Andrew Welser

Caleb Mayfield wrote:I have a 40 foot High Cube shipping container on my property that has my shop in 15 feet of one end and storage in the rest.

For storage I built shelves on one side and install 24" deep pallet racking style shelves on the other side with a 48" aisle down the middle. You can also drill through the walls and bolt on boards like 2x6's to attach hooks or do a french cleat system.

I have the same container set up; what I did for shelving was built to fit and hung by chain from the upper tie-down eyes of the container (my container had eyes every 44", I think). That allowed me to have upper shelves the entire length of the container even over the shop/workbench area, and add additional shelves in the storage area, but still leave the floor free for things to large/heavy to go on a shelf, and not make any exterior penetrations.

It's only 30' or so from the house so I ran a couple electric circuits to it (ran conduit underground, elbowed up and drilled through the wood floor); for lighting I initially ran some exterior string lights I had on hand, but ended up running LED shop lights over the workbench and spaced down the storage area.

Depends on the type of "truck stuff" that needs doing, there are some different options:

Mini vans, station wagons, and hatchbacks can swallow a lot of stuff with seats folded down, with the benefit of lighter items not blowing out on the highway. Tarping may still be needed: I moved hay bales in my Vibe one time, and was still finding pieces up until I sold it close to 10 years later.

I put hitches on both that Vibe and the Corolla that replaced it, each was rated to tow 2000lb. I've moved a lot of furniture and other large items with those cars and a harbor freight 4x8 trailer.

A larger truck based SUV will have a larger towing rating, allowing for larger sized trailers.

I now have a mini van and so rarely use my trailer; adding a trailer covers 95%+ of my need, so the few occasions I need something larger (I.E. moving house) I rent a U-Haul. If I needed something larger more often, depending on the frequency and size of what I'm hauling I'd probably get an SUV and a larger trailer.

That being said, I don't have any land, so I don't have livestock or tractors to haul.

Kevin Olson wrote:If you decide you really do need a truck, sometimes there are crazy good deals on medium duty trucks versus pickup truck prices, as well, especially if a bit of a project doesn't spook you.

Especially after driving semi-trucks for a few years, I've thought if I needed to do some regular hauling, I'd rather get a medium or heavy duty truck (and trailer), for both the lower cost, and the higher weight capacity: 80K of semi felt much less sketchy then maybe 10K of pickup.

Half of successful trailer backing happens before you back: the more you can set yourself up beforehand so you are backing straight &/or minimally turning to the drivers side instead of sharp turns &/or turns to the passenger side (i.e. blind side) the better.

Once you have a good setup, then look in your drivers mirror &/or over your shoulder out the drivers window at the trailer tire.
Visualize the line or curve the trailer tire would follow to get where you're wanting to back it to.
Begin backing slowly, move the bottom of the steering wheel in the direction you want the trailer to move: i.e. need to make a sharper turn to the drivers side, turn the wheel clockwise (for left hand drive vehicle)
Continue backing, continually making steering corrections to keep the trailer tire on the desired line/curve.
If you get too far off, pull forward and steer to get the vehicle and trailer back onto the desired path.
Repeat until you arrive at your destination.

The shorter the hitch to trailer tire distance, the faster it will swing, so go slower, and turn the steering wheel less, but try to catch deviations from the line sooner.

The more you can practice, the easier it will become, and the more comfortable you will be.

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When loading the trailer you will want at least 10% of the total weight as tongue weight (I.E. trailer and load is 1000lb, minimum tongue weight should be 100lb). Max tongue weight might be 15-20%, this becomes more important the heavier the load: your 5000lb towing rated hitch is probably only rated for 500-650lb tongue weight. Too heavy on the tongue also sags the rear of your tow vehicle; you can get helper springs or air bags; that's not nearly as bad as too little tongue weight: that causes trailer fishtailing:

Miles Teg wrote:
I haven't heard of anyone running air duct work through one of these things before though, which makes me wonder why.... I have either thought of something new, or something someone else has tried and it didn't work, that is the biggest worry at the moment.

While I haven't looked to see what other people have tried, as someone currently working in the HVAC field my initial thought is that, while it might be less efficient then a rocket mass heater with the mass inside the house, I think it has potential, if the large potential hazard is properly addressed: you need to be absolutely sure there is no way now or in the future you will be pumping exhaust from the rocket into your house!

To give an example of one way this is addressed in the commercial market that I see: older gas furnaces had natural draft chimneys and the fan on the household ducted air is before the heat exchanger and creates positive pressure in the heat exchanger, so if/when it rusts out or leaks in some way the household air leaks out through the chimney, and not the other way around. Newer furnaces have fan driven chimneys, but that fan is placed after the heat exchanger so it gives negative pressure to the exhaust side, which increases the pressure difference between the two sides of the heat exchanger.

In addition to putting your household blower before the rocket heater so if there's a leak you blow air out instead of sucking exhaust in, I would recommend separating your exhaust and ventilation pipes in the mass (rather then running ventilation pipes through a stratification chamber, or doing a tube in tube exchanger), even just by a few centimeters, so you can surround all the ducting with a layer of clay, cement, or similar, to minimize air cross contamination long into the future, even if/when the ducting rusts through; similar to what you would want to do to all the piping if the rocket mass heater were inside your house.

