Done Furnace Ducting

Just about.

Im getting tired of looking at furnace ducting myself. lol. This was number 3 chunk of heat ducting, and it was supposed to be the last, but after thinking and planning and more thinking, I deciced to buy another chunk.

I had to cut some of it off. All this just for a bathroom register. But now it's done.

I even got a little technical on the camera and got of shot of me pretending to do something. I don't know what it is, but trying to pose for a picture that you take yourself looks kinda dumb. lol.

See, that's what I'm talking about.

I had to build myself some kind of a connector for my air drop to hook into. I know my terms on all this stuff is'nt real professional and some of the workmanship might not be either, but I think it's all going to work for me. I really hope so anyway.

And the air drop boot connecting into the what ya call it that I built.

I'm really glad to see all the main ducting up. Now I do have a little more space for myself to get around. I am now working on the electrical, plumbing the condensation and  gas line in, and running the air intake and exhaust pipes. I still also have the branch ducting to do also. I hope to get an inspection on my gaslines this week and get started on some drywall mudding. Another learning experience.


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.

More Furnace Ducting.

The middle section that hooks into the furnace. There is  a fair bit of prepping that goes on with each section before it can go up permenantly.

The west section. It don't look like much, but this stuff is pretty time consuming for an old boy like me. There are only 3 sections and the east one is still in progress. Had to do some more planning on where the registers are going to be exactly. I always have a good idea what I'm going to do, but it is never for sure until the time comes. Then I seem to see little problems with this or that and end up having to change my plans a bit.  

It's all starting to look like some kind of a heat 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.

Furnace Installation Mostly.

I'm still playing around with furnace stuff. I did'nt do alot with it over the weekend. Went into town on Saturday thinking I was going to pick some needed items up, but as usual, it just was'nt that simple. I had to wait until Tuesday to go into the furnace shop, as it was a long weekend here in Canada. So I played around with various other things instead of all furnace stuff.

I had some company come over on Monday, and they brought some goodies to bar b que. All I had for a b b que was my ancient old piece of junk that was'nt working so well anymore. But I did have a brand new one not even assebled yet, stashed away in the garage. It's been there for a couple years now I think. We quickly put it together anyway. Nice. I've been meaning to get this baby together for some time now.  

The battery box all painted and almost ready for action.

The plenum for the furnace needs a little modifications in order to fit under the stairs. This was quite a job.

Still modifying the plenum.

The finished product.

There it is sitting on the furnace under the stairs. Nice fit.

Now I gotta cut a hole in the front of the plenum and join this 90 degree elbow up with the plenum. There is another piece that goes in between the two. I'm not real fond of this furnace installation stuff and can't wait until I am workingon a  new stage of the house project. The almighty drywall mudding is still patiently waiting for me.

It's been raining pretty steady here all day yesterday and today. The river is flowing pretty wild 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.

 

 

 

 

Battery Box Detail and Painting.

This is the battery box. Mom painted this and all the other pieces of the box, and a fine job she did. Thanks mom. It is pretty hard to see the actual color with the lighting, but in real life it is a nice color. I like it. This box is 5 feet long, 28" wide and 22" high. It is designed to fit 12  420 Amp hr, 6 volt batteries. These batteries are about 17" tall.

 This is the top of the back rest, and I'll call this the hydrogen gas compartment. Hydrogen gas is lighter than air and it rises. There is a cover that will be screwed onto the top of this when it is all in production, and a pipe coming right off the top and going directly to the outdoors. I will also have income air going into the box from outside and to somewhere closer to the bottom of the box.

The bottom of the back rest. And the lid for the main battery compartment.

This is nothing to do with batteries. I thought while mom was painting stuff, I might as well whip up a furnace platform for her to paint also.

My brain was mostly doing planning and thinking today, in between little things here and there. This is going to be the furnace return air vent in the living room on the main floor. Gotta cut  an air passage in the floor the length of this framing. That's just about 4 feet.

Just a shot of some of the ducting once assembled. Well I'm back to town in the morning for some more goodies I guess. I wanted to have some ducting hung, but then I did'nt have any of the outlets that will come off the top of the main ducting. Don't know how big to cut the holes or what shape etc. I think it would be alot easier to do it all on the ground.


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.

Furnace ducting, Battery Box, Inverter.

