We are Pauper’s Candle Co. and we are living a sustainable dream. We have a cottage on ten acres in Northern Idaho that utilizes the sun for electricity. We enjoy saving money, conserving resources, and living a good life. Many of our friends and family are curious as to the life we live, and we enjoy sharing our story with them.
Currently, we are developing a small orchard and garden. But, we have so many projects we are working on between our already busy schedules. During the week ten months out of the year, I am a high school social studies teacher. My wife operates her own candle business in which she uses solar energy to manufacture them. If interested, you can visit her website here (pauperscandles.com).
My name is Mark and my wife’s name is Krista and this is our sustainable dream.
Thanks for posting this!
On an unrelated note,I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award! Check out my post here:https://blissfullyinformedhippiechick.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/liebster-award/?preview=true
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Idaho huh? No wonder there’s so much snow. What do you do for water?
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Our property has a low producing well that I pump into a cistern. The cistern has a float valve to turn off the well pump when it’s full. The pressure pot turns the cistern pump on to charge the lines in the house. Our snow and rainfall each year seep recharge our well. All our water lines are buried 2 extra feet below the 2 ft frost line to prevent freezing.
What do you do for water?
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We haul it in. We have no faucets/shower or toilet. So we keep 3-5 gallon jugs in the shed & have a 300 gal reserve tank outside. We just reclaimed a 1000 gal water tank that is going to be our foundation for the rain water collection system.
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That is how we started out. Was glad my work had a shower that my wife and I could use until I could afford and build the water system we have now.
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Hello to my fellow Idahoans! I wanted to thank you guys for the thorough explanation of your hot water system. I am currently designing a similar set up for my tiny house! I was wondering if I may be able to ask you a couple questions about it? Thanks again for sharing your experiences it has really helped in the designing process! I look forward to checking out more of your articles!
-Westin
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Not a problem. Just be careful. I was pretty cautious when I first ran the system, making sure I didn’t create a potential life threatening problem.
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Thanks, as will I! I was curious why you decided to use galvanized steel from the wood stove and then transition to copper rather than use copper through out? Also, what size plumbing did you use? Mostly, I have read on these systems they suggest 3/4?
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Mandolin,
I used 3/4″ galvanize pipe for the pipe inside the stove and 3/4″ throughout except for the emergency T & P valve =1/2″ The reason I did not use copper throughout is because the fire box tends to get pretty hot and I heard people having problems with the soldered joints melting. The last thing I wanted was a water leak inside the fire box. I used stainless at first inside the fire box, but I had so much trouble with it leaking at the elbow joints that I figure galvanized is cheaper if I make a mistake connecting the pipes together, which I did. I screwed up my stainless by not connecting union joints to the inlet and outlets, which in turn screwed up the threading to the elbows inside the firebox; a perpetual slow leak started, and I had to change it out the next year. There are other designs out there that use copper continuously such as a creating a series of turns around the stove pipe and not plumbing into the firebox. Those who do this say the creosote buildup is less in the stove, but I “believe” the water is not as hot as fast as when plumbed in the fire box. Whatever you decide to do, do not forget to place a Temperature and Pressure (T & P) relief valve into the system with a safe blow off pipe for hot steam and water.
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Mandolin, the reason I combined the copper with galvanized is because the copper is easier to cut to the desired length and solder together than to find the exact size of galvanized threaded pipe for each length needed. The copper runs I created are also far enough from the fire box to prevent the solder from melting.
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Thank you for the response ! I am excited to see how this system works out in my tiny house! Good luck up there and thank you for sharing your blog with us!
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Glad to have helped. Let me know how it turns out.
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Greetings from the Cookstove Community in Montana. http://cookstoves.net
Notice you have a Kitchen Queen 480 and was wondering where you purchased it and what your thoughts are? Did not see any posts concerning it.
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Woody, we purchased the Kitchen Queen 380 from you and your website. In fact, before we made our decision, we visited you and your smaller cabin in which you installed the 380 in. It was that visit that convinced us to purchase a Kitchen Queen. We’re glad we did because it heats our 1100 square foot home, cooks/bakes our food, and heats our domestic hot water during the winter months.
Below is the link which we mention or talk about our wood cook stove. I mention your company and provide a link to your website in the first article I wrote about our wood cook stove back on April 11, 2015.
https://livingasustainabledream.wordpress.com/category/wood-cook-stove-2/
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So interesting! Looking forward to follow your journey!
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Thank you Sagittarius Viking for joining us. If you have any questions about Living a Sustainable Dream, feel free to comment on the posts that intrigue you.
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Thank you, I am sure that I will! I have lived a couple years off grid in my RV, to see if it was something I could do. Right now I’m in the city working, to be able to clear some of the initial costs of starting my homestead.. I already bought the land a few years ago. Have a fabulous weekend!
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