June 9 2011 House and Work Update

We have been pretty busy at work lately with a little bit of free time off and on. So I wanted rain
in hopes that we would get shut down for awhile. Well it rained, now we play around in the mud. It don't matter, the machines need to be there I guess. I unloaded the cat I was hauling and trying to get turned around, this is as far as I got. I'm stuck.

We always seem to haul something that can help with getting turned around, or up hills that you normally can't do with the truck alone. And it does happen at times. So I hooked the cat I just unloaded onto the trailer.

Then jump on the D6R Cat and simply drag the old girl around the corner.

This is how it all ened up. The jeep (small trailer between the truck and main trailer) wanted to kink towards the ditch more instead of follow along, but thats ok. We're turned around and ready to roll. I hate trucking in the mud anymore. Everything was nice and clean before this road. They call this the Teddy Lane. I think named for all the bear sightings. I have seen alot of blackbears on this road and one spring a few years ago I can remember watching a young grizzly bear rolling around on dead road killed moose right at the beginning of this road as you turn off the highway. Yip, right at the chain up area. Nice. They don't seem to drop all road kill there anymore, which is kinda nice. I have seen alot of black bears this spring so far. I think almost every day I'm out in the bush. No grizzly yet though.

I get alot of different looks from Traction at times. She's just about ready to retire from the swamping lifestyle after this day we had.

One evening while driving home from work, I noticed this old truck parked in a farmers field. I just had to turn around and snap a shot, as it brings back old memories, just like an old friend. I used to drive this truck for a previous employer. I have been into the United States one time in my life and this was the old friend that took me there. I was hauling 108 head of young bull buffalo from close to home to Gooding, Idaho. It was quite a journey. Permits, log books, heat, this old girl don't have air conditioning. The DOT shut me down in Shelby, Montana for two hours for being over houred in my log book. lol. If they only knew the whole story. By the time I arrived at my destination, I thought for sure that I would have had some dead livestock aboard, but when I opened the gate, they all ran off one right behind the other. They are a tough animal. They are quite different from cows. Cows would have trampled alot of the sleepers on a trip like that I think. I do plan on doing some more hauling across the line sometime in the future. I think it would be a great way to see the country.

One other funny thing I can remember about this truck. Most vehicles I have ever driven has a speedometer that is in both kilometers and miles. This is the only vehicle I have ever driven in my trucking career that only had it in kilometers and not miles. Just another minor obstacle while driving in a country that is in miles. I can also remember when this trucks odometer turned from 999,999 back to zero. There are actually alot of different trucks that I run across from time to time that bring back some memories, kinda like an old friend, and some maybe an old enemy.

Anyway, back to the acerage project. Once inawhile I do get a chance to start doing things on the house or the acerage before getting phoned to go to work. I managed to install a couple of deck headers on the front of the house. It's going to be a deck over a deck. In between the two ladders will be a sawed off door. I just gotta be different. I'll be taking about 1 foot off the door and will have to step over the knee wall to get out onto the deck. I like the idea myself. Awhile ago, Annie over at Edifice Rex kinda mentioned that it might not be a good idea to cut into the top plate for a door opening, and after thinking about that for awhile, I thought I would agree. So this is the solution I came up with.

I managed to get a few other odds and end done, and the house is pretty much insulated except the ceiling and just some odd pieces that would be in the way for other things. After being so busy at work for a few days at a time, I always seem to find it hard to get motivated again. I'm always thinking the phone is just going to ring anyway. It sounds like we may have another driver coming as we do have another truck now. I think I will find some extra time for building soon. I sure do hope so anyway. I hate the thought of quitting, or taking a bunch of time off, sometimes I just wish the boss would retire or something. Well, not really. I love the job, but I just find it hard to enjoy it at this time knowing that nothing's going on with the house. I don't plan on working like a dog for ever, it's just that it's easy pickings right now, and you just never know if it will come to a sudden halt again soon or not.

