A model village?

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  • March 11, 2009 at 5:46 am #40302
    near horse
    Participant

    First, I posted some thoughts I had about using our horses to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for transportation (it’s in the Equipment category).

    For those interested, there is a book titled “Gaviotas: A Village to Save (it might be Reinvent not Save) the World” that discusses a village constructed in the hinterlands of Colombia during the mid-70’s that uses some low-tech methods to creat a sustainable community. Example – a passively cooled hospital using underground tubes to “siphon” cool air into the hospital OR the community water pump that is actually the teeter-totter in the playground. Cool stuff AND the place is still functioning in the 21st century – IN COLOMBIA!

    July 31, 2009 at 10:19 pm #50715
    bivol
    Participant

    sounds nice!

    i wonder if there are some plans to install such cooling system when building a house? i’d use them!:D

    i wonder only what material should be used? i like natural materials, maybe clay earth.
    the big problem should be underground water levels. if they flood the cooling system, it is not only unable to cool, but it should take permanent damage.

    ooor?! what if i could take, say, metal pipes, used for water, lots of ’em, dig them, say 4 feet under ground, where it’s cool, and connect to the house. and run air through them! and voila, you have a cooling system!:D

    …. i just hope i didn’t steal someone’s idea, i figured this system while writing this… if i did, i apologize!

    August 1, 2009 at 4:49 pm #50713
    near horse
    Participant

    Hey Biovol,

    I wouldn’t worry about “stealing” an idea.

    Something close to what you mention regarding pipes underground to moderate temps are available commercially – I think that’s how heat pumps work – pipes under the yard pick up heat or dump it and then return to house – allows the heating cooling system to not have to warm or cool air starting at lower/higher temps.

    The concern w/ using the underground tubes (like road culvert size) to passively cool seems to be the tube walls – the corrugated walls of culvert add strength but wreak havoc on developing passive air flow – so I’ve heard.

    There’s a lot of good info out there regarding ways to build housing that is easy to heat/cool, uses renewable materials etc Just have to look – not at Home Depot.

    August 1, 2009 at 5:50 pm #50714
    bivol
    Participant

    thanks!

    cooling and heating issues could become more important with climate change and radicalization o weather extremes.

    August 1, 2009 at 8:49 pm #50717
    cousin jack
    Participant

    I live in what once was a model village. The village was built for workers on the estate, every house had at least 60 feet of garden for growing vegetables and a pig sty. Electricity came from a local spring that was diverted and held in a man made lake and then ran into a bore hole with a turbine, this powered the Hall, farm and village, every house had running water from local springs, this was all planned and built in the 1920’s. I am sure we have to take a step back to move forwards sometimes.

    August 1, 2009 at 9:10 pm #50716
    OldKat
    Participant

    @bivol 10267 wrote:

    sounds nice!

    i wonder if there are some plans to install such cooling system when building a house? i’d use them!:D

    i wonder only what material should be used? i like natural materials, maybe clay earth.
    the big problem should be underground water levels. if they flood the cooling system, it is not only unable to cool, but it should take permanent damage.

    ooor?! what if i could take, say, metal pipes, used for water, lots of ’em, dig them, say 4 feet under ground, where it’s cool, and connect to the house. and run air through them! and voila, you have a cooling system!:D

    …. i just hope i didn’t steal someone’s idea, i figured this system while writing this… if i did, i apologize!

    Not exactly the same thing, but there are commercially available systems that circulate pumped ground water from a well, through a heat exchanger in a building & then reinject it at another well some distance from the first. I guess this would be considered to be a heat pump of sorts.

    I have heard that they are cheaper to operate than a conventional air conditioner/furnace, but obviously there is an energy cost associated with drilling two wells and the energy used to operate the pump. Of course if you had solar or wind generated electricity available …

    December 23, 2009 at 3:05 am #50718
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @near horse 10285 wrote:

    Hey Biovol,

    I wouldn’t worry about “stealing” an idea.

    Something close to what you mention regarding pipes underground to moderate temps are available commercially – I think that’s how heat pumps work – pipes under the yard pick up heat or dump it and then return to house – allows the heating cooling system to not have to warm or cool air starting at lower/higher temps.

    The concern w/ using the underground tubes (like road culvert size) to passively cool seems to be the tube walls – the corrugated walls of culvert add strength but wreak havoc on developing passive air flow – so I’ve heard.

    There’s a lot of good info out there regarding ways to build housing that is easy to heat/cool, uses renewable materials etc Just have to look – not at Home Depot.

    i beleive you are talking geothermal and not heat pumps but yes that is how geo works high dollar to install but if you plan on staying it will pay for its self in short time

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