Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Life Is Good

This is just a little bit of an update. I know I hav'nt been on all that much, it's just because there has'nt really been a whole lot to report. However there are a few little additions.
I think Traction really likes the mansion. But then so do I. I hav'nt been overly busy working on the house lately. A little here and there, but it just seems there are a lot of other things that need doing too. There is the stock market(6.5 hours per day, plus the before market open and after market close preparations), so that is kinda like a 5 day per week job with weekends off  if I so choose . The pay is never gauranteed but it's been coming in a little bit at a time and getting better all the time with practice. The important thing is that I am enjoying myself doing it. Then there is also firewood making, all the usual chores, and then I threw in a new one that I did'nt even know was there, and it is called enjoying life. Seems now that I am in the house, I'm not really in a big panick to get everything done. I'm going to keep my eyes open for some good deals on cabinets, flooring, etc. I really don't mind living in an unfinished house, as that sorta gives me more of a real live cabiny feel to it. But I do plan to get things done gradually. I am just real happy to living in it. It's like a mansion to me.

I got a new washing machine. At first I was shopping around more for a cheaper top load type, but then I discovered that these front load machines are supposed to be alot more water and energy efficient. This particular one is one of the lowest rated kw/hr per year usage that I could find. Seems to work pretty good. I also have a dryer, and it uses zero fossil fuel energy.

And there she is. The dryer. Costed about $10.00. I was shopping around for a propane dryer, but I'm really in no hurry, if I ever do get one. Dryers use alot of energy just for convenience. So far this system has given me no problems.

So far all the main things in the house have been working out pretty darned good. Heating, water system, power. The power is good, but we have had alot of cloudy or snowy days, so the solar charging has'nt been performing real well. There is the odd sunny day in between 3 or 4 not so sunny days, but this is to be expected.  My larger battery bank allows me to go for 2 or 3 days of no sun charging, before I run the generator. I could go alot longer than that before my batteries would be in danger of low charge, it's just that my honda 2000 generator will have a hard time catching up. I like to recharge the batteries when the State of Charge drops down to about 90% area (that means that only 10% of the capacity has been used). And that is usually about 2 days of living, burning wood in the day and the furnace taking over later in the night. I recently went for about 3 days with little,  if any sunshine, as a test, without burning wood one of those days. When the furnace was doing all the work, and the outside temps were at around minus 20 celcius outside. I brought the battery bank down to about 82% SOC. The next day with the honda 2000 running, and the sun shining, I was fully charged. I don't think my panels would have done it by themselves in one day of sunshine this time of year from 82%. So that should just give some kind of an idea how things are working.

     One thing I've learned so far is that fire wood has a way of getting used up a little quicker than I thought it would. I have been burning it quite regularly. I hav'nt used much propane at all since I've moved into the house. I have been using some wood out of the wood shed, but I have mostly been bucking up my pile logs and using that as I go. It seems I can really notice my pile getting smaller all the time. lol.   Just today I move all the logs around with the backhoe to make it alot nice getting at my wood without all the snow, but I hav'nt taken any pictures. I really thought at first that  I had more than enough wood for this winter, but I don't think it is going to be. Live and learn I guess. Oh well, we'll figure something out.
Every once in a while, I go out buck some up and split it.
Then haul it to the house.




