
from the tree helping to cool the interior in summer. But select
a species of tree that loses its leaves early in the autumn, so
that you can extract the maximum natural benefit from the sun.
Heated walls and/or floors are more (cost-) efficient and can protect you and your family from illness.
The heating of 90% of all homes can be improved and made less expensive. All that is required is a change from air heating (which uses cv-convectors or gas convector heaters) to radiant heat.
Two identical homes are pictured below. House A has central heating, the standard, 'trusted' way of heating homes via corrugated sheet-iron 'cv-radiators' placed throughout the house. This would be an efficient system if these cv-radiators were actually radiators (the word literally means 'to radiate'), but they are not: these so-called 'heaters' are good for only one thing: to warm the air. CV-radiators are in fact convectors, the same as the iron gas heaters and gas stoves that heat up air. As such, cv-radiators heat the house by continuously warming the air, and, in the process, potentially harmful dust is constantly circulated throughout your home; moreover, (see illustration of the central heated house), a stream of dusty warm air rises to the ceiling and, if your home has open staircases, travels up the staircase to the floor above, where it cools and eventually returns down the same staircase as a cold draft.
In centrally heated homes, therefore, large temperature variations exist, varying up to 30° C during cold weather: near to the ceiling it's 40° C , while at floor level it is 10° C!
In recent decades, governments have encouraged us to save energy by sealing our homes with weather stripping. But what happened in the process? In order to save energy, we tightly sealed up all our windows and doors; but in doing so, our homes were no longer properly ventilated. And there are serious consequences as a result of this: the number of allergy cases and chronic lung ailments continues to rise dramatically, especially among children. The air in the house is moist, stuffy and dusty, and the interiors of many homes actually become moldy. Moreover, organic dust, which settles on heating pipes and convectors and is singed when cv water temperatures reach 80° C, creates anatomized urea steam, the acidic, headache-causing gas you smell when first turning on the cv-radiator on a cold autumn day, and which will continuously recur as new dust settles and singes on the pipes and convectors.
House B is heated by radiant or infra-red
heat. As shown in the picture above, this is done by using a tiled
heater; however, there is another way: by using cv-water-heated
walls (and/or partially heated floors). The heat is conveyed to
the surface by heated stones - tiles or stucco walls - and is
reflected by shiny surfaces (metallic foil or aluminum foil or
silvery insulation material) behind wooden walls or plaster sheets,
and underneath wood or tile floors. In practice, the air is not
heated, remaining fresh and cool, and, importantly, none of the
above-mentioned harmful dust is circulated through the house,
because an upstairs window is kept partially open, which ensures
that your house is always properly ventilated. The result is cleaner
and healthier air within your house, as well as significantly
lower monthly heating bills.
We're always inclined to caution people who want to install a heat exchanger in their wood stove, and because of this, on this point we're not especially popular with the enterprising do-it-yourself types. For years, furnace manufactures of every variety have been providing the wrong examples of wood-burning stoves that you can connect with a couple of cv-convectors! But it worked, right? Sure it did, you had to burn lots of extra wood, but indeed the furnace and convector did get hot! And as long as there was an open expansion vat, steam could be discharged without difficulty. So what are we complaining about, then?
Precisely this: Iron stoves with iron heat exchangers are made for burning coal, not for burning wood. If you burn wood in an iron stove, you take too much heat away from the wood fire, and consequently the wood burns at too low a temperature. The result: a lot of soot, a lot of smoke, and the increased risk of a chimney fire. And, moreover, the heating potential of the wood you're burning is less than half that of what is attainable when you burn properly dried wood – i.e. wood that has been dried in the open air for at least six months.
So, is it absolutely impossible to use a heat exchanger with an authentic wood stove or even with a stone oven or tile stove? We were able to find a solution, because over the years we've learned a lot about heat walls and the possibilities they offer. But, here, we are now talking about wood, as well as gas, fire, and we will be using our Finn-oven as an example.
