(Project EconoWinterize) Need to borrow your collective brain power.

[Qwert]

There you go.  They can't control us 24/7....yet.

Bill

Yes, there are some ideas, I know... one of them is: "dig underground" (sic).

[infringer]

Excellent I'm shocked at the amount of responses I have got within a weeks time it is just proof that there is a real need for this type of thing.

Anyone care to share some pictures of their designs.

I am going to be doing a bit of my winterizing here soon I will take some pictures...

I like the idea of the black blinds I may use a similar approach to this problem...

I also plan on starting an indoor winter garden to grow some fresh produce this winter.
I will be trying:
mini bell peppers supposed to grow well in winter
brussle sprouts unsure if they grow well
chives unsure if they grow well
sibirean tomatoes smuggled from russia long ago and used during the winter for a good indoor grower
black strawberries best growing strawberry for indoors
bonsi blueberries supposed to grow well on a patio dunno about indoors but from what I have read it is the best shot
spinach a variety that was made for winter
lettuce unsure if it will grow but going to try
maybe even more to be honest dunno

I have been brainstorming cheapest ideas for setting up my indoor grow operation like containers and things I could repurpose for growing. Have not settled completely but I will share when I do settle.
knowing this during daylight hours I will need to maintain close to 70 degrees for growing I have an unused room upstairs rather then owning more JUNK or hoarding I plan to make logical use of this living space.

I also plan to seal up my home fairly well this winter by:
Caulking the windows around the inside frame works.
Possibly using something to collect heat like the black blind idea on windows I do not really need to see out of.
Then indoors on the outside of all of my windows (on the frame) I plan to use some clear plastic duck kits.
I plan on weather stripping around all non hinged edges of all of my doors.
I plan on completely sealing off one of my exits with a thick heavy mil plastic because we never use it!
I plan on completely sealing off the basement access doors to the outside with heavy mil plastic as well because we never use it.
I plan on putting foam covering on both my cold and hot water pipes.


I would kill for a double barrel setup or an alcohol burner but when you rent a home there is always issues with burning anything for insurance reasons. I really wish there was a way around this for me but it appears that my landlords will not permit me to burn anything for heat other than gas from my local coop... But please do not stop posting these ideas because they are of value to many people.

Does anyone have anything done yet that they can share some good pics of ? I would really love to see all your hard work and good setups and put some visualizations in this project that everyone can have! I realize I am asking a lot to have you charge up your batteries to that digital camera and upload files to your computer and then to overunity.com as it can be painstaking but I will tell you what if you folks purchase an eye-fi sd card rather then the typical sd card you can save a lot of your troubles and allow your camera to upload via your wireless router automagically!

We really need to get some pictures going this is really going to strike interest with the general public and grab some more attention and in return we may get to see some more folks like us at these forums sharing some great ideas that might save all of us some money.

I also plan on looking into some home based work over the internet during the winter months if I can find something decent that doesn't just pay 5 cents or something crazy for doing 30 minutes of work... Amazon mechanical turk is interesting but the pay rates on there are like highway robbery! It took me about 2 weeks of doing odd crap on there to earn a lousy 7.00 not too exciting and not making me want to head back to that any time soon other than to check if the wages improve the rates are dependent upon who posts them so it is subject to change by the minute technically. I have found some other microjob type websites that have not seemed to pan out the greatest either but still on the hunt!

If you have a suggestion on online working you do not wish to share in public feel free to msg me I know how it can be sometimes you prefer not to speak of online work and would rather it be kept confidential because it is personal to you and you may not want to look like you are advertising for the company which would be considered spam in most cases... With anything if you have something you would like to keep confidential I am always open to this and would gladly allow you to share with me on an individual basis but I do prefer public domain where possible as we can encourage each other to do more for each other.

The way I see it if we want to fix this world we have to fix our point of view instead of the world being considered a Me World we need to switch our point of view to how can we redefine this world as a We World we are all accountable for our society and the things and the types of people that are produced from it! Look at some of the interesting thought testing that was going on in Einsteins era you will find that the action of just thinking and believing in something invokes changes in the universe. This may sound crazy but the notion was backed up with albeit limited testing that was done to prove the theory but the results while limited did seem to amaze. Many ancient cultures were aware of this as well if you study your history.



KEEP SHARING
PICTURES Please add your Pictures!

[infringer]

pirate:

Is there a lot of suit and smoke from the alcohol burner I am curious on using this actually at second look my only fear is that I will leave home for my 8hour shift at work and come home with a burnt down apartment ... I really think this may be a fairly good idea but .... I have a 2 story home with big rooms it is an old farm house that I rent.

Oh yeah I guess this is still on topic as it qualifies for electrical savings did you ever get a good efficient mark that you hit with your ground battery testing? I see you are fairly creative and likely one of the most crude but effective DIYer's on this forum.

I'd really enjoy if you would share some pictures of these burners with us as well as your Joule Thief lighting circuits I use 75watt eqiv. CCFL bulbs with the daylight color temperature this helps me tremendously in the winter as it gives me an abundance of nice clean non yellow lighting my guess is you live in an apartment complex and are able to borrow wifi for a near feeless internet as well... I would love to do all of this and obviously it'd be great to find a way to be free of rent charges as well but good luck with that one unless you can convince your landlord and a cellphone provider to put a cell phone tower on your rented property and you have an agreement if you could get x amount of dollars for this tower per month that he would give you free rent there for as long as you stayed lol! Fat chance but still would be nice.

PS I got about 5 windows done today myself I did take some pics and will post them but first I want to get a couple more things done like some of the thicker mil plastic work. Should have that done tomorrow I think then I will upload some pics.

[Paul-R]

Well, besides using JT circuits for all of my summer/winter interior lighting, I use alcohol burners to add heat in the winter over here.  I also burn kerocene lamps

There ought to be a method of fermenting grass cuttings (full of carbohydrates) to make a dilute alcohol solution and then distilling it.

Is there such a method?

[Pirate88179]

There ought to be a method of fermenting grass cuttings (full of carbohydrates) to make a dilute alcohol solution and then distilling it.

Is there such a method?

Yes, there are many methods to produce this fuel.  Easy to do at home too.  But, it is illegal to do so here in the US.  (Go figure)  Anything with sugar can be fermented with some yeast and distilled easily.  It takes only a few days to ferment.  Sugar is what is converted to alcohol so I am not sure about grass clippings.  Corn, corn meal, apples and most fruit, bags of sugar, etc will work just fine.  See Youtube for home distilling methods and explanations.  (For educational purposes only)  It burns clean with no CO and produces a lot of heat.  You can buy denatured alcohol but it is pretty high.

Bill