Building Earth Homes: Earthbag Home Furniture Layout Possibilities for Pod 1
Pod one is the first of the seven different sustainable village models to be built because it is designed to demonstrate and teach building earth homes as one of the most affordable construction and living models available. It consists of sixty-four 150-200 square foot semi-subterranean earthbag hotel room styled cabanas built in pairs with a central sitting area designed for relaxation and growing a small shared garden. Like a hotel or dorm room, each dome will consist of a bed, dresser(s), and a small sitting area and desk. Communal use bathrooms and showers will be within a short walk and will integrate recycling of all water and a combination vermiculture and traditional septic eco-friendly bathroom. These earth home bungalows will be heated by rocket mass heaters and kept cool via the semi-subterranean construction and passive cooling. Electricity and heat for all homes and the central tropical dome will be provided by solar (see energy infrastructure page).
Here are the layout drawings we just finished to demonstrate what building earth homes like this will look like with built-in furniture.
Click Image to be Taken to the Earth Bag Village and Pod 1 Details Page
RELATED KEY SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS
- 7 Sustainable Village Models Overview Page
- Open Source Sustainable Food Infrastructure Page
- Open Source Sustainable Energy Infrastructure Page
- The Heart of One Community – The SEGO Center City Hub
- Self Replicating Teacher/Demonstration Communities, Villages, and Cities Page
Application Form Updates are Complete!
We are happy to say that we just finished the complete update of our One Community Application Form! We hope what we have created from our two years of interviewing experience is helpful as a usable template for other forming communities and we invite anyone interested in joining One Community to apply!
We also just completed this outline page of our application, review, and interview process: https://onecommunityglobal.org/review-and-interview-process/
On other notes, we also just started to put together the first iteration of a framework for an open source collaboration space. We should launch it in the next few weeks with our vermiculture septic design, education program development details, and tropical dome greywater processing designs (part of Pod 1) simultaneously.
This open source collaborative space will feature:
- A copyable and modifiable archive of our component designs and research to this point
- Links to our ongoing research and development project overview pages and work spaces
- Links to the development templates and finished documents for projects and project componenets
New image updates on Pod 1 floor plans and the SEGO Center natural pool and eco hot tub are coming today or tomorrow as well.
Open Sourcing More of Our Internal Process: 2 New Pages Related to Internal Review and Productivity
What One Community is working on right now is arguably some of the most important developmental aspects of the entire project. We are a dedicated, organized, and professional team contributing weekly to an ever-evolving action list and seeking others excited to create this with us. The minimum anyone on this team can expect to contribute is about 10 hours a week and we have spent the last two years fine tuning how to work together for maximum effectiveness and developing a results based monitoring and evaluation process and Performance Management Template into what they now are: productive, efficient, and ongoing foundations for collaborative team leadership skills development.
TWO NEW PAGES WE’VE CREATED TO OPEN SOURCE SHARE OUR INTERNAL PROCESS
The first is our Results Based Monitoring and Evaluation Process page created to share:
- How this system is foundational to the phase of creation we are in no
- What makes up the minimum time investment expectations for being a Pioneer
- How we use “tangible contribution” to maintain focus and productivity on our priorities
The Second is our Performance Management Template for conducting 2-directional monthly performance management reviews. There are three primary team building objectives for this template and the monthly performance reviews we conduct:
1) Individual gives feedback to the Review Facilitator regarding community performance/experience
2) Review Facilitator(s) give feedback regarding individual’s performance
3) Facilitator and Individual co-create strategy for improvement of both #1 and #2
Open Sourcing our Photovoltaic Systems Design Process and Other Energy Infrastructure Details
One Community’s sustainable energy infrastructure is just one aspect of our blueprints for self-sufficient and self-propagating teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities strategy to be built around the world. Just as we will be showcasing a diversity of eco building methodologies and alternative food production options, so too will we showcase a diversity of alternative energy methodologies ranging from traditional generators to solar, wind, and newer technologies as they become available. Our initial system to supply for the energy needs of Pod 1, our aquaponics systems, and the Center of Peace community center is a tried-and-true 283 kWh photovoltaic solar power system.
This blog post is to open source the process used to design this system. For complete One Community energy details including pricing, assessment of other systems, and how we intend to meet our needs before this system is up and running:
CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR COMPLETE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE PAGE
CONSULTANTS ON OUR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
Doug Pratt: Solar Systems Design Engineer
JP Novak: Power Backup Systems Designer at Native Construction and Renewables
Lorenzo Zjalarre: Physicist and Energy Efficiency Expert
OUR PROCESS OF ARRIVING AT OUR PV SOLAR SYSTEM
Electric power requirements (see below) have been estimated by JP Novak of Build Native.com. The above system was then designed by Doug Pratt applying his 27 years of solar design and installation experience to confirm these estimates (below) seem reasonable. Estimating how people will use power in advance is always a guessing game. Humans are nothing if not variable and we anticipate that this system will almost certainly require some fine-tuning. We also anticipate that our group will learn from experience and probably become more energy aware and conservative with time. To help us gather data and fine-tune our process as part of our open source sharing, we will be using simple metering on all pods and the aquaponics systems. By doing this we will be able to identify “energy hogs” and share this data, our solutions, and the objective energy saving results of our solutions.
