Nematode
Mycillium attached to nematode.
Showing posts with label microbes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label microbes. Show all posts
Water Storage
As water becomes more difficult to obtain we are going to be forced into looking for better solutions.
This is a section of a modular water wall.
I did a quick search and others are also thinking along these lines and some of the walls are very decorative. The idea of free or cheap drums is admirable but they are not large enough nor are they aesthetic.
Its time to think outside the box. What about large reservoirs of water under our houses or hidden within our walls which would also be used to moderate temperature with its thermo-mass.
I used to live in a very old house in downtown Tucson. The walls were built of adobe and they were nearly 3 feet thick. The hot Tucson summers were quite bearable due to the thermo-mass of these walls even though I had no air conditioning.
If we were to build houses like this our energy and water consumption would both drop. A stucco finish would make the walls look like any other house except for thick walls, and the comfort would be amazing. This water could be collected during the rainy season and used later in the hot dry summer months to grow food and ensure a beautiful cooling landscape.
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A family of five uses about 1 acre foot (about 325,000 gallons) or (1225 m3) of water a year. So saving water from your roof top may only make a small difference, but small differences add up. Right now it costs about $1000 to process that much water from waste water or to build a new reservoir.
Desalination has been done in other parts of the world and California is going to build a desalination plant in San Diego capable of 50 million gallons (189000 m3) a day. But the cost is probably going to be twice the cost we are used to. There are also concerns that the plant will kill fish, but efforts are being incorporated that should solve this problem.
In total fifteen desalination projects using reverse osmosis are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay. In the past many other desalination plants have been closed due to the high cost of operation. The plant will use an enormous amount of energy -- about 38 megawatts, enough to power 28,500 homes.
The efficiency works out to be about 3 kWh for 1 m3or 88 gallons / kWh fresh water. Sounds like a lot of water, but the reality is this will only provide about 7 percent of the total water needs of San Diego County.
Another problem I see is that this is going to be privately owned. I would prefer to see communities own their own water source.
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This is a section of a modular water wall.
Its time to think outside the box. What about large reservoirs of water under our houses or hidden within our walls which would also be used to moderate temperature with its thermo-mass.
I used to live in a very old house in downtown Tucson. The walls were built of adobe and they were nearly 3 feet thick. The hot Tucson summers were quite bearable due to the thermo-mass of these walls even though I had no air conditioning.
If we were to build houses like this our energy and water consumption would both drop. A stucco finish would make the walls look like any other house except for thick walls, and the comfort would be amazing. This water could be collected during the rainy season and used later in the hot dry summer months to grow food and ensure a beautiful cooling landscape.
A family of five uses about 1 acre foot (about 325,000 gallons) or (1225 m3) of water a year. So saving water from your roof top may only make a small difference, but small differences add up. Right now it costs about $1000 to process that much water from waste water or to build a new reservoir.
Desalination has been done in other parts of the world and California is going to build a desalination plant in San Diego capable of 50 million gallons (189000 m3) a day. But the cost is probably going to be twice the cost we are used to. There are also concerns that the plant will kill fish, but efforts are being incorporated that should solve this problem.
In total fifteen desalination projects using reverse osmosis are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay. In the past many other desalination plants have been closed due to the high cost of operation. The plant will use an enormous amount of energy -- about 38 megawatts, enough to power 28,500 homes.
The efficiency works out to be about 3 kWh for 1 m3or 88 gallons / kWh fresh water. Sounds like a lot of water, but the reality is this will only provide about 7 percent of the total water needs of San Diego County.
Another problem I see is that this is going to be privately owned. I would prefer to see communities own their own water source.
Easy Tea Brewer
Last year I build a compost tea brewer that created a vortex. Time has taught me a few things and today I rebuilt the brewer to make the whole operation a lot easier.
The whole vortex thing is impressive and fun to watch but I really dont see the benefit. If you are into the mystical power of vortex then this design is not your cup of tea (Like the pun?)
Once the tea was made transporting to the garden became a choir that I disliked so much that the tea would often sit too long and ended up being wasted. The trick was to make clean tea that I could pump through a hose to the garden beds. Experiments showed me that simply placing the compost in a strainer bag did not let sufficient water flow through the bag.
This new design uses an airlift pump to recirculate the tea water through a strainer bag filled with compost. The airlift adds plenty of aeration to the tea.
I built this from parts I had around and will change the 3/4" pipe going to the bag to a 2" pipe for even better flow. A PVC Slip Coupling on this pipe holds the bag in place with the zip tie just above the coupling.
I also cut the container down to a depth that I can comfortably reach the bottom of. Cleaning the 33" tall 55 gallon drum was quite difficult and messy since I had to place my head an shoulders into the drum in order to scrub it out.
Im running the new design for the first time right now. Cleanup will be easy as removing the bag of compost and wiping out the barrel. Distribution will be done with a high powered sump pump. I will be able to spray full strength tea on my plants and water them with an abundance of active microbes.
With this easy brewer I will be far more likely to brew very often.
For those who are looking carefully at the photos you may have noticed the 2" pipe connects through the bottom. This adds stability to the pipes. I might not have done this except the original design used this hole to create the vortex. It think it is a good idea and may even replace the cap that I put on to seal the bottom with a 2" valve in case I should ever want to drain the barrel from the bottom.
Most of these pipes are not glued so they all come apart easily for cleaning.
After using this design I saw a way easily increase the flow so I extended the air lift all the way to the ground. This design works just as well and turned out to be even quieter than the previous design. Cleanup is not significantly more difficult so I will keep these changes, In fact it is so easy that I would not have any trouble making tea every day.
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