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Foundation Progress

In a recent post I mentioned I am redoing my house foundations.  The permit application process is nearly complete.  Stared items are still pending, but expected in the next few days.  The application consists of the following:

  • Architectural Drawing of the Houses
  • Asbestos Survey
  • Test for Ground Contamination*
  • Test for Ground Stability, where they send a probe some 20+ meters into the ground to look for the beginning of the stable ground layer.
  • Pile plan, where a technically oriented architect uses the building drawings together with the ground stability tests to determine how many of what type piles need to be placed, together with their pattern.
  • Archaeological study waver, where the city determines (hopefully) an archaeological study is not needed under my house before starting the construction.*

After the application, a building inspector will come and do an inspection.  This could be very superficial or very involved, I’m not sure yet.

So far no asbestos or toxic materials have been found yet, but not all the test results have been returned.

The new piles will be about 22cm in diameter and 21 meters deep!  The ceiling clearance on our ground floor is only about 2 meters, so they will have to drive them in segments.  They will be made by driving a hollow casing into the ground, filling it with concrete, then removing the casing (I think).  In total, 19 piles will be needed.

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It’s Time for a New House Foundation

House Front

A little more than two years ago now I posted about my house foundation. I wonder how many readers have been around that long and were paying enough attention to remember that post! What’s really funny is how the picture from this original post was indexed by Google. Have a look at the Google images search for House Foundation and see if you can find the picture of our foundation.

Anyway, it’s time. I’ve waited as long as I could, but the city says it has to be done now or the houses will collapse. I turned in the application for the building permit today, and it’s time to start the great paper chase before doing the actual work.

Ours are the two dark colored houses in the middle of this picture, with a straggly looking grape vine going up the middle. They are open on the inside and fully joined together, only the outside makes them look like two houses. The discerning eye may notice the orange glow of a growlamp in the upper right hand window where I have started my seedlings.

The two houses were built at the same time around 1680 when our neighborhood was built, making them 328 years old. Our neighborhood, the Jordaan, was the first major expansion of the city outside of the heavily fortified original center.

At the time the average person had 8m2 of living space or about 86 ft2! The city expansion was desperately needed. The houses were built during the peak years of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company, the money from which is almost certainly what funded the initial construction.

The houses were built on a wooden foundation, with 4 meter long piles. This wooden foundation was built entirely under the outside walls, no part of the foundation extended toward the middle of the house. Until the 1930s, the house had a dirt floor on the ground level.

The new foundation will be built with concrete piles made by driving hollow pipes into the ground and filling them with cement. These will be placed in the middle of the house on the ground floor and steel rods will be placed across the top of them extending into the walls and in turn stabilizing the structure.

The reason the foundation lasted this long was because as long as wood stays wet and isn’t exposed to air, it won’t rot. Our house was built at sea level, with the foundation below sea level. Because it was submerged, it never rotted.

All over The Netherlands, but in Amsterdam in particular, is the problem that where there is land protected and drained by canals and dikes, it sinks slowly over time. That’s whats been happening to our house which has sunk an average about 1mm for every year of it’s life. As you can imagine, things were starting to get out of hand after a while, not just with our house but the whole city. At some point in the course of managing the water and ground levels, around the 1950’s, the city made the decision to lower the water level to the point where most wooden house foundations were exposed to air, including ours.

All over the city now house foundations are rotting and being repaired.

Our new foundation will be built to around 14 meters where there is a stable ground layer, instead of the original 4 meters, meaning our house won’t sink anymore.

I don’t know if I can take a lot of pictures of what’s going on, but I will at least post from time to time about it.

In case you are wondering what a home repair like this costs, let me assure you just thinking about it is making my eyes water. The total costs aren’t known yet, but this looks set to be more money that I have ever spent in my life with the exception of the initial purchase of our house. There are some subsidies for this available from the city, but I have been warned not to expect too much.

