Apr 15
1st Floor Radiant Piping -45 degress & raining. Wirsbo tubing is stapled directly to pink foam underlayment. Concrete is reinforced with fiberglass stranding and poured directly over tubing and pink foam with no wire mesh or further reinforcement.
Apr 23
Bivouac in 1st flr office/library -tough view
June 16 -the wiring crew weekend, Mac & Jim have come to play
low voltage wiring each wire is 2-Cat 5, 2-Coax & 1-fiber...ready to compute
120V headed to panel -it's a small house, honest, just the owner is nuts
Crazy owner lost in wires -see nuts person above
View from living room -well someone has to live here
View from front -all framed except the bay window roof on this side.
Note pole for PV array to right. It weighs 1,000 pounds, 21' long, goes down 12'into bedrock,
and is filled with concrete
Aug 17 -2 days after the moving truck. WHEW!
View from road -aug 25th all siding up except in entry
Front View -blue tower, siding by 9/1 & 2nd flr deck soon after
Solar Panels -two arrays with room for expansion at top & bottom
internet satellite receiver inbetween
-solar went live Aug 23rd, yes the little meter does go backwards! It's really cool!
-internet went live Aug 12th (700kB down and 30kB uplink)
View from 3rd flr -yeah!, it's a bit messy, but there is a raised bed in the future garden
"great" room -(L to R) office, kitchen, dining in foreground, daughter's desk, living room
-kitchen covered in post-its so we can find things
Stairs down from bedroom -try these at 3a.m.
Heaters -on-demand hot water(L) & radiant floor(R)
Electrical Panels -inverter, 2 AC panels (1 from inverter, 1 from grid)
& DC disconnect below
Oct 15
Back of panels -Shell SP-150s wired in 2 panel subarrays. Temporary strain reliefs need replacing.
Array Combiner -array combiners have breakers for each subarray and combine the subarrays into a single wire for the home run
DC Disconnect -this is the inside terminus of all DC wiring. Conduit at bottom leads under house and yard to PV's. Note white battery box at left.
Battery Box -Eight Concorde AGM 6V batteries are wired in series to create a 220Ah battery @48VDC, about 10.5kWh.
Electrical Meter -Shows 112kWh supplied to PSE utility. Note little arrow pointing left is showing meter currently running "backwards" as energy is supplied to the grid.
Low Voltage Terminus -See June 16 "low voltage wiring" image above. L to R: orange fiber optic not presentlys used, blue & some extra gray cat5 make computer network in hub, gray phone cable unused (we have no landline), and TV antenna feeds (barely used).
Water Tanks -Two 2,800 gallon tanks measuring 8' x 8' collect water from the upper roof for use in the garden. Note scooters for efficient island transportation.
Some days better . . . -Some days worse for solar. This is middle of afternoon in day 10 of a 2 week fog inundation.
Sunset -There are other days
Nov 26
Front of house -View of house and panels from the road below. No, that isn't shading on the left panel, it's a reflection of the neighbor's roof peak.
Feb 10, 2003
Additional metering -The left meter sits between inverter and primary load panel. Right one sits between inverter and grid-tied, secondary load panel. Combined with utility meter, this gives a complete picture of energy production and usage.
