Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Design your own home 21Feb 08, 2017 1:29 pm That off the grid power looks like a nice set up! Did you explore the Tesla home batteries? My dream is to one day go off the grid, I'll be following with interest! Kind Regards James Mason - Our Build. www.renovationjunkies.com.au www.ourbuildhandyman.com.au Re: Design your own home 22Feb 08, 2017 7:41 pm Hi James, I'll have a go at most things, but apart from changing a power point or the like, I'm happy to leave 240V alone. That said I take advise from my Sparky who understands it and the opinion was that the Powerwall is over hyped and overpriced. We looked at getting lithium batteries and the best option I was told were lithium ferro phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries. They have advantages over the lead acid ones I'm using, but being fairly new on the scene their longevity is theoretical at this stage. The design life of my batteries is 20 years and if I get 15 I'll be happy. The LiFePO4 batteries are more expensive also. This topic on some forums can get heated at times so I'll leave it there. Re: Design your own home 23May 08, 2017 11:07 pm About time I did an update. Progress has been slow up to date, but it looks like accelerating now - a few photos to look at. View looking over the garage (left) and kitchen (right). This is facing West - 270° true Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ North side. Mostly it is just the inside leaf of the wall built so far and when they get the floor on the plumber and sparky will come along and do their thing. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The I Beams sit on blocks screwed to the limestone - all levelled up with a laser level. The second storey wall will continue up by putting standard house bricks in the small space between the I beams (they cannot be seen as it is in the ceiling/floor space). Standard bricks are used because they have to carry a lot of weight and are stronger than the limestone. The limestone will then continue up from what will be floor level, upper storey. This is the inside wall. The outside leaf (skin) will go up without any breaks. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Showing the wall cavity (75mm) with the Kooltherm cavity board taking up 25mm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Flooring board (chipboard) comes tomorrow so progress happens and we expect to have a finished house around Oct/Nov. Pat Re: Design your own home 24Jun 07, 2017 10:12 pm Another milestone today: the water is on. The electricity has been on nearly a year now and the water has been coming from my present home, 3.5kms away, but it comes from a creek and is not of the same quality as that from the Mid Goulburn Rv. where the new house is located. I built the shed and set up the pumps and the electrician came and connected the power today so that is 2 out of 3 of my services sorted out, leaving the LPG to do later. It will be for the hot water and cooking. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The shed is 36mx12m with 6 bays and the one nearest the camera is closed in and holds the off grid solar setup. The tanks are 22,500l each. There is no water tank on the house; the tanks pictured will provide my water for house and garden. In the wetter months it will be mostly rain water and in the dryer period, mostly river water, for which I have a large pump on the river. For drinking water I use a Berkey filter which gives water as good or better than treated water (I've had it tested). The wife and I were in Marysville recently and we thought that the water there was similar to our filtered water: an Internet search showed that it was the second best tap water in the world in 2015 http://www.gvwater.vic.gov.au/about-us/news-centre/media-releases/20162292165107.asp That said, I have no problem drinking the river water as is and it has never harmed me. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The pump on the left is a Grundfos Scala 2 (thanks to SaveH2O for the heads up) which is for the house water and the other one is an Onga JJ400 which will do the garden and stock troughs, the furthermost being 1.5kms away. The power point on the left is 15 amp and is for the pressure washer, with the the other two above the pumps so that the sheep and wombats don't get tangled in the leads. A gate would stop the sheep, but not wombats as they burrow under if they can't go through. There is a light on the exterior back wall of the pump shed and connected to the pressure switch so that I can see from the house (170m away) when the pressure pump is working. Handy for when there is a leak, or more likely, when I forget to turn a hose off. The house progresses slowly, but as the builder says, it is a complicated build. Being double skin and double storey, the brickies have to come and go 4 times. They have finished the outer skin downstairs now and the builders have started building the upstairs frame. I'll post some photos when that is done. Re: Design your own home 25Jun 11, 2017 7:55 pm Harpies There is a light on the exterior back wall of the pump shed and connected to the pressure switch so that I can see from the house (170m away) when the pressure pump is working. That is a heck of a distance to run water to the house! Is there an increasing slope to the house and what size pipe did you use? Does the SCALA2 supply the pressure tank and if so, what pressure did you set the pressure tank at? 