Twinsprings Research Institute

Drywall Prep: Ensure Denshield in Bathrooms

Posted on April 12, 2017 by ellen

I signed the drywall contract and the work is to begin April 24th. Included in the contract is Denshield in the bathrooms. We decided to have the walls match the existing knockdown texture but have the ceilings be smooth which added to the cost. But we think it will be worth it to have the smooth ceilings especially for the light shelves.

The company is Unique Drywall of Aurora. I tried a couple of other contractors but either they could not do the job until June and cost more or I didn’t get a final estimate. I saw the truck for this business in my mom’s neighborhood at a similar type of house and it turned out to be the best contact I made.

Unique Drywall

Hector is thinking about ending his website because he said he has not gotten ONE referral from it. Instead his referrals are all word of mouth. So I copied the info from his website to have it here.

Posted in Construction, LEED Project | Comments Off

Drywall Prep: Install the nailers for drywall.

Posted on April 12, 2017 by ellen

These are all finished now. Unless the drywallers find they need another one somewhere.

Hallway Nailers

There are some tricky areas where the house orientation changes direction to catch the sun. The rafters come together at an angle and the nailers had to follow that angle and remain about 24″ apart to screw in the drywall.

Room Angle Change

In the master bedroom the house again changes orientation this time to the west. So the rafters are also at an angle and the nailers had to make up this difference.

Another tricky area

In the front hall and family room closets, the temporary membrane holding board was just left there in the middle and the two nailers installed on either side.

Leaving the temporary board

There may be a nailer or two to finish in the utility room but essentially this step is completed.

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Drywall Prep: Reinforce Ventilation Shaft with Corner Braces

Posted on April 11, 2017 by ellen

The ventilation shaft is constructed of metal studs. It is long and hangs from only one side. The idea is that the drywall will reinforce the structure and keep it from sagging. Right now it flexes when pulled down.

Our friend Mike suggested we use corner shelf brackets to reinforce the shaft. It is an inexpensive idea and will not be visible from the outside after the drywall is installed. So I ordered shelf brackets from ebay for about $1 each and I’m installing them inside the ventilation shaft.

Shelf bracket to support shaft

I’m placing these every two or three feet along the shaft. They are reasonably easy to install. Either screwed into the rear metal stud or into the roof framing. When in the roof framing I have to drill new holes in the bracket a bit below the existing holes in order to hit the wooden cross beam.

With the braces in place the shaft still flexes a little but not nearly as much as it did.

The long shaft in the living room measures about 30 ft. and some of the metal studs are 24″ OC and some under the windows are 16″ OC. The shorter shaft is in the family room and it is about 15′ long. It is all 16″ OC. so it flexes less. I’m temped to skip the braces on this side. I can always use them for shelves later. I’m just worried we won’t get everything done by drywall day!

Posted in Construction, Ventilation | Comments Off

Drywall Prep: Install Membrane Progress

Posted on April 8, 2017 by ellen

We are making good progress on the membrane installation. The first area was to finish the wiring chase with insulation, polyiso and then the membrane seen installed here.

Wiring Chase Membrane

The wiring chase included some tricky areas around the radon pipe where the ceiling height changes.

Ceiling Membrane around Radon Pipe

Second was to work on the master bedroom which was finished a couple of days ago. Then I moved on to the master bedroom door, the patio doors and the south facing corners of the house.

South Dining/Kitchen Corner

South Patio Doors Membrane

The last project of the day was to install the membrane around the front door at the air lock entry.

Front Door Entrance

There are two large areas left: The west wall of the entry at the garage, and the west wall of the family room. Then I can work on boxing in the radon pipe at the stairs and finishing the membrane in the upper storage closet.

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Connecting the Ventilation Fans

Posted on April 7, 2017 by ellen

The ventilation fan connections also had to be done before the drywall can be installed. We have to ventilate the crawlspace to meet the requirements of a conditioned crawlspace. This can be done by placing a heating vent into the space or in our case by sucking heated and cooled air from the house through the crawlspace. Luckily the cubic feet per minute requirements are low. Just one cfm per 50 square feet of space. We have about 500 square feet of crawlspace so we have a 10 cfm ventilation fan that I installed in the master bedroom closet into the crawlspace below the hall.
The code requires the continuous vapor barrier as I installed and also a few options for conditioning the space. I am used the second one.

2004 Supplement To The IRC
IRC, Section R408.3, Unvented Crawl Space
b. Conditioned air supply sized to deliver at a rate equal to 1 cfm (0.47 L/s) for each 50 ft2 (4.7 m2) of under-floor area, including a return air pathway to the common area (such as a duct or transfer grille), and perimeter walls insulated in accordance with Section N1102.2.8,

Ducting for Crawlspace Ventilation Fan

The duct work attaches to the fan which ventilates to the hallway just behind the back door.

Closed Duct Outlet in Hall

It is unobtrusive either open or closed.

Open Crawlspace Ventilation Fan

There will be a cold air return vent near the stairs to allow the ventilation air to pull conditioned air into the crawlspace and vent it here at the rear of the hallway near the back door.

