my 1 project per day goal - Page 3

strider3700 · 01-13-11, 02:48 PM

Jan 12 - a foot of snow fell. Nothing but playing in the snow and shoveling driveways was going to happen. The snow man in the front yard was 6' tall.

I'm very sore today...

strider3700 · 01-14-11, 02:26 AM

Jan 13 - I spent half the day getting told I need a double wall heat exchanger for the solar hotwater system and then researching one. I'm thinking the inspector didn't want to do the research and just made crap up to make it not his problem so I may hit the library and read the pertinent code myself.

The old big coil of pex heat exchanger was about $200. I have a request in for pricing on a few models of double wall flat plate heat exchangers. Add in a $70 pump and a sensor to know when to turn that pump on and I have my doubts that the new requirement will be cheaper.

Hopefully it's comparable just in case the province really did make 3/4 of the commercial installations illegal...

strider3700 · 01-16-11, 01:24 PM

Jan -14 I went to the library and research code requirements for the solar hotwater setup basically I discovered if I really want to know the code I have to find a copy with a company that has one, ask the inspector nicely or pay $335 to get my own copy... The best I could find out was it needs to comply with can/csa-f379 which I can't get a copy of without paying.

Jan -15 I was resigned to the fact that I need a commercial approved system so I spent 5 or 6 hours researching approved preheat tanks. Thats when I discovered that the majority of them are single wall heat exchangers no different then what my design was. I'll be asking the inspector about this soon.

I also insulated half of the existing hot water tank as an experiment to see how much it cuts down on the standy losses

Jan-16 I found more insulation in the shed so I'll be completing wrapping the tank in the next hour or so.

RobertSmalls · 01-16-11, 02:10 PM

So you must comply with the code, but you're not allowed to know what the code is. Time to go rouge, I think.

strider3700 · 01-18-11, 01:47 PM

Jan 17 - the 20 ds18b20 temp sensors I ordered from somewhere in china before christmas finally arrived. Last night I wired up two of them and updated my code to handle them. One is for the back yard temperature the other is supposed to be for the front yard. I guessed at wire length though and came up 10 feet short so really I've got the back yard and the front corner of the house. Front is pure sun back is always shaded so I'm interested to see just how big of a difference the sun will make temp wise. Last summer my little thermometer maxed out at 50 in the sun in the front while the back one was in the mid 20's in the shade so it can be a sizable difference.

AC_Hacker · 01-20-11, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strider3700

...I discovered if I really want to know the code I have to find a copy with a company that has one, ask the inspector nicely or pay $335 to get my own copy...

That sounds very frustrating...

Here in Portland, Oregon all of the city codes & regs are on the Internet.

...and I find looking them up for free to be frustrating!

-AC_Hacker

strider3700 · 01-20-11, 12:46 AM

Jan 18- I went down to the city and spoke with the inspector about the solar hotwater project and asked to see where it says I can't do what I want to since commercial approved installs don't need double wall exchangers. He said he had never seen the code and was basing this off of something he heard at a conference... He'll do more research.

Jan 19th - I'm kind of at a loss here, my wife and I started a new fitness bootcamp thing and it's taken a bunch of time recently. Add in the solar hotwater fight with the city and everything else has fallen behind.

Today was spent watching the kids, in the gym and then doing 5 loads of laundry and cleaning the house in an attempt to catch up. I could knock out building one of those flatpack cabinets to store our canning stuff in (this will be #3 we have lots of that stuff) but I really should knock out some paying work instead. Oh well 19 days out of 365 and I didn't finish some sort of project on my list. There is always tomorrow.

strider3700 · 01-20-11, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

That sounds very frustrating...

Here in Portland, Oregon all of the city codes & regs are on the Internet.

...and I find looking them up for free to be frustrating!

-AC_Hacker

Oh yeah this was frustrating. It turned out even the inspector didn't have the national code specifications on this area... I did gain some respect for the inspectors having walked through that crap trying to figure it out what was and wasn't required. I figured to be an inspector you need to be a certified journeyman in that area, have an ability to properly deal with the public and have the ability to reasonably decipher legal explanations of simple things. Of course my opinion of him will totally change should he say no for good in the end.

strider3700 · 01-21-11, 11:09 PM

Jan 20 - round 2 with the city inspector about solar hotwater. Basically found out I was right and single wall heat exchanger is fine. It has to be stainless steel however... So I spent a big chunk of time trying to track down a small 10-20 gallon tank with a stainless heat exchanger online. I'll go talk to someone around here about building one next week.

