At 10:16 AM 1/7/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>What is the cost limitations?
We're not sure yet- maybe used equipment that costs under 1,000, maybe much
more- the group the building is for is pretty good at fundraising for
specific equipment once they have an amount in mind (they've got
connections with church groups, great interpersonal connections all over
the country for their tiny remote project, very important work they do, and
they're charismatic people!). We don't have a very clear budget in mind yet
as they are waiting for the design, we're designing it as cheaply as
practical to accomplish what they need it to do.
the building is only an 'outbuilding'- housing restrooms for the community
center (SunMar composting toilets actually, the brand of toilets was
donated, not by our choice), however
it gets year-round use in a very harsh climate, and needs to be comfortable
in a blizzard (and in the Plains 118 degree heat too!). The building
also serves some other uses, and in the future it might become a dwelling
instead, or something else we can't even predict right now. So we have to
plan it as a potential year-round dwelling, not just a restroom building
for an institution.
The other point of investing decent amount of work and money in this
building is that it is a model for cheap housing on the rez as well- lots
of families trying to figure out how to build like that there, some
interest in and experience with strawbale, lots of need for buildings
people can do themselves without mortgages and loans (not available to
reservation people!), and a need for housing that can be built over time as
money and labor are available (ie, put up a pole barn when you can afford
it,then do a strawbale wrap and plaster when you can afford it the next
year, poor people in the southwest and mexico build this way and it are
better off than middleclass americans with a huge mortgage, in some cases)
There's especially a great need for 'anything but electric heat and
trailers'. the community center place is trying to provide information on
doing this kind of building, so we're trying to figure out where passive
and inexpensive active solar, solar hot water, and biofuel heating can
possibly come into play for various people who might use this as a model.
Since we were there last year with a biodiesel-fueled vehicle, there was
lots of interest generated in the question of how vegoil fuel can bring
people's costs of living down (though few people in that community can
afford diesels- they tend to drive whatever they can find cheap and their
options are limited, though the rest of Montana is filled with ranchers
driving really great diesel trucks! home heating oil equipment is available
there, though, and the oil is a cheap alternative in case the biodiesel/wvo
doesn't work out for some reason). The idea probably wouldn't work with
homemade biodiesel at the community center- we're dealing with a bunch of
elderly people and very young kids- but some kind of WVO heating option
would be entirely appropriate- they really got off on the idea of sending
the kids (teens) to wrangle grease at KFC with me one day (and boy did the
kids swear not to eat any more fried food! resolution lasting only about
two days...). too bad in this case that WVO options are not as mainstream
as biodiesel being a straight replacement for home heating oil.
Mark
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuels list archives:
http://archive.nnytech.net/
Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
