Twinsprings Research Institute

Moved Modem

Posted on February 26, 2017 by ellen

Ever since we moved in, the modem for our internet connection has been installed right at the garage door. There is a closet built in there now and although the electricians installed an extra outlet for the equipment, it did not seem to be the best place for house-wide access to wifi signal.
I have been planning to move it for several months. Now with trying to get the wiring chase to the point we can close it in, I finally bought an extension for the coax cable into the house and moved the modem to the center of the house in the living room.
I had a few coax fittings around from disassembly in the attic. Actually there were many more cables and fittings but I’m not sure where they got to. I installed the splitter under the ceiling in the closet so that if the connection is troubled in the future the connection will be exposed not hidden in the ceiling.

Coax Splitter

The living room shelf now has an outlet and a coax wall plate to connect the modem. I added another outlet above the existing outlet on the post I bought a several sized electric surge protector to accommodate the multiple transformers needed for the various monitoring hubs I am using that are direct connected to the modem.

Modem in Living Room

The exposed modem and equipment is not the most attractive for the living room area, but it should function much better for us back in the rear bedroom. I’ll figure how to gussy it up later.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Electrical, Maintenance and Repair, Tools | Comments Off

Central Vacuum Wiring

Posted on February 21, 2017 by ellen

When I had everything finally connected and all the inlets installed it was late in the afternoon and I was tired. I opened an inlet and nothing happened. Then I opened the vacpan inlet and all the inlets came on. I actually didn’t realize that all of the inlets are active when one is active.

The DC that allows the inlets to come on is connected in a “daisy chain” or the looping method. This puts all the wiring right at the inlets so that if some maintenance trouble shooting needs to be done, the wiring connections are accessible.

Daisy Chain Wiring

This seemed simple enough and I had no issues hooking up the wiring in this way. However, when the inlets did not come on when opened, I thought I had made an error in the wiring. That evening, I went back to the first few connections and thought about how to rewire them. But instead of rewiring I disconnected most of the house and just tested the vacpan and the utility inlet in the garage. Behold! I realized the utility inlet did come on when I shorted across the two metal bumps inside with a screwdriver. That turned on both inlets too. The vacpan is meant to come on without a hose connection!

So I reconnected the rest of the house and voila, the wiring worked just fine everywhere I plugged in a vacuum hose to turn on the system. I’m not sure why it didn’t make sense at first that all the inlets ran when one did. Once I figured out what was happening, it did make sense to me. All the pipe is connected to the vacuum like plumbing. When water in plumbing pipe is on all the pipe fills with water, but only the faucet that is turned on runs water. When all the vacuum pipe is sucking though, it may be possible to use more than one inlet at the same time. Although any extra openings reduce the pressure in the whole system.

I used the short vacuum hose to suck up a bit of sawdust and other dirt from the install. The suction seems very strong with the short hose. I wonder if it will be reduced much with longer hoses.

Two of the inlets have power assist. That means they can run a carpet powerhead. Older systems just used a nearby plug to power the rotating head. But the newer systems run the power right to the inlet. A separate plug in the inlet is for the electrified hose connection.

Powered Vacuum Inlet

Near each of the powered inlets was an outlet. It was a simple matter to add the wires running to the powered inlet junction boxes. I haven’t tested the power units yet.

Posted in Central Vacuum | Comments Off

Central Vacuum Connected

Posted on February 20, 2017 by ellen

I finished connecting the central vacuum piping and wiring today. Even with all the parts I had ordered, I ran out of pipe and 90 degree sweep elbows so had to wait two days for Amazon to deliver more. I bought two more packages of 5 elbows and another package of 5 pipes.

First I worked on cutting and fitting most of the piping for the inlets. The piping to the unit itself and the first vacpan inlet was already cut and fitted before the ventilation system install. So the big challenge was running the pipe in the narrow garage attic area that all the electrical wiring also goes through. This is a narrow passage made even more narrow by the shaft for the ductwork in the family room. It was a bit of a squeeze to get my hips around the metal and into the space but I did it more than once to get the pipe cut and glued. The area was so awkward that I spilled about half of the can of glue and had to buy more to finish.

Garage Attic Connection

It is difficult to take a very informative photo of the connections. The camera focuses on just a small area or the piping is lost in busyness of wiring and other systems. The piping to the living area inlet runs through the living area ventilation shaft.

Piping to living area inlet

Then it goes down the wall between the master bedroom and the living area hallway.

Powered inlet for living area

I later added a sweep tee here to continue the piping to the hall closet.

Pipe to crawlspace

I used a double inlet pipe for the kitchen vacpan and the family room powered inlet. These join the main pipe above the ventilation ductwork on the way to the living area piping.

