After posting the previous post I received an email from Dean Gregory over at The Power Collective.

My worry about RidgeBlade is that it might be expensive. I let Dean explain otherwise in his own words:

whilst we cannot know the exact cost of the RidgeBlade units until we have finalised our production plans, the whole point of RidgeBlades was that they should be affordable – from the beginning we have designed them to be affordable. Our target is to produce a system that is cheaper and more efficient than the alternatives – and we are working very hard to make sure that we achieve this!

So now I’m even more interested in the RidgeBlade. Can’t wait till this goes to marked

It must be said that a lot of inventions are being done in the sustainable energy sector and that I feel we are on the brink of a true revolution. The one thing holding it back is the cost. The ideas are plenty and the company that can make any product affordable has the holy grail. Because we all want it, but we don’t want to scrape the bottom of our financial barrel in order to get.

The question still stands.., can we get off the grid.
In our previous post we concluded that Solar Power is a real possibility. All it really takes is money.., a whole bunch of it.., but as far as the authorities are concerned.., it should not be a problem.
Granted, in wintertime we will have a challenge.., a lot of cloudy days can cause a depletion of the batteries, if we’re not careful.

Windpower

So, another power source.., an additional power source would be quite helpful and since we are not blessed with a stream running through our property.., wind power is the only other viable source of energy.., note that I put “viable” in there. Off course there are several other ways to generate power, but these are not viable for us.., either they create a dependency (gas, uranium, diesel), or are too expensive.
No, wind is the only other “free” source.

Any problems then? Put up a wind turbine.., the biggest you can find and presto.., free energy forever. Well.., not quite.

Unfortunately there are regulations. And one of those regulations is that if we want to put up a wind turbine it has to be in the building zone of our land, not in the agricultural zone.., well that’s OK. We just put it all the way on the edge.., as far from the house as possible.

Again.., not so fast. For every meter we go up.., we have to keep the ground clear. So a 6 meter pole means a radius of 6 meter around to be clear, of anything. If the thing would fall over it would not hit anything.., makes sense, but it is annoying.
And I’d rather go up 12 meters than 6. If we could put it further down the land, things would work out just fine, but we can’t and it doesn’t.

Besides, studies show (PDF) that these things are expensive and not as efficient as one would like them to be.

RidgeBlade

Now, the people over at The Power Collective have developed a brilliant device called the RidgeBlade.

What they have come up with is brilliant. They fitted a turbine on the top of a house, but like no other.
I quote:

“The RidgeBlade is fitted on the ridge line at the top of a building and uses the existing roof area to collect and focus the prevailing wind. This is where the wind is forced to travel over the roof surface, accelerating the airflow though the turbine.”

Since we are in the process of filing for a permit this would neatly fit into our designs. But.., alas.., the people at The Power Collective are not market ready yet. They would love to sell me one, obviously, but they’re still testing and getting the whole production going.
They do plan on having something next year (2011). The idea is to start with a retrofit product.., adding the RidgeBlade to existing houses. That would fit us quite nicely. And the RidgeBlade would be aligned nicely with our prevailing winds. Don’t know what it’ll cost, but I’ll bet it will be an arm and a leg. But we have to wait and see, I’m on their mailing list.

Update: The latest word from The Power Collective is that “the whole point of RidgeBlades is that they should be affordable“.

VAWT

So, we have nothing then, no wind energy for the Four Elements House project. Well, maybe one more option.

A VAWT (Wikipedia: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine). Since we can’t go up, we have to stay on the ground. And yes.., the higher you can go, the better wind you can get. But if you have to stay low to the ground, a VAWT has the potential to deliver, something a HAWT cannot, or will hardly do.
We did find a supplier, in fact we found a guy pretty close to Chenogne. Appropriately they call themselves Greenenergy. But, as with most things related to green energy, this too is a very expensive hobby. Sure, we can earn the thing back in 20 years and you do get to be green. But we still have to invest a gargantuan amount of money (14k plus) in order to get there.

An advantage to these developments is that people/companies are developing machines that do seem to work. They may be (very) expensive, but the technology is out there. And people are building their own machines too.

SelfBuild

Our last resort as far as wind power goes.., seems to be.., building one of our own. Only a VAWT will do, we can place one of those without a permit or attention. All we need to do is make sure it can catch the wind.

A quick search on YouTube give multiple videos of VAWT systems build at home. And step-by-step manuals exist also.., like on the Instructables or on eHow.

