Another summer survived, upgraded solar and a new washing machine!

Welcome 2019

So it's been a while since this blog has had an update!

That's not because there's been nothing happening at Three Dams, but more likely that we've been too busy doing stuff to sit down and write about it! Since returning in July from summer in Spain, we settled into another chilly winter in Heathcote. Lots of wood fires and red wine and trying to work outside without freezing to death. As I write this, the weather outside is a relatively cool 17 degrees. Throughout January we had 8 days above 40 degrees including an unbearable 45 degree day with a dangerous NW wind blowing. Hot weather in Heathcote is not uncommon here over the summer but usually not so early in the season. The super hot weather usually comes in late Feb or early March.

Despite the sweltering conditions, the garden and vineyard have managed to hang on with the help of the irrigation system and water pumped from the small dam down the hill. In the vineyard, veraison has well and truly happened, the nets are all on and we are gearing up for another vintage in the first few weeks of March. Last years vintage is still in barrels in the winery and improving everyday. The plan is to bottle the wine in April but reserve one barrel which will be cellared for another 12 months to create the "Crianza" style common in La Rioja, Spain.

Throughout the summer, we have entertained many visitors including some old friends from my days in Perth who were completing a road trip and on their way back across the Nullarbor. Lots of family and friends have also visited which as usual, meant lots of delicious food and wine and kids having fun in there pool. On one occasion, Wendy's brother and son, Tom visited from Philip Island so I took the opportunity to get them on the tools and help with the latest solar upgrade. We finally managed to replace the original solar PV array with the remainder of the large 250 watt panels that have been sitting in the shed since I bought them in 2017. We now have a 1.8 kWh system which provides more than enough solar input to power all the "mod cons" we have installed in our off grid Eco house...

                                                 ....including the new washing machine.

Yes, we finally have a washing machine! A Bosch 4.5 star machine bought second hand on Facebook Marketplace has a new home in our kitchen. The only other mod cons we don't have are a toaster and an iron..but who needs an iron in the country?

Autumn update.

AUTUMN 2018

 After a hectic start to the year, things have settled down slightly at Three Dams and finally a bit of welcome rain has greened things up and the crisp Autumn evenings have arrived.  
Late in April, the first vintage of Tempranillo was transferred into two oak hogsheads, one French and one American. 

 The idea behind this is to try and replicate the traditional winemaking style of Ribero del Duero in Spain. We also decided to buy a quantity of finished Shiraz from a local Heathcote producer so we now have a third barrel full of wine!

Lloyd Hudson lending a hand in the winery.

Wendy is pretty excited about finally getting her white stones to border the house. Having put that job on the back burner many times, the stones were finally ordered and Wends spent many hard hours spreading them...so far around the house and fire pit. 

A bit more tweaking of the solar PV system has happened as well with the addition of 2 x 250 watt panels facing directly West designed to catch the fading rays of the winter sun. Now we have a "real" electric fridge, harvesting the maximum solar energy is now more important than ever so hopefully panels facing East, North and now West as well will help achieve this aim.

Time now to enjoy a few nights by the fire and plan for the next Spain trip in June and the new venture, Casita Del Río!

Happy New Year from Three Dams! Summer Update

Dec / Jan Summer Update 2017/18

Wild storms, crazy grapes, fresh raspberries and stone fruit and a NEW FRIDGE!

So here we are halfway through another Summer at Three Dams and as usual, we're hard at work with various projects around the place, namely keeping the vineyard ticking along and preparing for our first vintage in a late Feb/ early March. For whatever reason, we've ended up with a serious case of overcropping which has meant we've had to bunch thin to reduce the amount of fruit the vine has to sustain and ripen. Fortunately we've had the help and advice from several well respected wine growers up here. Special thanks has to go to Simon Osicka, Phil Meehan and Eugene Meegan for their expert knowledge.