The total electrical use for Pod 1, aquaponics, and the Center of Peace community center, on a yearly average, is estimated to be 282.5 kWh per day. This is the figure used to size the solar electric system. In addition, all the AC appliances that were likely to be on simultaneously were totaled up. These included a percentage of lights, laptops, microwaves in the pods, along with all the aquaponics hardware, and most of the kitchen and community center lighting and hardware (including the hot tub). This max AC surge was about 76 kW and was the figure used to size the inverter pack.
| Pod 1 Power Requirements (64 Units) | |||||
 |
|||||
| Appliance | Wattage | Hrs/day | Units | kWh/day | kWh/mo |
| |
|||||
| Light | 100 | 4 | 64 | 25.6 | 768 |
| Laptop | 80 | 5 | 32 | 12.8 | 384 |
| Hair Dryer | 1400 | 0.5 | 11 | 7.7 | 231 |
| Microwave | 1200 | 0.5 | 11 | 6.6 | 198 |
| Cellphone | 4 | 3 | 64 | 0.768 | 23.04 |
| Total | 53.468 | 1604.04 | |||
| |
|||||
| Aquaponics Power Requirements | |||||
| |
|||||
| Pumps | 500 | 24 | 3 | 36 | 1080 |
| Fans | 50 | 24 | 6 | 7.2 | 216 |
| Air Pump | 100 | 24 | 2 | 4.8 | 144 |
| Light | 100 | 2 | 4 | 0.8 | 24 |
| Total | 48.8 | 1464 | |||
| |
|||||
| Center of Peace Power Requirements | |||||
| (8 Suites/170 capacity dining room/3 Conference Areas/Laundry/Kitchen/Library) | |||||
| |
|||||
| Appliance | Wattage | Hrs/day | Units | kWh/day | kWh/mo |
|
|||||
| Satellite Dish | 50 | 24 | 2 | 2.4 | 72 |
| Computer | 300 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 270 |
| Multi-media Other | 250 | 2 | 3 | 1.5 | 45 |
| DVD Player | 50 | 2 | 3 | 0.3 | 9 |
| Stereo/Music | 1000 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 180 |
| Lighting | 100 | 4 | 50 | 20 | 600 |
| Hot Tub | 20000 | 4 | 1 | 80 | 2400 |
| Maytag Washer (Maxima 4.3 cuft) | 200 | 2.5 | 5 | 2.5 | 75 |
| Maytag Dryer (Maxima 7.4 cuft) | 1000 | 2.5 | 5 | 12.5 | 375 |
| Refrigerator (40 cuft) | 1000 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 360 |
| Vacuum Cleaner | 1000 | 0.5 | 2 | 1 | 30 |
| Walk-in Freezer (8′ x 6′ x 8′) | 0 | 2280 | |||
| Walk-in Cooler (10′ x 20′ x 8′) | 0 | 1600 | |||
| Dishwasher | 2000 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 240 |
| Stand Mixer (30 qt.) | 2000 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 60 |
| Griddle (3′ x 2′) | 1500 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 90 |
| Oven | 10000 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 600 |
| Total | 180.2 | 9286 | |||
| |
|||||
| Grand Total | 282.468 | 12354 | |||
SOLAR SIZING
Okay, so how do we go from kWh per day to PV arrays on the ground, and battery sizing, and inverter sizing, etc.? Here’s how Doug described it for us:
Looking at available sunlight for the property: The National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) went out and measured sunlight availability for several hundred sites across the U.S., and they did it for 30 years. 1960 thru 1990. So we’ve got a nice average. This is the “NREL Redbook”, and is the standard source for estimating sunlight availability at any point in the U.S., for any time of year. For our location we have a yearly average of 5.9 hrs of peak sun per day. Peak sun? What’s that? That’s the scientific definition of full sunlight on the Earth’s surface. A “full sun” is defined as 1,000 watts per square meter. Now it’s immediately apparent that’s an impossibly round figure. And you’re right. Reality on the ground varies widely depending on humidity, altitude, sun angle, and a host of other variables called “the weather.” What NREL has done for us is to take all the hours of sunlight on a particular site and condense it down, as if all the hours were at perfect solar noon – 5.9 peak hours in this case. Which is pretty handy, because PV modules are rated to produce a certain amount of power at “full sun.” If we know a site averages a certain number of peak hours of sunlight, we can closely estimate how much power a given PV array will deliver. Now, a warning here, we’re talking about the weather. And it varies from year to year. In fact the NREL data clearly demonstrates that it varies by plus or minus 9% yearly. So it’s not worth getting too gnat’s ass accurate with our system sizing, as there’s bound to be yearly variations.
