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Ohm Sweet Ohm

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How to heat an average sized house with a small heater.

12/28/2015

 
Last week we got power, this week we have heat!
At this point, our HVAC machinery is not yet in place.  For the time being, we have a 7kW/10kW DeWALT heater.
This guy is in our mechanical room pumping out heat.  It isn't a high intensity heat, you can stand right in front of it.
However, it is plenty to get the whole house to a much more comfortable temperature.
​As we have no gas service, this is running on electricity.    
​Not as efficient as the geothermal will be, but with how little heat is needed and how important it is to have the heat, I'm ok with that.
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Part of the reason this small heater can do this is that our house is VERY well insulated at this point.  
The doors haven't even been fully sealed yet.  A couple even have holes where the doorknob should go (some of the doors don't operate, so no doorknobs were needed).
Below I have an image of our door to the (future) screen porch and a close up of the border where the final seal is yet to be made.

Even with these areas though, the house is holding the heat well.  I can't wait to see how well it does once the house is complete!
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This week the low voltage guys from Lucid Integrated Systems are wiring downstairs for ethernet outlets, camera, monitor and networking.  Even though I am a bit of a networking geek, I'm very happy to have these guys doing this.
My knowledge in a few areas are adequate, but the knowledge these guys have in all the areas is exceptional.  They make it look easy!

The siders have done all the facia needed so the gutters can go on.  Measurements were made last week, so hopefully we will be hearing soon about when those will go on.  Once they do, the steel roof is next!

​

Kirk may have had Scotty, but I have Scott!

12/22/2015

 
We have power!!
As work is progressing downstairs, my inner geek (which I don't hide very well) is gaining strength.
This will come as a surprise to my wife, who probably doesn't think I could get any geekier.

And while our electrician, and my brother, Scott told me "no" to installing a transporter downstairs, he added lots groundwork for other technological goodies down there for me.

Even though he wouldn't install the transporter, I am eternally grateful for his skill, knowledge, and ability to explain how and why things (other than the transporter) work as they do.

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I can na break the laws of physics!
We have strung the cabling for the in-floor outlets that will be below our game table.  I have a few images showing them below including one with the first power cable.  I was quite surprised how easy it was to feed that cabling through the conduit.  In the third image you can see where I fed it into the conduit by the wall.
In the fourth image, you can see where we have power, and a conduit for a HDMI cable for a projector.
This is placed in the center of the game room, right above the game table.
I'm not planning on having this in place when we move in.  If we decide we want one though, it will be prewired and ready to go.
The fifth image is another view of the north wall.  Near the top you will see some angled supports and you might be able to see a power box.  
The ceiling will follow that angle, similar to a tray ceiling, the ceiling right over the game table is about a foot higher than the rest of the room.  
Along that angle, will be a monitor which can be used to allow for friends to join our gaming sessions by services such as Skype, Google, or other video conference programs.

Oh, you may also notice two other things.
First, we have a lot of room in the ceiling.  
Second, the game room is on the west end of the house, as is our bedroom upstairs!

When designing the house with our architect, managing sound was a big factor.
We have an 18 inch truss and the drop down section around most of the game room.
Once we complete the wiring for the network, we will be insulating that space.
We also don't have any air return ductwork that connects upstairs and downstairs (ask me how I know this is important, sorry honey!)

We will also have some materials on the walls and cabinet doors that will help absorb sound, so I can be gaming downstairs without keeping my wonderful wife awake upstairs:)  I'll post more about that as we install that.
I have been very surprised at how happy certain things make me so very happy in this project.  
Last week, the final door was put in place.
Most of these are temporary doors, however, they still work very well.
The house is roughly sealed now, and even though it is unheated, it is warmer than outside.

Speaking of outside, work on the siding continues, and the final measurements for our gutters have been made.
As our roof will be metal, the gutters will go on first, and then the roof.
The way the gutters are made, they will have a metal "lip" that lays directly on the roof.  Then the metal is laid over the top of that.
This way, if there is any water/snow backing up from the gutters, it can't work its way under the gutter lip to sit and soak into the roof.
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Downstairs is moving forward!

12/14/2015

 
Weather has been a challenge for us.  If you didn't see the blog, at one point we had two inches of standing water in the basement, just as work on the basement was going to start.
It took a bit, however, we are now back on track.