One nice thing we have been following in the vineyard is the progress of 3 little blue eggs we noticed in a tiny nest amongst the vines one day. The perfectly round nest now has two tiny little (blue wrens?) hungrily chirping away waiting for their next meal. It won't be long now and they'll be able fly away themselves.

 

Some other big projects we've managed to get through so far this summer is the building of a wood shed. Made completely out of recycled materials and salvaged timber, the new shed will hold more than a winters supply of fire wood and will also keep it dry and out of the weather. An unintentional advantage of this shed is that it will be able to rapid dry and green firewood due to the internal temperature at this time of the year! 

A few weeks back we had a massive storm that lasted about 20 mins. Ferocious winds, lightning and horizontal rain went through bringing down lots of trees and subsequently a massive clean up/recovery effort was needed to salvage all the potential firewood. We ended up with an 8 x 5 trailer overflowing with the stuff and there are still more trees to cut.

In the garden, things have been great this year. We've had our first cherries, a decent amount of apricots and peaches and the raspberries and blackberries have also come good this year. Onions, beans, silverbeet, kale, lettuces and garlic have also been really successful this year probably due in part to the abundant late spring and early summer rainfall we had last year. As usual, the apples, figs, passionfruit and nectarines are still to come in the next few months.

OFF GRID SYSTEM UPDATE

Over the years I've been tweaking the power system to get the optimum performance from our meagre system. From our humble beginnings of 360 watts, we now have just over 1000 watts which is still tiny compared to the average household rooftop array. This is mainly because I still haven't gotten around to putting up the 6 x 250 watt panels I bought back in July last year! This is mainly due to laziness on my part but also because our current system is performing better than expected and we haven't ever needed any more power, even over the winter. This may be all about to change now as this week we purchased a fridge! Yes a brand new ELECTRIC fridge!!! For the last 5 years or so we have been running a gas fridge which has been excellent, albeit a little small for our needs. The new fridge has a 4 star energy rating and when it comes on, it uses around 100 watts for 15 min or so which I reckon our system, even in its current configuration can more than handle. For example, yesterday afternoon we had the fridge, the vineyard irrigation and the pool filter all running and the batteries remained fully charged. We'll see how things play out over the next few weeks but I'm considering tweaking the solar panel arrangement slightly. I want to have the 300 watt panel facing the east rising sun, and use the 6 new panels as follows:

4 x 250 watt panels facing north and 2 x 250 watt panels facing west. 

This configuration will allow full sun throughout the day and late into the afternoon.

I'll put an update on how that goes (if and when I get around to doing the retrofit) in the next blog update.

In any case, it's great to know now that we will be saving money on gas from now on and our meagre total energy bills will be even less. Approximately $120 per year (one 45kg bottle)

Wends is rapt to now have the vegie crisper at an accesible height and a decent freezer compartment. I'm rapt to have a 6 bottle wine rack up top!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Towards Energy Neutral? A guide to DIY energy efficiency.

TOWARDS ENERGY NEUTRAL?

Well the jury is still out but after 8 years of living Off the Grid, I think we're getting close! After a concerted effort to retrofit an inefficient 1930's weatherboard house into a super energy efficient, minimal impact dwelling with zero heating and cooling costs, there is still more to do but the progress so far is worth sharing.

A brief history....

In 2007 we rescued and relocated a weatherboard house from Box Hill that was due to be demolished. The original dwelling had a minimal amount of additions to deal with the Australian climate conditions: ceiling insulation and some external blinds on the west wall but that was pretty much the extent of it.

We had the house trucked up to the property in Heathcote (about 120 kms from Box Hill) and basically plonked on the designated site. The original plan was to have the solar PV array on the house roof so the house was positioned with the front facing East to allow maximum solar gain on the North facing roof throughout the day. This aspect also avoids any direct sun into the bedrooms at the front of the house (except during Sunrise in high summer...which is quite nice to watch while lying in bed!)

