Propagation Greenhouse

We had some old windows laying around….so one morning the idea popped into our head that we could build a small greenhouse. The purpose of the greenhouse is to propagate and raise seedlings. A bit before the growing season begins, while the weather conditions are still a bit to harsh for sowing outside this little protected space helps a lot to get started early.

With the three old windows we constructed the front, the top and the back. The front windows should be a bit smaller so you get an inclination on the roof. So the rain water can run of in order to protect the wood. We constructed the side panels out of some OSB scrap wood that where left over from another construction. We attached some pieces of wood to the side panels so that the Top can stay open while working in the green house.

Beginning of the construction

Here is a small step by step photo series that shows the construction of the Greenhouse

Happy gardening with home made plants……

Credits:

Text : Nicolas Bedau

Illustration : Nicolas Bedau

If you have any suggestions, questions or improvements just post a comment below

As the garden and the different herbs we planted are becoming bigger we felt the need of having a solar dryer to dehydrate and preserve more and more food. Here on Tinos island we have a lot of sun radiation and a generally warm climate which should give us optimal conditions for working with the solar dryer. The passive design fits nicely into our sustainability approach and goes hand in hand with permaculture practice.

The design of the dehydrator is greatly inspired by the work of Dennis Scanlin from the Appalachian State University. While I was looking at the design it came to my mind that it would be great to use an old Solar heater panel as a heat trap. We discovered that it is fairly easy to find panels from old solar water heaters at recycling places or at you’re local plumper. They have everything you need inside: good insulation at the back, very good solar glass for optimal absorption of radiation and a really good copper heat absorber. So we changed the design a bit in order to fit everything to our panel. We increased the actual drying box a bit and switched to side opening doors. The benefit in this design lays in the recycling aspect and the lower amount of building effort.

The initial design was made in order to build it at one of our permaculture seminars but we didn’t have the time this year. So we decided to build it now.

The over all Dimensions

In our case the dimensions are bond to the heater panel we found. The panel is fairly big with 110 x 198 cm, which gives us a 2,2 sqm heat absorber surface.  The actual drying box has a volume of 0,65 cubic meters. The angel at which the Panel stands is around 40 degree. Of course that can be changed if you change the Height of the Box. If you want to operate it mainly in summer, then choose a lower angel, if you want to optimise it for spring and autumn, choose a higher angel.

Explosion Drawing

The explosion drawing gives you an basic overview of the pieces that are needed and the place where they will be placed. Also you see how they interact with each other. In the next picture where we show the parts with the dimensions and the amount you can read out where they are used.

Assembly

In first cut all the wooden pieces that are described and sand them down. Then start with disassembling the solar panel. I think every panel will be a little bit different from the inside. Ours was actually consisting out of three parts, the metal sheet back plate, the insulation at the back, the heat absorber, the solar glass and the aluminum frame holding everything together. So we got rid of the insulation in order to free space in side the frame so that the warm air has room to flow upwards. Then we took out the absorber and cleaned it. Afterwards we cut the openings in the upper and lower part of the frame for the air inlet and outlet. Then we cut an extra piece of plywood in order to replace the old metal back plate. This is important to improve the overall insulation of the heater. The old metal back plate was then screwed to the new plywood back from the inside and on top we placed the copper heat absorber. Then we fitted everything back into the aluminum frame.

Then start with the assembly of the wooden box that sits on top of the heater panel. Screw the beams to the plywood I like to add some wood glue to the connection in order to have a good long term adhesion between the parts. Connect the 2 side parts with the front panel and put in the floor plate. At this stage we changed the design adhoc. We realized the we actually don’t need the legs under the box which make the whole construction fairly big and bulky. We came up with the idea to place the panel on a piece of sloped land and the box on top on the ground. You will see what I mean on the next pictures. So we cut the legs off. Then we started the frame construction that is quite a hassle because you have to do the same steps over and over again. In order to simplify this process we made a place holder construction so that it is easy to align the pieces in a 90 degree angel.

After the frames are ready we oiled them in order to proof them against humidity. Then we cut the wire mesh and the textile mesh and stapled the material on the down side of every frame. We used the different meshes in order to dry different things. The fine mesh is nice for leafed material and the wire mesh for juicy things like tomatoes. Then we placed the tiny latches on both side walls of the box in order to transform the frames into drawers. Afterwards there came the doors and the roof.