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Chlorine in the Garden

Kelly of Future House recently did a great series of posts about the rain water collection system they built. He mentioned he used PVC pipes to build the system, which is what gave me the idea for this post.

Two Kinds of Chlorine

There are two kinds of chlorine, and the difference between them is very important.

The first kind is ordinary pure chlorine, sometimes called household chlorine, and is what common bleach is made from. This is also sometimes used in swimming pools, or added to drinking water. While there can be health issues with this type of chlorine, in particular both high concentrations and chlorine gas can be toxic and some people can have allergies to it, but overall it is considered very safe both for people and the environment. This type of chlorine occurs naturally in the environment, so moderate use is generally considered to be 100% biodegradable.

The other kind of chlorine is what is used in manufacturing processes. This is also sometimes called elemental chlorine, and this is what happens when atoms of chlorine are combined with other elements. One of the most important characteristics of these compounds is they are usually very long lived in the environment, and sometimes very toxic. Some common examples we are probably all familiar with are ozone depleting CFCs, PCBs which are very toxic, DDT as well as a number of other pesticides that have now been mostly banned (these are sometimes referred to as POPs or Persistent Organic Pesticides) and also PVC plastic.

These chlorine based compounds are so damaging to the environment, they have frequently been the focus of Greenpeace actions. Together with nuclear waste and heavy metals, chlorine compounds are some of the most serious environmental contaminants in the world now.

The Good

Household bleach really has many uses in the garden as well as in the house. Many people think of it as a harsh cleaner, because it smells so strong, but this is not actually the case. It’s a great environmentally friendly cleaner to use for the toilet, and is perfectly safe for septic tanks or for grey water collection systems to be used for plant irrigation. It is a much better alternative to bathroom scrubbing powders or creams, which are mostly very bad for the environment.

While you should never apply it in any way to plants or your garden, it’s very useful to clean greenhouses, tools, pots, seed trays and so on. It’s a very good disinfectant and can be very important in preventing the spreading of plant diseases. When you are done using it, it can be poured down the drain or on an unused spot in the garden. Within 48 hours it will completely break down into the environment.

The Not So Good

Most of us have something made from PVC plastic in the garden. Plastic coated fence or tools, maybe irrigation pipes. It can be really great stuff because, by design, it really does stand up to sunlight and last forever.

If you ever look into alternatives, you will see there aren’t many. Galvanized steel is sometimes used, but it contains trace amounts of heavy metals that will stay in your garden after the original material decomposes.

The main problem with using PVC in the garden is that it will be around long after you throw it away. It’s a very difficult plastic to recycle, if it’s incinerated or heated to a high temperature it will decompose into PCBs and if it is put into a landfill it will stay a very, very long time. While other kinds of plastics may be around for decades or maybe even centuries, PVC will likely be around a lot longer. When you think it will probably stay in your garden for 10-20 years, that’s a small percentage of it’s total lifespan.

Kelly of Future House asked the question if there were environmental problems with the manufacture of PVC. As far as I’m aware, there is no harmful waste created in the manufacture of it, but this is only half the equation! You should consider how what you buy will be disposed of, and if there are more environmentally friendly alternatives. Until now we have all been taught not to worry about what you throw away, and that what can be disposed of now can be dealt with by some future technology that will be soon developed. Not all of these technologies are emerging, and toxic waste and landfill space are already becoming serious problems.

Specifically addressing Kelly’s rain harvester system, what they might have used instead of PVC were metal fittings connected with rubber or plastic hose. Yes, it almost certainly would have leaked from time to time, and not worked as well, but it would have been easier to dispose of or recycle the individual components. It may also be possible to design a system where a single leak wouldn’t be as catastrophic as it would be in their system, perhaps top filling the barrels and having a separate tap on each one, maybe connecting the barrels in pairs or groups instead of all together. Another possibility might have been to try to use second hand PVC fittings, but I guess this would have been very difficult to do.