And put it under the steps. On this particular day when I did this, from start to finish was about 2 hours of work. I always like to put these kinds of tasks into an hourly perspective to compare with working in the real world for wages. One thing I do know, is that I could have put in one mediocre day at work at my previous job, and that would have more than paid for one months heating fuel. lol. But this is alot more fun, I guess. I can see that keeping myself in firewood is going to be one of my biggest chores in life. I think of it as a fitness plan. I'm not totally sure where I am going to get all my firewood in the future, but I do have plans of making it into some kind of a recreational event in the summer time.
    Oh, and another thing, I don't think I have ever mentioned the little bit of siding that is on the house. My friend Jo-Ann and I did this little bit quite some time ago as we were getting warmed up to put the solar panels on the roof. Just thought I should mention that. Hate to take all the credit for things I don't do myself. And on that note, she also helped me one day with the deck attached to the house. This deck is just a quick temporary one for the winter. In the summer time, this deck will be getting moved to the back door, and a new full width double decker will be going onto the front of the house.
I just learned a real neat trick for baking my potatoes inside the wood stove and it works like a charm.
I put them in there for awhile. Did'nt time them or anything, just once in awhile I gave them a turn and a little squeeze to see if there was any give. This worked pretty good for me. lol. The spuds were not real over sized, but I'm sure larger ones would have cooked just as well. Thanks Margy over at , http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com/  
for this idea. Margy has baked breads and other things in her wood stove.


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Wood Heat

The chimney is smokin. This was immediately after starting the stove. Once the fire gets going good, there really is not much noticeable smoke at all.
The stove and pipe and all, right before lighting it. Thought it might be wise to get a before picture, you know, just in case there ended up being no after picture. If ya know what I mean.
Well it all seems to be working pretty good so far. My furnace has'nt kicked on all day, since this thing has been going. Seriously, bring on the cold, I can't wait. This wood stove came with a blower attached, but I really can't see me using it much. I purchased one of those eco fans, and it seems to work just fine.
One thing I have always wondered about, is if I could cook supper on one of these. Not sure if it is the smartest thing to do or not, but the answer is yes, I can cook supper on it. I did the broccoli in the microwave for 2 minutes though. Very nice supper. Fried potatoes, onions and garlic and a cheese burger with onions, dill pickles, cheddar cheese and ketchup, and the steamed broccoli. Life is good.
My ceiling fan. The house is pretty cozy right now. A couple hours ago I put in a rather large piece of wood and turned the air down. It is still keeping the whole house pretty much maybe a tiny bit too hot. The temp outside is -2Celcius. This stove is going to be nice when that -40 stuff comes. But then, who knows, maybe it will give me trouble trying to get a good draft started up the chimney, being so long and outside the house. Today it started up pretty nice.
Traction don't seem to mind the new heat system at all, so far.


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Winter Test, Loving the House.

It is obviously winter again at the mansion. Usually my winter pics have been from the shack looking at the house, but now it is different as I am living full time in the new house. (Which is not complete yet). I shut the shack heat down and life is tremendously good. The winter weather has been putting my heat system to the test, and so far things check real good. All I'm running for heat so far are the two propane heaters and the furnace. I have been waiting for a chunk of chimney for my woodstove to come in the mail,  as I was too cheap to pay the large price  for the only one I know of in town. It is now in town, I just have to go and get it. I saved myself $75.00 doing it this way. 75 is 75. The temperatures last night and a good part of today were at minus -28 Celcius or minus -19 on the farenheit scale. I went visiting last night, so I turned down the furnace and let the two propane space heaters take over until I got home. So far they don't seem to have a problem keeping up at these temps. While I am at home, I usually run the forced air furnace, and my power system and the furnace are getting along pretty good so far, although I do think I may add another 6 solar panels next summer, just to help out on the cloudy days, and also so a real live fridge can be brought into the system. When my furnace is on duty full time in these temps, the battery bank is usually brought down to around 92-90% State of Charge, which means that I am only using about 10% of my total battery capacity each day. In that figure is my furnace use, lights, water pump, septic pump, and occasional use of the microwave and the toaster once per day. So I have a lot of battery power, but it still takes alot of charging to bring that back up to full. For about a week or more, we have been having a lot of snow and cloudy skys, so the solar charging was kinda limited. My honda 2000 generator can usually bring me right up to a full charge again in 3.5 hours each day without any sunlight, but most days show a little bit of sun. When I did my calculations, I planned on a larger generator probably running about 1 hour per day. In yucky weather, I believe this to be true yet. If it is sunny all day, the panels would get the job done all through out the winter as is, but with the occasional cloudy periods, eventually a generator will have to be started to catch up. When the sun is shining, things don't start charging  fully until about 12:30 pm. This could be rectified by cutting the tops off of three pine trees. (I have researched that, and apparently not real good for the trees). I will decide on this soon. lol. Then I start getting the afternoon shading at about 3:30 pm, so gradually the panels get shaded out again. This one could be easily improved on also. Or I could simply put up more panels, which I'll probably end up doing anyway.
   BUT! All the above calculations can rest. Once the wood stove is hooked up, I will more than likely be running it and the furnace will be on a rather large holiday, for the most part, if things go as planned. So, I guess I'll decide on things more once that baby is on duty. If the furnace were not running, I could go for quite some time without charging the batteries, even in real snowy conditions. That is my goal, is to almost eliminate the generator usage altogether.
The wood stove, just waiting to be put to use. I had the piece I needed at one time, but it ended up going into the main chimney section outside.
The above picture is my makeshift kitchen. I have done a few things once I moved in the house, such as finishing up on some wiring,  installing the ceiling fan, fire alarms, installing some more heat registers, and other little miscellaneous things. A lot of researching lately also. Stove, washing machines, dryers etc.