I think I got that gas line leak conquered. It's still holding pressure. Today was another run all over town day. I had to go to the furnace place and come up with a plan for a piece of ducting  for them to build me. As my furnace is going under the stairs in the basement, some things with the ducting are not going to fit together with ordinary parts.

This is the plenum which comes off the top of the furnace, and a what ya ma call it that connects to the plenum. And they are in the process of making me a 90 elbow to come off the what ya ma call it. That's what I call it anyway, cuz I forgot its real name.

 And a bunch more ducting that I did'nt yet assemble. I have been trying to get this furnace in, then all the gas appliances, except the stove, will be in. Then I can get things inspected and  maybe utilize some of this for my drywall mudding. It still gets pretty chilly at night sometimes. The other night was pretty close to freezing. I hear that when mudding, things need warmer temps in order to set right, I guess. I sure don't plan on running my new furnace while things are real dusty, but my 2 propane heaters will probably be utilized in the evenings while I am mudding.

Dinners getting closer to that frying pan all the time.

Real close.

I almost forgot to show my battery box. It looks and sits kinda like a bench. I talked mom into coming over tomorrow to give it a shot of paint. I picked up a can of paint today that was less than half price because the tint was wrong for somebody. So the color will be what it is.  I want to paint it inside and out in hopes of helping to seal and preserve it. There will supposedly be a little sulphuric acid fumes floating around in there and hopefully they don't leak out into the house. This box will have a vent line going directly to the outdoors.  Wanted to get a picture of it before the paint.

        Oh ya, and over to the left a bit is my 24 volt magnum inverter hanging on the wall. I don't know if anyone thinks the same as myself, but that bit of solar equipment is kinda purty hanging on the wall. That inverter takes the power from my batteries and turns it into nice clean pure sinewave energy. It runs two hot legs of power, which means that it makes my house just about as normal as anyones, as far as power is concerned. I don't plan on running anything on 240 volt power, but if I wanted to, I could do it with this one inverter. It used to be that you would have to stack two inverters for two legs of power, but not anymore. This helps me wire up my breaker panel. If this inverter only ran one hot leg, I would only be able to use half of my breakers. I guess I could probably modify something in there to correct that(not sure though), but this is a more normal way of doing it. Possibly I may sound like I know my power, but in all reality, I hav'nt a clue. lol. Someone, please wish me some luck. Well ok I do have a bit of a clue, but I aint no pro.


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.

Gas Line Leak Rectified, Hopefully.

I found that nasty gas line leak. I circled where the air bubble are continually flowing from. No wonder I had trouble finding the leak, I really expected it to be in a joint, but it was a faulty 3/4 inch T instead.

Circled in red is where the faulty T is in the system. That means that a pretty fair bit of pipe is going to have to come apart to change the T. There are 7 joints in this picture that need to come apart. Then follow the pipe to the right, and through the wall..

There are 4 joints in this pic also.

I got it all apart and changed the faulty T and got it all back together again. It's been at least 4 hours so far and the gauge has'nt moved off the 16 psi mark yet. So far so good, hopefully she's still holding in the morning.


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.

Gas Line Test and New Furnace

I've been testing my gaslines for some time now and trying to figure out why I am losing pressure. When I called the gas inspecter to ask him what kind of test is required, I was told that by code, I would have to pressure the line up to 15 psi and see if it holds for 15 minutes.(That's what I was told for here anyway, but it could be totally different for other areas.) It seems that I do past this test, but over time I do lose pressure, and that kinda bothers me. I have done a bubble test, (cover each joint with a soapy water solution and look for air bubbles ), but I can't seem to find anything. When I put the air into the lines, at first I just closed off the gas valve. So eventually I decided to close the valve, then take off the air fitting and plug the air entrance off. I still lose air pressure over time. I did another bubble test and really looked closely for bubbles, but nothing still. Now I am frustrated. Maybe it's the gauge itself leaking. I bought another gauge and I'm going to try that tomorrow.

The gauge was at 16 psi(2 notches below 20)  when I started my test. I don't know why the picture loaded on it's side either, (but that will be a whole new post). lol.. just kidding.

Today was kind of a waste for working on the house. Went to town to pick up my furnace and I decided to take my work truck into town for it's annual inspection. So  now I can get some things done without that being on my mind now.