Another thing that kinda slowed down the building process was that when I did have time off work, I used about three days in total to cleanup the bush areas a bit, with some help from mom one day. After the forest fires in Slave Lake, Alberta, that destroyed a good sized chunck of the town of 7000 people, it made me a little paranoid. So I thought that I would prune the spruce and pine trees in the bush that come close to the house and garage. Well I don't know if pruning is the right word for it, as I just delimbed with a chainsaw. Probably not the correct way to go about it, but I had alot of trees to do. It is alot safer now, I think. If those trees ever did start on fire, I imagine it could take the house with it pretty easy. The way it was, the limbs so close to the ground and all that dead quack grass under the trees, a little harmless grass fire would have almost garanteed a major disaster. As it is now, it could still be bad, but there is a pretty good chance that a grass fire might not automatically ignite the trees so easily.

I raked all of tree broughs out of the bush and piled it all into one big pile in the middle of my land. It was a few loads for the old backhoe. I'll probably burn it in the winter. There is alot of extra things a mans gotta do when country living. One chore that I have, that really dos'nt make any sense what so ever, is mowing. Is'nt that what cows are for? I just don't have time to get rigged up for everything just yet. Eventually though, I would like to find two calves in the spring and let them graze the acerage all summer and sell them in the fall. That way they can keep the grass down in the hard to mow areas also. I need fence and the time to build it etc. I guess I could tether them or use solar electric fence, but I just don't have time for things like this right now. For now I'll just mow it. Just another thought, I could put a couple horses there instead, but then they will be burning hay all winter. I guess time will tell.


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.

Insulating

I had my rough electrical inspection on May 13, and all is good. Except I forgot to wire in the smoke detecters, as I just kinda thought I would be using battery operated ones instead, being off grid and all. But I guess they need to be wired in anyway. I need one on each floor and they all need to be wired together so that if one goes off, they all go off. No problem. I started doing some insulating right after the inspection. I did have a little in basement from before. The basement is pretty much done except for all the smaller pieces that go in the floor joists on top of the basement wall. Most of the main floor is done except for one end wall, as I need to have axcess to it for install the deck headers. The Knee walls in the loft are done except that same end wall for the same purpose. The electrical inspector is also the building inspector, and I mentioned to him about my idea of having a sawed off door to enter the deck off the loft bedroom. It is all a go, he kinda liked my idea, although if I were a contractor building this house for someone else it would have been a different story. Monday will probably be a bit of waste as I am going to go to town for some more supplies.

I finally went and picked up a load of water from town the other evening. Before I unhooked the trailer I thought I would fill up the RV, as I was in major need of a shower after insulating all day, and I sure have no intentions to go all the way to Grande Prairie for just a shower. This way I can just gravity feed the water into the RV instead of hooking up a pump and doing it.

The shower in the RV is pretty tiny, but it works. It was busy day.

Things are sure starting to get dry around here lately, which is kinda hard to believe after seeing all that snow we had this winter. It's pretty smoky around here all day. There are some fires burning in the Whitecourt and/or Slave Lake areas.


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 wiring and other things.

Well it's that time of the year again, where I need to start using some store bought energy to keep the growlies cold. The propane fridge in my RV. I think I finally decided what I will use for refridgeration in the near future. DC powered fridge and freezer combination which I think I will use all summer and then in the winter I will utilize the natural refridgeration as I have done for the last two winters now. But it may come later as I can still use the RV fridge for a year or two. Whats the panick. I believe that I will have power to burn in the summer time, but the winters will be kinda tough. I really see no sense in using energy to heat a home then put a box in there that burns energy to make things cold when it is -30 to -40 celcius outside. Gotta make some use out of that cold weather.

I hav'nt been very busy working at work, but it is that time of the year for work related courses and meetings etc. Then when I thought I got all that out of the way, my old GMC decided to quit on me on my way into town. I caught a ride with a good samaritin who gave me ride to my place so I could get my Dodge and trailer to load the GMC onto. I got it home and trying to figure out what was wrong with it the next day while it was still loaded on the trailer, I managed to rip the door handle off the truck. I wasn'nt having a real good day. I kinda boiled the truck issues down to the fuel pump, but I was'nt positive about it, and I ended up taking it in to town for repair. I just did'nt feel like spending time on it when I have so much building going on. It was the fuel pump and charged me $800.00. I bought a door handle for real close to 100.00. I sure don't feel real frugal lately. lol. I know I could have changed that fuel pump myself and I would have if had nothing better to do. It is inside the fuel tank, and the tank was pretty close full. I would have been a day just trying to find some place to put all that gas.