Firstly, you must forget about cv-convectors
as spreaders of heat! Acceptable models must – if they hope
to completely heat the air – function with water temperatures
ranging from 70º to 90º C. People who wish to use their
tile stoves or brick ovens for conveying heat elsewhere must make
do with lower (water) temperatures, of a maximum 40º C, and,
thus, a heat wall of a few square meters (feet) is sufficient
for heating a bedroom or study.
A simple heat exchanger is installed in a tile stove, such as
a Finn-oven or standard tile stove, and is put in a place inside
where there is no longer a fire and where the temperature of the
smoke gases is only 200º to 300º C.
The illustrated design is based on our Finn-oven;
however, the idea is so simple that it can be implemented using
other sizes and (naturally, as far as possible outside the fire
zone) it can be also be implemented in other tile stoves, and
then, for instance, horizontally. To ensure good water circulation,
we use a cv-pump. We can use an open expansion vat, or a closed
vat with a safety valve.
For the heat exchanger, use a 15mm diameter
copper pipe. It's recommended that you make the curved piping
from one solid piece of pipe, and you must work with bricks that
have pre-fabricated grooves in them. By doing so, you will then
only need to bend the outer rings slightly apart from each other
in order to put the two grooved bricks in between and to fit the
pipes into the grooves.
If you prefer to work with individual pieces of curved pipe, then
you must solder the joints with silver-solder and use stone blocks
with drilled holes, or cast the two grooved bricks yourself, using
fire-concrete. In the Finn-oven, conveyance through the rear wall
is easiest (and also the least ugly) way of installing the heat
exchanger.
We had more than enough time for experimentation
during the bitter cold winter of 1995-96. Always in search of
improvement and innovation, we were looking for a faster and better
way of stoking our Finn-ovens, an oven that build-it-yourselfers
had been casting in our workshop for the past 11 years. At that
time, we advised people to use two loads of wood, weighing 3 to
3.5 kilos per load, for this large, counterflow channeled Finnish
oven. If you wanted 12 hours of heat, for instance, you had to
burn around 7 kilos of wood; however, as the fire inside the oven
grew larger and more intense, it began to splutter, as if the
fire was 'chewing the air'. We fixed this problem by installing
a chrome plate above the air vent. The spluttering stopped and
the fire not only burned smoothly, it burned hotter too. At the
time, we concluded that the improvements resulted from an improved
air stream. But does that make sense?
Recently we received an informative letter from Fetze Tigchelaar, a Friesian tile-stove maker, who brought to our attention an alternative and, in his opinion, better method for stoking fires. In short Tigchelaars method is as follows: He burns the wood in his stoves from top to bottom, a reversal of the traditional manner of stoking fires that, as Tigchelaar found, results in the gradual releasing of the gases contained in wood. If, however, you burn wood in the traditional manner, that is from the bottom up, the wood gases are not released gradually and this causes the fire to splutter.
Tigchelaar wrote that he had arrived at this new stoking method
through his dicussions with Finnish architect and researcher Heikki
Hyytiäinen, who had published a book about Finn-ovens in
the 1980s. Financed by the European Union, Hyytiäinen undertook
a research project on stoking fires that produced some remarkable
findings about the 'top down' method of fire stoking. Indeed,
if wood gases are released too quickly, the wood will burn explosively,
and this is especially true in tile stoves that have so-called
'contra-stream channels' (as all Scandinavian stoves have), the
wood (kindled from below) beginning to splutter as soon as it
starts to burn.
Inspired by Hyytiäinen's findings, we molded a chrome steel
plate into a step-like shape, raising and narrowing it to 10 cm.
The wood we burn in our self-made Finn-oven is approximately 25
cm long. The step leads to a platform that is located at least
16 cm inside the oven, where the wood is placed on its end, upright.
We light a kindling fire on the platform and/or on the top of
the wood itself, and this kindling fire ignites the upright standing
wood. Then all the wood (now the full load of approximately 6
kg maximum at one time!) burns in a downward direction, which,
crucially, allows the wood gas to be released gradually. Because
we only need to 'load' the stove once, the preparatory stoking
process is shorter. The stove does not burn out prematurely, and
the burning process is significantly hotter in its final stage.
This new 'top down' wood stoking method can also be used in smaller
(self-made) tile stoves, which also have counterflow channels.
