2014 - The planning begins!

I'm thinking if I start with half a dozen verticals, as thick as I can get (I can source ones about an inch and a half easy enough), and then make some rings to bind them all together. Then some more thickish poles, maybe an inch thick, going round the inside in a spiral in opposite directions, initially secured in place with cable ties but as it produces side shoots, twist those in for extra strength.

 

The kid's school did one - all parents asked to collect 2L Pop bottles, so that part was easy. My worry is how long it will last as I don't suppose the plastic for the bottles is UV STable - so might only last a year or so?

 

They're making eco-houses out of pop bottles in blazing hot countries. I think it would last at least 5 years. For me its all about the fun of the experiment rather than long term result. I'm thinking if I can't get enough bottles to make the small den/house, then I might experiment with a composter. I'm thinking if the bottles were all filled with water, like in the bottled light thing I found, then that would act to regulate the temperature within. Water has a very high specific heat capacity (4200 Joules to heat 1cc by 1'c), so I'd expect anything contained to warm up as sunshine is absorbed, but not get too hot because the water would take a lot of the energy out, but then on cold days, that energy in the water would radiate back into the contained compost material, thus keeping it warmer than it otherwise would have been, and it may well result in speedy decomposition/digestion.

 

The "green house" they built at school was done by cutting the bottoms off the bottles, so that the top of the bottle below nestled into it, and then a cane put through all the spouts to hold them rigid. Bit difficult to get them to hold water with that arrangement but perhaps there is a different way to build it - the bottles on their side, for example? (but seems to me like that would need a lot more bottles)

 

Where there's the seed of an idea, there is a solution. Some seeds (ideas) need little and just sort of sort themselves out. Other seeds need nurturing and guiding to become what its meant to be, but always, they start from the seed