Lets start drying

We had some first experiments with the dryer. We tried out basel, nettle and wild mint…..while we have still fairly high temperatures for December (around 15 C) it is some how winter but beside that the temperature are rising to 40 C for at least some ours of the day inside the Box. The nettle leafs took about three days to completely dry out. I believe that is also due to very high humidity levels at this time of the year. We will make some long term temperature measurement with an Arduino datalogger and 4 Temperature Sensors inside the box upper and lower part, in the heater panel and the ambient temperature.  So we will make an update to the article in the next weeks……

Improvements

From the initial design to the final build we made some changes that came to us while building(described further down). Also I came across a nice study from Dennis Scanlin that was published in 1999 while writing this article (Study). While reading it I saw that the design described here could surely be improved further. One thing would be to place the copper heat absorber in a diagonal way instead of flat us we did. Also a way to control the size of the air inlet and outlet seams to be a must have. This will help to fine-tune temperature and airflow in order to achieve maximum drying. The other important part is, by closing the air vents, to avoid  a reverse thermosiphoning in night time that will suck cold air through the unit resulting in rehydration of the material.

Download for Printing ( PDF)

Herb dryer for PDC_technical_small 3

Credits:

Text : Marilia Kalouli and Nicolas Bedau

Illustration : Nicolas Bedau

Resources:

a lot of inspiration for our system came from:

http://www.news.appstate.edu/2009/07/09/solar-food-dryers-designed-at-appalachian-preserve-food-worldwide/

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/tools/solar-food-dehydrator-plans-zm0z14jjzmar

for further reading take a look at the study that has very detailed information on the thermal design:

http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Solar_Food_Dryer.pdf

 

If you have any suggestions, questions or improvements just post a comment below

In 2016 the Ecolodge expanded its outdoor infrastructure by building the garden kitchen and oven, outdoor showers, compost toilets. In the beginning of 2017 we started conceptualizing a wooden platform that could be used for all kind of activities like yoga seminars, dancing seminars, acrobatics, theatre and so on. Our first design steps where made at the computer visualizing the overall look and the technical necessity that the construction would demand.  The goal was to provide a shaded place on the wooden surface for about 15 people with mats. We calculated that we would need an area of about 10,5x4m what comes out to 42 sqm so that every body would have a surface area of 2,8 sqm  for moving and laying. We came up with this rectangular area because  our stone terraces have very limited depth. The benefit of this shape on the other hand is that it is easy to design the shading pergola without posts that stand in the middle, while maintaining a light weight construction. The pergolas that we have build so far are all covered with bamboo which is a great material for the job. It provides nice playful shade while being a natural material with good look and durability of around 10 years. The downside is that its quite expensive and it comes a long way from Asia.  So we also investigated plastic liners, jute linen and plastic textile nets for olive harvest. The last one is very cheap but comes with low durability. The jute linen is also cheap but will start to mould in the very wet conditions of the winter time. The plastic liners are expensive but will last for years, the drawback is that it gets really hot under them in summer.

The construction becomes much more complicated when the shading material is flexible, but gives a lot of possibilities for shaping. In the end we decided again for the bamboo but went with a mixed design from bamboo and our local reed that we can locally harvest. On the right are some design alterations for the pergola that we went through depending on the cover material.

Material of the Yoga deck

The type of wood that is used comes down to the most important decision that one has to take while planning an outdoor wooden deck. There are many considerations that could be discussed from an aesthetical point of view such as texture, colour, smell and surface structure. But I believe that this consideration should stand down for Eco friendly, durability and workability.

The durability is decently easy to define while taking a look into the norm EN 350:2016 that describes the resistance of wood to weathering and ground contact.

