Inspector Gadjet

I'ts something we use every day but it is rarely talked about and often overlooked... can you guess what it is? The Toilet. Here at Inspector Gadjet  we will talk about toilets all day if given the chance because we love toilets! Here is a step by step introduction to the water-less compost toilet system we build and install for festivals, camping area's, building sites and bush blocks. Wheelie bin systems are a great "no handling" system: when the bin is full you simply unplug it, close the lid and wheel it away, Out of sight , out of mind. if you have two bins they can be alternating: while one is composting it's contents the other is being slowly filled. drilling a hole as close to the bottom of the bin and installing a threaded back nut  allows you to attach a tap and hose for the liquids to drain. Straw is added before use and a short bit of ag pipe is fixed inside to stop the tap and hose becoming blocked. When the bin i...

At Inspector Gadjet second hand materials are always welcome, we would rather use your materials for your project than buy manufactured unsustainable hardware. If you have a store of building materials and a project, we can make it happen. Most of what we do is at least 80 % made from re-purposed hardware and materials. Our list of re-purposed products is growing all the time as we re-invent uses for societies refuse. * pallets * car/truck tyres * cans and bottles * used timber framing * corrugated iron * fridges/freezers * glass Whatever your project we can help save you money and make your dreams a reality.

IT’S ON! MICHAEL REYNOLDS IS COMING TO AUSTRALIA!! Michael Reynolds is heading down under to do a series of talks, presenting Earthships and the latest findings in self-sustainable architecture and design. For tickets and more information please visit  https://earthshipstore.com/ index.php… If you are buying multiple tickets, please list the names of the people attending in the "Customer Comment" during the check-out process so we can keep track of who is coming. Please be sure to print out and bring proof of your ticket purchase with you, or have the e-mail confirming your purchase accessible on your smart phone or other mobile device. Each person attending should also bring a valid form of identification so we can verify your purchase at the door. About Michael Reynolds: Ever since the first screening of the film Garbage Warrior in 2007, Michael Reynolds has been internationally recognized and acclaimed as leader and pioneer of self-sustainable building designs. F...

Recently I was asked to build some playground equipment for the Lorien Novalis Steiner school in Dural. I was given a rough sketch of what they had in mind  and as usual they were happy to give me free reign to design something close to the sketch. I started with a steel structure and added on bits and pieces as the project evolved in my mind. Not wanting to use any treated timber, I used steel for the main structure and later cladded the exposed steel with re purposed hardwood fence palings. Hardwood fence palings used to clad the steel Tree branch handrail I wanted to include natural timbers and used materials so I designed and built a handrail out of tree branches attached to a chain bridge I had incorporated. Other materials included marine ply offcuts, (and purchased full sheets), left over building materials from the high school building project from a few years before and some bluegum slabs I found under a classroom. I tried to make the play ...

Let's look at a typical suburban house in winter, let's call the house itself a large box. The outside temperature is too cold to be comfortable for humans so we need to somehow heat this box we live in. So, inside the large cold box (our house), we have another much smaller box and this is our heater and this small box is heating the air inside the large box. Now, we also want to keep food in our large box and this food needs to be kept cold otherwise it will quickly go off and we will not be able to consume it. So, how can we keep the food cold and separate from the air we have just heated in our large box? That's right! we need another box but this one needs to be about as cold as the outside air temperature. Can you see anything wrong with this picture? (apart from the fact that it was badly drawn). Would it make more sense to have the cold box outside? If the temperatures are around 5 degrees Celsius in winter, then having a fridge or chest freezer th...

There are three types of heat transfer, lets look at all of them and find the most energy efficient. * Radiation Our sun is a good example of radiant heat, other sources of radiant heat could be from air conditioning type heaters and portable heaters such as electric or gas. Radiant heat is the least effective type of heating. * Convection Convection occurs when a liquid or gas is heated, it is the transfer of heat by the physical movement of the heated medium itself. An electric/gas heater with a fan is a good example, Convection heats the air and is slightly more efficient than heat radiation. * Conduction Conduction is when there is physical contact between the heated medium and the object that we wish to heat, conductive heat is the most efficient of the three forms of heat transfer. rocket mass heater with the chimney incorporated as a cob bench for direct contact and thus conduction.  A Rocket mass heater is an excell...