Next up, electrical inspection #2

Well, we survived the cold. Almost a week of well-below-normal temperatures put us into survival mode. Remember, up to now, we have only the heat generated by our wood stove to provide warmth for our little house. Although we had Superior Propane run gas lines for 3 gas-fired heaters, they have not yet been purchased or installed. We experienced temperatures in the mid minus twenties (-20*C) for about a week, with the mercury hitting a bone chilling -29.2*C one night! We had to keep the fire burning vigorously and continuously, and only then could we maintain inside temps of around 20*C. That meant I was up twice each night to replenish the logs in the fire. We did have two mornings where our water system experienced some minor freezing. The basement is not yet insulated and where the pipes run to the tankless hot water heater, they pass very close to the 5" hole cut for the PVC pipe venting the exhaust gasses outside. We had to place an electric heater by that area for about 15 minutes each morning before the water flow returned to normal. You might think that an electric heater would be an extravagance in a solar powered house, and you'd be right. We ran our generator 24/7 for 4 days, allowing the use of electric heaters to supplement the wood stove. Our 10 kW Aurora Generator ran flawlessly for the entire time we needed it. If we had any worries about whether it could take our winters, they're now history. This thing just plain rocks!
With the weather returning to more normal conditions, we set about moving forward with the drywalling. This meant that we had to have the insulation and vapour barrier inspection signed off and that required that we first have the electrical inspection for the basement successfully completed. Although most of the wiring in the house was done, the basement had been neglected and we had been working to finish off the wiring rough-ins there. Well, it is finally ready for Safety BC to come and check it out. I went to their offices, completed inspection request form in hand, only to find that our inspector was on vacation...again! The helpful lady behind the counter explained that we would probably be waiting a while, but that we should call Wayne (the same guy who came out the last time) and let him know that we were ready for him. He called back within a couple of days this time, and we have a date for this coming Thursday or Friday - yay! Keep your fingers crossed everyone.
Alex and I managed to wrangle another couch upstairs on Sunday afternoon, giving us enough seating now that we can have visitors, assuming of course, that somebody actually want to come and visit all the way up here! I have to say though, it is starting to look more like a home now. Drywall and paint will only help in that regard.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Brrrrrr! We received more than 10cm of snow over the weekend, the mercury is hovering around -20*C, and there's no relief in sight for a few days at least. We've been confining most of our efforts to the cozy interior of the house. The exception is the ever necessary excursions to cut, retrieve and split firewood. We have taken to pulling apart the big piles of felled trees (from where the driveway was put in last winter) with the tractor. I sling a chain around the trunk of the target tree, attach one end of a stout 20 foot long tow strap to the chain and the other end to the tractor. Put the gearbox in low range-4wd and just back slowly up, hopefully pulling the tree from the pile. It is then easy to limb off the branches and buck the trunk into 18" logs, ready for splitting, using our trusty Stihl chainsaw.
BTW, I have become quite proficient at sharpening the chain on the saw. It took a little practice and futzing around to find how to position and hold the saw while carefully filing each tooth to the correct angle, but now it only takes me about 10 minutes start to finish. The payoff is a saw that cuts through the wood almost effortlessly.
Inside, Carol has been busy cleaning, organizing and making the house feel more like our home. She's doing a great job because the place feels very cozy and very much the way we envisioned it. I have been working on the electrical system in anticipation of an electrical inspection in the near future. Almost all of the wiring in the basement is now complete and to code. I have vented the battery box and cleaned up the wiring and conduits around the panels. I have yet to enclose some of that mess with a cable raceway, but that just needs a little carpentry to complete. Hopefully, we get a warmer day soon so I can set up the table saw outside to get that done.
We are in the process of getting some quotes on the drywalling and hope that we can get started on that as soon as we pass our electrical and vapour barrier inspections. Our fingers are crossed!


The dogs have been loving the snow and seem to have boundless energy, running and jumping, sniffing under the snow, and chasing each other around. Eventually they do get cold and they show up at the door with snowy faces, asking to come in so they can lay by the fire and snooze for a while.

Happy New Year!

In an earlier post, I was saying how none of our snow had melted. Forget that. Yesterday saw a significant reduction in the amount of snow left on the ground. In town, we saw double digit temps above zero *C, which must have also resulted in very warm temps up at the house. Some of our driveway is now exposed dirt and gravel, and around the house we are surrounded by a moat of what will soon be mud if the warm weather continues. The dogs are not very "cuddly" when they come in from their run - both are soaking wet and have very muddy paws - yuck!
Over the last few days of our Xmas holiday break, we did manage to complete about 75% of the wiring and splicing in the basement. I still have to clean up the wiring around the panels in the mechanical room by installing plywood on the walls and building a shallow cable raceway between the inverter/charger and the AC distribution panel. This raceway was suggested by the electrical safety inspector as a good way to achieve "covering" some of the larger AC cables, as required by the electrical and building codes. I also have yet to install the external vent for the battery box. I have all the pieces required and have installed the vent outlet in the box itself. I just need to cut a 2" hole in the wall and route the pipe through it. Once these items are checked off the "hit list" we can arrange for another electrical inspection. That done, we can insulate and vapour barrier the basement. Yay!
I managed to install the pendant lights over the peninsula and Carol's chandelier over the dining room table. We picked up some nice LED chandelier bulbs at Costco, of all places, but had to order the G9 LED bulbs for the pendants from a place in China. They arrived the other day and work great. The pendant light bulbs at 3.5 watts each, only use 10% of the energy that the original halogen lamps used. The light quality is about the same, however, when dimming them, they seem to become brighter in steps, as opposed to the smooth transition we got with the halogens. These lamps are rated as "dimmable with standard incandescent dimmer switches" (as opposed to the much more expensive electronic or magnetic dimmers). The 4W chandelier bulbs don't exhibit this "stepping" phenomenon. In fact, we both think they look and work at least as well as the "regular" bulbs that they replace, giving us the equivalent of 200W of warm, white light for a "cost" of only 20W.