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using siphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost, siphonic, eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Design your own home 26Jun 12, 2017 5:11 pm There is a small fall from the pumps to the house-maybe 500mm and both pumps feed into separate 1½ inch rural poly pipes so not much head loss there. The Onga pump is on the pressure tank and the Grundfos on it's lonesome. If there is an issue with delay from turning on the tap in the house and getting water then I will put a small pressure tank next to the house (for the Scala 2). The pressure switch is set for 200kpa - 350kpa with the pressure tank just a bit below cut in pressure. A technical question here. I was told that jet pumps work best with some back pressure, generally done with a gate valve on the delivery side about half open. What is your view on this? I can experiment usefully as I'm using the boom spray a bit over the next few weeks and fill 2000l at a time. The one fill I've done so far did 1300l in 20 mins. with the gate valve at around half. I'm thinking that it will be quicker with the gate valve full on, but I will see later this week. Re: Design your own home 27Jun 12, 2017 9:18 pm The system all sounds good. The SCALA2 has a small internal pressure tank that Is set at (I think) 60psi for that initial delivery demand while it spools up. I'll check the pressure when I get time. Jet pumps are designed to sacrifice some 'push' for 'pull' to give more suction performance. I am not a pump expert and so I really can't give an informed answer regarding the back pressure suggestion but I can say that I personally would avoid any degree of deadheading wherever possible because it is energy inefficient and increases pump wear. Maybe contact the pump manufacturer and ask. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using siphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost, siphonic, eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Design your own home 28Jun 12, 2017 10:13 pm Thanks for that. I'm several months away from needing to use the Scala, but its nice to have some jobs ticked off. From the instructions: "Adjust the tank precharge pressure to 70 % of the required outlet pressure." I'm a firm believer in 'when all else fails, read the instructions' Re: Design your own home 29Jun 13, 2017 1:33 am 70% would be right, that is the accepted best formula and Grundfos make the best. If you add a second tank, it has to have the same pressure as the internal smaller tank but you won't need an additional tank with the Scala2. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using siphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost, siphonic, eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Design your own home 31Oct 31, 2017 8:12 pm OK, time for another update: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ As you can see, things are moving along and the builder says that it should be habitable by the Christmas break. All the limestone walls are complete and the cleaning and sealing is progressing - the walls will go a light stone colour after that. The exterior red ironbark shiplap cladding is finished and just needs a light sanding. It has actually got darker with exposure, but over time will go a light grey. Next week the verandahs and eaves will be done. The gable end eaves are 450mm and the others 1 meter. Inside the red ironbark flooring is almost all laid and the tiler is at work. On the subject of tiles I must say what a depressing place tile showrooms are these days. A sea of grey all over - boring, boring, boring. I got some colour, but hell, it comes at a price. Photos to come when they are laid. The cabinetry materials and colour has been decided and they are being built and all the paint colours have been settled on. Being able to model the colours in the design software has been of great assistance and made a difficult job much easier. The plan I did has stood the test of time and has hardly been altered. The builders view is that the plan is a guide for him and he will make changes where he thinks it is necessary. I was quite comfortable with this and we have got along swimmingly. I'm usually onsite a couple of times a day; quite often to lift or unload stuff with the tractor and forks and this saved us having to hire other lifting equipment. The builder costed scaffolding hire and it was an outrageous price , so he bought his own and charged me around half what it would have cost otherwise, with no hurry to pull it down. More to come when the cabinets are done and there is some colour inside. Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 62303 I'm from ABC News looking into this and wondering if anyone has been able to do this and IF NOT what hurdles were put your way. Would love to chat if this is you please DM me. 0 7107 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 41046 |