Archive
November 2021
41 articles
Protecting Electronics From Corrosion
One of the biggest concerns about building a floating home is corrosion. Seawater, humidity, and the constant exposure to both will corrode just about any metal that you put into this environment. Protecting steel is pretty straightforward with the use of epoxy paint to seal it from the elements. When it comes to electronics, it…
Incinerator Heat Exchanger
Part of making a super-efficient home is finding ways to repurpose things that would otherwise be wasted. In this case, we will be repurposing the heat that is generated from our jet incinerator system. Since the incinerator system will generate quite a bit of heat when burning the waste, we decided to try to harness…
Smart Jet Burner For The Incinerator Toilet
One of the challenges with developing the SeaPod is that it won’t be connected to a local grid so it can’t connect to a sewer system. Also, since the SeaPod will be floating in the ocean, we don’t have a yard in which we can bury a septic tank. This leaves us with a big…
Discovering Panama (San Blas) – Part 4
Grant has finished up his day in the water and is exploring a beautiful, tiny island. The boat is moored up, the ocean laps gently on the sands of the island. The hammocks, palm trees and volleyball net only make the place more idyllic. Panama is well known for its amazing snorkelling and diving. From…
Discovering Panama (Starfish In San Blas) Part 3
Grant’s day of adventure has led him into an area in the San Blas that is called a “Natural Bath” due to the warm, shallow, and calm waters. The water is only about waist deep so Grant can easily stand here with his toes in the sand.One of the coolest things about this tropical water…
End Of Phase One Development
We are back at the factory for a very big day in the development of the SeaPod. We have spent nearly a year creating the molds that we will use to build the SeaPod and now that those molds are built, we no longer have a use for the plug that gave them their shape…
Discovering Panama (Diving San Blas) Part 2
Continuing on Grant’s day of exploration, we are back from the islands in San Blas, Panama. Grant is suited up and has his snorkeling equipment ready to go swimming with some of the local marine life, but before he jumps in, he has another update for us.One of the coolest things about not only being…
Discovering Panama (San Blas) – Part 1
Recently on a very rare day off, Grant was able to take the boat out and do a little bit of exploring here in Panama. About 60 kilometers from the factory, he spent the day in the San Blas area which is made up of more than 300 small islands in the Caribbean Sea just…
3D Scanning Physical Objects
Here we have Grant going over some new technology that we may be able to implement into our SeaPod production process. It is a cell phone based LIDAR scanner that is able to use light to scan an object and create a digital rendering of that object. Grant decided to do a quick test on…
Incinerator R&D Production Facility
While we make quite a bit of the components for the SeaPod at the Ocean Builders Factory here in Panama, some things require a bit more than we can handle at the factory. One example of this is the components of the incinerator for the incinerator toilet. We are working with a fully sophisticated facility…
Welding The Interior Core Of The SeaPod
We have been getting quite a bit of work done on our two SeaPod TriPod model bases here at the factory. In this video, we can see one of our welders making some welds on the interior of the core. This is a very important process in terms of giving the base the structural strength…
Incinerator Starter Development
The jet incinerator toilet system in the SeaPod will be used to safely dispose of toxic solid waste by burning it until we are left with just a small bit of non-toxic ash. One of the important things to consider in a floating structure is efficiency. This means that keeping a pilot light burning in…
New Factory Security Protocols
Here at the Ocean Builders factory, we have someone on the premises 24/7 working as a security guard or watchman. Since we have quite a bit of valuable materials like fiberglass and resin as well as plenty of tools that could be a target for theft, we like to keep someone here as a deterrent…
Electric Turbine Engine Design
Today, Grant has a really exciting project to show us, energy-efficient steam-powered turbines. When thinking of steam power, many might conjure up notions of old, behemoth trains and factories, but steam power is by no means confined to the industrial age of the 19th and 20th centuries. The team here has developed a number of…
Proportional Valve For Controlling Gas
The burners for the incinerator toilet are fueled by propane gas. Since this system will be fully automated, we needed a way to automatically operate the valves to control the flow of gas to the burners. We are back in the workshop with Omer who has built a prototype to show how this will function…
Shower Assembly Update
There aren’t many things about the SeaPod that most people would consider ordinary. We are pushing the boundaries everywhere we can and the shower is no different. While it would have been easier to install a simple knob-controlled shower that you would find in most homes, we decided to go beyond what is normal and…
Solar Turbine Testing Equipment
One of the most important research and development projects that we are focusing on is the development of a solar-powered steam turbine. We have spent the last year and a half working on this project and we have encountered a few difficulties that required some problem solving. There are many people around the world who…
Demo: Smart Desalination System
We are back with Omer who has a demonstration of the operation of our smart desalination system. This is the reverse-osmosis filtration system that will supply the SeaPod with clean and safe drinking water. The system is powered by a one-horsepower motor that supplies the power to the pump which pressurizes the system. Reverse osmosis…
Drone Delivery Services
We are back with Connor in Panama at the site from which our delivery drones will operate. This is the bay where the first SeaPods will be deployed and this site in the video will act as the home base for the delivery drones. As you may have read in our previous article about the…
The SeaPod Poop Scale
The SeaPod uses a jet incinerator to dispose of the solid waste from our toilet system. This incinerator is fueled by propane so it is something that needs to be efficient so that it does not burn unnecessary fuel.We could not design the incinerator to operate on a regular basis based on time because depending…
Polishing The Molds
