Renewable Energy - Full timing - Scuba - and other things
   
Energy from the wind....  
   
Jacobs.jpg - 24740 Bytes I almost got a Jacobs 10 KW wind generator... it needs blades, and more important it needs a tower... lots of work to do to get it back up and running. On my new land it would fit in great, although there is not really enough wind to make it worth the cost to install it.
   
Energy from the sun....  
   
5th Wheel PV Panel and Elec Schematic This is a schematic of the PV setup in my HH II

Read the article RE on a PV, that I wrote about living in my 5th wheel and the PV panels that I installed so I wouldn't have to plug into shore power. It was published in the Aug/Sept 1998 issue of HOME POWER, issue #66, page 40.

   
Full timing  
   
I left NYC in 1995, spent a total of 3 years full timing in my HH II and traveled 60K miles in the states and Canada. I spent a little over a year in Austin TX, resumed full timing, and settled down in Tucson AZ in 1999. Read the article RE on a PV, that I wrote, it tells a little about the places I went and what I did.

This is my HH ll at the Meadow, really connected. I have a hard connection to my cold water and my hot water (coming from the batch heater on the left side). There is a washing machine under the 5th wheel tongue area. You can see my PV panels up for the maximum gain. 
   
Scuba  
   
dolphin_water.jpg - 8783 Bytes I'm a PADI Instructor, #85707.

I taught in a small store, "Dolphin Divers", with Meg. It was in Little Neck, just outside of NYC and we had a gas with our DM's, the students, and on the many trips we took to the Caribbean, like Bequia.

The best diving place in NYC is at Beach 8th St in Rockaway. My favorite dives are night dives, everything is so different and you can only see what your light is illuminating and so you can concentrate more on what is in front of you

Let's get wet!! Send me an email...

I have a US Divers 2 hose regulator, "DA" model, #58573 for sale
   
Water Harvesting  
   
cistern_re_bckA.jpg - 11722 Bytes    cistern_re_bck1A.jpg - 10328 Bytes At my house that I had in Oro Valley I made a water harvesting system. I found some used culvert from the 1st Ave reconstruction here in Tucson. I cut it in half to get 2 pieces, each 7 ft in diameter and 10 ft tall. They were then sunk in a concrete base that had an overflow and outflow spigot.. Tucson's annual rainfall is about 12" per sq ft, since my roof is about 3400 sq ft (includes covered porch), and full both cisterns hold about 5000 gal together, I was able to fill them about 5 times. The cisterns feed a drip irrigation system, which in turn lowered my usage from Metro Water

The beautiful finish comes from being in the ground for 20 years
   
Another kind of Water Harvesting  
   
  When I bought my house in Oro Valley all the water would just wash down the driveway, taking soil/sand with it. Now there are little gabions (water speed bumps) for the water to gather in, slow down and divert it off onto my land, where it waters the trees and plants that I have put in. The water is kept on my land, and doesn't just run down the driveway.
   
Strawbale  
 
I came to Tucson for a Strawbale Building workshop, run by Matts Myrhman, using a house that was being build in downtown Tucson on Spec by John Barnes (the house sold about 3 weeks after it was completed). I liked the area so much that I stayed. But I didn't build the SB, just got a house that needed work and here I am, fixing it up. Trying to put in sustainable and energy efficient systems.
   
Other Pages  
   
My Keller Bandsaw that had a seal problem, still needs to be reassembled..
Need some playing cards.....
A Plexiglas Bender that somebody asked me to do a drawing of.
Rats in my Audi I have an Audi 4000 and some rats made a nest inside the engine compartment....
   
My resume  
 
All Images, Designs, and Works of Art are copyrighted by Dougherty Designs 2005