One evening after supper I decided to install a tv antenna on the shack. I've had one kicking around here and always wanted to get it up. Now I have two whole channels that are alot less fuzzy than the two I had before. You sure don't see many of these around anymore. I wonder if you can even buy a new one of these. I got pissed off at the satelite tv company finally. I don't really feel off grid with it anyway. Internet is enough. Ever since I moved out here, I put my satellite tv on suspension to avoid paying the disconnect fee and the reconnect fee and all the other stupid fees. It was supposed to be $10 a month while on suspension, but they seem to know how still squeeze more larger fees periodically, so bye bye satellite tv people. I don't need ya. Maybe someday, but I'm good for a long time for now.

The creek is running pretty good for the last couple of weeks.

There's the house from down at the creek.

My breaker panel is made for both shore power and generator power as an emergency backup source. Every house should have one of these. It makes it real easy to hook a generator up to the house in case of power failure on the grid or whatever. Normally my off grid power will have the generator hooked into the inverter, but my way of thinking is that if the inverter should blow up on me, there could be a time where I might have to bypass the inverter all together temporarily.

The branch circuits before.

The branch circuits after.

A closeup view of the breaker box. My neutral to ground connection will take place in a different box between the inverter and this breaker panel. I will be adding some more circuits to this panel. About 5 more that I can think of right now. Septic pump, septic alarm, garage, HRV, furnace, but I'm just not ready yet. NOTE, I am not a professional electrician, so if you copy my wiring and your house burns down, or you get injured or worse, please don't blame me. Get the info from the real pros please. Although, I do think things will be ok, ya just never know.



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.

Wiring Mostly.

I have been pretty busy building on the house lately and all kinds of other stuff. Lately I have been trying hard to get my wiring to the rough in inspection stage. That is where all the inside wiring is pretty close to being done. It is the inspection that needs to be done before the insulation goes in and hides it all. I am just about done with the main branch circuits in the basement, living room, kitchen, loft. What I have left is some other misc circuits such as the washing machine, some outdoor plugs, wiring to the septic tank, my ground rods, etc. It does take some time. The wiring had me thinking for awhile there when I first started, but it is pretty simple once I get on to it. Maybe it's all gonna be right. I imagine I will be awhile yet though before I can start insulating, and covering the wall. The above photo is the smaller loft that I finally finished framing and blocking and permanently installing the subfloor.

The photo below is the top veiw. I'm not real sure what I'm going to do with this thing yet. I might build a walk way from the main loft and just use it as a little extra storage space or something. It sure is handy having it there for building and reaching the upper parts as I go. It is pretty close to 5 feet wide.

Here is a picture of the main loft from the small loft.

This is very first sheet of drywall that got installed in the house. Just needed a place for the breaker panel. I sure can't wait until I start slapping these things on, it will really start to change the looks of things when I do.

The breaker panel. The wiring of all the brach circuits are really starting to pile up.

Don't ask why I would put this picture in. I guess you could say this was pretty close though. That is my kitchen sink pail in my shack. I thought I should take a quick check to see how full it was getting to be. It's a good thing I did. I have never had it this full before, but I did one time dump a bunch of water in the sink when I forgot to put the pail under it after dumping it. That was kinda messy.

Anyway, I hav'nt been on much lately, I guess it might have something to do with the longer days and working on the house more lately. It dos'nt seem to get dark until about 8 or 9 probably. I don't even know for sure.

The weather here has been pretty nice snow melting weather, and the creek just started running pretty good a couple of days ago. Real spring weather has been kinda slow coming this year.


 

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.

Some misc. pictures and stuff.

It's a dogs life. Sometimes I wish I could trade shoes with the dog.

I could really process some firewood with this baby. Feller bunchers are not the nicest things to haul, but I guess it pays the bills to be hauling something.