5.9 hours is the yearly average sun for our location. In December, at the lowest, it drops to 4.4 hours, which is still pretty good as solar sites go. For a December site, it’s excellent, and we’re going to use the 4.4 hour figure for PV system sizing. Now we know how many kWh per day your complex needs, we know what the average sun is going to be in December, what’s left is system efficiency. How much is lost to wiring, dusty modules, batteries, inverters, etc? Real world measured efficiency for battery-based systems ranges from 50% to 70%. Since much of the energy in this system will be used during daylight hours and will not need to be stored in batteries, I’m giving this system a fairly high 65% efficiency rating. This is completely seat of the pants estimation based on experience with large battery- based systems.
So we’ve got a 282.5 kWh nut to crack with 4.4 hours of peak sun and a 65% efficient collection and delivery system.
282.5 kWh / 4.4hrs / 65% = 98.77 kW of PV required. How many of what PV module is left until later, probably until right before purchase as prices and module brands have been shifting rapidly.
BATTERY SIZING
Batteries are the largest expense for the system. Lead prices just keep rising as the world becomes more industrialized. Lead-acid batteries still represent the best buy for remote systems. (And before you ask, lithium-ion batteries are still at least 4-5 times more expensive, and haven’t proved they’ll last longer than lead-acid. Who hasn’t had problems with phone or laptop batteries?)
When sizing off-grid battery packs we usually aim for about 2 to 3 days worth of storage capacity. Less capacity means the batteries get cycled deeply on a day to day basis, which isn’t good for life expectancy. More capacity raises the cost to where it’s cheaper to start the backup generator to meet the occasional shortfall.
Batteries are sized by amp-hours rather than watt-hours, so we have to divide our watt-hour figure by the battery voltage – 48-volt in this case. (If you remember your high school physics, watts divided by volts equal amps. Or volts times amps equals watts.) We also have to factor in how deeply we’re willing to cycle our batteries. The true deep-cycle batteries we’ll be using will tolerate cycles down to 80% depth of discharge (DOD), but again, deep cycles aren’t good for life expectancy, so we’re going to draw the line at 70% DOD. Considering the high quality of the Unigy II batteries we’ll be using, along with reasonable cycle depth, this battery pack should enjoy a 15 to 20 year life expectancy. By which point lithium-ion batteries may be a better choice. That’s a bridge to cross when we get there.
282,500 watt-hours x 2.5 days / 48 volt / 70% = 21,019 amp-hours @ 48v. This is one honkin’ BIG battery! To help make it more manageable, we’re going to use an SMA Sunny Island Multi-Cluster inverter package which divides the inverters up into four separate nodes, with each node having its own battery pack. And that brings us to…
INVERTER SIZING
Doug chose the Sunny Island Multi-Cluster inverter package for several reasons. It’s highly reliable and adaptable German engineering at its best. It consists of 12 individual Sunny Island 6kW inverters wired as four groups of 3 inverters each. So 12 x 6kW = 72kW, very close to the max AC surge requirement we estimated earlier. (Each 6kW Sunny Island can deliver 8.4kW for 1 minute, or 11.0kW for 3 seconds for true surges.) Each node of 3 inverters will cover the A, B, and C phases of your 208vac 3-phase system. As power demand increases, the Multi-Cluster will activate more nodes as needed. So we won’t have a lot of inverter capacity turned on, using power, and just waiting for something to happen. Capacity will only get turned on as needed. Each node has its own battery pack, which will make the individual packs more manageable. And if any one inverter or battery pack needs service, that node can be shut down, while the rest of the system will still operate normally. Also, the Sunny Island system uses conventional high-voltage grid-tie inverters to process the incoming PV power. So transmission from PV arrays hundreds of feet away are much less of a problem.
MAINTENANCE AND CONTROL
While this system is designed to be largely automatic and self-sustaining, there will be one or more designated maintenance and service personnel for the community. This person will be in charge of system operations, and trained to be familiar and very comfortable with the Sunny Island system. In addition, a great deal of system automation is possible with the Sunny Islands. As battery state of charge drops to critical levels, the Island can initiate start-up of backup generators, and/or shut down selected loads (the hot tub for instance). Routine maintenance includes cleaning PV arrays, snugging up battery cables, and monitoring the Multi-Cluster for any warnings or problems. For this reason, someone dependable and knowledgeable will be “in charge” of the system at all times.