In our 'standard tile stove' we achieve a similar effect by lighting the kindling fire against the horizontally stacked wood. Because these stoves have deep chambers, capable of accomodating 80 cm long pieces of wood, we burn from front to back, which also allows the wood gases to be released gradually. In all of our stoves we burn wood on an ash shaft, according to the 'Grundofen' principle. Fetze Tigchelaar concludes that both the wood stoker and the environment benefit from this 'top down' method of stoking wood. And we couldn't agree with him more!
NOTE: During experiments in later years with the standard tile stove we have discovered that when we reverse the direction of combustion we get the high temperatures and very low smoke production which are characteristic of this new right way of stoking. So the drawing as shown here is not correct! The kindling fire should not be situated against te stoke door, but against the back side of the combustion chamber. The stacked wood should be brought in the chamber as soon as the kindling fire is lighted. The airstream coming from the damper will cool the wood to the spot where it burns and this cooling will prevent premature escaping of wood gas and so loss of heat potential.
Thanks to the comments, diagrams and photos sent to us by one of our website readers, Mr. Teije Penninga, we now know all there is to know about building a rainwater collection installation. Thanks Teije!
Following one minor adjustment, the installation has a fully functioning and extremely practical design. The main collection point is 4 barrels, each with a capacity of 200 liters. The roof water is collected via the roof gutter, rain pipe and rain barrel dispenser. The latter, made from a rain pipe, is a middle-piece and used for the existing rainwater drainage pipe, which you can buy at most general hardware stores. The rain barrel dispenser, mounted above the highest point of the barrel, is connected with a horizontal pipe. When heavy rain fills up the barrels, the rainwater then runs normally, via the dispenser, through the normal rainwater drainage pipe.
The four storage barrels are connected to each other via a watertight pipe that runs between them 10cm from the bottom of each barrel (for this, Teije uses kitchen sink plugs). Eventually, dirt and other matter from the gutters sink to the bottom of the barrels. Wire netting in the gutter opening prevents dirt from passing through. The ultimate aim is to replace the four barrels with a 1,000-liter outdoor tank, which is buried in the ground and has an immersion pump hung inside it. Teije advises that you place a drainage trough under the barrels placed inside the house, to protect against overflow.
The most important 'consumer' of rainwater, the flush toilet, is placed, the same as storage barrels, on the ground floor of the house. The toilet receives its water via a storage tank, which is placed in the attic to ensure that the water arrives in the toilet tank with a good amount of pressure (via a floater faucet).
The attic barrel (also having a 200 liter
capacity) is automatically filled by a 12-volt immersion pump
that is installed in one of the four main barrels and is switched
on and off by a floater water level-changer in the attic vat,
which in turn is switched on and off by a 12-volt relay connector.
When the pump is activated, the relay connector powers the pump
with a 12-volt battery, which is supplemented by a 14.5 volt,
460-mA solar panel, via a control unit. Teije sells these pumps
(order number: 53 80 94-01, cap. 22l./min., height 14 meter, ED
50% = may turn 30
minutes per hour), the solar panel (order #. 11 02 72-01, price
f.119.95), the accompanying battery units (order # 11 33 44-01,
price f. 39,95), the relay connector, etc., are available form
mail-order company Conrad (www.conrad.nl). For a battery, remember
that a 12-volt battery salvaged from a car junkyard is often still
good. Floater changers can also be purchased from Conrad. The
toilet reserve tank also has a mains water connection with a faucet
and it's own floater in case (for instance, during freezing conditions)
there is no rainwater.
Filling up the toilet tank via the barrel
in the attic takes 3.5 minutes, compared to 1.5 minutes via the
mains water supply. The saving of water used from the toilet is
around 30 liters per day, per person!
(email address Teije: t.penninga@hccnet.nl).
