Monday, October 29, 2012

Ruins Of San Juan Parangaricutira Church Revisited



A couple of years ago as we traveled through the Mexican state of Michoacan
 we were advised by fellow travelers to visit the Paricutin Volcano
I am glad we did.

(Please note this is a post I originally did 12/30/10 
and I want to highlight some of my older posts that I did in the first year or so of this blog 
that may have been overlooked by current readers, hope you enjoy it.)

Monday, October 22, 2012

Building A Well House #9: Trombe Wall Solar Collector



It was a thrill to finally get to the point in this project 
that I had been most looking forward to 
and that was building the Trombe Wall passive solar heater 
to keep our well house from freezing in the winter.

In the photo above you can see we are pretty solarized with the Trombe wall
 and in the background you can get a glimpse of the attached sunroom on the house
 and the solar batch water heater on the roof, all passive solar use.

To follow along on the well house project:

Monday, October 8, 2012

Building A Well House #7: Prepping For Stucco



Once we got the plumbing and electrical hooked up in the well house
 we were ready to finish up the outside
 and the first step was insulating and wiring for the stucco.

This being a cement block building I wanted to try and refine some techniques
 I have been working on for applying stucco over rigid foam insulation.

Here is the complete series to date for those who may want to follow along:

Monday, October 1, 2012

Building A Well House #6: Plumbing And Electrical



Once we had the roof done on the well house we wanted to go ahead
and make the switch over from the old well system to the new
before we did the outside finishing of insulation, stucco, and solar Trombe wall.

Here is the whole series to date:
Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

In the photo above you can see the old set up unearthed:
-the well casing at the top of the photo, installed in 1984,
-the 1 1/4" white pvc line that goes from the well to the two houses 
(this is a shared well), 
-and the buried grey pressure tank.

Also note the 3" white pvc line with a cap on it 
at the very bottom of the photo that is the conduit for the new pex 
(polyethelene cross braided water line),
and the 1" electrical conduit that has been left short till we are ready for the final hook up,
both of which run back to the new well house.