I guess I'll call this my fridge for now. When I was in the shack, I did'nt need a cooler as the floor of the shack was plenty cold to preserve foods. That plastic jug in there is my block of ice.
















This is my ice making factory, just outside the back door of the house. I don't know why those last two pics are sideways, but they are.

    So things are going good, but there is one little flaw I must mention. While charging my system with the honda 2000 generator, the larger loads don't seem to want to run. And even the smaller loads don't run right, such as lights running dim, or the bathroom fan barely turning. I'm not sure if it is something with my wiring that needs corrected or if it is the combination of honda generator and magnum inverter. I do think it has a lot to do with the 120/240 volt inverter system. It charges the batteries good, but it seems to only run half the voltage from the generator to each hot leg in the inverter. I'm thinking that to get the best use out of the system, a 120/240 volt generator should probably be utilized, unless of course it is simply some setting or wiring secret that I am missing out on. The larger diesel generator won't even start the system charging, (when using just a 120 volt source), but I hav'nt yet tried that with a 240 volt cable. Some day I will build a cable and try it on a warmer day. That generator is a bit of cheapy and might not work so well for me in the cold winter months. lol.
    One thing that I DO know, however, is that this tiny little house of mine has got a real mansion like feel to it, as I compare it to where I just came from awhile back. I'm loving it.

 Oh ya, I also thought I should mention, it has been -28 celcius and so far the water system in the cistern has'nt froze up on me. I do have a thermometer down there that I meant to have a look at, but that did'nt happen today, but so far so good. The water still comes in when I hit the pump, so I guess that's a good sign so far.
 


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.















Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Have Power and I'm Moved In.

In my last post I kind of left off whining a little about the price of little tiny chunks of steal solar panel mount brackets. So I decided to build my own. In the vice is a 4 foot piece of stainless steel that I had a local metal shop bend for me. It has a plastic coating on it in this picture if it looks so dull. First I drilled all the holes-2 on one side and one on the side to be attached to the panels. Then I cut it up into 24  2inch pieces. Enough for 6 panels. The total cost for the steal $30.00. That will mount all 6 panels. Probably cost me about $50-60.00 total with all the bolts and nuts etc. But that is for all the hardware. I saved over $100.00 doing this myself. It would have cost me $30+ for enough of these to do one panel if I bought them. Probably about 3 hours of my time went into it and about 4 drill bits and 3 cheap 4" cut off disks for the grinder.
The finished product in the above picture.
For the next bunch of stuff going on, I had some help from an old friend that I hav'nt seen in years. I used to associate with her alot in my younger days. In my rodeo days. She was a big help with things. Anyway, we assembled half the panels on a skid system. The two botton panels are hooked together in series for an open voltage of around 72 volts dc. The other skid will be the same, then the top two panels will be wired together the same. So there is 3 strings of 2 panels in my system.
We got the ladders set up as a ramp on the panel side of the house. I actually had to purchase another ladder for this stunt. It will come in handy for future stuff anyway, I am sure.