Every year hundreds of tons of windows are thrown away, as double-glazing (usually industrial double-glazing) replaces single glass windows. Secondary glazing is rarely if ever requested, because people think that industrial glass, such as thermal glass, is better because it doesn’t fog up and because dirt cannot become lodged between the airtight sealed panes. Consequently, huge amounts of money are being wasted on windowpanes, which are often thick mirror glass, and you, your home and wallet are being shortchanged. People have enjoyed huge cost savings (sometimes thousands of euros) and achieved better and more sustainable results with self-installed secondary glazing. To install the secondary glazing you need a standard seal with simple slats and strips of insulation. Prior to beginning, make sure that the side of the glass that will be inaccessible after installation is thoroughly cleaned, so as to be free of dust and streaks.
The ‘secret of the smith’ for our inexpensive and perfectly insulated secondary windows is in the use of a balloon or a similarly easily contractible or expandable reservoir, which we fill with dried silicon pellets. You can often find these pellets in a paint, glass or hardware store, but you can also collect them from the packing material that comes with electronic goods, cameras and other products. This method can save you thousands of euros, especially when renovating large, old homes and buildings; and as soon as our economy stops growing, and people stop having money to waste, our balloon system will surely become more popular.
The illustration shows how it is installed. Electrical piping is extremely handy for connecting the space between the glass to the space where the balloon, the cylinder or the bicycle or car tire filled with silicon pellets are stored. If the window frame is too small or thin for this ‘storage place’, then you can attach an external box to it.
Two balloons are sufficient for a fairly large room, measuring four square meters. For smaller rooms, one elastic silicone storage place is sufficient. Our secondary glazing has worked perfectly for decades, without becoming grimy!
In 1994 we began to receive lots of requests for information about methods for collecting rainwater. In response to this demand, we soon thereafter published a design for a ‘rainwater balance’.
In the meantime, the number of people interested in collecting and reusing rainwater has increased dramatically. You see more and more rainwater barrels. People who are really committed have underground water-tanks and those who are really fortunate have water cellars at their disposal. There’s one problem: after long periods of dry weather, how can you prevent the first surge of rainwater that flows into your collection tank from being polluted by dirt and other matter (especially bird excrement)? For this, we developed a rainwater balance that didn’t have many faults, except that it was fairly complicated and couldn’t handle much water. So, can it be done more simply and with greater capacity? Yes, but you must use professional piping.
First, a tip, this task is unnecessary if you have (1) a roof on which birds rarely land or leaves fall, and (2) if you do not want or need to collect high quality rainwater, because you’ll only be using the rainwater for watering the garden. Prior to beginning, ensure that the rainwater is filtered before it enters the rainwater pipe, by using, for example, a layer of finely ground nylon netting, which is spread over the roof gutter’s discharge point or over the drainage point. It’s also wise to do some extra cleaning in the autumn; but this will require climbing on the roof.
This time we are going to use material available at professional supply stores: a piece of pvc-piping with a diameter of 125, 160 or 200 mm (usually 80 or 100 mm). The thick piping on the underside has a sealing cap glued on to it and just above this we attach a faucet (for example, a plastic barrel faucet), which allows the first flow of water to wash away during the first rain shower. The pipe is given a pivot near the bottom by simply drilling two shallow, slightly eccentrically placed holes in the rim of the sealing cap, into which two adjustable bolts measuring 8–10 mm fit, and which can support the piping with two supports. Ensure that one is attached to the wall of the house or is located just under the thick pipe or that a piece of chain is used on the pipe to provide the required space for the channel.
In its empty, neutral position, the opening of the thick pipe is under the rainwater pipe. If it turns, after collecting a certain amount of dirty water (in an average sized home with a semi-sloping roof, you can expect to collect 20-30 liters of rainwater), the attached rainwater pipe with a funnel opening shifts under the drainpipe. This ensures that, via a flexible hose that drains the water, there is a proper transport of clean(er) rainwater. The stiffer the hose, the longer it will be able to properly bend.
If the pipe does not shift position at the desired moment, you’ll have to experiment until it works properly, by attaching weights to the pipe.
The tap is there to be used during extremely dry conditions, allowing you to give water to the thirstiest plants.
At what point do we consider a quiet home to be really ‘quiet’, also with regard to low-flying aircraft? The roofs of homes near Holland’s Schiphol airport are 30 to 35cm thick! But in our semi-underground office, which is 35 meters from a busy highway, the 20cm layer of soil on the roof and the solid earthen wall around it guarantees total silence.