Now, there are no plans yet, but chances are we will build one of our own, or die trying… All we need is a few pieces of the right equipment, some know how and a lot of determination. I think this should not be problem.
So, stay tuned, the plans and how we will prevail shall be posted.., of course.

No, well at least not for us, not at first.

The problem is that we will be needing a reasonable amount of electricity.
Because we will work from home using computers, which means a constant usage of power.

So what is the problem you might say, through a couple of solar panels on the roof and you are done.
I wish it were that simple.

It depends on a lot of things:

Location

If you live in for example Spain, the sun will shine a lot more then in Belgium. During the summer we can make do with a couple of solar panels but during the winter it is a whole different story  (in Januari only 1.6 hours and up to 6.8 in June, on average per day).

Solar Panel

It is the same with anything else in life, expensive solar panels have more revenue and there is a lot of choice. Finding the right solar panel is a challenge and the technology advances rapidly. The market for solar panels is one of the fast growing ones in the world so you can bet that they will improve immensely in the future.

Batteries

You need to store the electricity generated from the solar panels but wouldn’t it be great if you can store it for more then a few days, that way if there are a couple of overcast days you can still turn on the light. There is a lot of development in battery land. I just read that Panasonic is developing a battery that can store power for a week!

This al sounds fantastic but you still need enough solar panels to create enough kWh during winter time.

Then there are inverters, cables and more of those things to consider which will all determine how much power we will really have available.

So no, we wont go off the grid right away, we can’t afford it really, we more or less calculated we need about 16 solar panels installed to have enough energy during wintertime, that is at least 16.000 Euro and we won’t be able to afford it.

These 16 solar panels are calculated on the amount of electricity we use in our current (non energy efficient) house.

Of course we will use less energy in the new house, we will use energy saving appliances, LED lights, the whole deal. But let’s be honest here, I want to live comfortable, I don’t mind, that on cloudy winter days I will have to avoid using the washing machine as much as I can but I don’t want to spend my evenings reading a book by candle light because we are out of juice.

So what we are going to do is start On the Grid and buy a few solar panels and expand in time in the hope that Solar panels and battery’s will improve so we won’t have to cover the whole house in solar panels to be able to go Off the Grid.

Besides Solar panels there is Wind power.
But is it an alternative?
Next time I will tell you if it is for us.

2010 is going to be an interesting year.

This is the year we will need to prepare for 2011. The year in which we start building.
Now, when people ask when we start building, we can say.., “next year, we start building next year”.

So, what are the plans for 2010. I’ll sum them up to give an overview:

• Find an (Belgium) architect
• Submit for a building permit
• Sell the house in Rotterdam
• Move to Belgium
• Set up a temporary dwelling on our land
• Build a shed

Besides these actions we’ll need to learn (better) French, find suppliers, keep and find volunteers and keep working throughout everything to make money.

Wauw.., if you put it like that than 2010 is going to be a very interesting year indeed.

Architect

We need a native Belgium architect. One who speaks French as well as Dutch. This makes communication so much easier. It would help if he/she is from the south and had some dealings with our local government before.
Now, we did, or rather Laila and Lotte did speak to a potential and we hope that his price will be less enthusiastic as he was. As soon as we can agree on a price than we get cracking.
We need a somebody from Belgium because only Belgium architects can apply for building permits. Lotte would not be able to apply. A bonus is that a local architect can also help, a lot, with local contractors, and we’ll need all the help we can get with that.

Building Permit

In the talks L&L had with the architect he was very positive about the design (of course). He also suggested that it would not be a problem getting a permit on the design. Now, that is the design Lotte graduated on, it has slightly changed (see pictures).

Selling and Moving

These are a few issues that go together well. Selling the house, moving to Belgium, buying a (big) caravan and make Chenogne our home. This is also one of the most dramatic actions we will ever take in our lives and will definitely be the most dramatic move we’ll make this year.
Making a home in Chenogne will be tough, it has to be a temporary place, easily placed and maintained. But we’ll need (warm) water, electricity, something to cook on. All we have now is some grass, that’s it. A challenge to be met I’m sure.

Design

Last but not least. The house itself. Lotte has been creative again in providing solutions for our minor dilemmas.
Now, obviously all the ins and outs of the house will pass through this blog at some point, so I’ll leave you with just these images.

design and artist impression by Studio Middelkoop

Wouldn’t it be cool to have this kind of technology. According to Steven Cowley it will take a couple of decades.., chances are.., that is not quick enough.