My furnace finally came in. It is 70,000 BTUs. I don't think it will have a problem heating things up in the house, as long as the batteries are holding their end of the deal. I am hoping to get alot of use out of this baby in the winter, but it is quite possible that the power system may not want to work with me on this. If it don't work out as planned, it is totally ok with me, as there are other options. When I first decided to get a forced air furnace, I had spring, summer and fall in mind for it anyway. There are about 3 months out of the year that I call generator season. I am quite sure, however, that this should at least beable  take over in the night as the woodstove fire dies down. We will all be alot smarter once I start experimenting with things. I totally realize that when reading things about solar power and all that, that forced air furnaces are a no no. I do think this one will have it's place in my system though.  

 

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.

 

Keeping the Water From Freezing.

     A blogger friend, "Evano"      http://www.blogger.com/profile/05602952610036781746    asked how I plan on keeping the water from freezing if I am away from home for prolonged periods of time. I am happy to share. This is all my own planning that went into all this and I am really hoping that it works for me. I think it will, but you just never know.  This time of year we all know I probably don't have to worry about these things, but winter is coming alot quicker than I want it to. I am assuming you are talking about the indoor plumbing, but I will also mention the cistern water storage outside also.

      To start with, I am going to have in totall 4 different heat sources to choose from for different occasions and times of the year.  I know it sounds kinda crazy for such a small house, but I really hate being cold. I have installed two 15,000 BTU propane heaters. They are both direct vent type heaters meaning that they bring in combustion air from out side and send the exhaust to the outside. IMPORTANT! I'm not a pro at this stuff, but I do know that propane appliances might  not be allowed in basements in all areas. You will have to check with your local permitting offices I guess. (Propane is heavier than natural gas and will pool at the bottom and could fill a basement and  create quite an explosion if ignited, whereas natural gas may dissepate more easily out the windows and doors etc). They're both dangerous as far as I am concerned.

     I chose to go with the two smaller heaters instead of one 30,000 BTU one, because with the lower BTU, they can be installed in alot of different tighter spaces. (Closer to a corner, closer to window, mounted up higher on the wall etc). Also a bigger heater was kind of hard to find with a direct vent that would work in a basement. A bigger heater would have meant running another chimney (B vent). It's a long way to the top from the basement, and chimneys take up more of my space. Also, the B-vent type chimney requires me to bring in outside air for combustion, which makes me feel as though I am defeating my purpose a bit. Although, I might have to do that for my wood stove, but I'm not real sure yet, I may be able to modify it to a direct intake.

     Anything water is all at one end of the house, whether it be up stairs or down. Most anything that I need to worry about is in the basement, but upstairs will be a kitchen sink that is practically right over top of one heater, and on the other side is the bathroom vanity and toilet over the other heater. I'm pretty confident that I would be able to leave the house for days without worry in the colder winter days. However, if it is -40 outside for a prolonged period, I find from experience in my shack that these type heaters probably are'nt going to put out as much as they should. Propane movement really slows down. At -42 I think it is, propane no longer vapourizes, so I sure hope that it don't get that cold for very long if I'm not around. However with a 1000 gallon tank that I now have will be alot better than the 100 pound tanks that I used to use. I will top up the big propane tank once every summer so that has a good percentage of product for the winter.

     If I were to leave for a month or so, I would winterize the house something like you would do to your RV. Draining everything that should be drained and run plumbing antifreeze through all the lines etc.

    I plan on experimenting with all my different sources of heat to find what works best for different situations. I think if I stoked the wood stove and turned it down before leaving the house that the forced air furnace will be able to keep things warm for a couple days after the fire burned down,  without charging the batteries. However, this all depending on how often the furnace cycles, but I know this house is very well insulated and I'm thinking it will hold it's own heat for a long time on average temperature days.  But if the sun is shining and there is'nt a big amount of snow on the solar panels, it would probably be able to keep the house warm, as this would be the only electrical power being used while I am gone. The MPPT charge controller that I have installed in my electrical system is supposed to really shine in the colder weather. If my batteries will run the furnace, this would be the most economical heat source, but if the  battery voltage goes down to my preset voltage then the inverter will shut down until a preset voltage is present again.
     
   Eventually I may be installing some kind of AGS(Automatic Generator Start), but I will experiment with what I have first.
            Then when all else fails and the furnace does not want to run, the two space heaters in the basement should kick in and hopefully do their thing.

