It has been a busy winter for the truckin man. That would be me. I hav'nt really had much opportunity for working on the house all winter long, but spring has sprung and I am just trying to get myself all motivated for building again. I still have a little bit of stuff going on at work in the shop and then I'm hoping to go pretty steady on my acerage project for awhile. Time sure seems to fly when you got stuff going on, I find.
Today I was doing a little bit of gas line arranging, and working on my heater vent and I also hung the hot water heater. I'm kinda concentrating on trying to get all the gas appliances plumbed in so I can get it inspected and have some kind of heat source going on. Then I can start the mudding process I guess. I might even get some quotes on that and maybe hire the drywall mudding out, just to help speed up the whole process a bit. They could be doing that while I am doing some other things outside. But it will all depend cost I guess. We'll see. I totally plan to be in this house before winter. I know, how many times have I said that. lol. I know I am slow.
Anyway, there will be two of these space heaters in this same room in the basement. These will be the main heat source for the house while I am away for prolonged periods in the winter time. They should keep all the water lines etc from freezing up. I can run an optional fan with them, but they do not need the fan to operate, so it don't matter if there is a malfunction with the power system, I should still be unfrozen. I do plan to have a forced air furnace also, but being off the grid and making my own power, I don't want to rely on that by itself as there will be a fair bit of power demand for it to operate. The forced air furnace will be more for middle of the night use in the winter time as the wood stove dies down, and it will probably be the main heat source for the spring, summer and fall seasons where the days are warmer and longer and more power being generated. When I am home in the colder weather, the wood stove will be the most utilized heat source.
I purchased the on demand hot water heater on ebay. It is the item to the left hanging on the wall in the above picture. It is new, but still, I sure hope it works. They sell this same unit at Home Depot in Grande Prairie for $999.99 for a natural gas one under a different brand name of course, but it is generally the same unit. And the vent system is roughly $200.00.If I ordered the water heater for propane, it would be about another $200 extra, which sure seems rediculous to me. Would probably be close $1500 when all is said and done. This one I bought on ebay costed me about $800 for everything. It is supposed to be able to supply a house with 3 bathrooms. It won't ever have to work very hard at my house to keep up. It has input of 180,000 btu, but I can hardly see that ever being utilized.
There is the direct vent for the propane space heater hanging on the wall.
And a close up of it. There are two pipes going into the heater from the outside. The 5" pipe supplies the combustion air from the outside, and there is a 3" pipe that runs inside the 5" intake pipe for the exhaust. Soon there will be another vent beside this one for the hot water heater. It will look a little different, but it is direct vent also and works the same as this one. With direct vent appliances, I am not using up air from inside the house, and so I am not creating a negative air pressure inside and don't need to bring in more makeup air. It's something we gotta worry about with the tightly wrapped homes in my area. My wood stove and dryer will be using air from inside though.
So anyway, I'm just slowly getting started with my little house project again, but I am still at work at for a few more days yet before I am really free to giver fulltime on the house again.
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.
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.
Last fall I had two propane furnaces installed. Like you, I still have the two wood stoves as the main heat, but, got tired of waking up or coming home to a cold house. Now, granted, this winter wasn't much down here in PA. Not very cold, and, only got one shovelable snow, which I didn't have to shovel 'cause it got up to 40 the next day. But, the furnaces worked great and I'm glad I spent the money.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to hear from you.
You are going to love your water heater. You'll never run out of hot water as long as you have propane. We installed one in our house 12 years ago and it's still going strong. The only thing we would do differently, if we could, is to install it closer to where we use the hot water the most. We would save on propane that way as the hot water has to travel all the way from the heater to the kitchen and shower. In retrospect we should have install it between the two. I admire what your doing.
