Chile Forum

liking it. we have been investigating a combination of strawbale and earthship techniques ourselves, if we can sort out the rain issue!
Very best of luck.

What a beautiful photo.

I hope you'll post some pictures of your house as it develops.

Well Paul, you have at least one idea right, "if you want something done, do it yourself".
That will serve you well in Chile especially.
cheers

Hey, Paul nice to see you are under way. We will get down there one of these days. I hear there are still trout in that part of the Patagonia that have not been traumatized by my poor fly fishing skills.

NOTE TO FORUM ADMINS, let that link slide. We know Pual and Konomi personally.

Paul,

Many years ago, my cousin and I were hiking from La Junta to Lago Rosselot and got a ride by a rancher. I recall his name was Francisco, and he lived in a small white house close to the north edge of the lake (the only house I think). He was very friendly, took us in for meals and loaned us his rowboat. On the way back a sudden storm came in. We were lucky to make it back across the lake (almost capsized). I still have a photo of him and his sons proudly sitting on their horses (with sheepskin leggings). What fine people! I hope you have met them.

Scott

The straw bails are covered with plaster so there is no problem with rain. Here is a site that has some info on construction. http://www.strawbale.com/ Unlike adobe straw bail construction fairs very well in an earthquake. Another site is http://www.nmbuilder.com/Directions.html Which has a vast amount of detailed photos and comments on high tech adobe construction. Most of this info is also applicable to straw bail construction.

Hi Paul, I watched your vids with interest. I like your zeal and wish you the best. I heard you mention the plan is to be off grid. How did you plan to do this in an Earth friendly way in the Patagonia? I built an off grid hybrid place years ago in Az with loads of sun and wind, even there it was a balancing act. To try it where you are, you must have a secret source of methane for a genset? EP's sheep?

You might want to look at http://www.microwatt.com.ar/. They have a good product and are closer than Vet Nam....

I visited one of the users of their system.... I was impressed.....They are not far from you on the other side of the (ARGENTINA } hills....

Hi Paul, didn't see or hear about the stream until just now, now I get it. I ran the whole house on a 1kw Heart inverter and had no problems unless running the swamp cooler, batteries, always the batteries. I wasn't going so much for "green" as I was for off grid, hence the propane fridge, HW and wall heaters etc but hey, it regularly got down to -20F in the White Mtns.
That and I didn't want to be held hostage by the local building dept.

Often on rural properties in the Patagonia going green is the only option. It is just a practical matter, and most people in the rural areas will have a homemade generator made out of truck alternator.

In Puerto Montt check with the guys that sell marine pumps and related equipment. They also tend to sell hydro generators, or can at least order them. No need to jump in to the whole importing mess to get generators down there. They are fairly common in the south. I asked a couple of years ago at one, and they quoted me 300,000 pesos for a 1 kw generator.

There is a gringo up near Futa that is the hydro guru. Ask Vicky and Greg. We also got some other clients in the Futa area with hydro. I don't recall any of them importing their generators.

The Aussie brumby pump is an interesting device liked for its simplicity ,used in remote areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSvssx2jfX4

prices of Solar systems have dropped dramatically in recent years. Maybe not so appealing in patagonia.
mysolarbackup.com does small units.

Does anyone have experience with small wind turbines for single home consumption.

http://www.provenenergy.co.uk/proven_en ... ws0048.php

Sodimac sells a small wind turbine. They are kind of expensive however.