Let’s make this a good one people…

Watch live video from OneClimate on Justin.tv

For more, watch The Stupid Show.

3th November 2009 was a day which might be considered the second milestone in the project that’s called “Four Elements House”.

Of course.., the first milestone was buying the land. But on 3th November  Lotte graduated as a Master of Sience from the Technical University of Delft, with a whopping 8,5. And she did it on the FEH design.

Below is a clip which illustrates the effort that went into creating the final presentation.

Building a model of a house takes effort.., and time. To have enough pictures for a presentation also.., you have to go.., uhhh.., one step beyond.

A little bit of history. In our Great Weekend of Desperation we were determined to end the search for land once and for all.

During our search we’ve travelled through a good part of Belgium and a bit of France. Trying to determine where to look was half the battle won.
Of course, getting a feel of what we would need was a good start.., during our first trip we realized that this was not going to be easy. Then, during our second trip, we decided that Belgium was no longer an option, mainly because of the prices. It seemed the further we got from Holland the cheaper the land became. We did, however, decided that the Ardennes would be the area we’d focus on.

We visited countless sites (seriously, I have no idea how many). We came across very nice lots, and not so nice lots, expensive lots, lots with a beautiful location, but facing the wrong way.., lots not big enough, lots to big.., lots filled with tree trunks.., you name it. Luckily we had a process to guide us. If the lot did not meet the criteria, we’d leave it. With some lots it was hard to determine, others were quite easy.

One lot in particular tickled our fancy, a great view, kinda steep, big enough, out of town, sort of facing south. But, after a revisit we, together with Lotte, concluded that the tree orchard next door would grow on for another 20 years and in another 5 year would block out the sun completely, and that was a very big no no. So, we let the Sleeping Slope lie…

Somewhere in early November 2008, after nine months of searching we hit pay-dirt. We found what we were looking for.
In a desperate attempt to “get it over with” we planned a whole weekend, rented a room in Bastogne, wrote down a list of potentials and decided to drive around until we found a piece of land or die trying (not really, it’s just to illustrate the seriousness of the weekend).

Our first stop on Saturday morning would be Chenogne.., and that’s all she wrote.

We found what we were looking for and the video documented that first, and now historical, visit (it really is kinda cool that we taped it).

So, how does one go about building a house?

Usually you get an architect and a builder and then you stand at the sideline looking pretty. Or at least I imagine it would be this way because I have no clue.
So how the hell do you proceed when the only thing you have is a drawing of a house? (and a beautiful drawing it is) and you plan to build your own house?
Well I am even more at a loss on that one.

Common Sense

Using common sense we of course have talked about it a lot and decided there needs to be a planning and a budget.
We need a building manager and a budget manager and it would be best if these where separate persons.
So it was decided earlier on that Niels will be the building manager/builder and I would be the budget manager/taking care of volunteers/cook/managing supplies/translator.

Funny enough I started with the last part. Since we will be living in the French speaking part of Belgium I thought it was a good idea to go to Brussels to learn French. We have been having lessons from a private tutor at home, but you know how it goes, when you work the whole week, doing your homework is not top of your list.
So 3 weeks in Brussels was an excellent start to explore the language and I feel a bit more confident that I will be able to order supplies etc.

Budget

As for the budget, well we of course talked to people who have done similar projects and it is very very hard to get an exact estimate of how much this is going to cost. It could be between the 600 and 900 euros per m2, but every house is different.
This winter I will try and find out how much the foundations and roofing of the house will cost. The walls will be the cheapest because we will be using rammed earth and straw bales.
I want to make a budget for a watertight house, and see how much that is. It is very important to have the house watertight before the winter starts.
I also want to make sure we have enough money to build a watertight house because it would be real bad if we ran out of money with the roof not yet finished…

Then there is water storage and filtration, sun boiler, solar panels, batteries, wind energy, septic tank, floor heating, heating etc etc etc

Fulltime

Since I am in between jobs right now, I have been searching the Internet for information. I have asked for price quotes on water storage systems and roofing. For now things are not going that smoothly, companies don’t really respond to email, which I think is pretty weird. Why would you mention an email address on your website if you wont respond to it?
But I am determined to go on and if we have to, we can go to Belgium or Germany to knock on their doors.
There is one thing for sure, you can make it a fulltime job, searching the web and researching!!

Anyway, I would like to know if you are interested in following my progress in finding out more about the do’s and don’ts of building a house yourself.
If you are, then please leave a comment (if you have questions or suggestions) and I will blog when I have found out more information.