How do you create real quiet? Here are few
tips about the essential earthen walls and a good roof covering.
In our manual for the building
your own semi-underground home, the cement foundation and
the wooden structure are presented in detail. The following tips
are the result of our 20 years of experience in building ‘semi-underground’
constructions.
1. The wooden (light, radiant!) roof structure must be slippery
and finished with rounded corners and rims, and then carefully
(leak-free!) covered to just under the cement rim with high quality
roofing paper. Insulation can be placed between the wood and roofing
paper.
2. Because this will otherwise settle by quite a few centimeters, the rim of the highest (sand/soil) wall around the new house must be stabilized by stamping and sufficient watering. It must be raised to approximately 3-5 cm above the wooden roof, allowing it to then settle even more. Make sure there are no sharp nails or stones present.
3. Spread an approximately 5 cm thick layer of straw (lightly pressed) on the roofing paper.
4. Put a layer of plastic on the roof that stretches halfway up the earthen wall. Gardening plastic of 0.15 mm thickness is good; the widest piece of plastic available in this thickness is 14 meters wide. Avoid seams or adhesive edges. Otherwise overlap with a strip of at least 1-2 meters; under and on top of the rim – and tension-free – tape the pieces together with double-sided tape.
5. Cover the plastic layer on the roof with a fresh layer of chopped straw and then, in the same way, cover this with a second plastic layer.
6. To repeat: Three plastic layers of 0.15 mm thickness together provide almost a half-millimeter sheet. Be careful when working (walk around in socks, continuously inspecting the plastic for tears). Then, spread a 10 cm layer of clean stone and pure sand on the earthen wall, and a 15 cm thick layer on the roof.
7. Spread a thin layer of mould (black soil) on the roof and the earthen wall. Again, check carefully for sharp objects!
8. The earthen layer can be planted with for example a roadside/pasture vegetation mixture, complimented by wild flower seeds. You can also plant a small tree or shrub that doesn’t have taproots, such as a hazel wood. To do this, use at least 25 cm of earth and sand. After sowing the seeds, lightly press the ground.
9. Water during long dry spells.
10. Plant new plants and flowers in the following autumn. Watering is only necessary during extreme droughts that last for more than 8 weeks.
After many ‘demolition sessions’, we know this for sure: joining together to clinically examine how something that’s broken looks like inside and can perhaps be repaired or otherwise must be demolished, can noticeably strengthen the bond between (grand-)father/mother and (grand-) son/daughter.
Before proceeding, however, we must of course know how to dismantle something and the risks involved for children. You must always remember that when demolishing technical equipment, even if it’s a step by step dismantling, you always run the risk of injuring and cutting yourself. This applies to machines or equipment containing glass or bakelite, which can also produce shards. Picture tubes from TVs and computer monitors? Stay away! A crack in the screen of such a vacuum-pressured tube, no matter hypothetical, can cause a violent implosion, followed by an explosion of broken glass. Another danger is demolishing a cv-thermostat or old-fashioned timer with mercury tubes. Breathing in mercury is dangerous!
Moreover, before you start dismantling an electronic apparatus, make sure there’s no chance that it can be re-connected to an electric outlet. Even better: cut the connector cables.
We always check – in the past it was for economics reasons – to see if something can be repaired. Succeed at that, and the child learns even more from it!
Is there anything left to be repaired? Sometimes
yes, especially if something is taken apart step-by-step, without
worrying about damaging it. With household electronic equipment,
a broken contact (cause: corrosion or damage) is often reason
enough for throwing it away, especially since it’s increasing
difficult to have things repaired nowadays.
Use a multimeter when checking the wires, coils,
fuses, bi-metal contacts, carbon brushes, connections, etc. Always
first check an electric motor for a burning smell. If it’s
burned out, self-repair is impossible.
You are in luck if you get the chance to open a defective low-energy light bulb (carefully, with an iron saw, cut open the plastic casing directly under the glass), especially small low-energy light bulbs, because they are wonders of electronic ingenuity. There’s a good chance that the electronic component still works and that only the pl-tube is defective. That means that you can connect a new tube of the around the same capacity to the four connection points!