Then we got the panels all set up and ready for the pull.

Up they go, I had to steal the winch line off my quad and run it through a snatch block on the panel mount(pulley). I pulled the panels up from the peak of the house as Jo-Anne was holding the panels there from the ground on the other side of the house with the rope that was tied on,  every time I took another grab. It was actually pretty heavy, but we made it. Then I bolted the panel skid down at the top and the bottom. I did'nt even have to move my roof ladder to the panel side of the roof to do this.

And there are all six panels up. They are Sharp 240 watt panels for a total of 1440 watts.  It did take the two of us about 4 days in total to get the whole job done, but we did'nt over work ourselves too much. By the time we got one rigged up on the skid system, it was just a little too late to start putting them up, as who knows what could go wrong. The second time did actually go much better than the first lift. The first lift did take alot of doing and rigging up etc.
Here is where alot of my money went on this project. Roughly $4500.00 batteries with all the cables.
The specs. These are 12   6 volt   L16 type batteries. These particular ones are 420 Amp hours @ 20 hour rate. According to the label. That's a lot of power storage.
It is a beautiful battery bank. Lots of power storage here. Just as I was hoping and thought I had planned, these babys keep up to my forced air furnace beatifully this time of the year. The evenings get down to around freezing, but the forced air furnace runs all night off and on of course. I have yet to bring my batteries down to less than 95% state of charge. I'll see in the morning though. They should be a little less tomorrow because today was gloomy all  day and the panels wer'nt doing a whole lot, and it has been cold and dreary. I hav'nt been holding back on my power usage. Sort of putting it to the test a bit, just for my own knowledge. Normally, I will be conserving energy, but I need to see. I've been running a larger microwave frequently, pumping water, and the furnace has been running all day and will be all night tonight.
Here is the charge controller in action yesterday. It's first full day on the job. (Oct 15 2012).
Here is the Outback Flexmax 60 charge controller pulling 1300 watts from the six panels on the roof. That is a lot of power. I ended up bringing in 3.1 kw/hrs that first day and there was actually a lot of cloudy periods through out the day. I also need to top a few trees. 3 on each side of the house to be exact. Once that is done things should start charging a lot earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon. I'll see how the six panels work out for me this winter. If not really well, I will maybe put six more up there next summer. lol. I'm sure I can get by with what I have though, just have to keep the wood stove burning more and the furnace running less.
This is the control center in the kitchen area. The remote for the inverter, thermostat, water pressure gauge, switches for the water pump, septic pump, heat recovery ventilator(future), outdoor plugs, on demand water heater, and one extra for probably something. This area will look much more pretty in the near future.
I guess one could say that I am actually moved into the house now. I know I have a lot to do yet, before the house is complete, but winter is a coming, and I do not plan on heating the shack for much longer, let alone run the generator just to keep those batteries warm. I do periodically visit the shack to sometimes use the stove, and maybe wash the dishes, but I have gradually been moving things such as my clothes and other things over to the house all the time. I have been sleeping in the loft of my house for awhile now. Things are going good. Slowly but surely. Oh, and expensively.

I just checked the battery data. At this moment, my batteries are sitting at 94% State of Charge, which is 24.95 volts. (Oct 16 2012 @ 11:00pm). That is the lowest I've seen the system so far, but pretty understandable given the usage and lack of incoming charge today. I'll see what things are looking like in the morning after using the furnace all night. 

UPDATE:OCT 17 2012 @ 7:45 am. 
Voltage when I checked this morning was at 24.93 and the SOC was at 91%. 