As the house was basically cut in half, transported and "reconnected" on site, the house was very drafty in winter and a sauna in summer due to the gaps in the floors and the absence of any roof eaves. Those who visited in the depths of Winter in the early days will well remember shivering in the front of the fire with the wind howling through all the gaps!

The plan was always to make the house as energy neutral as possible aiming to keep the internal temperature at a comfortable 18-22 degrees all year round. Living 'Off the Grid' means energy efficiency is critical. We do not have the luxury of being able to switch on an electric radiator whenever a chill is felt or running a split system heating/AC unit in the middle of a cloudy spell in Winter so a lot of thought went in to making the house 'immune' to fluctuations in outside temperature.

The work begins....

How to achieve an energy neutral house? I'm no expert but there are several key areas that need to be considered and can be divided into 7 main categories.

1. Insulation (walls, ceiling, underfloor)
2. Shading (external windows)
3. Roof air extraction (including eave vents)
4. Draft proofing
5. Internal drapes and pelmets
6. Cross ventilation (for rapid cool down in summer)
7. Smart cooking and heating


1. INSULATION

This is the most obvious thing! Generally when old houses were originally constructed, little thought was given to insulation. At that time, insulation technology was minimal or non existent, energy was cheap and people just dealt with the extremes in the climate. Walls (and floors and ceilings) were never insulated which explains why there was often a fireplace in every room!

Retro-fitting an old house with decent insulation is not for the faint hearted but its possible! Insulating a roof space is a fairly simple (but messy) job but when it comes to walls and underfloor, now that's a different kettle of fish! Fortunately in our case, when the house was relocated, it was jacked up above the (new concrete) stumps for a week or so. This made it (slightly) easier to get under the house and fix the insulation sheets to the bearers. We used FoilBoard panels that are readily available in Australia through their Melbourne supplier. The panels come in various sizes and are easily cut to size with a knife and simply nailed to the bearers using the special fasteners.

Wall insulating can be problematic and difficult. A weatherboard house has the advantage of having a fairly low thermal mass. This can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. A low thermal mass means that the nature of a timber skin and thin plaster/gyprock walls means that the house will "breathe" easily. This can be a good thing when the sun goes down after a hot day but it also means that (without adequate insulation), it will heat up quickly in the summer and become an ice box in the winter.

Due to the poor condition of the external paint work on our rescue house, we decided to remove every weatherboard wall by wall, insulate with Earthwool R2.0 wall batts and Ametalin SilverWrap. The hardwood weatherboards were replaced by (mostly) recycled Baltic pine boards sourced from various salvage yards in Heathcote and Melbourne.

These insulation improvements alone have seen a massive reduction in the amount of firewood burned during the winter which translates to less chainsawing, collecting, splitting, stacking etc.

Reclaimed shutters. Thanks Paul Champion!

      

2. SHADING

Keeping the sun off external windows is crucial to maintaining a comfortable internal temperature. If you've ever sat in your car for even a few minutes in the full sun, you will know how quickly the internal temperature rises. Remember as a kid starting fires with a magnifying glass? Windows that have any exposure to the sun need to have a mechanism to stop the suns rays hitting the glass. Of course in winter, the suns rays through a north facing window can help maintain a comfortable internal temperature but a west facing window in full sun in high summer needs to be avoided at all costs. Internal curtains are good for shading the sun but if the sun's rays are hitting the glass then there is a problem.

Along with external blinds/shutters on all East, North and West facing windows, we also made some shade cloth blinds to protect the west facing walls and windows from the harsh summer sun. The important thing to remember is to make sure the house is completely closed up (windows, shades and shutters closed, blinds drawn etc) if extreme hot weather is predicted.

