1900 House

[kenboak]

Hi Selfsufficientish Crew,

Many will have seen the 1900 House that was screened in 2000.

It was the first of a format, that attempted to re-enact lifestyles from the past, before "reality" TV became mainstream, will all the dreadful me-too, reality shows.

The interesting thing about the 1900 House idea, is that it represents a pre-oil age, at least for the UK.

It also represents an age when work meant hard physical or repetetive labour, long hours and dreadful conditions.

With the "age of cheap oil" estimated to last only the next 30 years or so, it was also a reminder of what life could become like again.

How many of us would be prepared to returning to a coal and wood fuelled economy, without plastics, intermittent electricity and the accompanying social hardships?

I was intrigued and impressed how quickly the Christmas 2004 Tsunami victim communities managed to recover from their tragic losses, and yet how vast tracts of New Orleans still remain devastated and uninhabitable -post Katrina.

It just goes to show that the higher we climb, the further we will fall.

Returning to the simpler, self reliant lifestyle depicted in the early 1900s, might not be such a bad thing after all.

Any one want to have a practice run?



Ken

[Luath]

We are trying to be as non-electric as we can - we recently got rid of our toaster and kettle ; we make toast on the Rayburn, and boil the kettle on it. No central heating here, just the solid fuel Rayburn for water and heating (electric thermostat for back up hot water, but barely used). I try a lot of things that other poeplw woudln't even consider, just out of interest; some of them work and are incorporated into our lives, others are unsuccessful and dropped, or modified to suit us more.
If it were just me in the household, I would have candles, no TV, flat irons, a well, etc, but there are two children and another adult to consider, who aren't quite as keen on some of my ideas as I am, strangely enough. We do a lot, but I feel there is a lot more we could achieve with a bit more application.
Might be interesting to turn this inot a challenge type thing - eg "Can you live for a week/month/whatever without X Y orZ?" Just a thought.
Anyone else? Good thread, btw.

[Han&Matt]

Well done you two - I agree wholeheartedly and yet have not really embraced such ideas any further than nodding fervently when hearing of the courage of others... Definitely an 'ish'! We have an allotment now though, and only buy meat occasionally, and from known organic sources, so trips to supermarkets are dwindling. We lived without a tv for around 3 months due to lack of cash and had a lovely time conversing over dinner!
I would love to hear of ways to gently wind down the reliance on electricity I'd love to pick up some hints - it's about time we began 'doing' rather than just dreaming...

[Wombat]

Hey Luath!

I'd love a woodburning stove, but where do you get your wood? I suspect that it would not be much fun in an Aus summer though!

We still use too much electricity - I suspect is as much mindset and planning as anything. You need to be much better organised when using solar so you can get the work done while it is there and then do something else when it is not.

I suppose time = money = energy too, and working a 10-11 hour day stuff up my plans!

Nev

[kenboak]

Hi, and thanks to the other Ish-ers who have contributed to this discussion.

Whilst I am not advocating a full return to 1900 values, might I suggest that we pick and choose the good things from that era and use them to substitute out some of the bad things from our era.

For example - plastic food packaging. Food could be wrapped in waxed paper, and brown paper bags, all of which are great for lighting the fire in the evenings.

Home heating by gas could be partially subsidised by burning a wood burning stove or range. There's even a company in Leek, Staffs, that are re-casting Georgian cast iron ranges.

http://www.whitesrow.co.uk/

Whilst it is a good idea to reduce one's electricity consumption to a minimum, there are some things that just won't work without it - for example this laptop.

Try and obtain your electricity from a renewable source, or even try making some of it yourself with a small wind turbine or solar panel.

Laptops use a fraction of the power of desktops, and since I work from home, I devised the idea of the "200 Watt office", which allows me to work in my design business whilst using only 2kWh per day.

Details in my blog, along with my electricity diet - the E-Plan diet, which has worked well for the last 11 months, and got this house down to under 8kWh a day, even in winter.

http://sustburbia.blogspot.com/ See Sept 23rd 2005

There was also a unique simplicity about 1900 life. Things of beauty were made from simple materials and relied on the skills of Craftsmen to fashion them into items of desire. I'm not saying that my suburban 1905 house is a thing of beauty, but it is made from 5 basic materials brick, slate, timber, mortar and glass, all of which were sourced locally, apart from the slates that came from North Wales. This kept transportation costs to a minimum - a good thing in the age of steam trains and horse drawn carts. Nobody wants to haul a ton cart of bricks further than they need to.