Many transistor radios or radio cassette recorders are thrown away when they begin to get stuck when turning or sliding the volume control, and the same goes for multi-purpose switches on receivers and recorders. If you can fix the problem by oiling the volume control (pontentiometer) or switches, then in most cases the defect will be fixed for a long time.
Can our students-in-destruction work with
a soldering iron? If so, let him solder the solder points of an
integrated switchboard one by one. Sometimes something doesn’t
work because of a loose solder contact point. If this no longer
helps, then the soldering iron can be of use in the removal of
semiconductors, condensers, etc., which can be of use if they
are saved according to serial number, band and color-codes. Electrical
parts stores have handy tables!
Everything that doesn’t have a burnt-out color from overheating
and whose threads aren’t too short can be stored together
with the switches, knobs etc. in the spare part closet, which,
in a few years, will have become a real treasure chest!
It doesn’t sound so inviting, a house
as a thermos bottle, but if we add a few features, like good ventilation,
a nice view, enough entrances and exits, then indeed a ‘house
as a thermos bottle’ becomes a very attractive proposition!
And this is what makes it attractive:
1. ‘centrality’, having a real (warm and cozy)
central living area;
2. a substantial amount of energy conserved by using radiant
heat and by using infra-red, semi-transparent glass walls and
glass doors;
3. retaining heat by installing reflective materials, for
example, aluminum-coated construction paper or tonzon-foil, in
hollow outer walls, without needing any further insulation except
for a thin layer on the front, and behind it neat (containing
no air-holes) aluminum paper is needed.
The Fin oven (or a similar tile-oven) serves
as the central heating source and the creator of a cozy living
room, although an extra tall* oven (or comparable tile-stove)
is needed to disperse the radiant heat through connecting windows
in the inner wall. The thus ‘irradiating’ heat enters
only to the right if it’s installed at a slightly sloping
angle, a supply of reflective foil is found inside the wall. And
all that glass? Doesn’t that mean there will be a lack of
privacy in the adjoining bedroom? Tip: hang lamination or loose-hanging
curtains behind such a window or glass door, which, if necessary,
people can then shut.
*A standard Fin oven
can be fitted with an extra ‘level’ of four tile walls,
making it ± 60 cm higher. However, it will then take a
bit longer to light the oven.
The Paper Leaf Toilet ® is not a self-composting toilet. Being only the collective stage of the toilet system, additional outdoor compost bins are needed to sanitize our excrement, also called human manure, or, in short, humanure. The following guidelines explain how to compost humanure.
The easiest and cheapest way to make suitable compost bins is to use transport pallets. With some drilling and bolting, you can make three compost bins: one bin for the active compost (the compost pile that is being built up this year); one bin for aging compost (the compost pile of last year, which is covered and left alone); and a separating bin in which we store the cover material (to avoid contact of the aged compost with the fresh humanure).
To compost humanure, we need two things:
1. Additional organic cover material
with a high carbon/nitrogen balance, such as straw, woodchips
and autumn leaves, to balance the low carbon/nitrogen balance
of the humanure.
2. Time
Year 1: It takes about one year to fill up one bin with the complete organic waste, including leftover food, kitchen refuse, grass clippings and garden waste, for a five-person household. Always start the active compost pile with a coarse ground cover in the bin, in order to allow oxygen to permeate the compost pile and to keep out groundwater. Build up a nice pile with the organic waste, covering anything smelly with cover material with a high carbon/nitrogen balance. When emptying your Paper Leaf Toilet ®, cover the contents with the same amount of cover material each time. And empty the humanure from the plastic bag, even when using biodegradable plastic bags, because even biodegradable plastic can only be composted in extreme environments.
Year 2: After one year, start building the second active compost pile in the other bin. At the same time, cover the built-up compost pile with an extra layer of cover material to age: this compost pile is now the aging compost pile. When you have a substantial amount of grass clippings or autumn leaves, store them in the middle bin, to be used later as cover material. Starting in the spring gives aged compost two years later, at the beginning of the growing season!
