Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

This one also includes info from Onebone, another Homestead "master"

Bev

-------- Original Message --------



Date:   Fri, 09 Jul 1999 13:05:20 -0400
Reply-To: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
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From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
To: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re: Alternate insulation
References: <378592EF.9E77C87B AT missouri.org>
<37861793.3A40 AT bellsouth.net> <378629C6.BDDB302C AT missouri.org>
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Sojourner wrote:

> Bevanron wrote:
> >
> > Sojourner wrote:
> > >
> > > So how are you supposed to evenly mix such a fire retardant into a
> > > substance like sawdust?
> > >
> > > Holly ;-D
> >
> > Don't know, but I personally would be more worried about termites,
> > though I am sure the borax would help some.
>
> US Forestry studies have shown that insects are not a problem with
> sawdust insulation.  I'm not sure WHY that is, maybe they just don't
> like their food cut up for them?  <VBG>
>
> Tvo, what do you think?  Is using packed sawdust for insulation a
> possibility or a hazard?
>
> Holly ;-D

> > > tvoivozhd---long before any other kind of insulation was even thought
of, sawdust was doing quite well, thank you.  One of my uncles used
sawdust to insulate the large icehouse he required for his creamery---and
the walls of the creamery as well.  My grandfather owned seventeen of them
and that is what he used too.

They were all well out of the termite zone.  My experience with termites
in India and Texas is they will eat almost anything that isn't soaked with
something lethal to them.  I would use borax (and make sure it was
well-contained within the wall under all weather-conditions)

Sawdust doesn't have the R-value of the foams---use more of it in wider
walls.  I like wider walls anyway---a little extra cost, a lot more mass
with better esthetics.
````````````````````
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Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:15:38 -0800
From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
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To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Ammonia refrigeration
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onebone AT iwon.com wrote:

> I took a couple of semesters of A/C&R at Junior College
> about ten years ago, because I was interested in
> driving a turbine of my own invention with freon,
> using solar-heated water to pressurize the freon.
>
> I guess there's no law that says ammonia wouldn't
> suffice. What are you up to?
>
> Regards,
> Onebone
> -- Original Message --
>
> >Does anyone know someone I can brainstorm with about ammonia refrigeration
> >equipment and design? I've tried some the technical groups but they don't
> >seem to want to talk to the layman.

tvoivozhd---as I remember, the M.D. who invented icemaking in this 
country used
ammonia refrigeration, as did all commercial icemaking houses after 
mechanical
refrigeration supplanted hand sawn blocks of ice hauled off northern 
lakes to
sawdust storage in icehouses.

One of the earliest home refrigerators was the Crosley IcyBall---a
dumbbell-shaped
device containing ammonia and water.  The ammonia was driven by a
kerosene flame
from one bell-cntainer through the joining tube, to the other.  As it slowly
leaked back in, the interior of the rifrigerator was cooled.  It
worked quite well
and because it was completely sealed, had an almost infinite service 
life---the
containers and connecting tube were of copper to avoid corrosion.

Back in the late 1960's I saw a piston engine that was being powered
by a binary
system using ammonia and water, but it was experimental and I don't
remember the
details.  Freon would be an alternative and is currently used in the 
Stirling
generators installed in manned space flight.

I made a study of the subject several years ago and compiled a lot of
schematics.
I don't know whether they are on unindexed CD's from the last hard
drive reformat,
a moribund but salvagable hard drive from a previous computer, or in a 
totally
dead hard drive I keep around, but never sent off for data
recovery---last time I
checked that cost around $1200.

It is hard to bring up research data of this kind, because the search
engines are
responding more and more to commercial sites and less and less to
those which are
informational without a commercial axe to grind.
If you don't find anything, get back to me and I will look at the
CD's.  It may be
months before I try to breathe life into the old computer as a Linux
server. Right
now I have been waiting ten days for delivery of the additional 128 Mb 
of RAM I
need to cope with the gluttonous appetite of antivirus and restore 
systems that
quickly exhaust resources and force reboots---so I have been
relatively inactive
lately.



--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the 
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.