So last weekend was quite a weekend!
On Saturday Andrew, Tha wah and I, along with others, attempted to solve our house's hot water problem. We started to build some solar water heaters along with an NGO called BGET and Marcus. We started to build three water heaters: one for our house, one for Marcus' and one for BGET to have so that they can train others in the solar water heating making process.
To explain why we need a solar water heater: because we still don't get to take hot showers all of the time! The power that is needed to go to our electric water heater is too much for the fuse in our house to handle and after about 2 minutes of a hot shower we blow the fuse in our house! Sigh. Also we can't always take showers any ways because sometimes the water pressure isn't high enough so we have to take bucket showers. Which now that I am used to them aren't so bad. None-the-less I was determined to find away to heat our showers and a solar water heaters seemed like just the thing. It also just so happened that when I brought this up to Marcus he said "Oh ya I have built 5 solar water heaters in Thailand and know exactly what to do. And I was going to show BGET how to build one any ways. AND I want to build one for my house too."
So that is how last Saturday we started to build three solar water heaters and I must say I am pretty excited about it! It involved a lot of running around trying to find the right pieces in the right sizes for all of the compartments, but I think that we have pretty much got it all now and are ready to finish and install it this coming weekend!
We started by building the collectors, which were made from wood and corrogated iron, that we painted black. Then inside of the collectors we placed 5 sets of black tubes that we put permanately together with wire and cement tape. These tubes will be what will eventually pump in the cold water and heat it and dump it back out into a highly insulated garbage bucket to later be used by us for showering water. The collectors will be finished this weekend by adding a layer of aluminum foil, a layer of hay and a lay of plastic to the back to keep them super insulated and retain as much of the heat absorbed from the sun as possible. Also over top of the collectors we will be placing three sheets of glass so that it magnifies the rays of the sun on top of our black painted tubes that are holding our water. We also need to finalize it by insulating the garbage bucket with a layer of foil, a layer of hay, and a layer of linoium. I am hoping to have this installed by Sunday, so hopefully I will be able to post photos of the finished project soon!
Then after an exhausting Saturday that went from 9am to 7pm working on the heaters we went to pick up our three new kittens on Sunday morning! They were born to a semi-stray cat that lived at a small school in Mae Sot and the school wanted to give them away to a good home before they became street cats. So we are going to let them be indoor-outdoor cats so that they can learn to fight for themselves. But for right now they are only 5 weeks old and are keeping them inside with only minor outdoor excursions for their own safety. Luckily they are very smart and took to the litter box without any mess ups! They also love to be with one another and I am so glade that we took all three and didn't spit them up! Currently they are eatting, sleeping, pooping machines! - But cute ones! I am excited to see them grow up.
Our last edition to our house this weekend was a free papya tree! It is only a baby right now, being just 50 cm, but if we treat it right it should grow very quickly and hopefully product fruit before 2009!