Double inlet piping

There is an inlet between the double and the living area through a sweep tee that goes to the utility room. It runs through the ventilation attic and through the dead space between the back of the shower and the washer and dryer.

Piping to utility room inlet

I had the piping glued and the wiring run for all the inlets except one before the extra pipe and elbows arrived. These were for the final inlet in the upper bedroom hall closet. Finding the wall space from under the house was difficult. I used a long drill bit to drill through the drywall at a slight angle into the wall. Then I had to find the drill bit under the house. With a little knocking and running the drill help from Dave, I was able to locate the drill bit and use the 2″ hole saw to create the hole into the wall above. It almost seemed like a miracle that the hole ended up in the right spot.

Drilling the closet floor into the wall plate

The pipe runs through the wall from the living area inlet under the stairs to the upper bedrooms and over to the hall closet.

Piping in the crawlspace

After crawling around under the house most of the day, I was finally able to test the system. I found one inlet that I had not glued all the way. It was LOUD where the leak was in the family room inlet so it was easy to find. I’m going to check the rest of the piping while it is running to see if there are any smaller leaks.

I also had an issue with the wiring which I will explain in another post.

Posted in Central Vacuum | Comments Off

Central Vacuum Accessories and Piping

Posted on February 17, 2017 by ellen

I’m working on the central vac piping. The pipes are GO VACUUM brand for vacuum systems. These are 2″ but a bit smaller than Schedule 40 PVC. They supposedly build up less static inside them and fit the inlets exactly. They glue together much the same as plumbing pipe. The installation guidelines suggest using glue only on the pipe not the connectors.

I bought a couple of kits to put the system together as well as the long pieces of pipe.

Central Vac Install Kit

The kit from Amazon included:
4 White Wall Plates.
4 Mounting Plates New Construction.
8 Stop Couplings
1 Can 8oz Glue.
4 90 Degree Short
8 Pipe Strap.
3 Sweep T.
8 45 Degree Elbow.
12 90 Degree Sweep.
120′ Low Voltage Wire.

I bought 25 straight pipes from Amazon too. They are each 56.5″ long and 2 inch diameter. And I ordered extra couplings.

I also purchased a dust pan inlet, one that accepts dirt swept from the floor, for the kitchen and a kit of three power inlets that allow the use of a powered vacuum head. The power inlets came with extra couplings and wire. I bought a powered vacuum head kit with a 30 ft. hose and another 40 ft. hose with a stainless wand and various attachments and extra bags. These items were from their retail store VacDepot.com which is now sent directly to Central Vacuum Stores.

Power Brush Kit

Last month I added a stainless steel interceptor canister that allows the system to pick up liquids or heavy dirt and a nifty spin duster attachment that works by building up static in the brush that attracts the dust on furniture, and then sweeps the dirt off of it in a vacuum inlet attachment.

Cen-Tec Interceptor for Vacuum

Spin Duster

I just visited the web site though and they no longer sell online! They refer to Central Vacuum Systems but their products are not listed. Too bad. I thought the company had great products at reasonable prices. And the customer service was personal and well done. I hardly ever use a warranty so I doubt that will be an issue. I think the vacuum is repairable and the other items I bought were name brands such as Cen-Tec. I received an answer to my inquiry to Central Vacuum Stores about the Aspria. Turns out the Aspria was made by Cana-Vac for the VacDepot. So the version I purchased is almost the same as the Signature XLS 970 Cana-Vac.

Cana-vac Signature XLS 970

The specifications are almost exactly the same. This is the Cana-Vac’s most powerful model. The warranty of the Aspria was 12 years and on the XLS 970 it is 15 years. The motor and other specifications are the same except that the bag is 6 gallons instead of 7 gallons. No wonder the Aspria’s specifications seemed so good. I was extremely lucky to buy all the components for about half of the cost of the Cana-Vac systems.

I now have a large box of items to put the system together. The plan is to install the dust pan inlet, three non-powered inlets, one of which has a dust pan option, and two powered inlets. There is also a utility inlet that goes close to the vac unit in the garage.

Central Vac Install Plan

Posted in Central Vacuum | Comments Off

Structural Inspection

Posted on February 16, 2017 by ellen

Guest Shower Wall

We had a structural inspection a few months ago when we thought it had to come before the electrical was put in the walls. Instead, it had to wait until the rough plumbing and rough electrical were passed. I assumed the rough electrical was passed because the inspector told me to just call him when the electricians were finished with the last outlet and he would just approve it. Unfortunately that appears to not have happened after my call. The structural inspector still did the inspection though he said that rough electrical has to be finalized. I called the building department and they are going to put us on the schedule for rough electrical tomorrow. I was hoping the electrical inspector who told me it passed would just fix the paperwork. Oh well, not a big deal I guess.

