More wiring

I dropped down to the states to pick up the connections so I can plug the house it.  While I was down there I picked up a box of network cable.  I'll be using it connect sensors throughout the house and in the doors and windows.  Did I mention I plan on doing a little home automation?  More on that in the coming months.

On Sunday I ran the network cable and started wiring up the wall outlets, soon I'll be able to get rid of all the extension cords.

This is the point that all the wires will pass through the vapour barrier into the interior wall.  It looks like a mess but they are all labelled.  The yellow wire is a 20 amp line for a electric heater.  The three white wires are for the room plugs/exterior plugs/upstairs plugs.  The black wires are DC lines from the solar panels.  The thin grey wires and blue wire are data and low power DC for the home automation.

All of the in wall wiring is done so I can move onto insulation now :-D

Expenses to date: $11,367

Wiring and doing things the hard way

The past week has been spent on getting the electrical figured out.

I had originally run all the 15amp AC wiring but I've had to pull it all because it would have exceeded the capacity of the electrical boxes.  You can use a box fill calculator to determine the maximum number of wires/devices/clamps that an electrical box can hold.  Unfortunately the 14/3 wire means I'll be about 4 cu in over what the boxes can hold.  There are two ways to fix this, either use 14/2 and I lose the extra wire, or go with a bigger box.  I want to use 3 x 2 x 2.5 boxes so I have 1 1/2" behind the box for insulation so that leaves me with only one option, pulling all the 14/3 out and replacing it with 14/2.

I've also run the wires for solar panels.  I was going with a roof mounted panels but now I'm thinking a ground mount might be better.  To play it safe I ran wires to both locations.

I'm only running the wires for the exterior walls right now, once the insulation and interior wall is in I'll be finishing up the electrical.

In places where wires might rub against the threaded rod I wrapped rubber tape around the rod.

I've purchased the connections for hooking up to external power and I'll have to do a run down to the states to pick those up.  While I'm down there I'll pick up network cable so I can run that and I'll order the Grace Ice and Water Shield for the roof.

I welded the two 1/2" threaded rod that I added in the front corner.  Nice to finally cross that off the list.

To finish up the day I attached the four pieces of blocking that the ceiling will be nailed at the gable ends.  These should have been put before the roof sheathing was put on but I forgot.  It would have been impossible to do without my brother's palm nailer.

Expenses to date: $ 10,981

Flooring

I picked up the flooring for the house today.  It is engineered flooring that was pulled out of a house that was being redone.  It should just need a good sand and it will look great.  I have 250sq ft so there should be plenty to pick and choose the pieces that I want.

Expenses to date: $10,762

Collar ties and almost done the roof sheating

With a help from my friend I had productive Saturday.  We had a beautiful, warm sunny day so we decided to tackle the rest of the roof.  The first then I did was cut the notches out for the last two outriggers for where the loft roof hangs out over the main roof.  I should have done it before putting them up.  It is no fun trying to hold a circular saw sideways in a tight area.

Moving on to the sheathing.  It took a while to figure out the layout so I could cover it with the four sheets that I had left. Well it turns out that I didn't do the math right and I'm just a 2'x3' shy of finishing it.

The last thing we finished up was putting the collar ties up for the main roof.  We put up the first and last one and then used a string between the two so the rest lined up even if the height/level was wrong.

Cramming it all in

First a little catching up on the blog.

I finished one of the wheel well boxes!  I just have to lift the floor sheathing to drill a couple of holes but more on that later

Last Friday and Saturday I gave a friend a hand with her project, she needed a hand putting the roof on a large chicken coop that she what putting under her deck.  By then end I was temped to get a couple of chickens when I'm done.  On Sunday she returned the favor by giving me a hand.  The first two rafters where only 8" apart and it was going to cause me problem with putting up some of the strong ties and blocking.  I finally clued in that I could just move in another 8" in and it would solve the problems.  After taking care of that we put the sheathing on the steep part of the roof.  We just managed to get it all done just as the sun set!  I now have half a roof and I got to use my climbing gear :).

For the last week I've been taking time in the evenings to do some of the interior planning
ng.  I have to fit the inverter, charge controller, 16 deep cycle batteries, electrical panel, fridge, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, furnace, ducting, wiring and plumbing in a very limited amount of cabinetry.  On top of that the inverter needs less then 10ft of wire between it and each of the battery banks.

 

This give you an idea of how tight the space is.  The hot water tank had to be put in the bathroom

Starting of the left. Shower pan (grey), sink(grey), toilet(purple), hot water tank(blue), furnace and ducting(green), electrical panel(yellow), oven(grey below panel), dishwasher(grey below oven), fridge(grey), washing machine(grey)

Hiding under all that are the two battery banks, one on each side.  The tall yellow box near the round duct is the inverter.

Toilet is so large because I was originally going to with a commercial unit.  The problem is almost all of them get poor reviews with some users having overflowing issues.  On the other hand there seems to be a number of people sticking with their "temporary" 5 gallon pail system.

Once I finished with all that planning done I can now drill the holes I mentioned earlier.  There will be two of them.  One to carry the DC wires from the north battery bank (rear wall in the preview drawing).  The other will carry both the supply wire from the service entrance along the north wall and under the floor plus the wire from the inverter to the electrical panel.  The inverter will be located where the is on the floor and other two holes are near the tape measurer.

To make sure I didn't put a hole in the vapour barrier I lifted the plywood up and slid some 2x4s and plywood under where I was drilling, that is why I have to wait to put the wheel well boxes in place.  With the holes drilled I finished the second one and nailed them in place, now I have more storage for the tools :)

 

Expenses to date: $ 10,550

Loot for the house

Happy New Year!


My brother was in town for the holidays and he was able to lend a hand on the house.  He drilled all the holes for the electrical runs while I worked on the framing around the wheel wells.

I had ordered some thing from American RV and they had arrived at the shipping outlet just across the boarder.  I have to give kudos to them for their pre-sales support. The furnace was not a regularly stocked item and they contacted their supplier to see if they could get it shipped out before the Xmas shutdown.  Things worked out and I had it less then 2 weeks after it was ordered.  There prices where very good too.

The second company that I have to give kudos to is Propane Depot in Vancouver BC.  I forgot to order a second hose and I needed a few more fittings.  The person that helped me was very knowledgeable and even answered my questions about the rest of my propane system.  So if you need anything propane related and you are around Vancouver you should drop in.

A couple of things I learned:
The hoses before the propane regulator should not droop lower then the top 20% of the tank.  If they do propane liquid can form and that may damage the hoses and regulator.
There is no standard for circuit breakers.  Make sure you buy the right ones for your panel.


So here is everything I bought
Square D electrical panel
4 x 20amp breakers
8 x 15amp breakers
20' Copper gas line
CO and propane alarm
Double flare tool
Auto change-over propane regulator, hoses and fittings
Fittings and valves for propane
Atwood 1522 dual stage ducted furnace and door
Suburban 6 gallon gas/electric hot water heater and door

I'll use the electric heater on the hot water heater as a dump load when my batteries are fully charged.  It should save some propane in the summer.


Expenses to date: $10,505