Demotech, design for self reliance

In the'Lab', Demotech's experimental workshop at Landbouwbelang in Maastricht, we have taken into use 'The Caf?'. The Cafe is situated above our storage area, leaving hardly enough space for not hitting your head against the concrete ceiling beams.
Apart from that it is a nice place. It has a beautiful view over 'the Bassin', a little harbor, now a tourist resort. Sitting arrangements are a strange mix: there are two couches, a beer table, two beer benches. To a concrete beam a kind of bar is attached, clamped in a window a computer gives access to our network.
The Caf? is becoming the place for the Workforce's meetings. And meetings there are plenty. Sunday morning there is meeting about our Latin Project, Monday lunch time, there is the General Meeting. Wednesday people involved with the Workshop meet. Friday is the day for hands-on work.
Now, about one month after its start, the Workforce is getting its own momentum. Wiki web editing is now used by all, preparing our Workshop brings up the basic questions regarding the targets of Demotech. Then is shows how much actual but dispersed knowledge and experience this group has available. Amazing Claudia has visited all of the Latin American countries, Jesse, Mariska, Joel, Peter and Akshay have lived on more than one continent. Their global citizenship also reflects in their fields of interest. Demotech now gets a boost from this Workforce: one of Demotech main topics has already for some time ago been highlighted by one of them, Jesse. The website he created on the topic of 'Open Source' is worth to be studied in depth.

Thanh Ha Phan is a third-year student from Vietnam in the field of International Business and Management Studies (IBMS) at Hogeschool INHOLLAND Rotterdam. At present she is doing an internship at Demotech. She works on Demotech's design for a bookkeeping system. In the target page of the bookkeeping Wiki her work is described as well as at other locations in this Wiki, Tough it is not the idea to make use of a computer in our bookkeeping system, it has helped her to line up what she learned at school with the Demotech system. I copy her weekly report to this "What's New" item, feeling confident that a bridge has been made between one of Demotech's wildest ideas and the modern financial professionalism as taught at "InHolland".

I made a progress with the bookkeeping system, successfully put it into spreadsheet. Moreover, I did add more columns of some certain accounts in the bookkeeping system after the discussion with Reinder and Mr Anker. We are improving the system.

Through the searching process, I have learnt a lot more about accounting system and finance. After studying all the information from the search, I have had the idea how to combine the cash basis and accrual basis into Demotech's system. This is not only just a normal bookkeeping as usual, but is the best with the efficient input for financial documents such as: income, cash flow and balance sheet. Most of all, the system has to be loyal to the underlying targets and goals: transparent, easy for laymen to do and check. With that guideline, I am still working on the method.

Up till now, the latest version of bookkeeping method is available that meets most of the above requirements. This version provides such information as: how much profit or loss the company made over a period of time; how much cash in hand; how much does the company have to pay or is able to receive in the near future? I did make the expenses and expenditure for manufacturing separate. This is one of the most concerned questions from Mr Anker. With this headway, we now can calculate the gross profit, operating income and net income. The most important thing is that the system still maintain the spirit of the target: transparent, easy for laymen to do and check.

The tasks for next week is to keep working on the system to attain the perfection. Continuing with the research to find out more and compare the similarities and dissimilarities. This might raise more requirements and questions about the system.

Big surprise! Davina does not use her stove! It is pretty cold in her room. She could use something to warm her up. But this BrickStove is just to slow for her direct needs. She gets up, has no time before rushing of to work AND to fire her stove AND to wait for the heat to work itself though the stone mass. Same story when she comes home from work. She would love to warm her room, but again it takes too much time.
At present there are not enough pallets to burn. We are waiting for a new load. Firing her stove twice a day would probably keep her room warm all day -and night. When the wooden pallets arrive this has to be tried out.
Below are shown a series of pictures of the building of the stove.

Lowest tunnel, set up

Lowest tunnel, roof

Inside lowest tunnel

Start middle tunnel

Shaft to top space

Sheet metal on top

Brick layers as ballast

Dry mud with small fire

Davina's first firing

Pipe through window

Landbouwbelang has no chimney. I have no idea how the hundred former workers of this factory kept warm amidst the cold concrete pillars and floors of this factory. My seven house-mates each have solved this problem in their own way, always with a most personal chimney sticking out of a window of their apartment.
Now it was my turn to outsmart the cold. Of course I claimed that the BrickStove would be most ideal for a squat like Landbouwbelang. Davina was the only person to express some trust in my proposal. As her iron wood burning stove had proven to be incapable to heat her room last winter, she has high hopes the BrickStove would do better.
By happy coincidence just at this time Mickenhans contacted me, as he wanted to learn how to built the BrickStove. So Mickenhans and I ended up together building a BrickStove for Davina.
Basically it is the same model that functioned well for many years in the old workshop in Dieren. It has a tunnel that is filled with wooden sticks at the bottom. This tunnel is closed at the far end, so the fire has to burn the wood from the front. The hot gasses then flow up to the second horizontal tunnel on top of the first. From there they escape in a larger chamber in the top part of the stove and transfer heat into the concrete blocks of the walls. A chimney pipe, with its entrance near the bottom of this chamber is the escape for the exhaust gasses, that by now are cooled down to a 80 degrees Celsius.
The other end of the chimney pipe sticks out of her window in a crooked fashion with a funny little cap at the end. As the other house-mates have experienced, this works well, but for only a few days each year. Then the wind will blow the smoke into the rooms at that side of the building. So they decide not to install the forced draft, that is important for the latest version of the BrickStove.
The pictures below show Mickenhans at work with Davina's stove. He was quiet content with the result. Once we had mastered to cut the bricks with a diamond disk at an accurate 60 degrees, glueing the bricks together with mud proved to be easy and effective.

Some time ago again, that I wrote the first Wiki-invitation in the 'News' of July 7th. Who came? Plenty people, but let me name for now just two students, Jos van de Ent and Joost van der Bulk from the Delft 'InHolland' University. They were the first students to do an internship in Demotech's new workshop in Maastricht.
Jos and Joost took Wiki serious. They published their research in the Demotech Wiki pages. While their work progressed, we searched at the same time for a format in which this kind of research by Demotech could best be covered.
So their work had two distinct results. One was giving shape to the concept of 'Solar Sanitation'. Look at the Wiki part of the BathroomBox for the results.
The format for reporting in Wiki is the second result of their stay at Demotech/Landbouwbelang in Maastricht. I expect this format will assist potential future members of the Student Research Team. The format offers a clear guideline, to get started will take less time. More time will remain for actual experiments, always the most inspiring part of research (see pictures below).

A third result should be named here as well. The 'environment' of Landbouwbelang, with its total lack of comfort in the huge concrete spaces in the abandoned factory with this name, has one unique advantage! It is one of the bases of Maasticht's subculture. As such it is a great meeting place of progressive young people. During their stay at Landbouwbelang, Jos and Joost enjoyed it to mix with this crowd.

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