The photo below shows one of the two propane heaters on the right.

 

The above photo is a quick drawing of the the Basement and Main floor plans to show the location of heat sources lined up with vulnerable water areas. The two space heaters are drawn in red. As a comparison, the direct vent heater in my shack is 22,000 BTU. I have slept in the shack when it was  -35-40. It was'nt too bad in the top bunk, but I have had pop cans explode in the middle of the night. They were sitting on the floor. lol. The shack is'nt real well insulated and is built with only 2x4 walls.

When I am at home, it will not even be a chore to stoke the fire. I say bring on the cold.  

As for the water cistern outside, I am really hoping the water don't freeze up too badly in there. I do expect to see a thin layer of ice develope on the surface of the water at times, but hopefully it won't be a problem. I do have an insulated lid on it, and I will bank snow around the top part of it sticking out of the ground. There was about 2 feet of water in it all last winter. I checked it in the early spring and seen no ice. That could possibly be the solution is to not fill it right up to the top. There is heat that comes from the ground and the water way down there does'nt seem to freeze. The cistern is about 11 feet deep and 8 foot diameter. With this diameter of pipe, I was told that for every meter of pipe you will hold 995 gallons of water. Half full would be about 1500 gallons, and that is alot for me. I don't think I would have to worry about it freezing if  kept it at around this level.  

I had no heat in my house all last winter, and the sump in the basement had about an inch of water in it. I had some insulation over top the sump and that inch of water did not freeze all winter either. It was a fairly mild winter if compared to some, but it was still pretty chilly at times.

This is what my plan is for things, but that does'nt necessarily make it the right way to do things. I am not a pro, and I am also learning as I go. I guess time will tell if it's all going to work for me, but I do expect to be doing modifications on things as I go if need be. I'll be alot smarter after the next winter hopefully.  

 

 

 

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.

Hermit---Follow up.

lol. Sorry for bringing this topic up again. Just wanted to follow up the hermit blog a bit. I don't know if my last post came out as being whiny or not, but if it did, it was not meant to be that way. Just thought it may have sounded that way.

     After giving things a bit more thought on the hermit issue, I have come to the realization that I am and have been a hermit because I chose that lifestyle. I obviously was'nt ready to be real social at the time. I do get the odd invite at times and lot of the time I turn that down because of this or that. I usually have a good and legitimate excuse, although I could have made the time also. Alot of times it is just more simple and less stressful to hermit up.  After life of alcohol it is kinda tough to get out into the real world and play. My life has changed alot right after I quit drinking, and now it is going to change some more gradually and that change is already in progress. It has actually been in progress for awhile now. I guess I just feel it is time for some changes and now I want changes. But I do realize that I am in the process of building a house, and that is one of my biggest priorities at this time. I can honestly say that I have changed though, and I have already been communicating with people alot differently.

      Living a hermit lifestyle does have alot of advantages. It gives you the time to research and learn. It is also very inexpensive entertainment and can give one a chance to save for the future. People are'nt always wanting you to drive them around and pick them up etc. I have very little regrets about living a hermit life, and seriously, I am very happy and  my life is good. Thanks for the sincere comments and advice on the the previous hermit blog. I know I have friends out there, and it makes me feel good.

        Ok, I'm done. This was only going to be about a two sentence post when I started this one, and now look what I've done. Ok, lets build us house. I'll give ya all a break on this personal stuff for now, but I'll be back.

Power system, water system, stupidity and deer.

Well here I am experimenting with the old blogger again. My pictures uploaded alot quicker today, but it seems I still have to relearn things here.  This is just a few pictures to update some progress. This top picture is the electrical system. The inverter will install on the door of the larger white panel. Just a few more things, and I should be in power. I need batteries, incoming generator cable and some solar panels. Just a matter of spending a little cash. Oh ya, a battery enclosure also. I'm sure I will discover a bunch of other little things I need before actually flicking that main switch on.    