Inside the crawlspace the fan ductwork is capped by a plastic hood that draws in the air.

Hood for Fan inside Crawlspace

Unfortunately the fan is made for a 6″ to 8″ wall going straight through. I will have to box in the duct work but that is not such a problem since it will make it accessible in the future.

Duct for Ventilation Fan

I also had to connect the bathroom shower fan’s duct. I had installed the fan and the duct through the wall several months ago but the duct was not connected. Now it is.

Bathroom Shower Fan Duct

These were just two projects from the long list of items that need to be completed before drywall is installed.

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Drywall Prep: Decide About and Alter Master Bathroom Wall

Posted on April 3, 2017 by ellen

Seems like it shouldn’t take two days to complete the wall in the master bathroom and closet but it did. First I put up the membrane in the closet area as the bathroom was done already. The 50 amp wire for the spa goes through these two areas and it had to be protected from drywall screws so I cut leftover metal studs to create a channel for the wire. The drywallers just have to remember to screw only into the top of the metal stud and not into the lower part possibly nicking the wire. The position of the wire can be seen through the stud openings too.

Metal stud for wire chase

Then I had to decide how to build out the wall that will be over the vanity and that holds both the plumbing and the electrical boxes for the sconces so that the outer wall is not breached.

Spacing for sconce lights

The original spacing for the left electrical box was too close to the shower wall so I moved it over a bit. Also added a second 2 x 2 in front of the first spaced out with 1/2″ plywood to make a 3 1/2″ deep area so the drain pipe fits inside the wall.

Build out for plumbing

I had to add cross pieces to the bump out to have enough nailers for drywall. The 3 1/2″ depth allowed enough space to reuse more 2 x 4’s for the nailers.
I decided to create a space that would hold a reused oak medicine cabinet from the original house for over the sink. I will have them just drywall this area and cut out for the medicine cabinet later.

Space for medicine chest

While I was working on this I remembered that I had originally planned to replace the outside spigot on this side of the house. I already had the spigot and just had to drill through the wall and cut into the pex to add a sharkbite tee fitting that I also already had.

Tee fitting for outside spigot

I tried to drill through the stucco from inside but the drill bit was making no progress so finally I just used a huge nail left over from holding down the waffleboxes and punched the hole in the outside wall with a 5 lb hammer and that nail. It worked like a charm. And then I was able to drill the 1″ hole from the outside to open it for the spigot.
In order to have the tee fitting inside the concealed plumbing area, I had to push the spigot out further than the outside wall. The freeze proof pipe for the spigot had to be as long as it was (9 1/2″) for me to add the connections on the inside but then it was too long to hide the pex connections inside. So I decided to just protect the outside with a piece of leftover vacuum plastic pipe and a rubber pipe end that I had laying around.
I stuffed the opening with the intruder stainless steel mesh to keep out mice and then I caulked the opening. Then I added the white pipe and the black end, taped them underneath and caulked it to the wall. I didn’t screw the spigot into the wall yet. Since the pipe inside is stabilized, it may not need the outside screws.
The next day I had to take it all apart and fix a leak between the spigot and the sharkbite fitting. I had not tighted the two enough in the wall. So I tightened them outside the wall and pushed the whole thing through to connect again on the inside. Then of course redid the stainless mesh, the white pipe and the black end. I waited to see if the leak was fixed before I re-caulked the spigot.

This area would be finished if I didn’t also remember that I have to install the low speed ventilation fan that will pull house air through the crawlspace to help it stay conditioned. Another project that was not on the preparation list but must be done before drywall.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Plumbing | Comments Off

Broken Ventilation System!

Posted on April 3, 2017 by ellen

Amazing isn’t it? I can’t be satisfied with the existing system, I had to try to control it automatically. That would be OK if not for the problems I cause.

The first project was just to connect the system to its boost control with the NEST thermostat. Boost runs the system at full speed and is usually controlled by a humistat or CO2 sensor. With the NEST connection I can set up a schedule throughout the day to run continuously or for a certain number of minutes per hour.

Recouperator Boost Wiring to NEST

I reused the old two wire thermostat wire and ran it from the Recouperator to the NEST in the living room. I wired the Boost to the NEST Common and to G to the fan control. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to just turn on the fan by asking Alexa although the temperature can be set.

I explained the control made possible by the Foobot air quality monitor. The Foobot can use IFTTT to have the NEST turn on the fan for a preset number of minutes. I have the NEST set to 30 minutes. Of course if air quality is lower than ideal, the Foobot will send the signal constantly until air quality improves so the 30 minutes is reset without manual intervention.

The system is designed to also be controlled by a 0-10v signal from a home automation system. This would allow use of the variable flow other than through the manual dial that comes with the system.

Unfortunately I did not understand the difference between an analog 0-10v system and an electronic PWM or MLV 0-10v signal type. Pulse width modulation PWM is often used with LED lights. Instead of sending a straight voltage to the lights, the PWM sends a variable voltage that makes incandescent lights flicker but somehow works better with LED. The MLV signal is used with florescent ballasts for large lighting systems especially.

