The BigBelly garbage cans use solar panels to generate power.
(Steve Rukavina/CBC)
The City of Montreal is going solar in its bid to clean up downtown streets.
The Ville-Marie borough has launched a pilot project starring BigBelly, a “green” garbage can that uses cordless compaction technology.
In my quest to get myself land and a home for the least amount of money possible, I have discovered Straw Bale Houses. Essentially, they are houses made of straw that are better than traditional houses in many ways. They are better insulated, better fire rating (Yeah that one surprised me too, but it’s really condensed straw, have you ever tried to burn a phonebook?), and better sound proofing. Obviously though, the walls are about 3 -4 times thicker than regular walls, so you lose some space. In my case I plan on having plenty of space to build on so it won’t matter.There are 2 main ways to put up a straw bale house :
1 - the Post and Beam set-up. This involves putting up a wooden post and beam structure for the 4 corners that will hold up the roof. So basically you make the Frame for a house like you would any other house, and then fill it in with Straw Bales. (More on this later) This method is best because it’s a lot easier to get the building permits and insurance after.
2 -Load Bearing straw bale design, essentially it’s when you literally put the roof directly on top of the straw bale walls. This involves needing to compress the straw bale walls before putting the roof in order to compensate for the settling of the walls later.
The straw bales are obviously not left exposed. They are covered with a mix of Plaster like materiels (Lime or cement, plaster, etc etc) with multiple coats until they make a solid wall. These walls look perfectly normal. The finished houses look gorgeous. They can be big or small. Since the outside walls start out of straw, they can be cut and shaped very easily to make for very interesting house shapes and corners.
The costs involved in building a straw bale house vary a lot. It’s not “cheap” to build, the materiels still cost a lot of money. You need concrete for the foundation, you need LOTS of straw Bales, you need WOOD for the frame of the house, you need the roof structure itself (Lots of choices for kinds of roof though), you need plumbing installed (Which is beyond what I know how to do anyways) and most of all, you need MANY MANY MANY hours of labour. That last part is where you can save the most money if you do a lot of it yourself, except if it means you’re not at work because you’re building the house, it’s still costing you the money you’re losing by not working. I’m a self-employed technician, so I can pick the quietest months of the year for me to build my home so I won’t be “losing” too much money while building. (Plus I’ll get income from the work that gets done by subcontractors for my customers while I’m gone)
A straw bale house is a definite possibility for me and I will keep looking into it. There are still lots of parts of the construction process that I’m unsure of. Although I do love the earth-friendly part of this kind of home (saving lots of tree’s kinda thing) I will only be building this kind of structure of it does mean significant savings for me in the end. A traditional structure I’m sure would sell for more if I ever needed to sell, and I won’t need to explain or convince the bankers / insurance / permit people that a straw bale house is safe and legal.
Here are some links to some sites I’ve used to study about this :
http://www.solarhaven.org
http://www.balewatch.com
Just GOOGLE “Straw Bale Houses” and read away !
Thanks for reading, checkout http://www.techienation.com for more interesting subjects.
One of the toughest things for me to do, was to calculate the power that was needed 
every day for your Solar Powered System. I’m not sure why this was so hard for me, because once you understand how it works it’s pretty simple.
I find the simplest way to calculate power consumption is by calculating how many WATTS each electrical “whatever” takes. A 60 Watt Light bulb for example needs 60 Watts of Power PER HOUR while turned on. Most appliances don’t give the Wattage required, but do give the 2 components needed to calculate wattage.
Volts X Amps = Watts
Any kind of appliance that you plug into a wall socket in a regular powered home is either 120 volts (Which is the case for me, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) or 230 Volts. (Europe, far off places I never had a chance to visit) 
. The amperage it takes will be written on the appliance. My Laptop Power supply says it has an input of 110-240 Volts (and I know HERE it’s 120) and 1.5Amps . 120v X 1.5a = 180 Watts per hour
It’s fun to calculate in Wattage because it’s universal, regardless of the voltage you’re running at. You must do this for every electrical thing you wish to have in your house. Calculate the wattage per hour, and then guess how many hours per day they will be in use.
