zondag 23 november 2014

Sailing Rowing Camping boat

Another rendering for the competition winning design of teh sailing rowing camping boat.
The Royal Dutch Sailing and Rowing club `De Maas` called for a design with sliding seats, sailing capability and `sleeping´ arrangement, and very shallow draft.

This rendering shows klinker construction and was for a clear indication that klinker building is all about flowing lines and precission, because all mistakes are well visible.

youtube




maandag 17 november 2014

Real Hoverboard

The hoverboard is here to stay thanks to hendo.
Support them, think an interesting  wya to use this
 Youtube movie.

The hoverboard

Tony Hawk on the board

The developer kit, whitebox






Bob Horn Kneeslider recumbent motorcycle

Recumbent motorcycle of Bob Horn.

Another excellent mechnic building a nice recumbent motorcycle, doing races.
His new steering system still eludes me a bit, but it seems to be working excellently.
youtube movie of steering system

Bob has a nice blog for you to look at, blog.










vrijdag 7 november 2014

Motor hydrofoils

Hydrofoils are gaining popularity. Personally I like the sailing hydrofoils best.
But have a look at the some of the quirky recent motor hydrofoils.
 
Hydro HY-X  youtube                  








W-foil  youtube    








Quadrofoil youtube























maandag 29 september 2014

Energy efficient retrofitting of a private home

The last couple of month we have been very busy in upgrading our house.
We decided to decrease our energy footprint by (hopefully) 80%.
In a dedicated website we show the changes, the measurement and discuss the problems and possibilities.

The website is still in Dutch, but the pictures speaak a thousand words? In a couple of month an English version will be added.
Website Energy efficient retrofit

The system design, with the woodburning central heating unit and the 1000L buffer at the heart of it, assisted by two heatpumps.


Some of the control valves in the system, on the left a glimpse of the underfloor buffer


What is judging the improvements without measurements. Below the energy production per day of our PV system.

What are the high energy users in the house, only when you know them, you can change them, or alter behaviour. We decided to get rid of the kitchen electric boiler and of the wash dryer. I could not change the PC stuff ....


Before this project we knwe theoretically what CO2 means and does in a house. But measuring the CO2 level in the house en in different rooms was an eye opener. It can quickly be much higher than waht is good for a person and we as people are big CO2 producers. Remember those headaches one can get from a crowded party, CO2!
Cooking on gas also quickly causes high CO@ levels.


The house was pressure tested before we started retrofitting it and it proved to be very leaky as this image from the smoke test shows. The smoke was introduces inside the house below the windowsill and this is what came out, all of it and quickly.


In the retrofit we have used Kingspan OptimR vacuumpanels for isolation, miracle panels.

zondag 15 juni 2014

French Le fish

My French Le Fish has been a joy to build.
Thanks to the kit I received from "Turbulence" which was very complete, good value and quick delivery.
Visit the website of Christophe Chanudet.

For more inspiration here a French le Fish video