The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

SCG was on 2 days 10 hours ago. She posted last on Sept. 15th on this thread.

Oz was on three hours ago and posted on his crazy man thread.

I apologize but I am always struggling with catching up on this thread. The internet has been pretty bad. Yesterday we did not have a data signal all day.

I am still in the Philippines. Another 10 days to go as I extended my trip.

We have built 5 coops 14 brooders, rewired the egg house, new electrical to coops and piggery, threaded GI pipe for farrowing pens' watering nipples, milled lumber, painted stuff, patched stuff and still have plenty to do.

Mrs Oz is of to Seam Reap in Cambodia on Saturday so I will wait for her to get back before I fly.


Back to catching up and I will hit send as soon as I get a signal.

 

[ozexpat]

Island power is expensive. We pay 27 cents US for a kWh.

Just about the only incandescent lights in the country are in my brooders.

I hope to get down to 20watts with the new design.

Our municipality is completing undercharging for water. We pay $3 per month so I guess I can't complain.

...

so thats around 13 cents us....  thats pretty good.

deb
[/quote

 

[vehve]

Breaking down the bill, I think we pay about 5.5 cents for the power, I don't remember if we have a contract that separates night time and daytime use at the moment. For the transfer, it's about 3 cents. And then there's an electricity tax, about 2.5 cents. And then there's some base charge, probably an euro or two per month. We use about 20MWh annually, since the house is heated with electricity. All in all, comes around to about 2 grand per year. Would be a bit cheaper if we wouldn't pay for renewable energy.

*Edit* All currencies in euros.

 

[chickadoodles]

It was a clear, cool day and perfect for working in the yard. I finished framing the coop today! I've been just sort of freewheelin' it and building without any plans. I discovered the more windows you have, the more math there is. I've got eight windows (6 that are working, so had to arrange predator proofing for those), a coop door, a nestbox door, a chicken door, a roost cleanout door and two large vents. Plus the underneath will be enclosed for storage.


Above is the side with two windows and the chicken door on the far right.


This side has three windows and the nest box.


This has from left to right a small viewing window at roost height, the double door, and a large working window.


AND I've been being really efficient. This is the pile of leftover debris and scrap from all the work thus far sitting on the 12x12 pavers.



Hopefully tomorrow I'll work on the roost shelf and pullout PDZ box, then off to sheathing and siding. When it's all done I'll probably post a coop article on BYC about the building challenges (like only having a Hyundai to transport materials and working single-handedly).

Looks great!

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Sounds great getting a lot of work done.

 

[Teila]

Thanks for the responses, I was just kinda interested.

As I mentioned we pay about $0.23 AUD; vehve is about $0.16 AUD, Deb about $0.13 AUD and Oz $0.31 AUD! Ouch!

I guess it is all relative to your income; if you are on $5 an hour it is going to hit you harder than if you are on $80 an hour!

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks for the responses, I was just kinda interested.

As I mentioned we pay about $0.23 AUD; vehve is about $0.16 AUD, Deb about $0.13 AUD and Oz $0.31 AUD! Ouch!

I guess it is all relative to your income; if you are on $5 an hour it is going to hit you harder than if you are on $80 an hour!

There are always ways to cut back. I use propane here for heating water and cooking. More efficient.... When i am living at the house I would go through two hundred and fifty gallons of propane every two years. Right now I am just keeping the water heater going. I know wasting fuel... But DANG I cant ever get one to light.... And Yeah Iknow how.... LOL>

In the winter I do use an oil heater in the bedroom only. Nice thing about those is once they come up to temperature they stay that temperature a long time. so the electricity is not running constantly. My roommate who has since moved on.... used to fire up the pot belly stove in the morning to take the chill off. She always complained about the bathroom being cold. Pot belly doesn't reach there. I on the other hand have no problem with a cold house. I have double insulated walls and It rarely gets cold enough to worry about the pipes.

Don't get me wrong it gets Dang Cold in the desert. With the wind blowing 30-80 miles per hour the chill goes way down. Chicken water tubs will be frozen solid in the morning. Katee will have an inch of ice on her Water tank.... She grew up in snow so I watched her... no sweat in breaking ice in the morning... But the nice thing is when the sun comes out it all goes away.

We do get about three days worth of snow.... Always melts when the sun comes out.

deb

 

[Teila]

Took this one today and wanted to share ...... I may be bias but I thought it was kinda cute!

 

[perchie.girl]

Took this one today and wanted to share ...... I may be bias but I thought it was kinda cute!

Awww shes got a wittle bow in her hair..... Too cute.

Wow its almost 2 am... No wonder my eyes is scratcy.....

deb

 

[vehve]

For some reason the EU regulation of not selling incandescent bulbs here was implemented pretty quickly. In a country where most people heat their houses 9-10 months per year, I don't think it really is doing any good. And as an added extra, we get to deal with the mercury in the more energy efficient lamps. I like incandescent bulbs, you can't beat the light they give. Halogens are okay too. Both of these produce a lot of heat, but since I'm heating with electricity anyway, I don't see a problem with that. We've got about a foot and a half of insulation in the walls, some rockwool, some polyurethane, some aluminium foil. The roof has over 2 feet of insulation. Our ventilation system also has a heat capturing system. So the house gets an A rating in energy consumption, that's not too bad. Our biggest thief I would say is the separate sauna partition which only has electrically heated floors, I've finally convinced Karin that we really don't need to keep it that warm all the time. It's okay if it's only 5-10 degrees C in there, when you want to go to the sauna you can switch the floor heating on and the sauna itself will warm it up a bit too, although it does take longer to heat it.