Jan 21 - Built that cabinet for the jars I've been mean to.

strider3700 · 01-23-11, 12:53 AM

jan 22 - I installed that cupboard for the jars and added 2 more shelves to it. Then I took all of the filled jars out from the pantry under the stairs and put them in it. That gives me 3 5' tall x2' wide x1' deep cabinets with 6 shelves in each full of canning stuff, 2 are completely full of empty jars and 1 is completely full of full jars. I need 1 more cabinet to get the last of the empties and the lids, rings and canning tools into then this project will finally be over. Since I live in an earthquake zone all 3 are attached to the wall and I use hook and eye latches to keep the doors tightly closed.

We can a lot.

01-13-11, 02:48 PM	#21
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan 12 - a foot of snow fell. Nothing but playing in the snow and shoveling driveways was going to happen. The snow man in the front yard was 6' tall. I'm very sore today...

01-14-11, 02:26 AM	#22
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan 13 - I spent half the day getting told I need a double wall heat exchanger for the solar hotwater system and then researching one. I'm thinking the inspector didn't want to do the research and just made crap up to make it not his problem so I may hit the library and read the pertinent code myself. The old big coil of pex heat exchanger was about $200. I have a request in for pricing on a few models of double wall flat plate heat exchangers. Add in a $70 pump and a sensor to know when to turn that pump on and I have my doubts that the new requirement will be cheaper. Hopefully it's comparable just in case the province really did make 3/4 of the commercial installations illegal...

01-16-11, 01:24 PM	#23
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan -14 I went to the library and research code requirements for the solar hotwater setup basically I discovered if I really want to know the code I have to find a copy with a company that has one, ask the inspector nicely or pay $335 to get my own copy... The best I could find out was it needs to comply with can/csa-f379 which I can't get a copy of without paying. Jan -15 I was resigned to the fact that I need a commercial approved system so I spent 5 or 6 hours researching approved preheat tanks. Thats when I discovered that the majority of them are single wall heat exchangers no different then what my design was. I'll be asking the inspector about this soon. I also insulated half of the existing hot water tank as an experiment to see how much it cuts down on the standy losses Jan-16 I found more insulation in the shed so I'll be completing wrapping the tank in the next hour or so.

01-16-11, 02:10 PM	#24
RobertSmalls Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 344 Thanks: 3 Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts	So you must comply with the code, but you're not allowed to know what the code is. Time to go rouge, I think.

01-18-11, 01:47 PM	#25
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan 17 - the 20 ds18b20 temp sensors I ordered from somewhere in china before christmas finally arrived. Last night I wired up two of them and updated my code to handle them. One is for the back yard temperature the other is supposed to be for the front yard. I guessed at wire length though and came up 10 feet short so really I've got the back yard and the front corner of the house. Front is pure sun back is always shaded so I'm interested to see just how big of a difference the sun will make temp wise. Last summer my little thermometer maxed out at 50 in the sun in the front while the back one was in the mid 20's in the shade so it can be a sizable difference.

01-20-11, 12:46 AM	#27
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan 18- I went down to the city and spoke with the inspector about the solar hotwater project and asked to see where it says I can't do what I want to since commercial approved installs don't need double wall exchangers. He said he had never seen the code and was basing this off of something he heard at a conference... He'll do more research. Jan 19th - I'm kind of at a loss here, my wife and I started a new fitness bootcamp thing and it's taken a bunch of time recently. Add in the solar hotwater fight with the city and everything else has fallen behind. Today was spent watching the kids, in the gym and then doing 5 loads of laundry and cleaning the house in an attempt to catch up. I could knock out building one of those flatpack cabinets to store our canning stuff in (this will be #3 we have lots of that stuff) but I really should knock out some paying work instead. Oh well 19 days out of 365 and I didn't finish some sort of project on my list. There is always tomorrow.

01-21-11, 11:09 PM	#29
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Jan 20 - round 2 with the city inspector about solar hotwater. Basically found out I was right and single wall heat exchanger is fine. It has to be stainless steel however... So I spent a big chunk of time trying to track down a small 10-20 gallon tank with a stainless heat exchanger online. I'll go talk to someone around here about building one next week. Jan 21 - Built that cabinet for the jars I've been mean to.

01-23-11, 12:53 AM	#30
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	jan 22 - I installed that cupboard for the jars and added 2 more shelves to it. Then I took all of the filled jars out from the pantry under the stairs and put them in it. That gives me 3 5' tall x2' wide x1' deep cabinets with 6 shelves in each full of canning stuff, 2 are completely full of empty jars and 1 is completely full of full jars. I need 1 more cabinet to get the last of the empties and the lids, rings and canning tools into then this project will finally be over. Since I live in an earthquake zone all 3 are attached to the wall and I use hook and eye latches to keep the doors tightly closed. We can a lot.