I don't ever have to worry about falling off the road this winter. Guess I should put some new glass in the old pickup sometime. And maybe even clean some of the junk off the dash. But then I would never find anything.

The stairs are pretty much stationary now.

The framed walls at the stairs are not permanent yet. I think I will leave it that way for a bit, until I get some drywall on the inside, just incase things are too tight. I am definatley not a pro at alot of this stuff, and I am not sure exactly the best way to do walls at the stairs, but I'm just kinda planning as I go. Modifications are a great possiblily.

I've been trying to get all the framing done, so that I have some place to run wires and switches and all that. My buddy, the plumbing inspecter came out yesterday and signed all my plumbing off. Which means it's all good. It's not completely all done, but it's all good. They seem to be interested mainly in the drains and there vent lines. Anything that could cause a health risk I guess. There is plumbing, that is just not feasible to do until other things are done first. This inspector is also the wood stove guy, and the gas inspector. He has been quite helpful to me so far.

The weather here is still pretty cool for this time of the year. But I just know that things should start to warm up and start to melt soon. Lots of snow also means possibly a longer spring break. By the end of March usually work comes to a pretty good slow down as alot of the roads come off of winter weights and are banned from truck traffic. Practically all the bush will be impassible until late spring/summer. Good deal. I've got this major itch to get some building done. Tomorrow I'm heading into town for some more building supplies, unless work phones me that is.


 
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.

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March 4 Update. Plumbing, Stairs, Cold Weather.

Thought I better put a little something on for a change. At work we hav'nt been real over busy, but a little bit here and there. Ever since they rebuilt the engine in the the truck, I have been pretty busy taking it back to them quite often to get things fixed. They have been unfriendly, kinda like it's all our fault or something. One mechanic has been anyway, but the boss kinda rectified that one day. lol. It is really unbelieveable the attitude some people have after you spend in the area of $50,000.00. (Tranny and engine). They just seem to try and pretend that nothing is wrong with things. One would really think that at $137.50/ hour shop rate, that they would have some kind of idea what they're doing. But oh well.
We have had some pretty darn cold weather lately, and alot of snow. I am quite determined that I will not spend another winter in this little shack. I could do it, I just don't want to. When the the temps drop below minus 30C the heater no longer keeps up. It runs constantly, and the floor is very cold. lol. I think I will really appreciate a nice hot crackling fire in the wood stove next winter. We have been getting alot of snow and wind with those cold temperatures. I have noticed that I am getting some snow coming in the new house through the ridge cap on the roof. I guess this spring or summer I will maybe change the whole ridge cap with one a little bigger and also purchase the snow filters that I guess I should have put in the first place. It's just a good thing that I'm not a quick builder and had it all closed in. I might not have ever known until things started to rot. I have never had this problem untill the real cold and windy stuff came.

I have found a little time for building off and on lately. I managed to get some stairs built for the loft. I am actually quite impressed as to how it all turned out so far. I still have to take the top section off and do some finishing touches. Then the fancy railings eventually. The stairs over stairs concept actually worked out pretty good. I thought I could possibly run into some clearance problems, but it's all good. I think. Just wanted to show off my simple little stairs marking tool. All it is, is a normal 2 foot sqaure with a couple of stair nuts. (Or what ever the real name is for them). You just screw one on at the right distance for your run, and the other at the distance for your rise. To figure out your rise and run, there are alot of books that can teach you all that. lol. But one thing I will say is that it is'nt nearly as complicated as some might think.

My plumbing permit is about to expire again on the 15 of March 2011. Maybe they will extend one more time for me, but I'm not sure. The plumbing could all be done very quickly, but alot of it, just dos'nt seem to make sense to be done until other things are done first. So thats what kinda slows me down. I'm trying to get it to a point where the inspector could come and have a look at it though. I have been buying things slowly. I bought that pump with the small tank quite awhile ago. That tank is 5.5 gallon. Then I bought another tank (20 gallons) that was on sale. I still want to get another tank, and it will be about 80 gallons. I'm the only one I know who has more than one pump, hope it's all ok. What I am thinking, is that I will have a switch up stairs so I can somtimes control when the pump kicks in. Pump water in the sunshine and try to have enough pressurized water for the evening for solar power consumption reasons. If I were to use just the one tank that came with the pump, that pump would be cycling on and off constantly while running water. Starting a pump is where the most power comsumption is. All those little fittings and valves and all that really add up in price after while. Anyway, just a little update on things. I do hope to be really going crazy on this thing soon.