UPDATE: After two more visits by electrical inspectors, the rough electrical was finally signed off without any further requirements. The first inspector was concerned that the bedroom fire alarms would not be hard wired but the original inspector said that was OK and passed us.

We passed the structural inspection although there are two things that still need to be done. Where the wires go up into a second story structure, the attic in this case, the electrical penetrations have to be filled with foam as a fire stop. And although we have multiple combo fire/carbon monoxide alarms wired into the house, a new requirement is to have a fire alarm in every bedroom but since they do not have to be hard-wired, we can buy two battery operated alarms for the back bedrooms.

Now we are free to finish up with the membrane and the rest of the tasks necessary before we get the drywall done. We only have six months from today (I guess the electrical gained us another week!) to have the final inspection and everything has to be done by then, all plumbing, finishing, lighting etc. It sounds almost impossible to me. Will probably have to have some kind of inspection just to continue our permit past August 16th or perhaps I can just apply for an extension.

I’m pretty sure it will take longer than six months to finish everything. I may work at it almost every day but progress is very slow.

Posted in Floating Walls, Inspections | Comments Off

HVAC Inspection Failed

Posted on February 13, 2017 by ellen

I’m not actually surprised that I failed the first inspection of the ventilation system. It makes sense that I would do some things incorrectly or at least not up to code. In this case I substituted lightweight zip ties over the approved tape to connect flex duct to the pipe. I needed to use a more heavy duty code approved band. The inspector recommended the stainless steel ring clamps which I used for some of the connections and so I’m getting more of them and redoing all the connections made with the zip ties. Tape, then ring clamp, then I should tape instead of zip tie the insulation over the connection.

The other problem I have is that I had the piping too convoluted and too close to the top of the ERV. Not enough room for maintenance for the unit. It is very tight with the unit in the space. Because the vents are on each side of the unit, it is more difficult to fit the piping in the space I created for the unit. This piping won’t do.

Three intertwining flex ducts

So I moved the ERV closer to the middle of the attic area and placed the pipes along one side of the ERV instead of over it. The inspector suggested I use duct pipe elbows to avoid having to make 180 degree turns with the flex duct. So I am adding 8″ elbows to the outside air supply and exhaust.

Supply and exhaust with elbows

The pipe has just enough room now to lay flat next to the ERV instead of over it. I have to change the pipe supports from the perforated metal strips to a wider mesh banding that won’t work holes in the insulation covering too.

New pipe layout

Unfortunately there is much less room to get around the attic area now. But hopefully enough for the installation to be approved.

The inspector also asked for the design documents. Luckily all of those are prepared for the LEED documentation so I sent these two files:

I hope they are adequate for the professional level of duct design and ventilation requirements that are expected for this type of system.

The inspector said since the unit and ducting are accessible we could progress towards getting the drywall finished before calling him back for another HVAC inspection. So we are close, but not yet approved.

Posted in Inspections, Ventilation | Comments Off

Foobot Air Quality Monitor

Posted on February 11, 2017 by ellen

This Foobot air quality monitor is a very cool device. I purchased it from a seller on ebay for about half of retail. It is an easily set up device using a smart phone app. It comes in an orange package and orange is the led color for low air quality.

It enables a consumer to monitor indoor air quality. This is more important as homes become better sealed from air infiltration. The device provides these features:

Realtime air quality reading on the device with classy LED lights
Tracks harmful indoor pollutants: VOCs, PM2.5, and CO2 (derived from VOC), Temperature, Humidity
Automate good air within your smart home: Foobot can trigger other devices when pollution level rises
Works with Nest, Ecobee, Amazon Echo, IFTTT and more
Made for iOS (8 or later) and Android (4 or later) – Compatible with WiFi 2.4GHz
One of the rare home air quality meter showing all your data over time, since day 1
Multi-room monitoring
Actionable tips to improve your indoor air quality
*Fast email support* available 16 hours a day from Monday to Friday (support@foobot.io)

I have installed the foobot in the living area and it reads our air quality data and reports it on my iphone. The iphone must be connected to wifi to see the readings. I’m using IFTTT to send the information to google spreadsheets on my google account. The system needs a few days, they say about a week to acclimate itself to the location and collect more accurate data.

These are some of my early readings.

Foobot instant data

There is a general pollution level reading (19 GREAT) and three individual readings; particulate matter, CO2 and VOC’s.

Foobot particulate historical data

The historical data can be listed by minute, hour, day or week.

Foobot CO2 historical data

The data downloaded into the Google spreadsheets has this information in it.

Foobot Readings Spreadsheet

I use formulas to tease more information from the original columns. Changing the time to Mountain Standard and the temperature to Fahrenheit.