Spray foam insulation has been added up around the edges of the trusses and lots of HVAC work has been done.  Both in terms of ventilation ductwork and more tubing leading to the upstairs radiant heat "panels".  The upstairs tubing on the floors is not yet in place, but the main lines from the mechanical room to the access panels upstairs are in place.

HVAC ductwork is all in place.  I am rather amazed at the amount of ductwork and the skill of the guys from Massman at getting all the ducts to work smoothly, even when framing and such get in the way.
When ever possible, straight runs of ductwork use the least amount of energy.  When bends are necessary, angled or curved bends work better than a 90 degree bend.  
The reason for this is every time air movement goes around a corner, it slows down.  Because of this, to get the appropriate amount of airflow, the fan has to work harder the more corners their are.

In some places angles are simply unavoidable.  Our air return shown in the third image above is a good example of that.
I actually was wondering how the guys were going to connect the four air return vents in that same area to the main air return run.
They did it wonderfully, don't ever challenge these guys to Tetris!

The electrical work is also moving along.  After the HVAC guys did their work, we started on electrical.  The boxes for outlets and switches are in place and some of the wiring has been run.
The main panels are being connected both to the main meter of the house and the upstairs wiring which was completed earlier.

We will also have a smaller panel which will have all the connection for equipment we want to run during a power outage.  This way, our future battery back up system will power just part of the house.  The refrigerator, HVAC, a couple of outlets, a TV and the network.  If the power goes out in the summer, we won't use the HVAC.  However, during the winter we will want to run the HVAC at minimal levels just to insure the pipes don't freeze up.

If all goes as planned, we will have some house power this week!  The first thing I want to get on internal power is those sump pumps so I don't need to worry about more water in the basement!

Work on the siding of the house continues.  Above we have photos of the progress.  I apologize about the pictures, they show a lot of edges and color changes that aren't really there.  Something about the angle of the light or such?
The amount of rain we have been getting is slowing down the work.  I really appreciate the guys working so hard in this sloppy mess.  Who would have thought we would have had so much rain in November and the first half of December?

Getting back in the swing of things!

12/7/2015

 
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Things are gearing up again! Thanks to some much nicer weather, we are charging forward again.
All the exterior walls on the main floor are insulated, more drywall in place and the siding is all planned out and being installed.

My favorite aspect this week, well I'll save that for last ;-)




Inside we now have the drywall that is designed to support tile installed in the kitchen.  I'd describe where the tile is going, but the picture does a better job of it than I ever could.
Also, the ceiling drywall is complete throughout the upper floor!
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The drywall for the garage is also complete!

For most, the garage may not be a source of that much excitement.
For me though, it is a very fun part of the house.
No, I'm not going to build a man-cave in there.

In the garage we will have our electric cars.
Due to the efficiency of the cars, we can produce as much electricity as both our house and cars use on an annual basis with our solar panels.  We could never do this with less efficient cars.

In addition to efficiency, they are also very safe.  Unlike standard cars with an internal combustion engine, electric cars emit no toxic gases while running.
We have no concerns over Carbon Monoxide poisoning as our cars produce no carbon monoxide.  We can preheat the car as needed in a closed garage without concern.


On the far left of the second picture you can see the sub panel for the garage.  This will power a pair of 40 Amp outlets (among others) which we will use for the cars each evening.  Every morning we will wake up to a full "tank".
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Sometimes I can go a bit overboard with my appreciation of electric cars (they are just so much fun to drive!).  
I am always happy to answer questions anyone may have.  I generally will jump at any chance to share my personal experiences driving electric for the past five years, or any of the knowledge I have picked up.
Occasionally, I even get stopped in a parking lot, even a gas station (I was stopping to get a drink).

I've met and spoken with all sorts of people.  Car enthusiasts, performance fans, environmentally concerned people, kids, people for whom national security is their number one concern.

Just the other day a curious onlooker was checking out our LEAF sitting in the driveway when we arrived home after visiting our future home.
He seemed a bit shy, wasn't kicking the tires much, but certainly was paying close attention to the fenders and bumper!
This was a first though, and I'm not sure how well I did as they rather flew off in a huff.
No turkeys nor LEAFS were harmed in this video

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    Mark really doesn't like to talk about himself, the house is much more interesting.

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