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.

Heating Thoughts

Today, my small solar setup would run a forced air furnace easily, although my battery bank would probably not be large enough to run it for the night. Thats with the system I am running at the moment. My battery bank at the moment is 6 12 volt deep cycle/marine batteries.

My prosine inverter controller is showing that my 6 12volt batteries are at +7C for a temperature as the outside temp is -18 C according to my thermometer. I hav'nt had the battery warmers on since about 10:00 pm the previous night.

My charge controller is showing some pretty fair power coming in from the solar panels today. The sun is just starting to peak over the trees.

WARNING: The following writeup about heating may be a long drawn out boring piece of literature to some. But someone may be interested. Just wanted to think out loud for a bit. I wrote it last night, and added things here and there and even a little more today. It could be all mixed up, but what ever. Personally, I hate reading real long blogs myself, I don't like writing them much either and I sure don't expect anyone to read it, but it is there anyway.

HEATING

I have been working off and on lately. I have had a fair bit of time off awhile back, and it was in a real cold snap that we had for awhile there. I did'nt accomplish a whole lot on the house, but as usual, I have been doing ALOT of researching on various different topics pertaining to my project. One subject that has really got my mind going, is heating. As we should all know by now is that I kinda learn things as I go. I initially thought I was going to heat my basement with a propane space heater in the basement. I was even thinking about another high efficient (power vented) heater up in the living area somewhere, along with the wood stove. It would all work, but it really would'nt be very energy efficient, while I were away. I am basing this presumption on my experience with the space heater in my shack. My heat bill in the little shack is probably about twice of what it is in my mobile home that I have rented out in town. And the shack is alot smaller to heat, although it does have it's leaky areas, I guess. There other reasons against it also. What is the solution? I sometimes wonder. I have researched hydronics, which is when you circulate hot water (etc) through pipes to heat floors, or baseboard type radiators etc.) It is supposed to consume little electrical energy to run the pumps to circulate the water, but it does use power. I could use an on demand type water heater to heat the water(uses power when operating also, and I personally think alot of gas energy also, but I don't know that for sure). Or I could use a normal hot water tank(boiler). These would probably be an ok type heat system, but it just is'nt for me. In my opinion, they probably use less electrical energy while running, but probably have to run more. I am looking for a quick heat fix when I want it. When I come home on a cold winter day, I plan on lighting a fire in the wood stove. I just need something to keep the chill off while I'm away, and keep me nice and cozy at night while sleeping.
What I am seriously thinking about kinda goes against anything that I research on the internet. You don't often hear about people using forced air furnace to heat a Renewable Energy home, but I have done alot of research and figuring, and I honestly think it will end up being my solution. They work pretty good in an RV. I realize that for about 3 months in the winter, I will definately not be able to rely on incoming solar energy to power this thing, but I am seriously going to make it work somehow. It is kinda chilly in our parts off and on all year long, but in the summer, we probably get alot more sunlight than most of our southern neighbors. A little further north is known as the land of the midnight sun, after all. I find with my small system I have in my shack right now, that I tend to waste alot of the available sunlight I do have. For most of the year, my batteries are full by noon and the charging system shuts down as the ole sun just keeps on shining.