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Home Energy Audit

We pay an estimated monthly amount, but our meters are read and our home energy use (gas and electric) is calculated once a year. When our bill comes each year, it’s always the time to think about how much energy we are using and why, and think about how we can improve things. Since our bill just came and I was thinking about these things, I thought I would do a post about it and see if I got any interesting feedback from my fellow bloggers.

Anyone reading this has to understand my priority is using less energy without spending money in the process. I realize this can be a controversial position to take, but I have never believed much in the idea of doing good by spending more money.

I don’t buy the most expensive food available thinking it is the healthiest, I don’t buy every fertilizer and pesticide available thinking it’s going to make my garden grow better and I don’t think going out and buying all the latest energy saving appliances is doing any favors for the environment. I prefer to focus on the ways I can save energy that don’t involve buying things I wouldn’t need to buy for other reasons anyway.

Of course when I do need to buy a new appliance, I am always looking for the greenest alternative available for a reasonable price.

There are a number of personal circumstances that cause me to consume more energy than I would otherwise. My house is larger than most people in Amsterdam have, it’s not very well insulated and the windows are leaky. I have closed off as many rooms as possible and leave them unheated, and made as many small repairs as I can to the leaks. We also have our home thermostat on a timer and keep it as low as possible. The climate here is mild, and mostly our heat is off unless we turn it on because we’re cold. I would replace all of our windows with new double glazed windows if I could afford it, but realistically this is years away, and probably not until the windows are completely falling apart anyway. There are other similar decisions we have made that end up using more energy.

The Major Appliances

As it turns out most of our major appliances are pretty modern and new. In the last 3-4 years all of them gave out in one way or another and we had to replace them. We used the opportunity to get the most energy efficient models we could find. We have a new refrigerator, chest freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, clothes dryer and hot water/central heating combo unit.

I realize the clothes dryer is probably a controversial item for some people. Actually, until about 3 years ago we air dried all of our clothes on racks and didn’t own a dryer. This made laundry an almost constant chore and wet laundry a permanent fixture in our house. The Dutch government had an offer of a €200 subsidy when you bought a new energy efficient gas dryer, and since the price of a new dryer was €320, this covered most of the cost. It was a little bit of luxury we decided we wanted, and decided considering the 15 previous years we had done without a dryer it was an okay thing to do.

A gas dryer is common in the US, but very rare in Europe. I hired a plumber to install the gas line, and he said he had been a plumber for 30 years and never seen one before. As far as I’m aware, a gas dryer is significantly more energy efficient than an electric dryer, but it’s hard to know for sure because you can’t make a direct comparison of the two. A gas dryer certainly costs a lot less to use.

I have my doubts of the energy efficiency of my washing machine. It received both top ‘A+ ratings’ for energy/water use and cleaning clothes. After I installed it, and read the instructions, I became acquainted with the ‘intensive wash’ button. The instruction manual explained this option should be selected for all but the most lightly soiled clothes. Apparently the washing machine received it’s A+ rating for cleaning clothes with the button pressed and it’s A+ energy/water rating with the button not pressed. A portion of the energy efficiency rating is a result of a high spinning speed meaning the clothes come out drier. They then supposedly need less time in the dryer, but I have a very energy efficient dryer anyway. We also need to give all of our clothes an extra rinse or they are too soapy, putting the water efficiency in doubt.

What seems so far one of the best purchases is our water/central heating unit. We’ve had it a year now, and our gas use is much lower. The old one was also supposedly energy efficient, but the new one is clearly much better. Our gas bill is almost €500 less (30% reduction in energy use) compared with last year. Perhaps if I had given the matter a little more thought, I might have done better installing a solar hot water heater and buying a smaller and cheaper heating unit, but now that I have the new unit this isn’t economical any more.

The Other Things

Beyond the major appliances, we have a TV (old style CRT type) together with the usual stack of VCR, DVD player, satellite box, etc. We have several computers, which we normally turn off but are sometimes left on overnight. Together with the computers we have a wireless network and adsl connections with the associated hardware, all of which stays on all the time.