Now to calculate how many Watts you have available from your battery bank. Lets say you have 4 X 6 volt batteries @ 225 amp. You have 2 ways of configuring the batteries, a 12 volt system @ 450 amps, or a 24 volt system @ 225 amps. Lets say we’re setting it up in 12 volt mode which means we have 450 amps to play with.
12volts X 450amps = 5400 Watts
Ok that SEEMS great, but in order to keep batteries alive for as long as possible, you’re not supposed to use more than HALF of their capacity. (Some people say not to discharge
more than 20%!) Although I only recommend Deep Cycle Batteries (which means that they CAN discharge alot and recharge alot) it’s still in the best interest of the batteries not to drain more than %50. All this to say, we have 2700 Watts to play with. If you don’t have any heavy electrical appliances (Fridge, washer, Blow Dryer) 2700 Watts is pretty decent. Lets pretend after doing the math of what we want to power on Solar, that we need 2000 watts a day on average. So far so good, our batteries give us 2700 watts to play with, except after just a little over a day, we’ll have used all the wattage we have !! (without going into the “emergency” battery power that we’re not supposed to touch)
This is where the solar panels (or other power making devices) come in. The Solar panels are going to be our battery chargers. We said we need 2000 Watts per day, so our Solar 
Array needs to be able to generate atleast 2000 watts every day. Solar Panels are calculated in Watts also. A 100 Watt Solar Panel will generate 100 Watts of power going into your batteries, PER HOUR of peak sunlight. I calculate 4 hours a day of Peak Sunlight on average. (In Montreal, Quebec) To generate 2000 Watts of power every day (which is the minimum we need to generate) we would need 5 100 Watt Solar Panels. (We would therefore be creating 500 Watts per hour of sunlight X 4 hours = 2000 Watts)
For more information, please visit techienation.com, or if you have any questions you may email me at digitalmind @ techienation . com (minus the spaces)
Over the last few months, I’ve been doing TONS of reading on Solar Power. It started because my sister is living in a home with no Hydro and was considering Solar Power instead of chopping down tree’s in order to get electricity installed by the power company. It turned into a small obsession for me, because I just can’t believe how much power the sun can generate and how little us humans use this power. Why am I giving so much money to the local electric company when we can all literally MAKE our own power ?! This whole investigation is what motivated me to buy land and build a house.
I’ve studied every aspect of solar power set-ups. It’s actually quite simple in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, it takes alot of reading, but anyone with just a bit of “techie-power” in them can figure it out.
This is the basics of what i’ve learned :
Get solar panels. If they advertise they’re 100 watts, it means they generate 100 watts of power per hour of direct peak sunlight. In my area, (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) I calculate 4 hours of peek sunlight per day on average. That would mean that a 100 watt panel will generate 400 watts per day of power. The main purpose of the solar panels are to charge batteries, which in reality, is what REALLY powers the place. (The more panels you have, the quicker you can re-charge your batteries.
Solar panels are connected to a charge controller. The charge controller makes sure that power only flows ONE WAY. (Without this, when there is no sun, the power in the batteries would start LEAVING through the solar panels. (Well, sorta) The Charge Controller also make sure you don’t over charge your batteries.
add the voltages of the batteries together. (so 2 6 volt, 100 amp batteries, connected in series will give you a 12 volt output. 100 amps) When you connect the batteries in Parallel, the voltage stays the same, but you add the AMPS together. (so 2 6 volt, 100 amp batteries connected in PARALLEL would give you 6 volts, 200 amps) Most Renewable Energy systems are configured to run either 12 volts or 24 volts. The main difference that I have noticed, is that you need more expensive cable to carry the 12 volts from point A to B without much loss in comparison to 24 volts. So, if you have a long way to go between batteries and inverter, configure the batteries in 24 volt mode and you’ll save on wire costs.
should put a fuse box and label your 12 or 24 volt output. You can connect lights, fancy fridges, and any other 12 or 24 volt appliance directly to this output. THEN comes the regular appliances and lights. My sisters place for example, although there is no power, by law she had to install electrical plugs, and ceiling lights a little everywhere. This actually is a good thing for me, since there is existing wiring and such. Directly from the batter bank, you then connect an Inverter. An Inverter converts 12 (or 24) volts to regular household 120 volts. Inverters are a little complicated, and although you can spend thousands to get a GREAT one that will run all your regular electrical appliances, it will also drain your batteries even when not working. I plan on getting a cheaper one, that will run the lights, laptop, cell phone chargers, small microwave, but NOT the fridge or any heavy appliances. You need a speciality 12 volt fridge. (Ideally)Now, we have panels, batteries, and we’ve connected what we need. There is LOTS more involved once you’re actually doing it. (Unless your an electrical genius) This is just my BASICS section. 