Guess I forgot to mention the inverter in this post. It is a Magnum MS4024PAE. (4000 watt and 24 volt system). 
 
 
 
Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.






Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Woodstove Chimney

Awhile back, Sept 17 to be exact, a long time good buddy of mine came out and gave me a hand with the chimney. Wade helped me one other time when I was strapping the rafters and getting ready to put the roof on. He helped me get the chimney just below the roof line as showing in the above picture. It was getting late and I was still waiting for a flashing to arrive so we did'nt go any further than this.
So, my flashing finally arrived to the building supply store that I ordered it from. When I picked it up, I truly expected to see something on it to say that it is certified for use with a chimney, but I could'nt find anything like that on there at all. t was a rubber boot type flashing that slides tight over the chimney and you just caulk it and screw it down. The reason I thought I wanted to go with this type, was because of the corrogated metal roof. So now the brain is in think mode again. I decided to phone Mr.Inspector to see if I should install it or not. Well he told me no. Said to use a metal one. lol. I had a metal staring at me a few times in one store, but now that I wanted it, it was gone. Finally found one the next day though and started working on it all that day. As for the rubber boot, I tried returning it today, but with no luck. I signed my life away when I bought it to say it cannot be returned because it was a special order. If I were running the store, I would have taken it back, and it probably would have paid off  more for them in the long run to have just returned my money. I JUST Don't get it though. It says right in my woodstove permit that everything needs to be certified but they claim they sell these all the time. Actually they think they proved to me that it is in fact certified, but I still don't know how to tell if it is'nt even on the product. I sure wish everyone who is in the game would all sorta know what it is good and what is'nt. Anyway, not going to lose any sleep over all the stupid bullshit in the world.
     The rest of the chimney situation was up to me. Of course with a little help from mom this time.
And there she is. The completed chimney. Usually when one sees a chimney on a house they probably don't think alot about it. I know I never did, but it seems I take a look at mine quite often  lately. Can't wait till there is some smoke rolling out the thing. It will be awhile. If I had the right stuff, I could have it going in a day, but I am in search of an 18" piece of pipe to come through the wall. Can't seem to find one in town.

I put up another small addition in the bathroom. The medicine cabinet mirror.
I finally discovered what it was in the woodpile that Traction is always going crazy over. Alvin the chipmunk.

Yesterday(Sept 24) was a heavy thought and measure and more thinking type day. And I'm still pretty dumb. lol. Although I think I do have a bit more of a plan of how to get my solar panels onto the roof. Getting the houses own power system up and running is my main concern now for the next little while, although it will probably take awhile just trying to find a good deal on batteries and supplies. For awhile there, I have forgotten all about frugalness and it depresses me that I think I don't have the time to shop around a bit. I walked into the local solar store today to find some little angle iron type brackets to mount my solar panels. They are just little 2 inch long stainless steal double 90 degree angle thingys that you screw to the panel then screw the other end to the surface. Each panel needs four of them. I was told $30.00 for 4. So $30.00 to do one panel. I have six panels x 30=$180.00 for these little tiny peices of angle irons, oh ya, and screws. I think not. That little bit of greedyness just may have screwed them out of a big battery sale, not to mention cables and solar panel wire, offgrid stove, fridge, etc. I do realize that in business, you do need to make money, but just because you have the only solar store around don't mean you're going to rape me. I would love nothing more than to feed the local business, but if I can save a bunch by going for a little drive to the big city, then maybe I'll call it a holiday. We'll see though, maybe it's no cheaper there either. I'm going to build my own little angle iron do-dads though. As far as I am concerned, these little things should come with the panels to begin with. I have no problem paying 30 bucks for a specialized mounting system for each panel, but these are no more than 2" long pieces of  stainless steel angle iron with holes drilled in them. lol. It's crazy. I would have felt like a stupid idiot as I walked out of that store had I purchased this hardware.


