Earth Shelter, builder unknown taken from http://conted.colorado.edu/programs/independent-learning/sustainable-practices/
Get ready for a woowoo post!
With each passing year, I’m becoming crunchier. It’s sort of a weird awakening, but that’s exactly what I feel is happening to me. I’m waking up to the world around me and realizing that each individual is responsible for the earth’s safekeeping so that future generations of people will thrive. I had an epiphany this morning - talking about the environment is for some people like talking about religion or politics. It can get heated or ignored all together. My apologies in advance if you are tired of hearing about the environment - fair warning to read no further.
I have some really big ideas right now - I would love to build an earth shelter somewhere in Colorado in about 3 - 4 years time frame. After talking with an architect friend of mine, the trick would be to find a county with an open minded building zoning commission. Here in Colorado, I would think that would include many mountain communities or Boulder. Some parts of Colorado do embrace alternative building techniques including geo-domes, straw bale homes, cob structures, earth shelters and more. I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and have a stack of books piled high on my coffee table, including several written by Dan Chiras who happens to have built his own earth shelter nestled in the hills of Evergreen, CO just 40 minutes from downtown Denver. He has a gray water reclamation system, native plant landscaping, uses passive and active solar energy, grows some of his food, installed a composting toilet, geothermal energy, and used recycled tires and straw bales to construct part of the home. His annual energy bill? Practically $0.00. Can you imagine? I think the only thing I would need to pay for that I consider a utility would be for my internet connection! Is there satellite internet technology that’s widely available yet?
Why build an earth shelter? These homes are incredibly sustainable (save for the fact that virgin land might be built upon), and can be owner built off the grid. I have visions of a passive & active solar earth sheltered home with adjoining pottery studio, kiln shed, a posse of small farm animals and veggie garden all fueled by solar panels, wind, geothermal energy and homemade biodiesel. I know - sounds Utopian.
I can just hear the laughter bubbling up now from your side of the computer monitor! But, that’s okay…roll your eyes all you want to.
The upside is that earth sheltered homes are incredibly weather safe & naturally climate controlled since a portion of the home is sheltered by the earth. Even in the winter, many homes only use supplemental heat such as a pellet or wood stove, and since the earth’s temperature below ground is a relatively stable 50°F or so, summer remains cool with no need for AC and the passive solar design heats in winter. There are natural precautions when building this type of home such as consideration for water drainage & water proofing, air flow ventilation and radon for obvious reasons.
I’ve been so excited about the possibilities that I almost pushed my husband (former real estate appraiser) over the edge a few weeks ago. Suffice it to say, he’s not on board yet - not even luke warm, but I keep trying… I think so many people consider this type of building a foreign concept, despite the fact that people have lived like this since ancient times. I suppose aesthetics and some conflated notion of resale values has something to do with it, but I kind of like the idea of having a sod roof over my head and no utility bill.
I’m not sure if my husband and I will ever get to the point where we move to a more rural area, and when I think about it, this might not be the most environmentally wise choice for us either, especially if he has to commute by car to an urban area to work. Although, if we had our own biodiesel refueling station at home…. I asked my architect friend if there are brownfields in the Denver metro area that would be possibilities for building an alternative structure. His response, “Brownfields? Definitely! Being able to build on one? Maybe, but it will be difficult getting plans approved, let alone getting past the NIMBYs.” Building on a brownfield also depends on the level of pollution, though there are plenty of remediation techniques available including plant life that remove certain chemicals through their root systems.
There are a ton of links out in cyberspace to learn more about alternative home building methods, but one place to get started is architect Malcolm Well’s website - he has links to books, discussions, other websites and more. He even designed and built an earth sheltered art gallery for his artist wife on Cape Cod.
In the meantime, I’ve been wondering if there is such as thing as a green pottery. I don’t think there truly can be one, even if you’re using solar panels or biodiesel or methane gas or farmed wood to fuel your kilns, you’re still mining the earth for the raw materials. With that said, I do think making a ceramic cup is a better choice environmentally than producing disposable cups, even if they are made from recycled materials. Additionally, buying a handmade cup from a potter is much better than buying cheap mass produced work from off shore with questionable environmental production practices.
I was also thinking about carbon offsets this morning too. Can buying carbon offsets assuage a potter’s practices of using fuel and raw materials to produce work? I sort of think buying carbon offsets is like buying indulgences during the 1400-1500’s. I think a better solution is to try to green your life in other ways which goes back to thinking about the home I live in. I may be off the mark here though.