Foobot Revised Spreadsheet

Since the living area Nest is also wired to the ERV boost, the Foobot can send a signal to Nest whenever it detects whatever limits on one or more of the readings that have been set up in IFTTT. Currently I only have it set to start the ventilation for the default number of minutes set for fan on the Nest. I have the Nest set to 30 minutes. The Foobot is set to turn on ventilation when the combined level on the global pollution scale exceeds 50.

Posted in Monitoring, Ventilation | Comments Off

Ventilation Controls

Posted on February 7, 2017 by ellen

The standard controller that is included with the Recoupaerator is a manual variable speed on/off wall dial control.

Variable Controller Installed

The wiring on the back of the panel consists of six wires and it comes with a very short cable attached.

Controller Wiring

I am not planning to have this dial be the main source of control so I just mounted it with the existing wire and very close to the outlet.
The interior control panel has several wiring options.

Interior Control Panel

These are labeled in the manual. I chose to use the boost control inputs to wire to the Nest Thermostat in the living area. I ran a two wire thermostat wire from this boost control and attached it to the Nest common and fan inputs. The Boost input runs the fan on high speed which is good for clearing kitchen odors etc.

Recoupaerator Boost Wiring

I can turn on the ventilation by using the fan controls on the Nest which are accessible by the phone application as well as on the thermostat. I can set a schedule too. I had to remember to switch it ON though.

Setting Nest Fan Timer

I had set this schedule and when it didn’t run I noticed that I had not flipped the ON switch.

Setting Nest Fan Schedule

I’m hoping this schedule will keep it from getting too stuffy during the hottest part of the day.
There are more controls possible that can interact with the Nest as well as the Wemo system and I’m working on those too.

Posted in Monitoring, Ventilation | Comments Off

Reopening a Roof Vent

Posted on February 7, 2017 by ellen

We had patched the two existing roof vents in the old attic when we insulated the roof. But then I decided to use one for the ERV exhaust.

The Chosen Roof Vent

I opened the vent by cutting the metal front corners and bending it back. I had to cut through the roof patch and remove a section for the ductwork.

Cutting through the plywood patch

Fitting the butterfly vent and the ductwork into the existing collar was no picnic. The vent collar which was 8″ instead of 6″ so I had to buy a new butterfly vent too. I tried a longer piece of pipe to go through the ceiling but I could not get it at the right angle. I decided to just attach the flex duct to the butterfly vent piece but the new vent would not go all the way into the collar even though it was the right size. It was something about the angle but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. I was able to screw the vent to the collar on two sides and it appeared sturdy enough. Then I replaced the screen top on the vent and screwed the vent cover closed again. I taped over the seams that I made on the upper side.
From inside the flex duct goes through the ceiling to the butterfly vent at the top of the shaft.

Ductwork through the roof

And the three large flexible ducts are intertwined a bit to hold them up off the lid of the ERV. There is the supply in, the exhaust out and the exhaust from the bathroom duct. The rest of the ductwork is shorter on the other side of the ERV.

Interior Supply and Exhaust Side of ERV

It is just possible to make out the upper and lower ductwork on this side of the ERV. The upper pipes are exhaust in and the lower pipes feed the supply lines. It is a tight arrangement with all the ductwork in this small central spot and I hope it passes inspection!

Posted in Construction, Ventilation | Comments Off

Exhaust Side Ductwork

Posted on January 31, 2017 by ellen

It has taken several weeks to put together the ductwork for both the supply and exhaust for the RecoupAerator ERV system. It seems I keep needing another part to make the next connection. I realized that I purchased 10″ exhaust vents, but I decided to connect all the exhaust vents to 8″ instead of 10″ pipe. So I need reducers for two of the vents. The third I bought after I made the 8″ duct decision.

The general plan for the ductwork was designed with the idea that the ducts would all be on the same side of the ERV or on the top. But the supply and exhaust to the outside are on one side and the supply and exhaust to the ERV are on the other. I arranged the ERV so that the interior supply and exhaust pipes are towards the back of the attic area and the exterior connections are towards the front. On the supply side I eliminated the living room tee and the utility room duct. The bathroom and kitchen ducts are next to each other on a wye pipe.

Duct Layout

There are three ventilation returns in the central attic area which are not shown in the diagram. One is on each side of the attic: towards the living area and towards the family room. One is above the bathroom as the inspector told me the bathroom needed both a supply and exhaust. It is possible to see the 10″ return air duct in the upper left corner and the supply pipe along the kitchen wall under the junction box for the kitchen and the bathroom.

Supply piping and Exhaust Duct

The next photo shows the family room 10″ return air duct and the supply piping that is connected through the front wall of the house.

Family Room Exhaust Duct

I had to reconfigure the intake piping for the exhaust several times and the wiring that was stapled to the walls in the two sections had to be moved. I moved the living area return duct several times to get it aligned better with the tee for both large rooms. The four inch PVC pipe is the second radon port that will be connected to a fan on the roof.