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Finally Done With the Underground Water Tank

I realize that I have been posting quite alot on this plastic water tank install. I find it to be quite fascinating. I don't know if anyone has ever done this before. I could very well be the only one on the planet. Probably not, but you never know. Top picture shows the plumbing I fitted together to join the two lines down below. The water line will be coming from the tank and hooking in onto the bottom tap.  Then flowing through the one way check valve so the pump will more easily hold its prime.
There it is all connected and going down between the tank and cistern wall. I dropped it down and the bottom line is pretty close to ground level, so that's good.
Little things such as getting down in there to do my thing took some thinking.
Time for the water. And I went in and primed the pump up and everything seems to be working fine.
I put the insulated cover back on top the cistern and installed a permanent fill and breather pipe. It is 3 inch abs for the longer piece, but it is adapted up to a 4inch as it goes into the tank.
Thought I would test my dipper stick out. 650 imperial gallons, which is just about 3 cubic meters. That's 3 metric tonne of water. I'm good for a few days.
My full limit is going to be right around this area here. 1100 Imperial gallons, which is 1320 US gallons, or 5000 liters(5 cubic meters).  This is well over a months worth of water for myself. The tank I put in the ground had such clear writing on it, but the one I did'nt use is pretty faded. I never noticed till now. Had I noticed this before, this one would have gone down.
And there it is. Ready for winter. I'm not going to put insulation on top the tank just yet. Instead I think I will monitor this thing with a thermometer as the days gradually get colder and see what happens.
Ok, let there be snow. Just kidding, I'm really not that eager for winter yet. This whole installation seemed to go pretty well. Hopefully things keep being good.


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.




Friday, September 14, 2012

Underground Water Tank Installation


It was a pretty hard day for an old cripple like me. I got that tank prepped to go down in the ground. I plumbed a 90 elbow and the 1" water line on.
I also put a 90 elbow on the line inside the cistern, after cutting the line off pretty short. Then I put on a piece of 1"line here too. I plan to connect the two lines together and tuck them down along the side of the tank as low as possible. I'll have a rope tied on so I can access the connections if need be. I'm pretty sure that the lines won't freeze down there. I think, I hope. I was thinking about installing a short heat tape on each line just incase they did freeze off, but I did'nt have heat tape, and I don't think I'm going to get any either because it is too late now anyway. It aint going to freeze. That's 10 feet below grade on the bottom. I'm ready for some gravel now.

I built myself a real quick sump to put down there. Just so I can monitor if ground water is seeping in or not. I have a pump that was supposed to be able to slide down between the tank and wall and into this sump, but it turned out, that pump wont fit. My calculations said it should, but I have come to the conclusion that the culvert is a little bit oblong in that spot. If I put the sump in a different spot, it would have had lots of room as planned. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for a pump that will fit, incase it needs pumping.
I put in about 1.75 yards of gravel. It's pretty deep, so it should be able to take on a fair bit of water before my tank should decide to float away.
Then some pressure treated plywood for an nice flat bottom.
And then the tank.
Down she goes.
Carefully letting it down. It seems the fittings are still in tact. Guess I'll find out when I put some water in there.

Thats good for this day. Tomorrow I'll get it all hooked up and get the water happening again.
 I did'nt really have to put this tank in the ground. I just wanted to try this out. It'll save me spending a bunch of money on concrete and I think it will also be alot more sanitary this way. If it works, that's good, if not, I'll move to plan B. I bought these two tanks for a Texas mickey of vodka. This tank will easily hold more than 4.5 cubic meters of water. When I lived in town, my water consumption was usually 3-4 cubic meters of water according to my utility bill. So that is more than a months worth of water. I don't think I would want to utilize the whole volume of the cistern as I think the water would be sitting too long and could go stagnate. The top of the tank is 5 feet below grade. I think I'll put some plastic over the tank and lay some insulation right on top of it. I believe this should keep those two water lines from freezing even when the outside temps are minus -40 degrees Celcius  or Farenheit. (They are both the same at that temp).


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.