Timber Durability Chart by Gate Expectations by Inwood

Most of the very resistance hardwoods originate from Africa, South America and Asia. Besides the long transport it is mostly questionable under what circumstances this materials are harvested and how sustainable it is to use them over here in Europe. The FSC label could offer some indication but the certificate has many problems ( further reading at FSC Watch). So in my opinion it is good to go with locally sourced timber that has short transport and local standards. For the Greek market and especially Tinos Island the availability is also an important factor. So that leaves us in the lower price range with European pine that is a soft wood that can be treated well by high pressure impregnation or thermal modification and achieves this way good durability standards. There are two qualities with knots and without knots. The without knots is a bit more pricey but has less splints and no issues with turning loose knots over time. The workability is also great because soft woods are much friendlier to your hand tools than hardwoods. Cedar could be another good choice but has nearly double the cost.  The price per sqm starts at around 15 euro for impregnated pine, goes to 25 euro pine knot-less, over 35 euro for keruing, cedar 40 euro and teak around 60 euro. So we went with impregnated knot-less pine that we painted with an outdoor deck oil in the colour teak. For the preservation it is good as a general rule to paint darker colours because they have stronger UV filter capabilities and protect the timber better.

Beginning of the construction

Here is a small step by step photo series that shows the construction of the clearing and levelling the ground, framing for the foundation, building the deck, erecting the pergolas and some flowers for the end…

We started by clearing the ground area. Then we built up a basic butter board in order to get our dimensions and levels straight from the beginning. It takes quite some time to set it up but it is a great help throughout the entire building process. Then we went on by digging out the point foundation holes and levelling the ground. This part is the hardest because you have to dig quite a lot and it means moving a lot of earth by hand. After that we built the concrete shutters out of some scrap wood that we had laying around and started to fill them up with on-site mixed concrete. We use and 1:3 ratio from cement and sand/gravel mixture in order to get constructional concrete. In the pouring process we added the galvanized steel rods for the foundation beams. The beams where cut, drilled and installed.

 

In order to save us some digging we only created ditches along the foundation beams. Then the deck under construction was attached to the foundation beams. Marilia was painting the anti fungicide and the tar on the beams. Then we covered the ground with geotextile in order to have some weed barrier underneath the deck.

Behind the Deck we decided to build a retention wall in order to hold back the earth that would fall otherwise slowly underneath the deck. So there was another tough job bringing up the stones. But we found that a two donkey driven wheel-borough is quite effective. After getting it done we started screwing the deck on the underconstruction and painting everything with teak oil.

The pergola was nearly finished when we got the first enthusiastic users on the deck. That came with some unknown talents in building with stone. Kids have this amazing ability to find everything new if presented well fascinating. So with some extra hands things are speeding up.

After that we decided to rest a bit and let the construction settle making our first Yoga exercises in the glory of the morning sun and enjoying the hammock on our new spot in the plot.

The finishing up was done with some great help of our friends. Decking the pergola with bamboo on the sides and in the middle we harvested some reeds cleaned them and screwed everything nice and tidy into place. We planted some Bougainvillea that will climb up the pergola in the next years and will paint the whole deck in their amazing blossoming red to rose.

For questions, suggestions and so on don’t hesitate…………

Credits:

Text : Nicolas Bedau

Illustration : Nicolas Bedau

If you have any suggestions, questions or improvements just post a comment below

In 2016 the Ecolodge expanded its outdoor infrastructure by building the garden kitchen and oven, outdoor showers and compost toilets in order to be able to host seminars and people that camp on the ground. We hosted our first Permaculture seminar in September 2016 and all this infrastructure was tested and used by 27 people that were gathered here for 11 days! So we have our first results on how everything worked. This article aims to show how to build an outdoor compost toilet and encourage others to use this green technology which is the best solution to sustainable sewage treatment!

Why compost toilets

The type of compost toilets that we decided to build was a simple closed system that consists of a portable 120 liter barrel that would be able to change when full and keep it aside to rest for the solids to decompose. The reason is that the compost toilets are not used constantly but only at periods when we host seminars (3-4 times a year) and randomly when we host friends that camp, so there is no heavy pressure all the time. The extra tip on the system was to apply a separator for the urine that goes to a septic tank with leachfield. But before entering into the construction details let’s talk a little about the pros of compost toilets!