I’ve decided to start small and have been making conscious changes at home - buying organic food, local when possible, switching my cleaning products to environmentally friendly ones, looking at solar panels, selling one car, biking or taking light rail when possible, growing a small vegetable garden. I can do these things easily, though the change over hasn’t come naturally because it takes awhile for old habits to die, and new ones to form. A funny thing happened the other day - I was out an about and ran into a conventional grocery store and after I made dinner, I didn’t think the food tasted as good as the food that I purchase at my local natural grocers where I’ve been shopping since July this year. At first it was the other way around.
In other news, I haven’t tried constructing my test diy solar heaters yet, but have all the materials (all recycled courtesy of the dumpsters in the alley behind my home) ready to go now. Now that the Potters Guild sale is over, I have a lot more time to play. Recently, I have also enjoyed listening to Green Talk Radio podcasts while I work in my studio. The host, Sean Daily, has had some terrific guests on his show and his mantra is start slow - every little change makes a difference.
What do you think in regards to sustainability and the environment - are you doing anything differently? Are you even concerned about it? If you’re a potter, do you think there can be a green pottery? I’m not one of the sky is falling type of people, but by being proactive, I feel a whole lot better.
Now that cooler fall weather is firmly here and freezing cold winter is around the corner, I’ve been thinking about moving my clay, glazes and tools to the communal heated studios of the Colorado Potters Guild. As a mom to an elementary school age child, however, I love the flexibility of being able to work from home when and where I find free time and schlepping back and forth to the guild is really going to be a downer for me. So, I started a search for an inexpensive heat source for my garage/studio that can be left unattended overnight.
Well, you know how it is when using the internet to research - one link leads to another and all of a sudden, I discovered a gazillion DIY solutions for supplemental heat powered by the sun on a shoe string budget. If I knew we were going to be staying in our current home for awhile, I’d install photovoltaic solar panels on the house and my studio, but it looks like we’ll be moving within 1-2 years.
DIY Solar Heater by Daniel Strohl
The photo above is from a project detailed on the Hemmings Motor News Blog and shows how to make a homemade solar convection heater that uses commonly available materials both recycled and readily available for almost 0$ - absolutely less than $100.00 if you have to buy everything.
Project list includes:
Have to have south facing wall or window that gets direct sun for a good part of the day
empty clean aluminum cans
weather proof caulking
plywood
wood
screws and assorted hammers, screw drivers etc.
black all weather paint (for grills)
glass or acrylic panels (recycled windows would probably work great)
drill
dryer vent tubing or other
clamps
Optional:
insulating panel, foam or batting
thermostat
low volume fan
dryer vent
metal flashing
While the project does require cutting holes into your wall, this site illustrates a similar set up mounted in a window instead of a wall which requires no cutting of holes into an exterior wall - which is pretty cool because this makes it portable (perfect for apartment/condo dwellers).
So how does it work?
Solar air diagram from http://rimstar.org
Cool air is pulled in from the bottom inside wall vent and as it’s warmed by the sun in the solar chamber, the heat rises naturally and it expelled back into the same room higher up on the wall - natural convection heating. On sunny days, a 30-50° increase in temperature can be achieved with this system.
The downside of the system is that it only works while the sun is shining, so at night or on overcast days, it won’t really provide heat, so it really only functions as a supplemental heating system. The price is right, however, and here in sunny Colorado it is well worth the effort. If installed in a more temperate climate in the south, supplemental heat wouldn’t be needed at all.
On the website, Instrucables, this project uses window screens instead of aluminum cans and was adapted from a $350.00 solar heat project that Gary Resa author of Build it Solar built for his barn and that was published in The Mother Earth News and Home Power magazines. If you download Gary’s pdf with photos and plans, he provides a graph that looks at outside air temp, solar chamber output, inside temp at different times of the day and night which is incredibly helpful since I want to prevent my clay and glazes from freezing. Even at night it looks like his barn workshop stays above freezing even though the outside temp can get to 10-20° F in the winter where he lives in Montana. His project is also very detailed an provides safety recommendations such as adding metal flashing to vents since most buildings in the US use wood framing.
Here are some photos of similar projects here (I looked for more information about this set up, since the maker of the project claims that enough heat is stored to adequately heat the space overnight, but could find none), here, and here.
Cansolair panel installed on side of house
A commercial alternative for those of you who aren’t on a budget is made by Cansolair out of Newfoundland, Canada for approximately $2800.00 installed and can heat approximately 1000 square feet of living space.
Visit this website to see Cansolair’s Canadian patent application for design drawings for a better understanding of how this type of passive solar space heating works and for design ideas.
SolarsHeat 1000G heats up to 300 ft2
Solarsheat is another commercial option with varying sizes available from $1290 per unit and can be wall or roof mounted. This is the smallest usit - though the company makes larger ones depending on space heat requirements.
This video shows a similar set up as the recycled can solar heat collector, but with 3″ aluminum dryer venting instead of recycled aluminum cans.