We have a conventional electric oven with a gas top, as well as a separate microwave/toaster oven. We have a few other kitchen appliances, vacuum cleaner, mobile phones, a couple of radios and a few other minor things.

We are not fans of compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), and don’t own any. Rather than buy one more expensive consumer item, with it’s own waste disposal problems, I prefer instead to use normal light bulbs with a lower wattage and be more diligent about turning off lights when they are not used. We also have a number of halogen lights.

I realize not using CFLs is going against the popular trend now, and another controversial decision on my part. The energy my lights use is a small percentage of the overall energy consumption in our house, and I have saved far more energy in other ways than I could by switching to CFLs. CFLs are made with heavy metals, and especially if you don’t have a way of properly disposing of them when you are done, are not environmentally friendly. In my case, most normal light bulbs are made in Europe, but the CFLs are made in China, have to travel farther and don’t support the local economy as much.

Probably the most important reason I prefer normal light bulbs is because the technology behind them is too old to be patented, unlike CFLs which are patented by companies like Philips.

It seems to me the reason it’s so important we all switch to the new light bulbs has much more to do with corporate profits than protecting the environment. The Dutch government has promised to phase out normal light bulbs soon, at which point we won’t have a choice any more because it won’t be possible to buy them.

Anyway, this pretty much sums up the hows and whys of our energy use.

Choosing an Energy Supplier

I guess like many places now, it’s possible to choose an energy supplier and buy your gas and electricity from many different suppliers, some of whom claim to be greener than others for different reasons.

There’s a strong emotional impulse to buy your electricity from a company that claims to generate is all from wind or solar power, or other renewable source. At the same time it’s not that clear to me this is actually the case.

Everything is interconnected, so there is no guarantee a particular electron comes from any particular company, and indeed we are promised if anything happens to the company you buy energy from like it goes bankrupt or their generation facilities fail, you will continue to get energy from some other company.

Since the so called dirty power plants will continue to operate, even if I pay more money for green energy from another company, what’s to say I’m not just subsidizing the use of dirty energy by someone else. In theory the dirty power plants will generate the same amount of energy regardless if I buy it, so if I buy green energy won’t that just make it cheaper for someone else to purchase the dirty energy?

The issue of clean and dirty power generation is much more politics than anything else. Companies are the biggest consumers, and governments establish prices with subsidies and taxes, which determine what energy companies decide to purchase. Treaties like the Kyoto Protocol establish limits that are likely to have a much more significant impact on how power is generated than what energy company I choose.

In the case of Europe, the electric markets have been privatized with one important exception, standard ‘grey’ electricity from the local energy company. I don’t like the idea these energy markets have been privatized, and I prefer to continue to buy my electricity from a regulated source as long as it’s possible. Remember what happened to the state of California and Enron a few years ago?

In theory it’s possible to save money by switching energy supplier, but in fact prices fluctuate a lot and it’s not always true in the long run. In order to keep your costs low, you may have to keep an eye on prices and frequently change energy companies. I prefer to save money and be green by using less energy than by switching companies.

These are the reasons I’ve chosen not to choose a ‘green’ energy company.

The Bottom Line

Gas:

Use: 1660m3

Usage Costs: €1002.73 annually (€83.56/mo)

CO2 Emissions: 2948 Kg

Electricity:

Use: 4507 kWh

Usage Costs: €1007.44 annually (€83.95/mo)

CO2 Emissions: 2572 Kg

Fixed Costs:

Gas: €170.05 annually (€14.17/mo)

Electricity: €87.65 annually (€7.30/mo)

Taxes and Subsidies: €-198.02 (€-15.59/mo)

It’s a little interesting the CO2 emissions are on my energy bill now, but especially for the electricity I question how accurate or biased it is.

Is the electricity figure only for my energy company, the country as a whole or a European average? The answer is very important to understanding the meaning of this figure, and I don’t know what it is.

