We finally got our pump house plastered at our homestead. We waited until after the rainy season to make sure the bags were dry. It’s looking pretty good considering the whole thing only cost about $200-$300. We had bags, salvaged wood and old roofing tiles left over from previous projects. The door and cement plaster were the only significant expenses. One nice addition was eucalyptus poles inserted between courses at about 2’ height. Pallets on top of the poles make a perfect platform off the ground for our pump. The inside of the pump house remains nice and cool year round due to the thick walls and ventilation around the top. This proves what I’ve been saying for years – you don’t need air conditioning (even in deserts and tropical climates) in properly designed buildings. The last step is painting. Now we’re trying to decide what color to paint the walls.
As reported earlier, the pump house is a prototype of our proposed UN emergency earthbag shelters.
Just curious what some of you would do. I purchased my 784 square foot home this summer, knowing that the heat pump was ancient. The inspector couldn’t find the date on it, but estimated that it was at least 20 years old. It’s quite a behemoth. All of that I can deal with – but it’s inefficiency is what’s troubling me. My electric bill for November in Raleigh, NC was $163 – which seems ridiculous, given the tiny square footage of the house. I’ve never been one to frivolously replace things just to be current – tend to drive cars ’til the die, etc. – but in this case would I be better off from an efficiency standpoint to just replace this thing, or should I ride it out? It’s certainly on borrowed time – but I’m concerned about $200 electric bills as we hit Jan. and continuous low temps. FYI – I keep the temp at 65. Input?
All mechanical systems eventually fail. Sounds like it’s time for a replacement.
Simple structures like this would work well for seed storage vaults with the addition of ceiling insulation. ECHO used burned rice hulls for insulation on their earthbag seed vault. http://sustainabilityquest.blogspot.com/2012/01/echo-asias-earthbag-house-potential.html
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