Following theses guidelines will result in the creation of rich, aged compost, and with that, you will maintain the human nutrient cycle (eating food, excreting humanure, composting, growing food, eating food, etc). The carbon/nitrogen balance in the compost, combined with the aging time, ensures that that appropriate temperatures are reached and potential pathogens are killed.
Additional note: Urine contains a large amount of nutrients as well. It is however not collected in the Paper Leaf Toilet ®. If you want to make use of the urine, connect the urine drain tube to a container. The urine can be poured into the active compost, if you use twice as much cover material with every load of solid toilet content (again, this is to maintain a good carbon/nitrogen balance).
At the beginning of Water Year 2008 (also
International Sanitation Year, UN) the BBC-World Service is broadcasting
a 23 minute long item, taken at our location in Breskens, mainly
about the Nonolet. This is why we felt the need to add a revised
version of our DIY article on “Beter 1x zien dan 100 x horen”
on our site. The original article "Zelfbouw gft-toilet"
was published in 2001 the year Sietz Leeflang invented the compost
toilet which became known as the Nonolet®.
The Principle
The working principle of the Nonolet is based on the henceforth
unknown fact that faeces covered with a high fiber paper which
is pressed down is odorless within seconds. A plunger is used
for this “pressing down” made of a stainless steel disc
which is slightly curved inwards. Not only does the pressing down
diminish the smell it also reduces the volume. Any moist residue
is absorbed by the tissue. This way a papier-mâché
heap develops which is impenetrable for urine. The fluid is drained
away through the perforated biodegradable plastic bag which lines
the container. A household consisting of four people will take
two to three weeks to fill this bag, the contents of which can
become a wonderful fertilizer after compostation. Whether you
compost it on your own compost heap or add it to your garden waste
bin for collection all depends on your local situation.
Emptying your Nonolet is a clean, hygienic and odorless activity;
fluids are drained away through an opening in the container.
Construction
Not only is the functioning principle of the Nonolet simple, building
your own is also quite easy.
The toilet should have a height of approximately 45cm and can
be made of a wooden casing. The seat needs to be about 23 to 25cm
wide and 28 to 30cm long, oval shaped. The container (bucket)
inside the casing has to join the seating seamlessly but not airtight
(this is very important) and should be approximately 40cm wide.
The bag lining this bucket should be 70cm wide and 65cm long with
perforations in the bottom 8-10mm in diameter. It is possible
to order these bags from us but since shipping costs do add up
it may be easier to find a supplier in your country of residence
or create your own. To do this you simply fold a piece of plastic
to above mentioned size, fold the sides tightly and staple. Perforate
20 small holes just above the fold. Obviously none degradable
bags must be thrown away separately after emptying the contents
onto the compost heap or garden waste bin.
In the bottom of the bucket (either made from plastic (polyethylene)
or zinc) a hole has to be made with a diameter of about 15mm.
This hole needs to be worked on with a tapered tool from the inside
of the bucket so that a smooth outlet is created. If you are using
a metal tool on a plastic bucket you can preheat the tool to 120-130
degrees Celsius and gently press it down.
To ensure the drainage of the fluid a shallow plastic bowl with
a scalloped-edged rime is put face down to cover the hole (see
above picture). For this purpose anything can be used from a dish
used for plants to the sawn of bottom of a small bucket just ensure
that fluid is able to get underneath.
The bucket is then placed on a wooden, plastic or rubber platform
with an opening in it. The opening in the bucket should fit comfortably
in this opening. The opening is then fitted with a metal/ plastic
duct or a flexible plastic/rubber hose. With a diameter of 20
to 25mm this hose needs to be fitted airtight to the opening.
This will be the urine drainage.
Odorless?
The toilet can and should work odorless, even when in use if you
fit the toilet casing with an air duct which has a small ventilator
at the end (where the duct passes through the wall or roof).
To prevent odor from the urine drainage it is important to use
only metal or plastic. A rubber hose is not able to prevent a
slight smell developing.
When using the toilet it is important to frequently throw a glass
of water onto the heap. This will prevent urine sedimentation
in the drainage system. The Asian way of washing instead of using
toilet paper after using the toilet is a good option.