Here is an eerie sight. 7 PM, pitch black outside, and the tropical oasis beckoning to come and play.
I thought tonight (12-22-04) would be a good night to test the furnace. It has been running set at 64 degrees and has been having no problem keeping that temp up. So, I cranked up the thermostat to 90 to see what it would do. It's 12 degrees actual temperature outside. It took about twenty minutes for the furnace to get near ninety then it ran about every four or five minutes to keep the temp there. During the peak of the day, with outside temps in the teens, the greenhouse still gets up to the mid eighties without the furnace needing to run at all. The heat seemed a little unbalanced from side to side in the building, so I may need to put one or two of the fans on the same thermostat as the furnace to circulate the heat more evenly.
With the final plumbing for the filtration system completed, the filter canisters are hung in place. They will house the usual sediment and carbon filters like a typical R/O unit. Under the slop sink, there are shut off valves where two additional pairs of canisters can be added if they are needed. The deionizer units standing next to them are Aquatechnic's Kati Ani series 10 rated to be able to process 9,800 gallons of water before needing recharged. I will be happy if they can process 5,000 gallons of "Roberts' water". While researching deionizers, I actually emailed back and forth several times with an Aquatechnic company rep....in German! There is an online translation dictionary called LEO that I used to translate back and forth between German and English. This was one of the times where Anthony Calfo saved me from the experience of negotiating customs by recommending that in this case, it would not be worth it to buy direct. The price was less then half of the three American distributors I found, but customs duties would have made the difference and if the units were damaged or required warranty service, negotiating the equipment back to the company could have been a nightmare. Well worth the extra money up front to buy from an American distributor and be able to have warranty and service readily available.
Running water. At 12 degrees outside, I am just tickled pink that the water line is not frozen. This vegetable sprayer should make it easy to blast the crud out of the skimmer tubes. At least I don't have to run back to the house to get a drink anymore. Shortly, I need to pick up a bunch of small concrete pavers so all of the equipment, tanks and sink can be set level.
Checked the temp again tonight (12-23-04). Outside at 8:30 PM it is 8 degrees actual temp. The furnace is still having no problem keeping 64-65 inside and will still run up to 90 when the thermostat is cranked up. The water is still running and I am still tickled. It wasn't anticipated that heating the place would be an issue, still waiting for summer to come to put the cooling mechanics to the test.
5:15 AM on 12-24-04 the temp is -2 actual and still no problems. Of course, the propane company hasn't been here since the initial fill up to send the first bill yet. Might be a problem then!
Temporary gas line "scabbed" to the generator which will have to wait until spring to get buried. Sure am glad all of those flaring tools and pipe cutters are still laying around from my plumbing days. The area around the unit will also have to be dug down five inches and filled with rock to avoid a fire hazard and level the generator. Really looking forward to moving that beast again...not.
8' grounding rod driven into frozen ground next to the generator and hooked up. Eventually, the rod will have to be below grade and that will be done in spring when the rest of the finish work is done. The generator came with a flexible rubber gas connector which I'm guessing is to isolate the vibration of the generator unit from the gas line. Shut off valve is installed so the unit can be moved come spring to put in the bed of rock (and because it's just good practice to have a gas shut off for any piece of equipment). That little black square on the upper right corner of the generator opens to reveal two standard 120 volt outlets. That will be very convenient when it comes time to trim my hedges each summer. When the lid of the generator is open, there is also a 12 volt DC outlet like the ones in a car that a cell phone or TV can be plugged into.
Now to tackle that wiring. AAARGH
. He will need keep records of actual expenses for IRS purposes.
) to the Xfer switch, use the new breakers in that panel to feed the loads of the breakers in your house.
from the house panel runs to the transfer switch, but through the generator first. Then from the new breakers to the house circuits. (But the hot wires have to be pulled from the house breakers and connected to the new breakers- via the supplied wires from the new breakers).
