[eekosmembers] Some projects and assistance required
- From: "Kevin Ison" <kevin@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Members email list" <eekosmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:38:14 -0000
Hi all,
Here are some projects requiring your assistance.
Money is available only when we are paid by customer.
How do we pay everyone? Say eekos UK wants to pay Jamie or Ian for some
consultancy work, how is the best method without big international transfer
commissions? We have used Western Union to transfer money to Gambia but it
costs about 10% or more in commission.
Jamie, you might know this one - is paypal any good for this?
Anyway, here are the jobs and the help needed and approx amount available.
Just to note, how I plan the labour costing for jobs here - I get £13.00 per
hour as self employed carpenter around here. As a company we (eeos UK) are
looking to charge about £18 - 20 per hour to cover expenses and then hopefully
get a 20% profit on labour costs. I try to get them to pay for materials as I
have been burnt in the past.
==========================================================================================
WOOD FIRED HOT TUB - eekos UK
(I am keeping things for UK separate from eekos limited, treating like an
agency)
NEED;
1 - Plans/ideas/brainstorming for cheapest solution for wood fired boiler to
heat hot water tub.
2 - Advice/brainstorming on best method of building the tub so it looks good,
but does not leak.
AVAILABLE;
£50 is available for solid advice to help design this.
SUMMARY;
A wood fired hot tub to be central feature of a eccentric on-site caravan /
camping park set in the bush near Whitby UK.
Basically wood fired boiler thermosypens to the hot tub. Water drained
regularly through bottom plug so no need for filter system. No air blowers or
spas, just hot tub. Construction of the boiler is up to design. I am looking at
something like the Dutch tub coil from ordinary steel if local guys can make
it. The other option was a stainless steel mesh fire cage with 18mm copper pipe
wrapped around it to draw off the heat.
the tank could be wooden, but problems with leaks even if using western red
cedar. Other option was to line it with copper from old hot water tanks. Copper
is used in some Japanese hot tubs. Tub would be 2m wide by about 800mm deep.
The alternative for the tubs was to make it from concrete - like ferrocement -
dug into the ground with 1" slant foam lining it on before the ground to stop
heat loss. We could line it with small tiles - this suits the look of their
camp as it is retro.
I was looking at the option also of using a DIY solar panel to preheat the
water into a tank, this would reduce the wood heating requirements as sometimes
the water temp would be close to 5C and they have to raise it up to 40C.
They would be ok if they can get complete system for under £2000, but I think
we could do it cheaper and these people are nice and on a right mission so the
cheaper the better. If we can do it for approx £1200 complete with 3 days
labour for me at £100 per day and travel at £100 I would be happy.
Ideas and some calculations on wood requirements to heat the water would be
appreciated here.
==========================================================================================
CANAL SIDE COMPOSTING TOILET - eekos UK
NEED;
1 - Plans/ideas/brainstorming for cheapest solution for composting toilet and
greywater system.
AVAILABLE;
£50 is available for solid advice to help design this.
SUMMARY;
On the 23rd I am heading to nice area near Skipton to look at installing a
composting toilet in a cabin near the canal. If we can do the job for under
£1000 we can do it. It is being used by one bloke who works there and the
option for them is to install a mini sewage treatment plant at about £2500.
They have agreed to pay me £100 to travel there and have a chat. So that leaves
£900 or better to try to go under, so around £800. Guess again about £50 for
advice on this one as I have a good idea, but just need confirmation.
This is for the body that looks after the extensive systems of canals in Uk, so
there could be more work if this goes well.
A trailered in cabin is to be put beside the canal. I think it is wooden.
Toilet to be inside. So little area underneath. I thought the best would be a
replace barrel sort of toilet system. I have used similar on the site at Whitby
and last year they had 600 campers and they filled 4 containers and have just
emptied the first with no problems with the compost. Light loading with only
one worker and occasional visitor.
For greywater I thought that a planted bed up beside the back of the cabin
would be nice so that it was a floral feature as well as greywater. Perhaps
build of timber to match with plastic lined and gravel filled.
I will report more on this one after the visit.
==========================================================================================
TROPICAL ECO HOUSES - eekos Gambia
NEED;
1 - Plans/ideas/brainstorming for eco houses for Gambia.
2 - Design of web pages (possibly separate website) to sell the houses and
brochures for estate agents in Gambia.
3 - Help with marketing on internet sites and through estate agents in Gambia.
(Priority is that the main tourist season in Christmas and Easter and we need
to secure interest with brochures over Easter.
AVAILABLE;
Standard rates available for this as there is good profit in these houses.
SUMMARY;
This could be a lot of fun and satisfaction!!
There is a strong NEED for passive eco houses in the Gambia. While the DEMAND
may still be with brick squares with air-conditioning, there is over 70,000
visitors from UK and Gambia per year and a proportion of these would be
interested in the benefits of a holiday or permanent living house in Gambia
that is passively cooled and tropical in design with low embodied energy
materials.
Also, by simply marketing and supplying information on good eco design, we are
going to influence the present builders and there could be consultancy work
there as well to help the existing builders to improve their houses.
I believe that we can sell up to 20 houses per year with a good crew of
builders there and strong marketing and design team. Ous and the rest of the
team there have all worked on houses in various trades and there is many trades
persons available to hire if we need.
The house price has to be kept low to attract buyers in the perceived
instability of an African country. But because Gambia has little in the way of
minerals (the tourist trade being one of its main income earners) it has been
relatively stable for many years and is expressing a great desire to come out
of its third world status.
We are aiming for a low market - under £50 000. This is a big cost by African
standards, but if you consider the average price of UK house just passed over
£200 000 then for many Europeans it is cheap.
How we finance and arrange is variable. Straight house sales through estate
agents in Gambia. Purchase land and do a house land package through agents and
internet sites. I am also keen on a 6 house development around a freshwater
pool etc.
The deals could be private from eekos and getting the eekos team to build and
share profits above wages. AND/OR we do developments with eekos Gambia and all
profits go back to eekos and some back to eekos.
To build on someone else's land we could build for £10 000 to £15 000 and
charge around £25 000. This would give good wages and profit for eekos Gambia.
For house land packages the figures look good. Land is available for £2000 to
£8000 depending on where and if it has sea views (not many have this though).
House would cost up to £15 000 with all solar and white goods etc. The estate
agents indicate that if we can sell for £40 000 we would sell them easily.
I am putting together a design guide for myself and others and will put it in a
new section on the website. This will summarise all I can gather about Gambia,
its climate and architecture and various aspects of tropical design. From this
we can make the marketing package.
For any real chance to get a few orders, we need to get this together by
Easter!!!
Kevin Ison
eekos Limited
The Old Hackfall
Grewelthorpe
HG4 3BW
Company Number - 5504935
www.eekos.com
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