jverne
Newbie
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2004
- Messages
- 4,302
- Reaction score
- 0
It's a concept i'm much interested in.
Water:
The average person (in our country) consumes 120l/day, make that 165l/day. Monthly that would mean ~5000l per month.
This is how big one looks like (a 5000l tank, Solaris, a water tank):
If you dig them underground you can easily make at least 5 of them which is 25000liters or 5 months of water. 165l/s per day is the amount where no conservation is done, that means with good appliances, low water consumption you can get way below this number. Especially if you make a grey water system.
The tanks can be either purchased or self made from concrete which is cheaper. If you have any technical knowledge of building that shouldn't be such a problem. The initial investment would probably be less than 3000$.
A filtration system/disinfection system is required. You can get all this for less than 1500$. Especially if you know how water purification works (i do, since i study in this field) you can make alot of filters yourself. And besides, resident in drought areas have been living without high tech UV disinfection system for millennial, humans are not that fragile as you might think.
However every inch of covered land must be connected to the system to take advantage of the rain. If you live in rainy areas then you probably need half as much equipment.
For about 250euros you can fill up all 5 tanks with clean water if the rain is poor.
Waste water:
Buying a cleaning module might be the quick option, but if you get a book and read how to treat waste water you'd realize how easy it is. A holding tank for the sludge and a canal filled with rocks of various sizes. In a nutshell that's all you need. The filtered water can also be used for irrigation.
House/heating:
If you make a house from special porous concrete or other materials that are well insulated you can drastically reduce your heating bill.
I've read that passive houses can have as low as 3l/m2 of oil per heating season. That is about 500$ per average heating season which is 5 months here. The materials cost either the same or a bit more and sometimes even less than classical building materials (speaking for my region).
You do have to limit your house to 100-150 m2, which is IMO for a family of 3 more than enough.
If you can get cheap wood for burning it's that much more green.
Electricity:
This is a tough one, as of yet there are few alternatives to it, you have small cogeneration plants that provide electricity and heating at the same time, but you have to fuel them.
Solar in my area might be economical but the initial price is still very high. Probably higher than all previous systems combined.
Wind is a no go here.
Unless the Bloom Energy can make the fuel cells cheap then this part is yet unsolved. You probably have to be connected to the grid.
However investing in a smart electrical home grid might save you alot of money, because energy consumption might be monitored and you have and idea where are the biggest losses.
Here in average a small family uses about 70-100€ worth of electricity per month. This is not that much.
Internet:
If you have electricity you'd probably have even this. And besides it's not a major expense.
Food:
Well this might be a bit more problematic. Not everyone has enough land and not everyone want's to grow it's own food. Hence if there would be less people more of them could own sizable pieces of land.
A guess from experience is that on 2000m2 you can probably grow 60% of your food requirements.
The major problem here is that people don't want to farm.
All in all it's a lifestyle that not anybody would want to live but it can be really rewarding.
Personally i think i have the resources and knowledge to think of going this way.
All i want from the government is to enact law that keep my air, soil and water clean and dong strangle me financially...the basic foundations needed for such a lifestyle.
And it's not a return to the dark ages thing, modern technology is amazing and makes life so much easier. For instance
You can plow 1000m2 whit this thing in a day for a few liters of gas, and that's enough for a year of crops.
Modern irrigation systems,...
It leaves you enough time to do a medium paid job, hunt babes and other hobbies...Basically what my meaning of life is...women/friends/hobbies/(less stressful) work.
Sure you'd have to sacrifice some of your "free time", but if shoveling shit entertains you then you killed two birds with one stone.
What inspired me to make this thread? Today i made my own composting pit for organic food. Hours of physical work and no stress...beats the hell out of wasting 1 hour and 21 minutes watching that god awful movie Dark Floor.
GOD I HATE THAT MOVIE!
Water:
The average person (in our country) consumes 120l/day, make that 165l/day. Monthly that would mean ~5000l per month.
This is how big one looks like (a 5000l tank, Solaris, a water tank):
If you dig them underground you can easily make at least 5 of them which is 25000liters or 5 months of water. 165l/s per day is the amount where no conservation is done, that means with good appliances, low water consumption you can get way below this number. Especially if you make a grey water system.
The tanks can be either purchased or self made from concrete which is cheaper. If you have any technical knowledge of building that shouldn't be such a problem. The initial investment would probably be less than 3000$.
A filtration system/disinfection system is required. You can get all this for less than 1500$. Especially if you know how water purification works (i do, since i study in this field) you can make alot of filters yourself. And besides, resident in drought areas have been living without high tech UV disinfection system for millennial, humans are not that fragile as you might think.
However every inch of covered land must be connected to the system to take advantage of the rain. If you live in rainy areas then you probably need half as much equipment.
For about 250euros you can fill up all 5 tanks with clean water if the rain is poor.
Waste water:
Buying a cleaning module might be the quick option, but if you get a book and read how to treat waste water you'd realize how easy it is. A holding tank for the sludge and a canal filled with rocks of various sizes. In a nutshell that's all you need. The filtered water can also be used for irrigation.
House/heating:
If you make a house from special porous concrete or other materials that are well insulated you can drastically reduce your heating bill.
I've read that passive houses can have as low as 3l/m2 of oil per heating season. That is about 500$ per average heating season which is 5 months here. The materials cost either the same or a bit more and sometimes even less than classical building materials (speaking for my region).
You do have to limit your house to 100-150 m2, which is IMO for a family of 3 more than enough.
If you can get cheap wood for burning it's that much more green.
Electricity:
This is a tough one, as of yet there are few alternatives to it, you have small cogeneration plants that provide electricity and heating at the same time, but you have to fuel them.
Solar in my area might be economical but the initial price is still very high. Probably higher than all previous systems combined.
Wind is a no go here.
Unless the Bloom Energy can make the fuel cells cheap then this part is yet unsolved. You probably have to be connected to the grid.
However investing in a smart electrical home grid might save you alot of money, because energy consumption might be monitored and you have and idea where are the biggest losses.
Here in average a small family uses about 70-100€ worth of electricity per month. This is not that much.
Internet:
If you have electricity you'd probably have even this. And besides it's not a major expense.
Food:
Well this might be a bit more problematic. Not everyone has enough land and not everyone want's to grow it's own food. Hence if there would be less people more of them could own sizable pieces of land.
A guess from experience is that on 2000m2 you can probably grow 60% of your food requirements.
The major problem here is that people don't want to farm.
All in all it's a lifestyle that not anybody would want to live but it can be really rewarding.
Personally i think i have the resources and knowledge to think of going this way.
All i want from the government is to enact law that keep my air, soil and water clean and dong strangle me financially...the basic foundations needed for such a lifestyle.
And it's not a return to the dark ages thing, modern technology is amazing and makes life so much easier. For instance
You can plow 1000m2 whit this thing in a day for a few liters of gas, and that's enough for a year of crops.
Modern irrigation systems,...
It leaves you enough time to do a medium paid job, hunt babes and other hobbies...Basically what my meaning of life is...women/friends/hobbies/(less stressful) work.
Sure you'd have to sacrifice some of your "free time", but if shoveling shit entertains you then you killed two birds with one stone.
What inspired me to make this thread? Today i made my own composting pit for organic food. Hours of physical work and no stress...beats the hell out of wasting 1 hour and 21 minutes watching that god awful movie Dark Floor.
GOD I HATE THAT MOVIE!
