Brrrr! v2.0

I think we got lucky with the warm (and wet) weather persisting so long into November, normal service has been resumed, it's 1:30am and outside it's 1c while inside it's 0c.  Not quite sure how that works.  Good news is that the DPM wall upgrade seems to be working very well indeed, right now the external humidity is 87% and inside it's 64%, with the canvas walls that would have been much higher when left for a week.

Finally got round to jetwashing about half of the outside last week before the washer packed up.  IT was surprisingly effective but it probably would have been wiser to make jetwashing a regular maintenance fixture rather than waiting for green mould to take hold.  Reason being that the green mould seems to come in three layers, the green bit which blasts off really easily, a cream undercoat which takes a little more determination to remove, and a nasty black stain that will only lighten with the use of bleach.  If you're planning on having a yurt, read and follow the location instructions, keep them away from trees and try to put it in a place that gets good all round sunlight if you don't fancy a 3 monthly jetwash session.

Meanwhile, the paraffin heater is languishing at the end of the bed, it was a wee bit smelly, probably good in a larger room but in the confinement of a yurt, it became a little pervasive.  The low odour paraffin totally eliminates the smell but it's VERY expensive and the paraffin overlords seem to have an agreement on price because it's pretty much the same everywhere.

Electric Heating Checkpoint.

This is just to track the effectiveness and cost of heating the yurt with a DeLonghi Dragon 3 oil filled radiator (Chinese made, bit shonky).

Looking good so far, I would have spent £9 on coal over a similar weekend and is far less controllable.


Average external temp 11c.
Average internal Temp 20c.
Entire weekend heating cost @ 10p per kwh, £3.
External humidity 96%
Internal humidity 52%

Things may well change as the temperature drops below zero.  Time will tell.

Impermeable Wall Update

Well, it looks like my concerns about the new plastic membrane walls creating condensation were unfounded, on average the internal humidity has been 30% lower than the external humidity and there have been no instances of water running down the crown cover or any feeling of damp or ickyness at all.

The average temps this weekend were between 5c and 10c outside and a pretty stable 17c inside, only using a fan heater, I will be upgrading to a 3kw oil filled rad at the weekend.  I wonder if I could get through winter with just electrical heating?  I will be measuring the electrical consumption and gauging it against what it would cost to heat the yurt using wood or coal.  It would be great to leave the fire alone until it gets really cold, it's not the cleanest or greenest way (assuming coal usage) to keep warm.

Survival Blanket Insulation.

I bought six of these from the £1 shop, they are the same metallic silver cellophane sheets that they wrap round marathon runners or people who are losing heat.  Apparently they reflect infra red radiation and are good retainers of heat, so on that principle they should do well as a new ceiling liner for the yurt.  Took about half an hour, but I now have what looks like a radio telescope for a ceiling.  The crinkling sound will take a little getting used to, but it's no worse than being kept awake by something akin to an ostrich stomping around on the roof.

So far, the combination of additional insulation and the reflective sheet is pretty impressive, right now it's 14c outside and 18.8c inside with the only heat coming from me and the 12v fridge.  I'm hoping to be able to get away with less coal and wood burning this year and lean more towards more controllable forms of heating like an oil filled radiator or fan heater.

Also, the yurt has a new veranda, I fell through the old one and nearly broke my leg.  This time it's been done with decent wood from a pallet place in Wisbech run by a lovely chap from Holland who also sells timber.  It's been treated with epoxy varnish so should last better than the bare wood that was used previously.  To be fair, the old steps didn't do too badly, they've been there from the beginning of the build.

Ditching the Canvas, Adding a Cosy Jacket for Winter.

Looks like a good weekend so I've pulled my finger out and got stuck in to the thing I have been putting off for some time now.  Initially today's project was to get under the felt, put some additional insulation in the form of carpet underlay, and put it all back together again.  It all went a bit wrong when the outer cover was removed and I found this...

Presumably this is as a result of the wettest year in the UK since the Stone Age, followed by very few opportunities to dry out between showers.  The canvas wall that is intended to keep the yurt waterproof had rotted at the bottom where it has been perpetually wet, and there are some fungal stains on the felt.

Fortunately there are still a few layers between the mould and the inside of the yurt so I don't think any harm has been done.  The picture above also shows the first of three sheets of underlay to be placed on the roof, the following picture is of the additional wall insulation (held on initially with gaffa tape, this features heavily in the upgrade).

Once that was out the way, it was time to think about replacing the rotted canvas wall.  I decided on damp proof membrane from B&Q, a single 15x4m roll was more than enough, cost about £40.  I sliced off a strip 150cm wide and worked my way round with a roll of gaffa tape and ended up here.

I know what you're thinking, "what about condensation?", I look at it this way, I reckon the weather creates more incoming moisture than I create outgoing moisture.  I'm planning on a mushroom vent for the crown cover soon, so it won't be a problem wither way.  There's a solar powered fan at the door pumping air in all day.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll be jetwashing the whole thing.

Rain rain rain......

The persistent rain is have a bit of a negative effect on the canvas walls, I've noticed that right at the bottom of the canvas, it's pretty much saturated and is resulting in some black mould, nothing terminal or damaging, but it's not ideal.  It's not bad enough to smell or have any other undesirable consequences, but it will need some thought, and the thought is this...

Plasti Dip

You might want to turn the sound off for this video, also, if you can work out where the bloke's face is for most of the video, you can put a Post It note there and still see the video without having to look at the gurning idiot.
I've used it years ago to rubber coat tool handles and anything else that remained stil for long enough to get rubberised.  The idea is to wait for a good hot spell, get some air to the walls, wait till they are totally dry, then with a spray gun and thinned out Plasti Dip, rubberise the canvas to make it totally waterproof.  Not sure how much 5 litres will cover, but the bottom will get treated first and then we'll see what's left.

Last weekend was a hum dinger for some pretty lairy blustery wind, with 50mph gusts, it was a bit noisy outside, so noisy I had to use earplugs to get to sleep.  It's at times like this that I truly appreciate the importance of considerate and well thought out siting of the yurt, why? because the next morning I was shown by Lou (one of the lovely house people) that the previous night's wind had torn a significant chunk of 8" leylandii bough down, depositing it perfectly next to the chickens.  Although the yurt is close to trees, none of them are large enough to pose any real danger, nor are they of the randomly falling over flavour of tree (Chestnut is the closest).

While we're here I'd like to nominate the Bissell cordless sweeper as most awesome yurt tool of 2011, using compressed logs for fuel is a messy business, touch one and there's sawdust all over the floor, on top of that, I like toast and other crumbly foodstuffs that the Bissell munches down like there's no tomorrow.  It gets used multiple times a day and I'd be lost without it.

So, this drought...

I just wanted to share with you what rain sounds like from inside my lovely canvas pie.