Early Exhaust Duct Connections

The tee that ducts the bathroom exhaust vent finally made it to a position that appears possible to connect that duct.

Redone Exhaust Duct Connections

Before I can install the bathroom exhaust vent I will need to build the wall between the bathroom and the attic leaving a door area large enough to service the ERV. But the next step is to finish the vent in the roof for the exhaust piping.

Posted in Ventilation | Comments Off

Efergy Electrical Usage Monitoring

Posted on January 25, 2017 by ellen

I have been interested in monitoring our electrical use, especially since it has gone up significantly since we keep the spa warm all winter.

I started with a monitor for just the spa circuit. The Efergy kit has two clamps for the circuit wires that are plugged into a transmitter to send the signal from the electrical wires to a monitor and/or to an internet hub.

Efergy Elite Classic

The clamps plug into the battery powered transmitter and the monitor, also battery powered, receives the signal and records the data. It keeps a history for the day, week, and month but that data cannot be downloaded. Currently the history shows 14.04 KWH for the day and 127.4 KWH for the week. I have not used it for a full month, but so far this month the total shows 584.3 KWH.

Efergy Elite Contents

The Efergy Hub system records the data on an internet account where current use and history of use data can be downloaded. The hub system picks up more than one transmitter so there is now one on the house separate from the spa sub panel and I could place one on the air conditioning sub panel later as well.

Efergy Hub System

There is also an iPhone app to read data. This is current data.

House Usage

Spa Usage

And a short graph of the today’s historical usage. Obviously the spa is the big user of electrical power.

Historical Usage for Day

I also purchased an outlet monitor. I am thiniking I will use it with energy hungry appliances like the refrigerator or the microwave. It will record a 110 circuit.

Efergy Ego Outlet

Efergy Ego Outlet Monitor

I would need additional transmitter kits to record other 220 volt appliances etc. It would be nice to have several of these kits and outlet readers. This one cannot be controlled with IFTTT which is what I bought for the air quality monitor to control the ventilation system. So that one will record information on a different platform.

Posted in Monitoring | Comments Off

Monitoring Home Temperatures and Boiler Use with Ecobee3

Posted on January 15, 2017 by ellen

In addition to the NEST thermostat in the living area, I recently added an Ecobee3 with one sensor in the rear bedrooms. This area is a separate zone and for LEED we are required to have a thermostat in every room. This Ecobee provides a wireless thermostat sensor to place in a different room than the thermostat itself. Since these read home and away motion it is important to have a sensor in the bedroom we are currently using, but the wiring is in the guest bedroom so that is where the master Ecobee thermostat is located.

The Ecobee wiring information is extremely clear, however, I still messed up the wiring and had to call customer service. The customer service wait was moderately long, about 20 minutes, but the help was very efficient when I was finally connected. The service rep instantly understood that I was using an electronic valve controller and understood there are three connections, R W and C. The C connection is important for these digital thermostats because it provides the power. The R is positive and the W is neutral. But for some reason I hooked the W up to G which is probably Ground. So I was not getting a heat reading. That was my mistake–admittedly an easy one to fix. So soon I was connected and now I’m able to read the usage for the rear of the house.

Unfortunately unlike the Nest, the usage is not part of the iphone app. I have to log onto HomeIQ on the ecobee site and download the spreadsheet.

Ecobee Spreadsheet

I deleted a couple of columns that my boiler heat system doesn’t use. The data from the spreadsheet is very detailed which is good but it would be nice to have a snapshot of usage on the iphone app.

The temperature screen is not as inviting as the Nest screen. The heat icon allows you to turn off the heat and the sliding temp scale allows you to hold the temperature or change it. The menu icon brings up the main menu of options. The weather icon gives current weather based on address. The settings sets Home or Away manually and also can hold the temperature.

Ecobee Temp Screen

System tells what the thermostat is controlling. Sensors show temperature and home/away setting (Occupied/Unoccupied). The thermostat has three configurable “Comfort” settings; Home, Away, and Sleep and these are the settings that are programmable in the schedule area. Vacation/Away time can be set so that the Home sensors won’t register during that time, for visitors that water plants etc. Reminders can be set to change filters and high low temperature alarms are available.

Ecobee Options Screen

The remote sensor capability is really the selling point for the Ecobee3 over the Nest. Ecobee has a Lite version that does not use sensors too. Ecobee is less popular than the Nest so it is easier to find lower than list pricing on the devices. I bought the set with one sensor for $60 under list.

Posted in Monitoring | Comments Off

What about a Winter List?

Posted on January 13, 2017 by ellen

Frosted Tree

We are two weeks into the new year and it is time to consider the plans for this winter. We are working away at the house. So much so that it will be great to take a little time off next week. In the meantime I can plan what we need to get done before drywall goes up.

