In the meantime I have been trying to get quotes on solar panels, batteries and inverters. This is some exercise. The costs vary dramatically and the power output is not very good. But this deserves a separate post to deal with the various issues - cost being probably the biggest.
Also, I have been circulating the window schedule to various window manufacturers and this also deserves a separate post but it's not going to get one. This house is definitely going to be very light as in light and not weight. The north facing windows are over 3m in height. They're big (and probably heavy also). Since this is meant to be a very low energy house, I have approached some local double glazing suppliers and the cost is something to behold - $52,000! There is a cheaper one at $37,500. But how's this - the Chinese can supply the same windows (European standard) for less than $10,000. Now that is a moral dilemma of note! Does one forget the ethics of supporting local and cash in on globalisation while it exists, especially at that discount! In the meantime I am waiting on a local craftsman to give me a price on wooden windows that will be made from recycled or sustainably harvested wood. My guess is that these will be priced around the local double glazed price.
The equipment to process the soil is also coming along. The biggest issue has been how to lift the soil up over the forms. I purchased a 6m long conveyor and thought that it would make this light work. However soil does not willingly travel up a gradient greater than 22.5 degrees and I would need to significantly lengthen the conveyor to make it work. At six metres, it is so heavy that it
takes 6 men to move and that includes Midnight - seen standing here in the photo. Midnight is one of the crew who probably gets his name from staying up well past midnight for a few days after pay day. It has something to do with the copious amounts of Klipdrift (brandy) that he consumes until he's destitute once again. The other day we were in town and it seemed that everyone knew Midnight and fresh greetings occurred every few paces. It was then that someone from a passing bus shouted "Forklift" and Midnight duly greeted him. Forklift? I thought it had something to do with his legendary 'midnight' status with the girls. Not so... he has the strength of a forklift apparently and nicknames such as this are quite common. And he is built from the waist up. I can't comment on the other half but even with Midnight weighing in, the conveyor is heavy.So now we are embarking on another way to lift the soil. It's all down to the ingenuity of Deon. Deon is a ge
ntle cyclops with one arm instead of one eye. He must be over six foot five inches in height and is softly spoken with more strength in his one arm than I have in my entire body. He smokes and this is a problem for me. How do you greet a one-armed man with a cigarette in the only hand that you can shake? And it's not that he's going to put it in his mouth as you just don't greet someone with a cigarette in your mouth either. So now we just wave at each 
other. Maybe he thinks I'm a gay Prius driver thanks to Jeff Dunham and just strikes up a smoke to avoid the handshake. Whatever he thinks, he has come up with a nifty winched bucket system that overcomes my conveyor problem. It is attached directly to the pan mixer so avoids multiple handling of the mixed soil and offers a simple and effective mechanism of lifting and loading the soil into the form. There's one problem in that I haven't seen it work just yet as we've only just finalised how to lift the hoist itself. And it's something else that is really heavy. At least the sieve works and the gearing is now correct, which is fantastic notwithstanding the fact it weighs a ton.
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very impressive. Does this qualify as a day job as it looks more like a year project. Bruce
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