There was a long intermission after the September blog. This is partially because of weddings, holidays and miscellaneous stuff.
To obtain inspiration from one of the World’s largest renovation projects I visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia. According to Guinness World Records it is the largest religious structure in the world. I was invited to speak at a nearby European Commission/ASEAN event and took the opportunity to wander around SE Asia for a couple of weeks.
The 18 sq. km. site was rediscovered at the start of the 20th Century. A huge amount still remains to be recovered from the surrounding tropical forest. Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
After attending a wedding in Cape Town we visited Namibia for a couple of weeks to see animals, sand dunes and sometimes both together at a couple more UNESCO sites in Twyfelfontein and Fish River Canyon. It was a wonderful to get some Winter sun and we had a great holiday.
The second reason for the long intermission in blogs is that knocking down stud walls, ripping up carpets, removing fitted furniture and capping off heating and electrics is not very interesting or photogenic. See for example the pictures of a hole and white wall in the last two blogs.Â
Research has also been undertaken about heat pumps, solar panels, smart home equipment and micro-hydro. Elliot at Kensa ground source heat pumps was incredibly helpful. I painted potential pipe runs for 200 metres of ground source pipes, each 5 metres apart, and took a picture with a drone. It was evident that it would be very difficult to fit a sufficiently long pipe run. Ground source was the favoured option, but now we will focus on air source heat pumps.
Most of the hovel is now a bare shell ready for construction. Â Â Fingers crossed the construction work will start soon and more interesting activities and pictures can be shared. I am also going to experiment with fixing a camera on top of the contianer to take time lapse pictures.