Creating Regenerative Living Models – One Community Weekly Progress Update #442

This week the core team continued what we hope will be the final review of the Murphy bed assembly instructions. We finished recreating the Murphy bed in SketchUp 3D, assembling it using the latest version of the instructions. This included completing the assembly of panels on the back, front, both sides and the overhead section. Pictures below are related to this work.

The core team also reviewed the research the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing team did on aircrete and pulled out key takeaways and what to try next to prevent the aircrete from collapsing. We made a detailed plan for the week for the students to carry out. We additionally reviewed work being completed by the city center dome connector team in preparation for integrating another team member and continued to work on the solar microgrid energy demand work – responding to comments and beginning to review the first draft of the open source tutorial we’re creating.

The core team additionally continued working on the “Earthbag Construction Footers, Foundation, and Flooring” review for finalizing the live page. The focus this week was the flooring and the wing insulation. We researched to make sure the rockwool insulation sheets could bear the weight of the slab and the earth, confirming the manufacturer explicitly says it does. We found that a respirator is needed when working with this material as a safety measure and started considering a simplification on the design to eliminate the need for metal flashing for the dome floor. Pros and cons of this are still being considered. The pictures below share some of this work.

Another core team member addressed and deleted comments on the FFF doc, Roadways, Walkways, Gutter and Parking Lot doc, and Solar Hardware doc to the extent possible until further work is completed by other team members. He also engaged in two phone calls regarding the open source Chicken Coop designs. See related pics below.

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 60th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis began organizing the part documents of the Net-Zero Bathroom SolidWorks rendering. He did this by isolating the parts into a specific folder and made sure to eliminate any errors in the referencing of SolidWorks. The process involved opening the assembled document multiple times, every time a part was moved, to be sure the program was referencing the correct parts. This was done to ensure easier access and simplify troubleshooting errors that occur when an assembly has a large number of parts. He double checked the AutoCAD document in DropBox to make sure it was the latest version. Lastly Jose added some finishing touches to the updated exterior roof by rendering roof flash and fasteners, securing and sealing the design. He also wrote action items for volunteer positions we’d like to fill and that he will be managing. The pictures below show some of this work.

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 50th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. Stacey worked this week on integrating more updates and comments from two members of the Core Team. This involves going through them one by one and then circling back repeatedly to consider symbols and labels, etc. There are also some mistakes that were made early on with regards to exactly what position boards were placed in and how they fit together. Now that we can take an overview, we are catching and fixing those. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

David Na (Project Management Adviser/Engineer) completed his 26th week helping with input and management of the Parking Lot and Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development, now mainly focused now on the Earthbag Village aspects of this. This week David started with incorporating the stairs section into the google doc. He has decided to go with pressure-treated lumber and crushed stone/gravel for the fill of the stairs for cost effectiveness, aesthetics, and permeability/infiltration reasons. David also met with Daniela over Zoom to discuss the drainage plan and start a conversation on what the best plan of actions are for the Earthbag Village’s drainage plan. Lastly, David worked with Carol and provided some redlines on the roadways cost analysis table that she created. Pictures below are related to this work.

Aidan Geissler (Sustainability Researcher) completed his 19th week helping with 2nd-to-final review, feedback, and content editing. Aidan continued to work on translating his research, analysis, and findings for the Insulation Comparison Spreadsheet he developed into written content for the Most Sustainable Insulation tutorial. This week primarily consisted of writing a Pros list and Cons list for each of the 20 products. Aidan also began to research, identify, and write Key Features for each product. Pictures below are related to this work.

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 13th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development, mainly focused now on the Earthbag Village components. This week Daniela focused on the roadway and drainage plans. She started by providing a clear pdf version of the Earthbag Village, altering various features to ensure it was presentable for the website. She then measured the overall area of the village before and after the roadway alterations. Daniela also worked with Jae and David to improve the drainage systems. Once plans were reviewed, she created various designs for the drainage pipes and implemented them along with David’s design into AutoCAD. Lastly she edited/updated the paragraphs explaining the Earthbag Village roadways.

Shreyas Dayanand (Battery Research Engineer) also completed his 10th week helping with the solar microgrid design specifics related to electric vehicles and battery sizing. This week continued to edit the “Solar Farm Battery Analysis – EV Integration and 100% Off-grid Needs” report by rephrasing sentences, aligning pictures, including tables where necessary, and adding further descriptions for clearer understanding. Shreyas also continued his research on case studies for solar farm battery storage options and has consolidated his findings. Pictures below are related to this work.

The Compression Team consisting of Dominick Banuelos (Civil Engineering Intern), Jarot Tamba (Civil Engineering Intern), John Paul D. Matining (Civil Engineer Intern), and Marcus Nguyen (Civil Engineering Intern) completed their 10th week helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing. This week the team worked on more testing with the 7th Generation dish soap to see what may be causing the shrinkage with the cylinders. The week brought on some difficulty with obtaining lab time but even with the limited time availability the group was able to conduct some new tests. While doing them, it was noticed that the bubbles shrunk more with the soap by itself. Some glycerin was then added in to see the difference. With the glycerin added, the bubbles stuck together more and did not really shrink. Tests included: 16oz 7th gen with 5 gallons water, 16oz 7th gen with 2 tablespoons glycerin, 25 ounce 7th gen with 5 gallons water, and 25 oz 7th gen with 2 tablespoons glycerin. All samples seem to have collapsed in under an hour, but the ones with glycerin seemed to have a slightly better structure to their foam. Understanding this will be helpful and some more testing with other soaps will be conducted the following week. The team also redid and will redo again the jar test. Pictures below are related to this work.

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