3. ROOF EXTRACTION

With a well insulated ceiling and roof sarking foil under the roof sheeting, temperatures in the roof cavity can reach 50+ degrees on a hot day. This build up of heat will begin to force its way downward through the ceiling, eventually heating up the rooms below. In tackling this problem, I decided to install a powered roof extraction fan (Edmonds Airomatic) in the apex of the roof. This fan has a built in thermostat that switches the fan on when the roof space temperature reaches 30 degrees. The fan is capable of removing up to 647m3 of hot air per hour on full speed while using only 37 watts! At around $230 it's not cheap but super efficient. For optimum performance, it's recommended to install several vents in the roof eaves to allow cool outside air to be drawn into the roof cavity to replace the extracted hot air. I installed six 30cmx30cm vents in the east, south and west eaves.

Airomatic roof extraction fan.

4. DRAFT PROOFING

This is one overlooked area when it comes to energy efficiency, especially in the colder months. Leaky windows and gaps under doors allow cold air to enter rooms which undermines efforts to maintain a constant temperature. Make sure all windows and doors have adequate seals and close any external windows during the day to keep the cold air out in winter and the hot air out in summer. Wooden floors are also a culprit for drafts so underfloor insulation can also help avoid this problem.

5. INTERNAL DRAPES AND PELMETS

Block out drapes and pelmets on internal windows help not only keeping heat in but also providing an insulating layer of air between the glass and the drape or blind. Exposed windows can lose as much as 40% of a rooms heat during winter and in summer can multiply the intensity of the heat by the same amount. There has been a lot of debate about the merits of pelmets but the general consensus is that they are effective. Warm room air is drawn up from floor level behind the drapes and is trapped under the helmet, forming an insulating layer of air between the window and the curtains/drapes.

6. CROSS VENTILATION

One internal modification that we did to the house was to remove a small internal wall that was hindering the North- South flow of air through the house. After a hot day when the cooling breeze starts to come through, its essential to be able to open doors and windows on all sides of the house to allow this breeze to "flush out" accumulated heat and refresh the internal air. Needless to say, adequate fly screens are essential.

7. SMART COOKING AND HEATING

An often overlooked factor in maintaining a comfortable internal temperature is the use of cooking appliances such as ovens and to an extent stoves. Choosing appropriate meals that do not require lighting the oven in summer will assist in keeping the house cool in summer. Conversely, a slow cooking roast or casserole in winter may help keep the house warm. We use a slow combustion wood burning heater to heat the house in winter using salvaged wood from fallen trees in the nearby forest. This heater can also double as a stove to slow cook dishes during winter. Great for curries and casseroles!

CONCLUSION

After two fairly extreme summers and cold winters, we're now getting a picture of the impact all these improvements have made to the 'liveability' of house. There is generally an 10 to 12 deg difference between inside and outside temperatures in winter and summer with the temperature hovering around a comfortable 18-20 degrees most of the year. As can be seen from the photo below, Jan 17th this year was an absolute scorcher with an outside maximum of 42 deg at around 5pm. Notice that the inside temperature remained at 29 deg which is not super comfortable but a lot better than 41.8 deg!

One thing I should mention is that we managed to source from Ebay, a very efficient split system AC unit that only consumes around 480 watts when set at 23 deg with a medium fan speed. In good sun conditions, the solar array will generate more than twice that amount of power and allows us to run the unit on days of extreme weather completely free of charge and with the battery bank still fully charged!

The trusty ALDI indoor/outdoor thermometer.

Summer Update 2016 /17

Summer Update 2016 /17

Welcome to yet another belated update from Three Dams.

After a pretty mild lead up to Summer with a Spring that really didn’t happen, we now find ourselves in late December enduring torrential rain and high humidity! Finally weather warm enough to use the pool though! As usual, there has been plenty of action here with lots going on in the garden and around the house. The BIG news this year is that we now now have a fence fully enclosing the vineyard! After last years near total destruction of the newly planted Tempranillo vines by kangaroos, wallabies and various other native wildlife, the vineyard is now protected and as I write, all the vines are doing really well and most are now well and truly up and secured on the cordon wire. Things are looking good for a small quantity of wine in 2018.