1. We don’t pollute the water resources. With compost toilets the solid waste is dealt with on site and do not end up into rivers or allows liquids to soak into the surrounding soil and thus reaching and polluting the aquifer. In Tinos is even more important as there is no mains sewerage system and usually independent houses built a cesspool that is emptied by a tanker when its full, although some older ones allow liquids to soak into the surrounding soil.
2. We save water. Normal toilets with 12lt flush would use up to 48 liters a day per person of fresh drinkable water for flushing down the …shit! A normal family of 4 would use 192 liters per day or 70,080 lt per year!!! Low flush toilets are already in the market, we use ones in the houses with 2-4lt low-high flush. Water shortage is already a serious problem in Tinos and the Cyclades islands, compost toilets win against all other systems as they use no water at all!
3. We create compost for soil improvement. It’s interesting that: If an individual wanted to be self-sufficient in food the nutrients in that persons urine and faeces, together with the composted waste from the previous year’s crops, would be more than enough to provide all of his or her food.
4. Other benefits include no chemical cleaners or bleaches, no sewage sludge problem, no greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy, very low overall resource use and saving money!

DIY How to

Drill two holes through the barrel. Hole 1. will be connected to the funnel that will divert the urine. We used a 12mm flange for irrigation pipes.

Hole 2. will be connected to the ventilation pipe. We used an endcup for 75mm PVC plumbing pipes that comes with a screwable top in order to seal the full barrel after use.
The funnel should be out of plastic that can be cut. In our test a diameter of 160mm had the best size. Cut away the piece indicated in the drawings, so that there is enough room in the barrel that faeces can fall freely without coming in contact with the funnel.

Place the flange and tighten it. Use some plumbing tape to get a tight fitting to the funnel pipe. But do not glue the two pieces together because you want to swap the funnel to the next barrel. Place the funnel with its handle on the barrel wall and check connection. Place the funnel acording to the drawing below.
Place the PVC endcup into the hole and glue it with silicone to the barrel.  Do that from the inside and the outside so you achieve a strong adhesion between the to parts.Cut a piece of the flexible ventilation pipe long enough to reach the PVC pipe. Just put them together so you can easily loosen the connection again. Cut a piece of irrigation tube in order to connect it to the 40mm PVC pipe. This pipe is leading the urine away.

Maintenance

Both toilet chambers have back doors to remove and change the barrels. The whole platform with the seat is lifted and the barrels are easily removed. The seat is a wooden toilet seat. The underside of the seat is sealed with a ring of draughtproof strip to keep smells in and flies out, alternatively you can use silicon. The same has to be applied on the toilet lid, and the lid has to remain closed at all times when not in use.  Another useful thing to add is a fly trap, something that we didn’t do but will add. A simple jar fixed upside down on the platform that contains a cone inside for the flies to enter and not exit.

Compose / Decompose

Now, how to create compost, everytime the toilet is used the paper goes inside the barrel and in the end we add a handful of sawdust. A bucket full of sawdust is always next to the toilet. This is done in order to create a desirable carbon-nitrogen ratio for the bacteria to eat waste. Human waste contains too much nitrogen so we add soaks which are carbon rich materials. Other carbon rich material that can be used is straw and hay, shredded paper, compost or soil, lime or wood ash (although wood ash contains salts that can kill useful micro organisms, so it’s good to add only to eliminate smells if necessary). After the barrel is full we take it out and leave it to rest in a sunny place for a year while its contents decompose and become compost.

Pictures of the construction

Here is a small step by step photo series that shows the construction of the clearing and leveling the ground, framing for the foundation, building the enclosure, cutting and sanding the holes and some extras we put: the little green house on the site for raising seedlings

Credits:

Text : Marilia Kalouli

Illustration : Nicolas Bedau

Resources:

a lot of inspiration for our system came from Davis Omicks website that has plenty of information about compost toilets:   http://www.omick.net/composting_toilets/barrel_toilet.htm

Dave Darbys book „compost toilets a practical, DIY guide“ ISBN 978-0-9566751-1-8

Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) has maybe the most complete database on the Ecological sanitation (ecosan) approach http://www.susana.org/en/

http://www.ecosan.org/    which holds some useful information but is not updated anymore

The world bank has also some nice documentations under http://water.worldbank.org/shw-resource-guide/infrastructure/menu-technical-options/ecological-toilets

If you have any suggestions, questions or improvements just post a comment below