ReplyDeleteHey Sharon, we had a pretty mild winter too, compared to what we usually get anyway. There was a cold snap earlier on in the winter that was in the minus 35 range, and I can remember freezin the ole buns off for awhile, but then it warmed up, and it was pretty mild for the rest of the winter. Not alot of snowfall this year either. My house is small, but it will have alot of different heating options in it, which I think is pretty important in this climate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nicole, it's good to hear from someone who has experience with these water heaters. I'm feeling better about my purchase all the time. It's actually pretty hard to get my water heater too far from the outlets as the house is pretty small to begin with, but I still situated with length of water runs in mind. The kitchen sink is pretty well right above the water heater, and the tub is about a 10 foot run to the fossits. The vanity is probably the furthest run at about 16 feet. I do believe though, that the kitchen sink is probably the most used for little splurts of hot water throughout the day. I think so anyway. I'll probably try and make it that way anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt's looking great Mark! If I lived closer, I'd help you with the drywall...and I don't make that offer to just anyone, lol I'm not fond of mudding and sanding. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you've done some drywall kinda stuff before Jeanie. Ya know, when I think about it, your really not all that far away. Probably a few hours in a plane. I'd pay your way just for some guidance and some of that fancy home cookin on the fire that you do. I have never done any taping and mudding and all that, but I have done some research on it. It would probably be fun for about the first 1 or 2 hours maybe. But then luckily my house is small so maybe it won't take very long. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is to be really good at mudding so you don't have to do much sanding. :) Yep, I'm only a few hours away by plane. I have a feeling that by the time I got there you could already have it finished! I forgot that your house is small. lol It won't take long at all.
ReplyDeleteSomeday we'll have to get together and cook meat on a stick over the fire though. :)
Hope you have a great weekend Mark!
I guess I might have read that advise, but it was ahwhile back, so thanks for refreshing my memory.
ReplyDeleteI would love to cook some meat on a stick with ya Jeanie. We'll have to make a plan someday, even if we meet somewhere half way. Or up here or down there. What ever, I'm sure meat on a stick probably tastes about the same no matter where.
I can see it now... Mark's Meat on a Stick Tour. :) If you're in the states, you might as well head to Indiana... or better yet, fly ALL of us up there so we can have a grand tour... :)
ReplyDeleteI just might have to do it Lynnanne. I could have meat on a stick in every state and province. It could be my new life goal. lol. I'd have to put Jeanies name on it too though, cuz shes got the "meat on a stick" copyright. Someday I would like to check out Indiana. I just might fly you all up Lynnanne, but it will have to be before the grand opening, and then with all the help maybe there can actually be a grand opening. Ya see how that works? There is a little bit of a catch to it. lol.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I knew there'd be a catch.... only if our departing flights are well after the work's finished, I don't think there'd be a problem. :) I'm actually hoping to get to Ottawa next winter for a conference.... cross your fingers. :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. You on Facebook yet?
ReplyDeleteLynnanne, what departing flights. Once you're here, there is no going back. Lol. Just kidding ya. I got my fingers crossed for your Ottawa conference. What kind of conference? I am on facebook, but I would rather keep it and this website two totally different things for the time being. Eventually my facebook friends will be notified about this blog, but for now, it is kinda secretive. It would be interesting to check yours out though. Are you on facebook?
ReplyDeleteoh, i see... kind of a hotel california concept. you can check out any time you like, but you can't ever leave..... :)
ReplyDeleteyep, i am on facebook... totally understand the separation .... the conference is for the national association of interpretation, region 4. there's a website for it that you can check out, too. :)
Ya, something like that Lynnanne. No, actually any visitors ARE free to leave anytime they wish. Honestly. That's just the way I am. I have thought about mentioning this site on facebook, but I just want to wait until most the expensive goodies are all screwed down or hidden away etc. Also, if things for some reason don't all work out as planned, I don't want to end up looking like the village idiot or anything like that eh. lol. But I am pretty sure that some day soon, I will beam it out there for all the world to see. It could be interesting to meet some of my blogger friends on a more personal note. I really don't spend a whole lot of time on facebook and I have more blogger followers than I do facebook friends. Ya really got my brain thinking now Lynnanne.
ReplyDeleteJust keep in mind, people learn from others' mistakes... and, you don't necessarily have to tie one social spot to the other.... :) understand about the nailing things down too.... totally understand that issue. if ya want to hook up on fb, send me an email (if you still have mine, seems i deleted yours? ) and let me know what you're listed as.... or if not, that's fine too. understand either way!
ReplyDeleteI'll be adding you in there someday Lynnanne. Just be patient for now. You can always find my email address on my profile.
ReplyDeleteno problem!
ReplyDelete