Unfortunately the heavy snowfall blocked the route to work last week so I decided to work from home rather than the office! But at least I got on with some planning for the full 72 hour Permaculture Design Course to be held in Westcliff next spring at Growing Together. More about that here, with further details to be added soon…

During the summer I was lucky enough to visit the Sustainability Centre in East Meon, Hampshire and capture a few photos of Ben Law’s recent roundwood timber frame building project, an outdoor classroom and course venue. Some of these are below, plus you can view others at the London Permaculture Flickr site. A truly wonderful and inspiring project, its also well worth checking out Ben’s recent book about Roundwood Timber Frame Building, plus the DVD he has made about this project, both of which are available via Permanent Publications’ Green Shopping Catalogue – proper reviews to follow!

One of the perks of running this blog is the interesting kindred spirits one gets to meet online such as Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, author of  the self published “HUMBLE HOMES, SIMPLE SHACKS, COZY COTTAGES, RAMSHACKLE RETREATS, FUNKY FORTS (AND WHATEVER THE HECK ELSE WE COULD SQUEEZE IN HERE!)”. This is a mixture of comic book and DIY manual, full of inspiring projects for the Humble Designer and well worth purchasing just for its creative punk rock energy!

As well as being a hands on builder of all manner of low tech, low cost construction projects Deek also runs the Relaxshax blog and Relaxshax Youtube TV Channel, see an example below;

Anarchist Ales from the 2010 Anarchist Bookfair, including ‘Bakunin’s Brew’ at 9.3%!! More info at http://www.afed.org.uk/ – or not, I couldn’t find any, not on the beers anyway!

A nice little YouTube film clearly demonstrating Martin Doyle’s PV set up for his shed. One of the things that put me off getting it together with own system was nervousness about messing it up, I found most of the books on the subject quite intimidating and confusing, but in the end I just decided to go for it and it wasn’t that complicated at all. Little ‘how to’ guides like this are really helpful in making things clear and building the confidence of the inexperienced, lets have more of them!

In the spring of 2010 I finally managed to get the solar panels and PV system set up in the office…

Following the permaculture principle of multiples functions for all elements, the Solar Panel kit bought in the Maplins sale spent a few months boxed up in our dining room doubling as a garlic dryer…

Frame

Panels fitted

Battery, regulator and pure sine inverter

Inverter and charge controller

Cable from roof mounted solar panel to inverter

Solar powered!

Its been a while since I’ve been able to update this blog, although I’ve been working on the office and taking photos to document progress, so thought I’d better put them up at last…

I was finally able to fit the white cedarwood shingles in the spring, nailing them onto a series of batons shown below;

Batons

Fixing the shingles

Ladder

Shingle courses

Shingles

The recent heavy snow and icy conditions have certainly been bringing out the creative energies of Sharon Needham’s family in Essex…

According to Wikipedia, igloos are shelters constructed from blocks of snow, generally in the form of a dome. Although igloos are usually associated with all Inuit, they were predominantly constructed by people of Canada’s Central Arctic and Greenland’s Thule area. Other Inuit people tended to use snow to insulate their houses which consisted of whalebone and hides. Snow was used because the air pockets trapped in it make it an insulator. On the outside, temperatures may be as low as −45 °C (−49.0 °F), but on the inside the temperature may range from −7 °C (19 °F) to 16 °C (61 °F) when warmed by body heat alone.

Constructing an igloo (text and diagram from Wikipedia)

The snow used to build an igloo must have sufficient structural strength to be cut and stacked in the appropriate manner. The best snow to use for this purpose is snow which has been blown by wind, which can serve to compact and interlock the ice crystals. The hole left in the snow where the blocks are cut from is usually used as the lower half of the shelter. Sometimes, a short tunnel is constructed at the entrance to reduce wind and heat loss when the door is opened. Due to snow’s excellent insulating properties, inhabited igloos are surprisingly comfortable and warm inside. In some cases a single block of ice is inserted to allow light into the igloo.

Architecturally, the igloo is unique in that it is a dome that can be raised out of independent blocks leaning on each other and polished to fit without an additional supporting structure during construction. The igloo, if correctly built, will support the weight of a person standing on the roof. Also, in the traditional Inuit igloo the heat from the kudlik (qulliq) (stone lamp) causes the interior to melt slightly. This melting and refreezing builds up an ice sheet and contributes to the strength of the igloo. The sleeping platform is a raised area compared to where one enters the igloo. Because warmer air rises and cooler air settles, the entrance area will act as a cold trap whereas the sleeping area will hold whatever heat is generated by a stove, lamp or body heat.

Happy new year from Humble Designs!!