We are back at the factory where our crew is working on the finishing steps of getting some of our molds ready for production. These 14 mold sections make up the top shell of the SeaPod, and they are quite large, with this being one of the smaller pieces. We recently removed these sections from…
Raising the Side Spar
We are back at the factory doing some work on one of our TriPod bases. We are mounting one of the vertical sections that will be on the end of the outriggers. These vertical sections will house the ballast tanks that will keep everything floating properly. Additionally, options like the Wazebo will be built on…
Hot And Cold Water Mixer For The Shower
Most homes have either a two-knob or a single-knob design for adjusting the water temperature in the shower. These allow us to adjust the temperature to make the water warmer or colder as needed. While this is a tried and true way of controlling the water in the shower, we want to take the SeaPod…
Incinerator Flame Detector
The jet incinerator system will be a fully autonomous system that will monitor itself and run when needed. Since this system involves open flames and high heat, it has a few dangers associated with it. One of the safety measures that we are implementing is a flame detector. This sensor does exactly what its name…
Safety Training – Gloves
Most industrial situations come with their fair share of workplace hazards, the Ocean Builders factory is no different. While we can’t remove the hazardous conditions from this line of work, we can make sure that our employees are properly trained to work safely to avoid injury or death. Here we have Reynaldo Howell, who is…
After a hard days work
The crew is working hard, and we can see them here finishing up after a long and productive day, led by the resident pup. As progress continues in so many areas, it feels great to be able to show our team clocking off for the day. In our video, you can really begin to appreciate…
Mold Release Process
Each section of the SeaPod is made in a specially built mold that we use to form the fiberglass. Here we are at the factory with Connor to show the process of removing the finished fiberglass section from the mold. The fiberglass is hardened with a resin, but that resin also grabs onto the mold…
Our First SeaPod TimeLapse
We felt that documenting the monumental work that we have been doing here at Ocean Builders was very important. In conjunction with these blog posts and videos that we have been making, we also set up a timelapse camera to make a hands-off video showing some of our progress.The first project that we are using…
Smart Desalination System
This is an update on the desalination system that will supply the SeaPod with fresh water. Desalination is a somewhat common method of supplying fresh water to places that do not have enough natural freshwater. Many towns and homes around the world use desalinated water on a larger scale, we are building our own system…
Smart Shower & Sink Parts Have Arrived!
The SeaPod is a smart home that brings various aspects of the home to life. Nearly every part of the SeaPod has integrated technologies that take the normal everyday tasks that we do and bring them into the future. The bathroom is no exception to that. From the motorized pocket door to the textured floor…
SeaPod Core Design Changes
We are back at the factory with Grant for an update on a change that we have made to the design of the SeaPod core. The TriPod model has three outriggers, or side-spars, that extend from the center core to create the base. At the end of each of these outriggers are large ballast tanks…
Pulling The SeaPod Molds
After about a month of work, the time has finally come to remove the SeaPod shell molds from the plug. This has been a long process but these molds will be what gives the SeaPod its shape so we had to get it right.These sections are considerably bigger than the molds for the bottom of…
Camera Gear & More Frequent Factory Updates
We truly think that the work that we are doing here at Ocean Builders will change the way the world looks at housing forever. With this idea being so unique, we felt that it was very important to document the process and keep everyone updated during every step. To help with the media side of…
SeaPod Floor Grid Update
The floor of the SeaPod will consist of the subfloor, the floor beams, and the surface flooring material. Here we are taking a look at the floor beams. These beams will provide the strength and support that we need under the floor.The floor beams need to be rigid because we don’t want the floor to…
SeaPod Floor Panel Update
The floor of the SeaPod will be pieced together with custom-cut sections that are unique to each room. The panels are cut from large sheets of flooring and fit together almost like a puzzle. The design of these has taken quite a bit of work but the results have been good so far. The floorplan…
Subfloor & Spar Planning
We are back at the factory with Craig for another update on the subfloor for the SeaPod. The subfloor will consist of 26 sections that will surround the center spar like slices of a pizza. We have one piece sitting on a temporary jig to show what the final alignment will be. Above the subfloor…
SeaPod Production Update
We are back with another update from the Ocean Builders factory for some of the mold that we have been working on. We currently have two molds for the subfloor sections of the SeaPod. We have been refining these molds and now we are using them to produce a few more sections as a test…
Floor Beam Production Update
We are back at the factory with Grant and Craig for an update on the production of our floor beams. For the past few weeks, we have been prototyping different methods of making the floor beams for the SeaPod. Through our research and trials, we have settled on the method that we want to use…
SeaPod Master Mold Update
Work has been continuing on the master molds for the body of the SeaPod. We have been applying the fiberglass to every other section of the mold to every other section as we go around. Right now, the white surface of the positive mold and the red tooling gel surface on alternating sections make the…
Removable Mold End Caps
As we start to complete the process of making our molds, we can move into making the actual panels of the SeaPod. This video focuses on the molds for the subfloor sections which will support the floors inside the home. You can see two of our subfloor molds which after having some slight deformations, were…
Poop Separator
Omer Larrañaga Design
Here we have a video of two of our 3D printers working on some components of the poop separator for the incinerator toilet. The poop separator does exactly what its name implies, it separates the solid waste from the liquid waste.The liquid waste is strained out and goes into the blackwater system where it will…