Our fall list had some good accomplishments.

Fall 2016 List

~~Schedule electrician to wire remodel~~
~~Pass electrical inspection~~
~~Schedule return of electricians to install outlets and switches~~
~~Schedule plumber to install rough plumbing~~
~~Pass plumbing inspection~~
Pass structural inspection
Finish membrane on walls
~~Build ventilation chase~~
Install ductwork for ventilation
Schedule drywall
Install radon fan and piping
Install ventilation system and outdoor piping
~~Plan for crawlspace ventilation~~
Fix crawlspace radon mitigation
Install polyiso in crawlspace
Install tile on slab periphery
~~Install siding (front)~~

We finally had the electrical rough install finished and passed the inspection. I decided to do the rough plumbing myself and that passed inspection. And due to my brother’s help the front of the house got sided and the ventilation soffit started.

So the new list has to build on what didn’t get finished on the old one. We can’t have the structural inspection until I finish the ventilation and have the HVAC inspection for that system.

Finish ductwork for ERV
Pass HVAC inspection
Finish all door frames
Pass structural inspection
Finish membrane on walls
Run master bedroom thermostat wire
Close up wiring chase
Install membrane over wiring chase and any other ceiling space not yet finished.
Run central vacuum piping in duct soffit
Install central vacuum ducts
Install wireless devices to monitor home comfort and energy use
Fix electrical wiring to wood boiler secondary pump
Schedule drywall
Fix crawlspace radon mitigation
Install polyiso in crawlspace
Install radon fan and piping
Install tile on floor periphery
Install crawlspace ventilation fan and duct

There is not one thing I can cross off the winter list yet. But I hope to get the ventilation ductwork completed soon. And I’m installing wireless monitoring devices that monitor heat and energy use and air quality for boosting the ventilation system when needed. Using the NEST thermostat is just the beginning. I will post more about these systems soon.

Posted in Planning | Comments Off

Supply Side Ductwork

Posted on January 12, 2017 by ellen

Insulated ductwork connected

I’ve been connecting the ductwork for the ventilation system. The original plan had a few vents that I decided to eliminate based on balancing the system’s supply and exhaust ports. So there is a long stretch of flexible duct in the soffit area between the ERV and the end of the living area and then an outlet facing the master bedroom and one facing the living area.

Tee connection

The supply to the living area and the bedroom are connected to a 10″ tee that acts as the living area grille holder and to a short duct to a partial elbow for the master bedroom grill.

I had difficulty using the straps over the flex ducts to connect them to the duct pipes. They would not tighten enough to keep from falling off. I finally decided to tape the flex duct to the piping first and then reinforced it with the straps.

Short connection

I have two kinds of tape. One is for the pipes and the other for the flex duct. I used the pipe tape here but later switched to the flex duct tape which is thinner to connect the flex duct joins. I purchased 10″ duct connections at the joins along this run. The flex duct itself is from the Restore for $5 a section.

Next I started working on the supply piping that connects to the ERV.

Supply ducting at ERV

The layout is a bit obscured by the radon pipe and the ERV itself but the supply duct piping wye connects to a 10″tee that feeds the long duct in the soffit on the living area side and behind the ERV to a 9″ pipe that will connect to the flex duct in the family room. The 10″ tee is reduced to 8″ to supply fresh air to the kitchen and bathroom. At the top of the photo there is the fresh air duct. It starts at 6″ in the wall and expands to 8″ to use 8″ insulated flex duct to bring the fresh air to the ERV where it again reduces to 6″. I had to buy the 8″ flex duct for about $50.
Once I complete the supply side I will work on the exhaust. I still have to finish the hole in the roof for the exhaust piping and it is starting to snow again so this project may be on hold until the weather warms up again.

Posted in Ventilation | Comments Off

Ventilation Progress

Posted on January 9, 2017 by ellen

Family Room Duct Soffit

The ventilation system has to be finished and inspected as part of the HVAC before we can drywall. We started the soffit for the ductwork in November when my brother was visiting. I finally finished the framework today.

Finished Family Room Soffit

I finally kind of got the hang of marking the metal channels and cutting the studs to fit between them while using self drilling screws to connect them.

Pre-assembled section of soffit

The sections are basically two identical “ladders” joined by struts. The struts had to be hand cut to overlap the outer channels and hold the two sides together. My brother had me buy decent metal cutters. He recommended these that have replaceable blades and they really work well. The struts had corners cut out. First marked equally with a square then cut on each side to the back then down the side to the first cut leaving a tail to screw into the side channels.

Preparing support struts

Cut out corner on strut

One strut is at each stud in the front and there are two or three across the back of each section. A strut is positioned over the joins at the section ends to reinforce them too.