Sure, everyone thinks I'm nuts. Anyone out there think I'm nuts? lol. The way I have it all figured out is that, if my furnace ran, 1/2 of the time(12 hours per day), and with no incoming charge going to the battery bank, I would bring my battery bank down to about 35% depth of discharge. Which means my batteries would still be at 65% state of charge. This figure based on 24 Trojan T-105 6 volt batteries. Not saying this is what will be used, but this is what the calculation is based upon. They are 225 amp/hr batteries @20 hour rate. I also don't ever expect the furnace to run half the time. It could I guess on the coldest of cold days, but I really don't think so. In my calculation, I allowed for 80% efficency for the batteries, then I also allowed for another 80% efficiency after that, just for the heck of it, for inverter efficiency loss etc. I also added some watt/hrs (150) onto the furnace for a total of 600 watts, just incase I missed something there. The furnace is 66,000 btu 93% efficeincy rate(the one I have my eye on). Somehow I have figured that a Honda eu6500 generator should bring the batteries right back up in about an hour of charging for each day, but that is only if there is no other incoming charge, and in the real cold weather. I think that the furnace would run less than 1/3 the time (8 hours per 24 hour period) if it were -25C/-6F. We get alot of days that are alot warmer than this in the winter, but then we do get some that are alot colder also.
When it was -17 one day awhile ago, I experimented with my 24 foot holiday trailer. I turned the furnace on, and timed things as they happend. I brought it to a pretty nice temp in a relatively short period of time. That trailer is not very well insulated and has alot of single pane windows and thin walls. But it really did'nt seem to take long for that small 12 volt forced air furnace to warm it up nicely in there.

I also experimented at work one day. We recently set up an office shack outside the shop at work for the safety hand, and my foreman. An area of it also became our coffee room, which is pretty handy for me to perform some experiments. It's furnace is about the same btu rating as the one I have my eye on, although I don't know the fan cfm. It was -25C one day when I got in from trucking. I sat in there invading some goodies in the fridge and hot chocolate etc, and I timed the furnace run time and off time. The furnace in there ran pretty close to 1/3 the time on that cold day. I did open the entrance door 2 or 3 times in this period also. This building is roughly 14 feet wide, by 60 feet long (I paced it off). It is on skids, so the floor would cool off quicker that way also. A rough calculation of walls and roof are as follows. Experimental shack :3160 square feet. My House 2928 sqaure feet. My basement walls are 8 inch lumber and the upper parts are 6 inch, which is the same as the experimental shack. Four feet of the total wall area of my house is below grade which should really help. If a 600 watt furnace ran at 1/3 time all winter, it would'nt hurt my feelings, but it won't, I just know it. While I'm there, I will be burning wood. When I am gone, the furnace gets turned right down, as it should'nt take long to bring the temp back up again when I get home. A forced air furnace will be really nice at night while sleeping etc.

The plan at this time is to utilize an automatic starting generator, which is subject to automatically start up when the battery bank voltage gets down to a certain voltage setting. If for some reason the generator fails to start (which is quite a possibility), the inverter would eventually shut down at a preset battery voltage also, so as not to over discharge the batteries. I would think the furnace should run for at least two days before the inverter shutting down though. Then there is going to be a direct vent propane heater that should eventually kick in at an above freezing temp in the basement. All the plumbing and things in danger of freezing in my house are in 1/3 area all in one end of the house. I'm pretty sure it would'nt take much of a heater to keep things from freezing right up. Example:They built an entrance way on the shack at work that goes from the shop to the shack. I walked from the shop to the shack the other night for the first time in this insulated porch, and could'nt believe just how warm it was in there, with just the heat from the shack and shop warming it through the closed doors, and I guess the heat that enters from opening the doors periodically to enter the buildings. The outside temperature was quite bitter, about -20C with a wind. I might even eventually put in some kind of a hydronic system for when I do leave for a week or so maybe, even if it is just a real small system for experimental purposes. The possibilities are endless. All my furnace calculations were assuming cold temps and no other means of incoming charge. When ever the sun shines, that will be a big bonus, when I am at home, wood is burnt, and I also plan on eventually bringing in some wind power. If I ever decide, at some time in my life, to go away for a long time in the winter, such as the Canada goose does, I think I would simply winterize things just like I do my RV, and let it freeze up. Why not? Seems to me alot better than running a furnace for a month in the winter when you're not there anyway.

