canopy

In today's news story Haze problem worsens in North as many provinces hit by wildfires:

"Disease Control Department director Jessada Chokdamrongsuk recommended that vulnerable groups including the elderly, pregnant women, sick people and children should avoid going outside and wear face masks."

The advice seems unrealistic especially considering it probably needs heeded for the next few months. What kind of an existence is that?

Agree with your observations. Your conclusion is logical about it being a slip sheet, but the video explains the reason for the sheet is to guard against rising damp even though as you mention damp could seemingly find ways around it. Maybe just a case of Thailand being low-spec. Like in Thailand using 7.5cm thick q-con blocks for external walls would astonish people in other countries with concerns for suitability for that purpose. So perhaps things like thin blocks and low quality vapor barriers are just enough to work in most cases even though not totally bullet proof designs.

9 hours ago, Awk said:

 

It's not deceiving if pm 2.5 monitoring equipment simply was not available in most regions

 

The news story insinuates that in areas where pm 2.5 is available it is not being used: "(PM2.5) are still not part of the official Air Quality Index".

According to q-con, a DPC  is needed even if putting the blocks on beams like normally done in Thailand. You can watch the q-con demo below where they explain it (in thai).

6 hours ago, Awk said:

I think both the article and the greenpeace guy talk a lot of nonsense when they insinuate the government is trying to hide the pm2.5 data 

Isn't the whole idea of the AQI is so that the common people can get a single number that fits onto an easy to understand scale? Thus, people don't have to know what PM is or dissect different aspects of air quality to form a good understanding.  It seems disingenuous for the government to release a fake AQI to the public that does not consider such a critically important factor pm2.5. The question is why are they deceiving the people?

I tried to make the question as general as possible to maximize the usefulness of the thread to others. For my particular case, I need to fill external control joints in walls, so acrylic for instance won't be suitable.

It's been touched on here a bit already, but an important news story has confirmed the government is manipulating the AQI to look better than it is by deliberately omitting dangerous PM2.5 particles. So not only is the government allowing air twice as bad as international standards to be classified as good air, they furthermore are not factoring in particles that are dangerously high in northern Thailand into the equation at all. This story kind of flew in under the radar so if interested: news story here.

On 3/4/2017 at 8:20 PM, eyecatcher said:

What I would say is, yes there isnt really any rising damp

For slabs less than 70cm above grade, q-con wants a DPC installed under the blocks. If that's not a strong case for rising damp in Thailand, I don't know what is. I recall one gentleman who said his greatest regret building his house was not putting waterproofing under the walls due to the paint and mold problems that came about from rising damp.

I am looking for silicone in colors other than the usual 2 or 3 seen in hardware stores. Suggestions for either stores or online options welcome. I need quite a large quantity.

It's strange people are saying it's not as bad as last year. It's like waking up at 6am and proclaiming it's not as hot as the day before. Early days gentlemen, early days. The worst is in front of us as most of you know. But the air in the north has been somewhat crappy for the last 4 months which is typical.

For comparison sake I am in Phetchabun, not north enough to be as bad as the far north, but the air is tainted and people suffer even here. Presently there's a rim of smog shrouding the horizon and only blue sky is seen if looking further up, visibility is limited to maybe 15 km, and the people are suffering from respiratory problems. When the worst time is upon us coming in the next few months the sun will disappear before reaching the horizon. I don't think there are air pollution monitoring stations here so the impacts are just gained from what is seen and felt. I can feel it in the nasal passages, throat, and eyes. Not as bad for me as others, but still noticeable. Disappears when going to Bangkok.

I have heard about a number of houses where rising damp is a problem here causing paint to blister off. Watsadu for one has rolls of membrane up to 150 micron. Note that if you follow the q-con instructions, they want a DPC between the slab and the first course of the exterior wall. As far as building materials go, SCG is of better quality than others for everything I have seen so far. Price is also higher. I can't say which block adhesive is best, but when in doubt I always go with SCG.

19 minutes ago, LolaS said:

again, high exageration comapring to rest of world and comparing to whole year.

Sorry LolaS I don't know how you can sit there and pretend the air in northern thailand is similar to elsewhere in the world. It isn't. In plenty of other countries rural areas enjoy clean air all year round that meets WHO standards for good air. There is no burning season--forests, fields, and trash are not methodically burned by everyone. Visibility is good year round because there isn't smoke shrouding the views. Hospitals don't become full of people with respiratory problems due to bad air. Governments don't need to hand out masks and warn people to stay inside with windows and door closed and warned not to exercise. Planes don't have to abort landings due to excessive smoke. And in other countries, real improvements have been made to air quality that work and it gets better and better. In this country all they have done is artificially change the scale of what constitutes clean air to include unhealthy air and do little to nothing to combat the source of the problem no matter how much the poor people are suffering from it.