Now that the soffit is completed, the next step is to finish pushing the flex duct through the soffit and connect it to the metal duct work and to the ERV.

Flex duct in soffit

Also to put together the metal duct work that feeds the flex duct to and from the ERV and terminates in the vents.

Assembling Metal Duct Work

Posted in Construction, Ventilation | Comments Off

Nest Thermostat Info

Posted on January 6, 2017 by ellen

It’s been cold outside. We woke up this morning to negative ten degrees. The Nest thermostat is only recording the temperatures and boiler use in the living room so it is an incomplete picture of our heat use. I need at least a second wi-fi thermostat in the rear of the house since even though it is set lower, it calls for heat more often because it does not get as much sun and is not as well insulated.

Baby its cold outside

I just upgraded the Acurite sensor system to include new indoor and outdoor sensors. There is a sensor now in each part of the house and the garage as well as a new sensor at the spa and in the spa water. We already had one in the greenhouse too. These temperatures are a partial reading at the same time as the 13 degree temperature.

House temperatures

The Nest saves history for the past 10 days. The total number of hours of use is only for the living room though. This is the warmest room in the house due to passive solar heat.

Nest history

The Nest can further break down the usage into times of day. The heat in the living area usually turns on about midnight and runs to early morning.

Nest history detail

All day most days the boiler is completely off. It displays the pressure in the system but not the temperature of the water or the stage the boiler is operating in, water heater (4) or heat system (3).

Boiler off

I would like to get a wi-fi thermostat for the back of the house. We have a total of 6 zones and probably there should be a wi-fi on every one, but I am pretty certain three of the zones seldom turn the system on themselves but may run when others are running. I think six zones was overkill but that is how many the original home had and we just kept the same number.

I really enjoy the monitoring part of the household. The original owner had hard wired temperature sensors throughout the house and the slab. He had customized software to take all the readings. We still have the wiring and I’m wondering whether to pull it all now. I don’t know which wire goes to which sensor so it makes sense to abandon them but I hate to do it thinking it is a rich source of information if we just could figure it out.

Posted in Monitoring, Radiant Heat | Comments Off

January 1, 2017-Retrospective of the First Five Years

Posted on January 1, 2017 by ellen

Today we have owned the house for five years. That is a sizable amount of time and one that seems unbelievable when we look back at our LEED project. I created a retrospective report but moved it to its own page. It has been a time for reflection but also creates an urge to get moving and get this project finished.

Satellite View taken March, 2012

Satellite View in Oct. 2015

Posted in Construction, LEED Project, Planning | Comments Off

More Work on the Soffit

Posted on December 31, 2016 by ellen

The last couple of weeks I’ve been working on the metal soffit. This is the last task finished in 2016. I built another 10 foot piece and installed it.

Building more soffit

Then I put in the top of the corner piece since a prebuilt box would not fit between the upper wall and the existing soffit.

Corner Piece

The bottom of the box was not fitting as I had measured although the measurements seemed to be accurate. I decided to cut back the bottom piece and have it stop at the corner turn of the soffit.

Bottom of corner

Instead of continuing across the hallway to the opposite loft, which I considered in order to point a duct up the hallway to the rear bedrooms, I ended the soffit at the shelf as in the original design. I’m also going to install the vents in this upper area instead of near the floor to avoid having to put a column for the duct in the bedroom. The last section has to drop down to the shelf so that a vent can go between the upper roof and the lower roof section into the master bedroom. The duct will then continue to the end of the soffit and direct the fresh air into the living area.

Incomplete Soffit End

I am not very knowledgeable about using metal studs so the end pieces are kind of cobbled together. The angle was tough and I had to make the end a bit larger than when I first assembled it. The soffit end seems sturdy as finished but it was hard for me to assemble it up on the shelf and some screws had to come out and be redone more than once. But I finally got the end pieces put together.

Finished soffit end

The framing is complete for the living area soffit. Next I can stretch the flexible ducting inside it. I ordered more ductwork for the ends of this soffit including a couple of round vent covers. I need to have the ductwork finished and inspected before the drywalling can be done.

Living Area Soffit Framing Completed

Posted in Construction, Ventilation | Comments Off

IKEA/Whirlpool Oven

Posted on December 27, 2016 by ellen

We decided that it was impossible for us to fix the Advantium oven. I am sad about this because it was a great experience having this combo microwave and infrared oven for about a year. But it overheated and burned out a fuse and I broke the cable to the display when taking it apart. The cable part is no longer made so I’m out of luck.

We have made do with a Oster tabletop oven for about a year since the Advantium died. It has been OK but tabletops use 110 instead of 220 and are very limited in size. No turkey can cook whole in 1.4 cubic feet. We split a turkey to cook it in this oven. Actually the Advantium was too small for a turkey too.