A little while ago, I was actually having second thoughts about even staying off the grid. I was doing some real serious calculations to see if it were even going to be worth it, as there is power pretty close by that I could always hook into. It would cost anywhere from $8500 to $12,000 or more to hook into the grid, then the monthly bills that follow for ever. But holy cow, how convenient would that be? lol. I could keep my solar setup under that price, but with a furnace it is probably going to end up being more, but then alot of the equipment is resaleable. Generators don't run for free though, and they tend to wear out with use. Sometimes I still do wonder if it will all be worth it, but then I come back to my senses. I know it will benefit me a little financially over time, as long as I can get a few years out of my batteries. But most importantly, is that I plan to live off grid mostly because of my love of learning new things, and I have a real interest in alternative energy. Just coming up with the ultimate solution and proving all the naysayers wrong makes it all worth the while right there. It is my entertainment. If things don't work out with it, or I get tired of the extra maintenance and everything that goes with it, then I can always, in the future hook right into that pole that goes through my yard. But I am going to put up a heck of a fight to avoid it for now. P.S. I know the generator thing sounds kinda harsh, but with or without a forced air furnace, the generator will need to be utilized at times in the winter in these parts. By mid February the sun starts getting higher and higher actually quite rapidly as the days go by, and there is still alot of winter like weather at these times. This is where I really think the forced air furnace will shine and also in the fall. I am still in the process of educating myself though and I am looking a little deeper into hydronic heating before actually making a decision. If I did both, I guess I can’t really go wrong.

I have been trying to stay away from using a B-type vent/chimney system, which was going to be part of the initial plan. A boiler would probably require this type of vent. There are high efficient boilers, but I believe they are pretty expensive and they require electrical energy to run also. High efficient appliances use pvc pipe going out the side of the house as their exhaust and incoming combustion air source. The initial plan was as follows, but it just seems to me, that what could end up being a problem is the permitting process. I seem to always forget that you can’t just do what you think is right. I know I could design a good working system, even if I do have to make some modifications as I go in order to perfect it. My plan was to have about a 50000 btu B vent type propane space heater at one end of the house in the basement. It would be in the end with all the plumbing. Above the heater would be a duct hole leading into the bathroom, and one into the kitchen up above. There could also be a couple in the living area, just so basement heat can rise through them. There could have even been a thermostatically controlled fan to force some heat into those areas when I am home. I could have even plumbed one up to the loft through a bathroom closet for night time comfort. The space heater can come complete with an optional fan mounted right on it. Come home flick a switch up stairs to turn on the fan and whole basement circulates heat which in turn should send some upwards. But then with return air, and heat recovery system issues etc. (I would have to bring in outside air for combustion air) I guess if I go this way, I might as well just do the furnace and be done with it. I was planning on forcing hot air from high above down to the basement while the wood stove was running, so this would help heat the basement with wood heat while I were there, in order to save on heating fuel. When I write or talk about it, I know it probably sounds stupid, but I think I was on to something. If it were not a code approved home, I would get a lot of things done a lot quicker, and I would just do what I want and no one would even know until it was all up and running, and working well. It seems to me though, when I think about, this system would more or less end being an oversized amateur built inefficient furnace, that ended up costing a lot more and taking up a lot more space and burns a lot more propane. So I am really thinking a smaller high efficient furnace, with auto gen start, and back up direct vent space heater as a last resort incase things decide not to run when I am away for 3 days or so. Still thinking though.

Ultimately, my plan was to have absolutely no electrical power usage going on while I were away, but I also would like to keep energy efficiency in mind. With a forced air furnace, I realize there are going to be a lot of days where a generator will have to run for an hour per day or more, but there are also going to be a lot of days where it won’t also. I really believe it would pay off on the yearly average. One other little thing that I keep in mind is that, I am guessing, but I’ll bet on a -30C day, I could walk away from the house when it was warmed up, and if there were no heat source at all while I were away, I don’t think anything in the house would start to freeze up for probably a couple days anyway. I am basing this on my experience with batteries that I keep in the deep freeze outside to power my shack at the moment. I did’nt take note of my battery temperature last night when I went to bed, but it was -30C overnight and my batteries at this moment are at +7C at this moment 12:30 pm the next day. It is -18 outside right now. I have noticed that my batteries have always taken at least two days before dropping below freezing. If that thin deepfreeze is going to hold heat that long, I think my house should hold some heat for awhile also with no one there to open and close doors all day. Any thoughts?


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.