And the picture below(since I can't seem to squeeze my text in below it) is the water system to date. It's kinda planned and temporarily connected for now. I did end up buying another one of those 81 gallon water tanks. Alot of people think I'm crazy cause ya only need one tank. Did I happen to mention though, that it is a solar powered house? Just like storing electrical energy in batteries, I am also storing pressurized water in tank storage. This will reduce the number of times that the pump will kick in during the day, or more importantly the evening. I will top the tanks up during sunlight hours or when the generator is running, and I should have lots of water for the evening without the pump having to kick in. If ever the pump needs to run in the evenings, it can all happen pretty easily if it needs to happen, but there just may be times when the power supply is low, and I just want to have the control.  

 The above photo is just me showing the world a little bit about stupidity of a frugal canadian hermit sometimes. lol. A few days ago, I was getting ready to fry me up some bacon and eggs. I put the fry pan on the stove and lit the burner. I like to preheat it just a touch before putting the bacon on. But I went outside for something real quick, and ended up getting a brainwave to go and try out my new generator that I bought last winter, as it has been raining and the batteries were a little on the low side. I forgot all about the frypan on the stove. The genny did'nt start right away, and I also decided to hook up a ground wire to it. Finally got it going. As I got closer to my shack I noticed something beeping, kinda thought it was the inverter. Opened the door and hola. My first reaction was I thought I fried the electronics with the new cheap generator, but boy was I happy to see the fry pan on the stove burnt to a crisp. lol. Poor old dog was in there the whole time. The beeping was the smoke alarm of course, not the inverter. It makes me wonder though, why in this day and age, that a smoke sensor is not built into a stove to automatically shut things down when the alarm is signalled. It would be a really good invention if anyone wants to get wealthy.

I really like it how dinner seems to just show up right on my door step at times. They sure are getting brave around here. I'm sure this is going to be a real good thing when I finally try my hand at gardening. Maybe I'll have to keep being carnivorous instead of herbivourous. Both would be nice. One of these days though, one of these guys, just might jump right into the frying pan.


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.

Campfire Cooking and House Building.

      Wow, I guess I forgot how to upload some pictures. This pic took 10 to 15 minutes to upload, then I was trying to upload another one  of the campfire cooking taking place. It was even longer, but the computer froze up in the process and I canceled. I sure don't know why. Is anyone else having this kind of problem, or is it just me?  I had planned on putting quite a few pictures on tonight, but I give up for now. I'm going to publish this one, just to see if  I can. Sometimes I really don't like change.
     This is all I got for now. My supper cooked on the fire. I wrapped the frozen veggies in tinfoil with some fresh garlic and butter. And the potatoe was sliced and wrapped in tinfoil and put on the grill over the fire also. The smoky was shoved onto a stick. lol. I like my suppers simple when I'm doing the cooking, and usually I am cuz dogface (Traction, the dog) has'nt learned how yet. I'll probably have the exact same thing again tomorrow because I still have 3 smokies left. I have been using the RV fridge and freezer again which is kinda nice.

     Ok, anyway. I have been doing quite abit on the house lately. I do have most all the drywall up, just a few smaller pieces to go and it will be ready for mudding. I always seem to run into other things that need done before the drywall can go up, like plumbing the bathtub so I can drywall the pantry, etc.  I have been working on alot of different projects. I work on the water system until I run out of supplies, then electrical, then the drywall, and this and that. Then it is usually a whole day in town picking up supplies again. I seem to do alot of thinking and planning at times also, as I go. Pricing out batteries and solar panels. Trying to figure out just how to build my battery encolsure etc. I was thinking about going with 24 T105 Trojan golf cart batteries or something similar, but now I'm thinking about 12 of something much larger and more expensivebatteries. It will be more simple and take up less space in the basement. It will probably be more feasible in the end.
   I purchased a forced air furnace and am waiting for it to come in, as it was a special order. My goal for this summer is to be living in the house before winter. I know it won't be complete, but I do hope to have the mudding done, heat, power, water and siding on the outside. Then I can work on the ceilings (probably T & G pine), flooring, cabinets etc, while I'm in the house.  I know it would be nice to have it completely done before moving in, but I am simply too cheap to be heating two places. I'm not sure exactly when we will start to get busy at work again, but I sure hope things hold off for awhile yet. I am just about ready to call it done for work, but then I just want a little more. I am heading for some pretty major expenses soon, and would like to make up for it with a little work income after all the spending before making a major lifestyle change.
     I'll try to get some more pictures up real soon, maybe the net was just too busy tonight or something, hopefully.


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.