Light earth wall experiment progress
Oct0
As part of the conciliation of things into satisfying projects the greenhouse project has morphed into a lightearth wall proving ground.
Ever since I read Gernot Minkes book and then encouraged Bis to make his walls I have been convinced that lightearth (or straw/clay or light cob) is a superior infill system to strawbale for buildings in the New Zealand temperate climate. It offers sufficient insulation, thermal mass and a lower footprint.
The posts have been in the ground for over three years but the design has stuck – an off angle roof tuned for solar performance while hunkering down to the south (where the cold comes from). The south wall will be 220mm thick light earth with firewood stacked under the oversize eave – hopefully offering enough mass and insulation to let us grow some citrus inside the building.
The idea is to test the performance of the lightearth wall in a very demanding environment - high humidity and spraying water every day should provide that. I will put some temperature data loggers in the wall and on either side (I’d really like some humidity data loggers too but haven’t found any cheap enough).
More later as it evolves.
-
- The roof framing in place. The south side of the roof is recycled galv corrugate - the thick soft stuff (which looks like it came on the first ship)
-
- The rear wall has top and bottom ... er .. kinda bond beams. The footing will be a hybrid 'welsh' stone footing and metal flashings. I am fighting my first inclination to use concrete with a desire to experiment and build a structure which could be dismatled as easily as it is built.
Ubuntu for NZ small business?
Oct0
So… I have been ‘following’ Linux and Ubuntu for years and fervently hoping that it would evolve to a usable alternative for Kiwi small business. Last week I started using Ubuntu exclusively for my work at Wanaka Wastebusters; to see if it is a viable alternative to the half dozen Microsoft XP machines I am currently maintaining.
So far, it has impressed the hell out of me, especially how it out XP’s XP on easy of connectivity printing:
- Install and network setup: Seamless – it even found the colour Kyocera network printer driver and configured. Something XP won’t do.
- Web browsing/cloud apps: Hey Firefox is the same everywhere – and no different on Ubuntu
- Graphics and Design: Inkscape and Gimp … yeeehaa…
- FTP/web development: Whoa cool – Gedit / LAMP (install tutorial here)/ Filezilla (should I have installed the Server version straight off?)
- Office apps: I am still pushing Google Docs for 90% of things, and otherwise we have OpenOffice
I need to do some sort of cost of ownership for a 5-20 user scenario. Hard to get out of buying a PC with a Microsoft operating system these days but with the savings on Microsoft Office and easier admin/maintenance I’d say it would have a relatively quick payback period and have many longterm cost benefits.
Choral robes for Wastebusters Parade
Oct0
The best thing about working here is that I can be doing some web design or computer networking one minute and then making some patterns for, and sewing, some choral robes the next.
Tomorrow is the Wanaka Fest parade and Matt is going to lead the “Movement of Life After Shopping” in their first revival. I’ll try and get photos.
Clients