After the electricians installed a 220 outlet for the oven, I looked for a single electric oven in black for a reasonable cost on craigslist. Finally I found one that was not too far away and advertised as only 2 years old. However, the serial number shows that it is actually 5 years old. It may have been purchased only 2 years ago on clearance as they said it was about $500 new. I found the Datid oven in an old Ikea catalog online and in 2010 it was priced at $749.

Datid Oven 2010 Ikea Catalog

It was still $749 in 2014. The Datid oven is no longer available and the Nutid with the same features today is $1199.

I researched these ovens trying to see if the serial number is actually saying the oven was made in 2011. Apparently it is a Whirlpool serial number D11287258 in which the 112 reads as the third week in March of 2011. The Appliance Age website says it was made in Danville KY for the D in the serial number.

0 – 1980/2010/2040	X – 1990/2020/2050	K – 2000/2030/2060
1 – 1981/2011/2041	A – 1991/2021/2051	L – 2001/2031/2061
2 -1982/2012/2042	B – 1992/2022/2052	M – 2002/2032/2062
3 – 1983/2013/2043	C – 1993/2023/2053	P – 2003/2033/2063
4 – 1984/2014/2044	D – 1994/2024/2054	R – 2004/2034/2064
5 – 1985/2015/2045	E – 1995/2025/2055	S – 2005/2035/2065
7 – 1987/2017/2047	G – 1997/2027/2057	U – 2007/2037/2067
8 – 1988/2018/2048	H – 1998/2028/2058	W – 2008/2038/2068
9 – 1989/2019/2049	J – 1999/2029/2059	Y – 2009/2039/2069

If I had realized how dirty the oven was when I went to buy it, I may have changed my mind. But although I noticed it was not clean, I thought it was cleaner than it was when I got to it. The oven was a relatively low cost at $100 and it is a convection oven, which we had in Arizona and they save a bit on cooking time so therefore electricity.

It took me several weeks to have time to bring it inside and clean it. I took out the elements and the light covers, the fan cover and the fan blade to clean them all separately. I used a spray oven and grill cleaner from Big Lots.

Convection Oven

Then I took the door completely apart and cleaned all three glass layers and the holders. Cleaning the oven took several days.

Oven Door Outer Layer

Disassembled Oven Door

Finally I put it all back together and tested it temporarily from the bathroom side of the kitchen wall. The 220 outlet is behind the cabinet and the oven came with a heavy duty cord and plug. I ran the self cleaning cycle which lasts for 3.5 hours and was rather smoky. I wonder if how bad it would have been if I had not cleaned it first?

While reading about the serial number I came across several complaints that the self cleaning cycle on these Ikea ovens burns up the thermal fuse and can fry the control board. The culprit seems to be not enough circulation around the oven. When I ran the self clean the oven was not in a cabinet and it did not break the oven. But I wonder if the oven was so dirty because the owners were told not to run the self clean cycle. Other advice said to limit the self clean cycle to 30 minutes instead of the 3.5 hour default.

I was glad to see both elements and the lights worked and they look pretty good all cleaned up.

Clean oven

I had to trim the cabinet to fit the larger oven. This was trial and error. We put the oven in and took it out two or three times to get the opening large enough to slide it all the way back.

Cabinet trimmed to fit oven

Finally the front was screwed into the cabinet, the trim pieces installed and the oven is ready to go. Now that the oven is in the cabinet, it may not run the self clean cycle without breaking. The entire rear of the oven cabinet is open and that might be enough to keep it from frying. I’ll have to use caution if I run the self clean cycle in the cabinet.

I like the new oven, it looks like it belongs in the kitchen.

New kitchen oven

Posted in Appliances, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

LED Garage Light Bulb Replacements

Posted on December 18, 2016 by ellen

When my brother was helping with the construction he worked in the garage under our old florescent light bulbs. We had to supplement with extra lighting to see well enough to do the work. He told me that older florescent bulbs not only were dimmer but they use more electricity as they age. Although the bulbs were still lighting they were black at the ends. So with this encouragement I ordered new LED bulbs as replacements for the old 4 foot florescent bulbs.

Hypericon LED T8 Bulbs

Some of the replacement bulbs require only newer ballasts or rewiring to eliminate the ballast. But the ones I ordered were labeled as working with or without the ballast.
The lights came with instructions to remove the ballast but I decided to try the bulbs without removing them. I had to run the lights only one way in the “tombstones”. This is the new word I learned for the bulb holders in the long fixtures. They didn’t light one way but they did the other.
Although the lights work in the fixtures, one light shines dimmer than the other. Not sure why but maybe it is the power going through the ballast. Someday I will try wiring without the ballast but for now it is nice to have new brighter lights in the garage that also use less electricity.

Garage Lights

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Maintenance and Repair | Comments Off