A few other potential downsides I see, and ways to address them:
-I would suggest adding some kind of temperature sensor in the ducting or the mass, so that you can keep the indoor blower from running if the mass is cooler then inside your house, to prevent sucking heat out of the house to warm the mass.
-Since the mass is going to be outside the insulation envelope of your house I would recommend insulating the mass, to minimize heat loss to the outside.
-Your heat will be dependent on electricity to run the indoor blower, but that is a minimal power draw compared to electric heat or a heat pump and could be set up to run off a battery with inverter or generator.
-You'll have to go outside into the cold to start/tend the fire. I don't have any suggestions of how to address this other than good winter clothing, but you can at least take warmth in the mess of the firewood staying outside and heating your house for only pennies! :)

I can't speak to the design of the rocket heater, having not built one myself yet, but the more I think about your design the more potential I see; with the heater outside you also eliminate the issue of a backdraft down the chimney or a cold plug/hard start dumping smoke into your house.

Looking forward to seeing the finished product in action!

Since I currently (and for the foreseeable future) am living in north Texas, and hope to one day build myself an off-grid wofati/underground house this is something I've been wondering too. The best answer I've come up with so far is John Hait's book "Passive Annual Heat Storage." While I think he is more northern/heating focused, a similar approach should be effective for us down south; and possibly more effective, or less work/construction may be required for the same result, since our unmodified constant ground temperature is much closer to our desired indoor temperature (I seem to recall seeing numbers in the 70-75 deg range for constant underground temperatures in the Dallas area).

A form of de-humidification may likely be required still; some type of moisture absorbent that gets recharged in the sun or with a fire might be possible; but even if not, a dehumidifier would be much more practical to run off-grid then an AC of any decent size.

It sounds to me like the buildings John Hait describes in his book "Passive Annual Heat Storage" are similar, if not exactly what you are trying to do.

His book is currently available on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/passive-annual-heat-storage-improving-the-design-of-earth-shelters-john-hait

Last winter I was in a poorly insulated/air sealed single-wide mobile home heated only with space heaters (in north Texas, it didn't get all that cold compared to some); here's what worked for me to stay warm and keep electric bills down, thanks to this thread and others on permies for inspiration:

-Thermostats set around 45 deg (F)
-Lots of clothing layers
-Heated pad under the top layer of my dogs bed to keep her warm
-Electric blanket to preheat the bed, along with extra blankets/comforter
-Multiple low watt heat sources for the couch/desk:
    -Heating pad between my back and the back of the couch
    -Heated throw blanket
    -Reptile heat "bulb" in reading lamp to warm hands and face
-Hot drinks to wrap my fingers around (hot water sourced from electric kettle)
-Place space heaters appropriately (and turn up only when needed) to blow heat on me when getting out of shower, changing clothes, etc.
-Reptile heat "bulb" in clamp-on reflector fixture above work bench to keep fingers warm

To change subjects:

Chi Monger wrote:
HEATPUMP MINISPLITS:
…
But for refrigerant?…
…Yes, they all (we entertained several contractors giving free estimates) …basically said it WILL leak (must have annual maintenance, incl. check refrigerant levels—of course that is another income-stream to the companies greedy for more profits).  

As an HVAC repair technician, it is not normal for a properly installed AC or heat pump system to leak refrigerant; anyone telling you that is trying to charge you for service calls, etc: income-stream like you said. Over time it is not uncommon for leaks to begin, especially with the higher working pressures of R-410 and the thinner tubing construction to save material cost, but leaks are not inevitable, and certainly not normal!

Nina Surya wrote:

Ellendra Nauriel wrote:Run the plumbing in such a way that hot water going down the drain gives back at least part of its heat before it really leaves the house (not sure I'm phrasing that the right way).

Ellendra, I'm trying to come up with some kind of practical solution to what you said "Run the plumbing in such a way that hot water going down the drain gives back at least part of its heat before it really leaves the house ". I think you're phrasing it right but can you give an example of what, how...?

One way to do what Ellendra is referring to is by using some kind of "Drain Water Heat Recovery System"  (see diagram/picture below)
Basically some kind of heat exchanger to use heat from the (shower) drain line to preheat the incoming cold water.

I saw a youtube recently of how to DIY radiant/infrared cooling paint

that paint could then be used in a north-sky-facing "window solar heater" (similar to pictured below)

to make a cooler.

6 foot down the temperature of the earth will vary seasonally, around 20' down it will stabilize (close) to the average annual air temperature of your area, normally very similar to the ground water temperature:


Notice on the graphs how the temperature stabilizes and lags behind surface temperature as the depth increases and the "wave of heat" slowly travels through the earth:


(all photos found online searching "underground temperature chart")).

Something mentioned I believe by John Hait in his book "Passive Annual Heat Storage" (currently available for download on archive.org) is that rain water soaking through the ground can greatly affect the temperature underground: if you're depending on the thermal mass of the ground, or the ground temperature then he recommends creating a water impermeable layer (usually plastic sheeting/pond liner) near the surface to prevent rain from cooling the earth or moving heat out of the thermal mass.

Edit to add: Also discussed by John in his book, if you put insulation along with the water barrier, and extend that out 20' or so in all directions, you get the temperature equivalent of 20' of covering earth without having to go down that far, since the heat in effect has to go 20' to the side because of the insulation under the water barrier.