One Community Welcomes New Pioneer Bear Stauss to the Pioneer Team
One Community is happy to welcome Bear Stauss to the One Community Pioneer Team! Bear has a BS in Agricultural Production specializing in Ornamental Horticulture & Landscape Design/Recreation Area Management and brings years of experience as an Experienced Wildland Fire Suppression Manager (“smokejumping” out of airplanes in remote locations), Property Manager, and probably one of the most well travelled people you’ll ever meet!
To read more about Bear’s experience, skills, and his journey to One Community, please visit his bio page: Bear Stauss Bio
Renewable Energy or Alternative Energy: A Look at the Possibility of Vortex Energy Technologies
There are a broad diversity of people claiming to have created the next generation of renewable green energy and One Community, like many people and organizations, is skeptical and cautious when engaging this subject. The fact remains, however, that just one significant breakthrough in new renewable energy or alternative energy technology has the possibility to transform life for all people on this planet and we consider this very much for The Highest Good of All. With this in mind we took a serious look at 1Stop Energies and their Vortex Energy Coil Technology, put skepticism aside, and chose to partner with them (click here for their Partnership Bio) for four primary reasons:
- They free-share detailed instructions for duplication of their coil
- They use a broad diversity of videos and approaches to demonstrate the validity of their technology
- They want to come to the property and work with us on a live demonstration when we are ready
- Daniel is beautifully authentic to talk to and exhibits a clear desire to make a difference in the world
Already having plans for traditional energy infrastructure to completely power Phase I of our build, we are excited to work with 1Stop Energies to bring their Vortex Coil Technology to One Community’s building of Pod 2 so we can explore together and specifically measure and document how their technology can increase efficiency through integration with a large-scale solar panel and battery bank array like ours.
DIY ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY
For the do-it-yourselfers, here is how to make a Unification Coil so you can test the vortex energy field and this technology for yourself:
ABOUT 1STOP ENERGIES AND THEIR VORTEX TECHNOLOGY
Founded by Erica & Daniel Nunez, 1Stop Energies and The Vortex Coil Technology was “started as a simple sustainable nightlight project” researching energy efficient motor/generators based on open source information attainable through internet searches. What it turned into was a drive and passion for changing the way electricity is generated and utilized currently in the world.
Erica and Daniel became interested in sacred geometry and the concept of solid-state energy production after viewing the complexity of previously constructed magnet generators; which seemed to use too many parts for practical at-home development. This led to the exploration of Vortex Based Mathematics and the works of Marko Rodin, which were refined by Randy Powell; where the concept is presented that repeating number patterns create toroidal space. These understandings were also uncovered by a number of influential people including Dan Winters, Nassim Haramein, Nikola Tesla, CERN Physics Researchers, and many others working in the field of platonic solids. By intuitively redesigning the Vortex Coil geometry and framework, Erica and Daniel were eventually able to control and ensure geometric precision in toroidal space. Establishing this foundation and a new level of precision, they began testing different wiring algorithms and creating custom circuitry to understand, replicate, and further demonstrate their findings and applications for both on and off-grid uses. Now with 4 years or research and development, they invest the majority of their time exploring and replicating their results; exploring large and small scale uses, and posting their findings to the internet community in an attempt to raise awareness and peak interest into the possibilities of this technology.
Renewable Energy or Alternative Energy: Another Approach
The result of the Vortex Coil they created, and demonstrate repeatedly in their videos, is a greater output of energy than the input once tuned to the correct frequencies. There explanation of this is the unique design of the Vortex Coil that allows energy to be focused in the condensed center-most point, which allows the amplification of electrical performance in a highly efficient manner. Because of that, Daniel and Erika see the possibility of a future where any and all coils on the market could potentially be replaced by a vortex coil once further research and development is complete.
Right now the primary application of the Vortex Coils is to light and sustain LED or Fluorescent bulbs for weeks at a time while requiring a significantly reduced energy input.
Vortex Based Mathematics
The explanation for how the vortex coil works is based on Vortex Based Mathematics used to describe universal ‘natural pathways’ or ‘flow paths’ existing in the physical 3D space we all inhabit. Mimicking these pathways reduces resistance in a way that is currently best described by entering into the (considered by most as more esoteric) fields of universal harmonics, implosion physics, sacred geometry, and number sequencing. Because these things are less understood and accepted by mainstream science, Daniel and Erika are the first to agree that continued alternative energy research and development of this technology is needed. This is what they are doing, supporting by open sourcing and free-sharing how to duplicate what they have created thus far, and what they see as the necessary road to global integration of this technology as one very viable path into a sustainable way of living.
Daniel Talking About Creating this Technology
The 1Stop Energies Overview Video
