Maya Creek Ecovillage

The Power Plan

Most energy on the planet is in one way or another derived from the sun. Fossil fuels are simply reserves of ancient sushine built up over millions of years. We are literally burning through this inheritance at a breathtaking speed. Much of the energy we are using is for luxuries and huge portion of it is simply waste through inefficient applications. For instance only 5-10% of power used for an incandescent light bulb is given off as light, the rest of it is heat that is typically wasted. Modern combusion engines in things like cars are only around 30% efficient. Refrigerators range from 20-50%

At Plan B we will be approaching the energy problem by both changing our behavior to use less energy and using energy efficient appliances. To minimize our impact on global warming as well as to be part of the solution and not the problem we will be entirely "off-grid" and use only power that we can capture for ourselves, whether directly from the sun or indirectly from wind or biological material. This also means we have energy security and are not effected by power outages on the grid.

It will be up to each individual member how they choose to produce their own energy. We have several recommendations and what we intend to do for our own power needs. We will begin the most common.

Electricity

While Missouri is not the best place in the United States for hours of direct sunlight, it still receives more than enough sunlight to make it a viable option. Solar panels are becoming increasingly cheap and purchasing panels with superficial blemishes can be even cheaper. A new option that will soon be available is an extremely cheap and durable film that will produce power cheaper than even coal. While Nanosolar, the company currently associated with the film, has not begun selling to the public yet, they are likely to begin doing so in the near future.

Wind power may be an option in the future, but our area does not have a large amount of wind and much of the property is heavily forested making a taller tower to place a generator necessary. This may become a good option for a group of members to pool their resources on, but is likely not a practical solution for individual needs.

Although our area receives 40" of precipitation on average, and there are several creeks on the property, these creeks are not constant and do not have large changes in elevation which make hydroelectric useful. It would likely be possible to set up a successful hydroelectric system with a lot of earthmoving and a dam, but the environmental impacts would far outweigh the benefits of such an undertaking.

Heating

Approximately 50% of energy used in an average american home is used for heating. By recognizing this issue before we have even built our homes we can incorporate passive solar techniques into the design to minimize the amount of additional energy we will need to heat the space. Some of these design features include a southern orientation in order to capture heat during the winter and using thermal mass to store that heat during the day time and release it throughout the night.

We will also be using straw bales in construction which have excellent insulative qualities to further reduce necessary heating. We believe a cob/straw bale hybrid may be the most efficient natural building technique. By using cob on the south and possibly east facing walls to capture the suns heat with it's thermal mass and then using straw bale on the north and west facing walls we can minimize heat loss. Greenhouses attached to homes may provide additional heat if vents are created to let the heat in when desired.

We hope that these passive techniques will lower the need for additional heating for the large part of the year. There will however be times that additional heating is necessary. We believe wood heating is the sensible choice for our situation, but just becase wood is an abundant resource at Plan B does not mean it should be wasted. For that reason we will be installing a highly efficient and simple to build rocket stove in our home for those extra chilly winter nights.

Cooling

Just as there are passive heating techniques there are passive cooling techniques. Thermal mass from things such as cob will buffer the extremes of both hot and cold. Decidious trees can be planted on the western sides of houses to block the sun with their leaves during the summer and allow it through when the leaves have fallen in the winter. Many types of vines can be grown on homes which lift their leaves and transpire water during the heat of the day and lower their leaves to provide added insulation at night.

Other techniques involve designing the airflow through homes from the cool north side. Cooling towers can be installed that create an updraft which sucks out the hotter air.

There will no doubt be times when these techniques will not be enough to keep us comfortable. Air conditioners are far too energy intensive to be used, so we may have to resort to dips in the pond, cool showers and fans to cool us down.

Cooking

During visits to several ecovillages it's become clear that finding an environmentally sustainable cooking method is in great need. Wood can be time consuming both in collecting the wood and getting the fire started. It can also cause significant pollution and emits CO₂. Some ecovillages have opted to use propane even though this is a non-renewable fossil fuel.

Solar cookers may be useful on sunny days for certain meals, but we believe an underused option is that of bio digestion. When organic material such as manure, garden waste, and kitchen scraps is digested anaerobically it releases a flammable combination of methane and cabon dioxide. This combination is sometimes known as biogas or "swamp gas". This gas can be captured and used to cook food just as you would on a regular gas stove, a process which is considered carbon neutral.

Hot Water

Heating and cooling are extremely efficient when the suns energy is first converted to electricity and then to mechanical in the case of air conditioners or resistance in the case of heating. The job of heating is best done by the sun itself. We will be building and installing solar hot water heating panels on the roof of our home along side our solar panels.

There are many different types of solar hot water heating systems, but we are choosing to go with one of the simplest and cheapest. Instead of pumping the water through the panels, we will use the laws of thermodynamics to our advantage and create a thermosiphon. Hot water is less dense than cold water and so it rises. As the hot water rises through the solar water heating panels it pulls new cold water from the bottom of the hot water tank into the panels.

When water is used it is taken from the top of the tank where it is hottest and new cold water is pumped into the bottom to replace it. There will also be a valve installed that only allows the water to flow in one direction in order to avoid the system reversing at night.