I may add onto it later, and if you have questions, please ask !!!
Here are some recent related articles :
Pictures and documentation from my Kingston Solar Power installation
Figuring out how many panels you need and how much power you consume
Choosing the right battery for your renewable energy systems
This is my issue right now. For the moment, I want to feel that I live far away from neighbors, I want to see lots of stars at night, yet I’d like to be able to drive to some city of sorts in order to get supplies and work.
I’ve been looking alot at New Brunswick for 3 reasons :
1) It’s beautiful, and you get that “maritime” attitude. To me, that means everyone is relaxed and calm and friendly. When you’re in Moncton, you can’t really make eye contact with someone without saying a quick hello.
2) It’s cheap !!! All the best deals i’ve seen on what I consider to be my “dream land” is in New Brunswick.
3) I have business contacts and friends (well, A friend) in Moncton and i’m pretty sure I would be able to find work. (I’d like to work just 2-3 days a week for a while when I first move)
On the other hand, my Mum is on the north shore of Montreal, and my sister in Ontario. Moving to New Brunswick would really put me far away from the people I care about. (I plan on building a guest house so that people can come stay with us for extended periods) That’s right friends, you’re all coming to spend a week a year in TechieNation to relax, camp, party, whatever ! 
I’ve gotta admit, saving money is not my strong suit. I have however come up with a great way of putting money aside that I won’t be able to spend until I am ready to buy land. Although it’s kinda personal, i’ve decided to add my total amount saved on the right hand side of this page to keep everyone up to date. This will also help motivate me as I see my savings for this project grow.
Today is Nov. 6th, which is the first “deposit” I make to the bank of techienation … 
Nature is my friend. When I was growing up, the forest was my backyard and I lived on a cul de sac. I spent soooo much time walking in the forests, making picnics, forts, playing games. All this to say I love the forest, I love nature, and I love animals. I’ve always wanted to live out far away with all these things I love. The issue for me, is that there are always bills to pay, and the best way to make money is here in the city. (I am in Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
I am sick of living and working just to pay my bills, and I’ve always wanted to get rid of all that. I am a strange combination of 2 things :
1) A Simple guy who just wants to live his life. I want food to eat and a place to call home.
2) A Techie. I need internet access. I spend sooo much time on the computer, and am not willing to give up my favorite “hobby”.
I’ve recently discovered that when you look hard enough and long enough, you can get nice sized chunks of land for pretty low costs. (My Sister did it!) I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Solar and Wind Power and feel confident that I can power-up any house I get myself , which is great, because that’s 1 less bill per month!
SO THIS IS MY MISSION : (A multiple year plan)
1) I will buy land, ANYWHERE that is cheap enough, within 1 year. (Oct. 31, 2008) If I didn’t buy it by then, I should altleast have the funds to buy it. I will NOT have it financed, I will save, then pay upfront for the land. I’m looking at spending around $10,000 for atleast 3-4 acres of land. (When you look far enough, it’s possible!)
2) I will prepare the land for a house, which means installing a septic tank, drilling for a well, and any other things needed.
3) Build a small house with just 1 bedroom
4) Install Solar and Wind Electricity
5) Pack-Up, MOVE, and enjoy semi-retirement !
This is obviously “just an idea” of how to go about this. The bottom line is I want my own house and land, and I want to cut my monthly costs to just about ZERO dollars without giving up the techielife I know and love.
I will buy land upfront, make my own electricity, have a nice sized vegetable garden, a small chicken coop (For eggs and occasional meat) etc, etc etc ….
I will keep everyone updated via this blog on my idea’s and progress of this project. I have started this week with 0$ towards this so i’m literally starting from scratch. The first year will just be working and looking at land.
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