BANGALORE: When the city is complaining of price hikes, here is an IISc scientist who is making a difference to his family and the society. A R Shivakumar's house Sorabha in Vijayanagar is an example to show how natural resources are more worthy, when used in the right way.
From the last 16 years, this scientist has been harvesting rain water and is using solar energy to meet his domestic needs. "Ever since we built this house, we are 100 per cent selfsufficient in terms of water resources even without municipal connection. When a normal household uses about 5001000 units of electricity, we use about 80 units of electricity on a monthly basis, rest we utilize it with our own resources" said, Shivakumar.
He continues, "We have an overall storage capacity of 45,000litres, and the rest is discharged into the earth through barrel system of groundwater recharge. We have a separate recycling barrel connected to the washing machine. Here the used water gets recycled and is pumped for the toilet flush."His house mainly depends on natural airconditioning system, thus making them free from artificial air produced by fans. He says, "The wind direction in the plot is gauged. The doors and windows are constructed in such a way that it guides the wind along the 'Green Curtain' (plants/trees and water bodies) around the home. Also, the rattrap design for walls wherein bricks are placed with threeinch gaps in between, acts as a natural insulation, keeping the house naturally cool."Shivakumar's family does not depend on BBMP for garbage collection. He said, "We have our own vermicompost (earthworms) pit, where all its organic wastes are utilised to prepare manure for our garden. We dump only the milk packets and few plastics in BBMP garbage collection vans."
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