This isn't a centuries old practice. It's modern chemical farming. Centuries old practice was the stalks and such were valuable to farmers and used to enrich the soil along with the manure produced by buffalo working the fields. Today what's left over in the fields after harvest are considered waste products, heaped, and burnt. Mind you the same thing happens to plastic, every twig and leaf in everyone's yard. They just love burning everything and you can see it go on everyday. Education is not going to do anything. You could tell them how bad it is until you are blue in the face but the people don't care. The village heads are out there burning along with everyone else. Solutions are a piece of cake. Developed countries I've been to never burn their fields no matter what they are farming and the farmers become much more rich.

It's called heen poo (หินผุ). Some areas you can buy it from construction stores that sell rock and sand, other areas difficult to find especially if you only want a small quantity as it's typically used only for making roads. Generally Thai's have yet to discover the benefits of using this rock for various things and just use sand for everything.

16 hours ago, GeKoSc said:

I want to travel o Chiang Mai mid March; how about smoke in these days in Chiang Mai?

I learned at an early age that if you can see the air you are breathing then you have problems. This is the state of the air in the north for some time now. If breathing healthy air is important, wait until the rains start in around 3 or 4 months. It's going to get worse and worse until then.

How exactly does the scam get paid off? They both demand 8000 baht. But a guy driving an old pickup truck is just never going to be able to open his wallet and fork out 16000 baht. Second, how are they sure there is less than 8000 baht of damage to each vehicle? Repairs could run higher due to that type of contact.

I do think the pickup driver made an unnecessarily aggressive move switching lanes to get out of the pinch which is exactly what they were banking on to make him feel guilty. I was taught in driving school to never pull back over after a pass until you can see both headlights of the car you passed safely behind you in your rear view mirror. If I saw the guy I just went around flooring it to keep the distance closed and straddling the lane halfway I doubt I would swerve out of the passing lane and try to close the door on him but understand many would feel justified doing so. Better to stay squarely in lane and maintain a constant speed than stooping down to the level of idiot drivers and taking a risk.

I would love to live in a country where everyone demanded such an attractive, natural, environmentally friendly product. It's just very well done and getting Thai food in such containers would be exquisite. But when I look around I get a reality check that absolutely no one cares about such things. My area doesn't even have garbage pick up and no one even wants it; everyone burns plastic and litters everywhere. If you substituted this and the people find it doesn't burn as well as plastic then seriously they would frown on it and see it as a step in the wrong direction. Good luck to this company. I think they'll need to win on cost rather than features for it to be successful and that seems a pretty tough job.

I use 1-1/2" w/ 40mm pipe. Super Products sent me 6 new parts at first seeming to think it might be the springs; none of them ever worked for any tests they had me run. Of course they are oriented with the arrow matching the flow. In each test the 2 sprung parts would pop all the way out. Below is one particular test configuration failure.

Gate valves are a cheap solution, but pesky and need readjusted anytime something changes like additions, removals, different pressure entering the system so not as desirable. Next step is to buy pressure regulators from a more reputable company.

In fact I already tried the Super Products pressure regulator which are not even 1000 baht. But the problem is they do nothing. I verified using pressure gauges that the output pressure was always equal to the input pressure--no reduction at all. I contacted the company and they had me perform several tests at different pressures, flows, and setups all of which resulted in the part again doing absolutely nothing to reduce pressure. They then washed their hands of the matter by stating their product would do nothing unless there was a flow of at least 10,000 liters per hour through the pipe. Say what? To move that kind of water requires a humongous pump and thousands of emitters to consume it and I told them I doubted customers buying their product would ever meet such stringent requirements. They in turn said it was my fault for not consulting them before purchasing their product. Needless to say I lost a lot of confidence in that company and would caution others there are undocumented limitations in their product line that seem unreasonable.

They didn't respond to email so I called them and each regulator costs 20,000 baht. I am used to prices being a fraction of that for high quality valves so I didn't find it to be a reasonable option unfortunately.

It is not that people are poor that leads them to deforestation, but rather greed. These people are all around me and some do it, others just as poor do not. The one thing they have in common is no one cares so the article is probably correct that it's going to take city folks to step in and put a stop to it.

Fruit trees are planted all over the hill at all elevations.

I don't want to sound disrespectful, but to be honest the solution drawn looks awfully convoluted. I can't think of anything good about adding a bunch of tanks, float valves, wiring, and a maze of pipes. It also seems to require valves to prevent bleeding out water buffered in each of the tanks. My idea is just a handful of pressure regulators placed inline at elevation intervals; no tanks, no wiring, no valves. Thanks for mentioning one possible source for that.

I have irrigation on a hill side. The top has 4 bar of pressure and so the bottom has 9 bar since the elevation change is 50 meters. So the idea is to install pressure regulators on the main line at intervals so the drip irrigation can have 1 or 2 bar at each branch along the way. Is this the best way to go? Are pressure regulators for this type of application sold anywhere? I haven't seen any.