This also gave rise to the regional variations we see in our housing stock. They were built from bricks from the local brick works and clay pit, using local building styles and this gave them a distinctive character - unlike the characterless clone box houses that are being built today.

Bye for Now,


Ken

[Milims]

Hear Hear!!! We whole heartedly agree with you and try to do our bit and are working on doing more.
Its quite funny but I was speaking to my Mum today about the type of selfsufficientish stuff we are doing and her response was "and how are you going to find the time to work?" She really wasn't joking!! I think that the older generation, those who lived a life not so far away from the 1900s type, believe that its just too much like hard work not to make use of all the convenience stuff, so they avoid it. I don't think they realise just how easy it is to incorporate it into every day living.
On the other side of the coin my son, whos 11, has said that he would like to be sponsored to live for a week the same way as his Poppy did when he was that age during the war, to raise money for a good cause. I've told him that means no sweets, no TV, no game boy etc - and he's all for it - he doesn't have much of them anyway so he's not likely to miss them much!! He's mostly interested in the diet and supplimenting it with foraging. I guess thats where it starts, if we can teach our children then they can carry on the good work and go some way to saving the world!!
Helen and Chris

[baldowrie]

Hmmmmmmmmmm every time I read things like this I feel very sad that every one just assumes that all people are fit and able, and I am not just talking the elderly.

What comes across is that if you don't work harder and use less energy you are failure. Think it needs to be remembered there are those that need to use the energy as they are physically incapable without it and they should not be made to feel guilty for it.

Yes even a person who is reliant on modern technology can still do their bit, but that bit may only be small and that should be acknowledge.

As for working etc, I remember a TV programme years ago where a family decided to live in the 1900's. They certainly didn't have time to work as washing took all day, you couldn't boil the coper for one small wash as it took so long to get hot. Ironing would take another day as getting and keeping the irons hot was not easy.

No vacuums, so cleaning would take all day and you needed to completely strip the bed and wash them down to prevent bed bugs etc. Go without cleaning every day and you had problems with mice etc!

No fridges so daily shopping for food....
and list goes on.

As for better for the enviroment...where have the smogs of London gone????

Yes there should be other alternative to the power we use but going back into the past is not always the answer as their ways were not always the best

[wulf]

If living in the past was so good, why did they all move into the future?

I think baldowrie makes some important points above. I'm pretty sure that, if we could persuade everyone to go back to their 1900 style of living, the results would be disastrous due to the vastly increased global population.

Instead, I think we need to make the best use of knowledge and experience, ancient and modern, as we, too, move forward into the future.

Wulf

[baldowrie]

I agree, use our knowledge for future developments to combat global warming and environmental issues

I just feel sometimes some have rose coloured spectacles.

[Andy Hamilton]

Sort of half agree with the general points raised here. There are parts of a 1900 or even earlier life that we could change back to for our benefit. The refuse levels would certainly be an advantage.

As for building the house, we have learnt so much more arcitecturally since then that it would be churlish not to use this knowledge. What about a house that runs off all its own collected rain water, washing machines that use grey water from your shower or bath, in earth houses that are heated/insulated by the earth around them. - wind and solar technology.

I certainly would not want to go back to not having a washing machine, a shower or central heating after living in rented houses with out them. - but you can have your cake an eat it by having as eco friendly as possible alterantives. It is just a shame that the lack of foresight in the last 100 years has led to such a shambolic housing scheme in this country.

[Luath]

The phrase "appropriate technology" springs to mind for me.

[Andy Hamilton]

The phrase "appropriate technology" springs to mind for me.

Indeed.

[Wombat]

Good one Luath,

the earlier point about returning to a coal powered future (to coin a phrase) scares me rigid when I think of the consequences regarding global warming. We have plentiful coal here in Aus but it would disastrous to use it!

Nev

[Wombat]

You guys know Ian "Molly" Meldrum?

I remember seeing him on a telethon, he had been awake about 24 hours and was sitting next to some guy out of the audience. Molly started talking about buying gardening tools for the beneficaries of the telethon, spades and stuff. The guy beside Molly said "Ah, real appropriate technology stuff eh?" and Molly just gave him the "what rock did you crawl out from" look. I suppose you had to be there at the time, but it was hilarious!

Nev

[HILLDREAMER90]

Great in theory,but as someone who dident have a washing machine for 6 years, washing by hand in the bath soon loses its novelty.Got my first ever automatic last year,quite efficeient on water & power. i wouldent want to go back to that! A.