I'm not sure how many people are actually reading this. Maybe no one is. Maybe 100 are. Probably not that many...whatever. This is a record for me too.
It's Tuesday, and tommorow the inspector comes to give the thumbs up/down on the house. The electric hasn't been inspected yet, but that's almost completely finished. I just have three things to do,
1. Ground the DC disconnect
2. Put a fan in the battery box and seal it.
3. Clamp the ground cable on the ground rods and cut them down to size.
Then for the rest of the house:
1. Wire pump, connect a few hoses, fill water tanks
2. Wire the septic pump to the main panel
3. Fix the plastic sheeting under the house
4. Add insulated skirting so the pipes won't freeze.
5. Replace the vent caps on the roof (yikes!)
6. Install the wood stove
And a couple of projects for the future.
1. Build a few solar panels to take the charging strain off the generator
2. Buy my wife a massive bouquet of flowers to make up for the last few months of insanity.
I've spent nearly every waking hour out there since my last post (with a few breaks, just to keep myself sane!) plus I've been working my normal hours. I've accomplished a lot.
1. I put the pieces of the one surviving stair and landing together and placed it by the back door.
2. I built the landing and stairs for the front door. I still need a couple concrete supports, but what I have will do for now. I also built half the railing, but I need an extra pair of hands to put it actually on the landing. That's tommorow's work.
3. I cabled the rest of the anchors. Now our house won't blow away in a strong wind!
4. I figured out why the batteries didn't seem to be charging. The inverter will only charge the batteries at 14AAC, which will take 13 hours to charge the batteries fully, at best. Probably longer. I've been running the generator every hour that I'm out there, and even when I'm not! I filled it up with gas just before I left, and presumably it kept running till it ran out. I do have a solution though. I bought a battery charger, and I'm going to rewire the bank to charge only 4 of the 8 batteries through the inverter. Then, I've got a battery charger that I will use to charge the other 4 cells on their own! Then, I'll equalize the batteries, and we'll charge them as often as possible.
I never dreamed things would be so complicated, or cost so much money, but I've learned a lot and overcome some real struggles. Several times I thought we were going to run out of money, but something worked out each time! It turns out my credit card is a good loan, since I have a very low interest rate. I called them today, looking to extend my limit, and they bumped it up by double!
So much work, but lots of money saved by doing things myself, and I feel so much more capable than I ever was! I was freaking out about electricity, but with a little knowledge, patience, and maybe a few accidental swear words, I am very comfortable around wires.
I promise I'll take some pictures soon. I keep forgetting while it's still light during the day.
Outback inverter, providing a continuous 2500 watts of pure Sine Wave, and upwards of 8000 watts of surge capacity. I wired the electrical system entirely on my own. That green cord you see goes to the generator, and feeds AC electricity back to the batteries for charging them.
The house immediately after the moving company placed it. It now has two water tanks in front of it.
Eight L460 Surrette flooded Deep Cycle batteries wired into a 24volt configuration. The box is OSB, and is vented to the outside with a fan for air exchange. These batteries weigh 117lbs each, and cost almost $400 apiece.
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