JAN UPDATE: Shoot thinning completed and 60% vine gro guards removed this week.

In other encouraging news from the Off Grid set-up, the new 880Ah battery bank that was installed in Feb this year proved reliable right through the dark winter months with no power outages or generator use required. In September, I relocated a 295 watt solar panel I had installed on the Melbourne house up to the property which increased the solar array to just over 1Kw (1075 watts). This has given us a huge boost in charging capacity and has allowed the battery bank to recharge much faster during times of intermittent sun periods, common throughout Winter. The enlarged array can also now power our recently installed, super efficient split system AC. A comfortable 25 degrees inside is possible using only 450 watts of power!

In the garden, things have been stepped up too. Cherry and orange trees were added to the orchard along with a climbing blackberry. Wends has planted an abundance of various vegetables including eggplant, corn, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes and is very excited about the amount of apples this year and the very first passionfruits after about 5 years! Apart from all that, there’s still a lot of time spent in the kitchen keeping us and the visitors sustained, along with plenty of local Heathcote wine to keep everyone hydrated!

Time out at the Heathcote Wine Hub.

The (overdue) Winter update!

It's been a while since the last blog post and so much has happened since April! We're in the middle of the wettest winter we've experienced here at Three Dams and the first time that all the dams are overflowing in July! We've also experienced some pretty extreme temperatures over the last few months and gone through a decent amount of firewood! There has also been a few glorious sunny days but unfortunately not enough to fully recharge the new battery bank we installed a few months ago. The new battery bank has actually provided all the power we require this winter and we haven't needed to use the generator at all so far but the size of the bank requires a larger solar array so the decision has been made to upgrade the PV array. 

Back in 2008 when we set up the initial off grid system, one 120 watt solar panel cost nearly $900. In 2016, I can get 6 x 250 watt panels for a bit over $1100 so over the next few weeks I'll be replacing the under performing 780 watt array with a brand new 1.5kw array.

The depths of winter bring a new task this year...grape vine pruning! Due to the dry summer conditions last year and the subsequent problems with roo and wallaby damage to the newly planted Tempranillo vines, they will need to be pruned back harder than we would have liked. This will be done over the next few weeks and a roo protection fence will be constructed.

All in all, as usual plenty to do at Three Dams.

Summer wrap up 2014/15

The "long hot summer" that never came was a bit of a god send in the end at Three Dams Estate!

Last year we decided to advertise for helpers on the HelpX website and were inundated with applications from OS travellers offering to spend weeks or months living with us at the property. Basically we provide food and lodgings (and wine!) and in exchange for 4-5 hrs work per day.

We were really lucky to have a young French couple Alexis and Capucine contact us early after their arrival in Melbourne and on a hot day in early January, they made their way on the bus up to Heathcote. They were very keen to improve their English and at the beginning they were pretty shy to say much at all, especially Capucine who we'd nicknamed Nasi. Capucine is the French word for Nasturtium!

As well as being great people they were very keen to work and really helped us make good headway into the long list of summer jobs which included finishing the re weatherboarding of the house and painting the dining room among other things. We enjoyed many delicious meals and numerous bottles of wine together and much good conversation in English. Especially from Nasi! After 10 days together we were sad to seem them leave.

So after 6 years of work since moving the house up here from a Box Hill, we have finally finished the complete re weatherboarding including the insulation of all the walls. Earlier in the summer I installed and (expensive) roof exhaust fan that switches on automatically when the temperature reaches 30 deg in the roof space. This along with the floor, wall and ceiling insulation has enabled the house to remain around 10 deg cooler inside the house in the middle of a hot day.

Right now we are back to work in Melbourne but are making regular trips back to Three Dams Estate to harvest the over abundant Nectarine tree!

We are also expecting Ross Knight to come and rip the vineyard next week.