Update: After doing a little research I found a little more information about the CO2 emissions for electricity. It is related to the choice of energy supplier, in my case ‘grey’ electricity from the standard supplier, probably from the natural gas plant near Amsterdam.

I also discovered my gas use is a little below the national average of 1820m3 per year, my electric use a lot higher than the national average of 3500kWh, and my overall CO2 emissions also a little higher than the national average of 5221Kg.

Where Does it Go?

The gas is mostly used for central heating and hot water, but some is used by the stove top and clothes dryer.

My working assumption is my electricity usage is divided up roughly as follows:

Dishwasher and Washing Machine: 50%

Lights: 10%

Computers and Internet: 15%

Everything Else: 25%

Everything else means mostly standby appliances, refrigerator, freezer, TV and kitchen appliances. I should probably break this down a little further, but many of these things I’m not sure how much energy they consume.

We’ve done our best to reduce the number of standby appliances that stay on, but we still have a few.

We just bought a more energy efficient computer for primary use, so maybe next year our energy use for this will be less.

On average, we use our dishwasher and washing machine for about one load each per day (our washing machine is much smaller than most standard US models).

So how does all of this compare with the decisions you’ve made, your usage and costs?

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The Oddities of Google

Google seems to be a popular blogging topic. Mostly because Google seems to be quite broken right now, but also there are always people around amused at the search terms people use to find their blog or other strange things about Google.

Robin of Bumblebee Blog had a good idea. She suggested her readers post some of the the search terms people use to find their blogs, then she would then make a post linking to them after December 5th, so we could all compare. Here’s my contribution. I’ve been meaning to post about this anyway.

Of course people find us for the ‘right’ reasons, by searching on topics relating to this blog, but I’m going to give some examples here of some unexpected things.

The first thing to realize is Google has really changed a lot over the last few years, and search terms people were finding us with before are not the same as now, with one exception. Before and now, the single most common term people use to find this blog is ‘weed burner’. I made a post about weed burners very early on, and I seem to have become the main Internet information resource for weed burners.

As a result of using the word ‘weed’ in a popular post, and posting a little later about cannabis, we also have no end of people who find us wanting information on this:

pics of weed

weed

cheap weed

…

I also made a post about my 325 year old wooden house foundation needing to be repaired, and a lot of people started finding us looking for information on foundations:

Why is my house sinking?

sinking house foundation

How do I know if my foundation is bad?

What does a bad foundation look like?

For a long time, people were finding us searching on information about carrots:

Can you grow carrots in a bottle?

What do carrots look like when they are underground?

What types of carrots are there?

history of carrots

pictures of carrots

how do I grow carrots

To be clear, I’ve never particularly posted much here about carrots.

For a while a number of people were finding us searching for missing bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. The popularity of the topic led me to write a number of followup articles afterwards.

A number of people have found us recently looking for pictures of different kinds of garlic. This was part of the reason for posting the pictures recently, because there aren’t many pictures of garlic on the Internet.

By far in a way the biggest ‘Google event’ happened when Steph made this post on Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

For those of you not familiar with this beer, in recent years it’s probably become the most popular ‘alternative’ beer in the US, and it’s particularly popular among students. When Steph and I were students in Chico, California, where the brewery is located, we went on a tour of the brewery while it was still in a garage. A few days ago we bought our first bottle in Amsterdam! It still tastes the same after all these years. At 15 euros (about US$21) for six bottles it’s not going to become our daily beer again anytime soon, but it was still a nice treat.

Anyway, after Steph made this post people started ‘borrowing’ the picture by linking to it within blog posts, forums, myspace pages and so on. It’s all over the Internet now, and a search on Google images shows it’s now the most popular image above even those released by the brewery itself! The picture itself is probably the single largest source of Internet traffic for our domain, I think more than everything else combined.

Like I said, Google is broken now, but until recently it was including all of these links in our page rankings. I like to think I’m popular for other reasons, but surely this has had the greatest impact on our Google rankings!