Kitchen Design

[Will Firstbrook WCB of BC]

Hi Eric,

Many thanks for your reply. Yes I do live in British Columbia. I have
not purchased the property I want to build the Cob house on yet,  but I
have put our house in North Delta on the market to start the process. We
are looking at many area+s to determine where we want to build & live.
Your message brings up a number of ideas and questions.

I was going to find a reasonable design for a solar oven based on what I
have read in the Earthship books and some other solar cooking echoes and
posts. Plus my own tweaking and customization based on cost and
availability of materials etc. I was intending on having the window
facing south with possible exterior reflectors on the outside to
increase the solar collection of heat. The oven would be built into the
cob wall with a door for easy access on the inside. Perhaps  imbedding a
broken microwave unit with the back removed and glass installed for the
back of the unit. Then there will be a door to open and shut from the
inside of the house. I had never thought about using a greywater storage
tank to pre-heat the oven. I was thinking since I would like to use the
greywater to feed the plants then re-use for the toilet any heat in the
water will not be lost it would sill help heat the house.

I was thinking of the high mass refrigerator/freezer design in the
Earthship volume 2 (or 3?). I would try to build it into the north wall.

I visited Sun Ray Kelly a couple of months ago and have a whole bunch of
ideas, I subsequently attended a presentation of Ianto Evens of the cob
cottage Co. which also gave me some ideas. Ianto came over to our house
for a visit and we talked about many options about cob and alternative
constructions. I am booked on the Denman Island Cob workshop in July. I
cant wait.

Ianto suggested I build a clay model to scale on a plywood board then
orient it toward the sun to give an idea how the light enters the
building during various parts of the year. He said when you actually
build you will make many changes as you find materials and creative
ideas spring forth. Building in cob is a truly creative process.

Regards, Will

 ----------
From: Eric D. Hart
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: Re: Kitchen Design
Date: Tuesday, 1997 May, 13 8:43PM


At 04:25 PM 5/8/97 -0700, Will Firstbrook  WCB of BC wrote:

>In working out a potential design for a Cob home, I find the kitchen /
>food preparing area the most challenging. I would like to build a
>thermal mass refrigerator as well as a solar oven. Thus part of it must
>be on the North side (refrigerator) and part on the South side for the
>solar oven to work.  Since it is used early in the morning it should
>have a view to the East. This will give it light in the morning and some
>passive heat. It will also reduce the late afternoon direct heat
>(Western view).
        This one seems fairly easy to me, just build an 'addition' onto
the
main body of the house for your kitchen.  The exterior walls could each
be
15 feet long.  The sink and main counter space either side of the sink
would
face east with a nice window above the sink.  The solar oven would be to
the
right of the sink (south) and the refrig to the left.  You could put the
greywater storage tank below the solar oven (assuming you want your
stove 3
or 4 feet off the ground).  This does two things, it saves space and
captures some of the heat from the greywater for use in your stove.  The
latent eat from greywater is significant and is normally wasted.  I
don't
know how your particular solar oven will work but it might need some
mass
which would absorb the heat from the greywater.
        Behind the sink could be one of those 'islands' with more
counter
space and perhaps a small seating area.  Beyond that island could be the
dining room in the main part of the house.  This addition would be
completely open to the rest of the house.  You can put the interior
planter
in the main part of the house.  The addition concept would allow you to
isolate the refrig and freezer as much as you need to.  Might even punch
the
refrig out from the north addition wall if necessary.  Would draw an
ASCII
art illustration, but that never works very well.
        Where do you live (British Columbia)?  If I would have know
ahead
of
time, I might have done things differently.  Hope this helps.


Eric D. Hart			
Community Eco-design Network	
PO Box 6241
Minneapolis, MN  55406-6241   USA		
(612) 306-2326
erichart at mtn.org			
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m037/kurtdand/cen