This is a longer 16 minute video from Green Power Science who made a solar collector heater using just cardboard, paint and wood and it can be mounted on a wall or roof. The author does advise people to use weather and heat proof materials for a permanently installed unit of your own making.
Pros of solar heat collectors:
inexpensive to free
uses solar energy to heat spaces which saves money
Less dependence on fossil fuels
not too difficult to make - no special skills needed
depending on the size, you could heat your whole house or just an outbuilding/shop/garage
Cons:
Supplemental heat - doesn’t work well on overcast days and not at all at night
Not a terribly attractive addition to the house - though some aren’t bad
I showed my husband the plans and we’re going to try to make one. Probably an amalgamation of several plans and we are going to make it with safety in mind.
I will need to add supplemental heat to the garage/studio for overcast days and nighttime, but in my search for solar powered space heaters, I found the following electric heater that should do the trick.
Eco Heater
Eco Heaters are high energy efficiency convection heaters that are mounted on a wall and cost about 3¢/hour to operate - If I used it from 10pm - 8am, the cost would be approximately .30/day during the winter months. If I can get a satisfactory result from the DIY solar heater, I’m going to buy one of these and install in in my garage studio - I should only have to operate it at night when the temp is expected to be below freezing. It is also portable, so when we move, I can take it with me.
Meanwhile, my husband and I are going to try making on of these removable storm window solar panel heaters for a south facing window on the main floor of our house just for kicks. The panels are capable of delivering 120° F + of supplemental heat on sunny or partly sunny days and if you have a thermostat installed in your home, the main heat source won’t come on at all until the temperature drops. We have gas forced air as heating for our home and normally program our thermostat to raise the temp to 65°F only between 6am - 9am and then again 4pm - 9pm. During sleeping hours and daytime hours, it’s set at 55°F - the house heats up pretty well during the day due to many south facing windows.
Meanwhile, I’ve loaded a packed kiln for a bisque firing and will have one additional bisque to fire tomorrow which will leave me 5 days to glaze and fire. I imagine I’ll have to press my old manual Paragon into service to get all my work fired in time for the Guild’s sale next weekend.
I’ve noticed that quite a few people use a “wiggle wire” to cut their freshly thrown mugs off of the pottery wheel head which gives the bottom textural interest and also negates the need to trim a foot. I’ve wanted to try one for quite awhile and decided to attempt making a homemade one myself after I came up empty handed at my local ceramic supplier. I could order the Bill Van Gilder Wiggle Wire Tool online, but then I remembered that Emily writes a lot of tool reviews and “how to’s” so I went in search of a wiggle tool on her site. Lo and behold, I hit pay dirt!
I looked around my studio which also happens to be the woodworking/tool shop and gathered many of the tools and supplies I thought I might need to make one. The following images show how I made my wiggle wire tool - click on an image to enlarge.
Emily has a great list of resources of where to find wire to make a custom cut off wire tool on her blog. While making mine, I improvised and ended up using a fairly thick 19 gauge wire I had lying around the garage which makes it very sturdy - but after a quick web search, also found coiled springs at automotive shops online, hardware stores and other non-pottery general purpose shops. I tried using some thinner beading wire, but it was too fine and didn’t hold its shape. I also vaguely remember reading a tutorial in a clay magazine that suggested using piano wire - but since a piano shop is not on my regular route, I decided to skip this outlet.
Meanwhile, I did a little housekeeping yesterday - not actually cleaning my home, but rather straightening up all the files on my computer including documents, desktop, programs, email addresses, photos etc. I feel so much better now and can actually find what I’m looking for easily which should help me be more productive. I made & organized folders and deleted old files, duplicates, and addresses I don’t recognize and then did a complete maintenance clean up of my system.
This coming week, I have Monday - Friday, 9am - 3pm to work in the studio while my daughter is in school and I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. I need to make work for 2 local Colorado galleries, and the Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale is fast approaching - not to mention the holidays. I know I’ve written about Wholesalecrafts.com before, and this weekend I made the decision to drop this sales outlet. I took a hard look at my schedule & priorities and realize that at this point in my life, I just don’t have the time to devote to adding more obligations on top of everything else. It’s too much stress and that’s no way to live.
As my daughter grows older, needs me less, and eventually leaves home, I know there will be plenty of time to build a full time career out of clay. In the meantime, I’ll nurture my part time foray into clay and my patch work quilt of a life making ceramic work, being a mom, teaching, subbing and volunteering. Geez, in the past 2.75 years of blogging, I’ve learned so much about myself, my limitations, my inspiration and where I want to go and what I want to accomplish. It’s been a weird, exhilarating and humbling ride.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Coming soon to my website: glaze recipes, gallery images, how to’s!
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