My first experiment was to purchase an inexpensive PWM LED driver. It takes analog voltage input and converts it to PWM. Of course when I purchased it I did not realize it needed analog and output PWM. Actually the opposite of what I needed. That is because I should have known LED usually uses PWM output. Also notice that this controller requires 24v direct current while the Recouperator has 24v alternating current at the auxiliary outputs. That was a distinction I had failed to make. I could use a 24v plug in transformer to control the LED driver but the output doesn’t match what the control on the Recouperator needs.

LED Dimmer 0-10 volt

I needed to find a variable control that outputs 0-10v and can be managed through an internet interface. Lutron makes several variable controls for various types of lighting and fans.

Lutron Lighting Load Interfaces

From this list only the Caseta Wireless operates with the Lutron Connected Home system that uses a smartphone to set the signal and dim lights or control a motor. The Caseta comes both in an electronic low voltage version (ELV) and 120 volt AC. Although the ELV is new and I didn’t see it on their documentation.

Lutron Caseta Load Types

Several of the Lutron switches can create a 0-10 VDC signal. But they require a TVI which is a 0-10VDC interface also made by Lutron. I purchased I purchased the PRO 120 VAC version of the Caseta Wireless switch and the TVI that was recommended in the charts, the Grafix-TVI, but later found out it puts out magnetic low voltage 0-10v which the system cannot use either.

Unfortunately I can find no way to translate an electronic low voltage (ELV is AC or DC) or magnetic low voltage to analog DC voltage. That doesn’t mean I didn’t try.

The MLV transformer the Grafix-TVI puts out 0-10vdc with no load but when I attached it to the analog 0-10 the signal dropped to 2.34v. The Grafix can’t take the 0-10 load from the ERV. There is also sink and source sides for 0-10v. The Grafix-TVI is a sink device which means the ERV needs to have a source control. I don’t know what the ERV is but I think I can assume it is also a sink control.

I also have a small circuit board that will translate PWM into analog 0-10v but that would require a driver that puts out 0-10v PWM signal.

Sometime during my tests, although I always had the ERV off during connections, one of them was not right enough to blow the internal 120 to 24 VAC transformer. At least I’m not getting the 24v power through the transformer now. So I’m getting a new part and hopefully that will fix the problem.

Posted in Maintenance and Repair, Ventilation | Comments Off

Drywall Prep: Insulate with Polyiso around Doors

Posted on March 20, 2017 by ellen

We are cutting and fitting the polyiso left over from the wiring chase around the door areas to use up smaller pieces.

Cut and Fit Polyiso

By using the polyiso so sparingly we can keep more of it tacked up as temporary bathroom walls.

More Cut and Fit

The wiring chase is not finished but progress is being made.

Another large area that needed polyiso insulation to seal it was the opening to the attic for wiring. I had to spray foam into the wiring holes and a bit into a crack between the attic and the entry area to the wiring chase first. Then I cut a piece of 1″ foil covered polyiso to fit the opening. I used some leftover telephone wire to hold the foam against the opening and stapled it to the 2 x 4’s.

Wire Stapled to 2 x 4

I had to cut a hole for the vacuum piping and then seal it all with spray foam. The spray foam was a bit awkward and the job was rather messy. I got spray foam all over my hands and some on my arms! But I have some cleaner that helped remove most of the stray foam from my body. I’ll have to trim extra stuff on the wall with a razor knife.

Spray foam sealing job

If we have enough 1 1/2″ polyiso I may fit a piece between the 2 x 4’s in front of the foil covered piece. After the polyiso is finished we can move on to installing the Siga membrane.

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Drywall Prep: Insulate the Plumbing in the Walls

Posted on March 19, 2017 by ellen

Insulation on Family Room Bathroom Hot Water Line

I almost forgot to insulate all the hot water lines in the walls. LEED requires at least R4 pipe insulation but I was able to order more R7 insulation from Supply House.
We were out of town for our Mom’s birthday and stuck in New York a few extra days because of a snow storm. I ordered the insulation to arrive just after we got home, but it got here before we did.

New York Snow Piles

The hot water line is in a loop and so when the water is turned on it rises above the floor to the point of use and then returns under the slab to the next point. All of these risers needed to be insulated.

Insulated hot return

Now these returns are well insulated. So are the hot water pipes to the faucets in the house.

Insulated Master Bath

The only spot that I didn’t insulate was in the Family Room Bath’s shower wall. The stringer there is not deep enough for the 1″ insulation on the way to the shower and hand spray. I either have to double the width of the stringers or use a shallower insulation.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Plumbing | Comments Off

Drywall Preparations

Posted on March 6, 2017 by ellen

We have had two vendors look at the job and each says they can do it. We are awaiting the estimates. But there is a lot to do before the crew can come in and drywall. I’m thinking it is a pretty long list.

Insulate the wiring chase and cover with polyiso.
Insulate with polyiso around the doors that need it.
Install membrane on exterior walls and the rest of the ceiling.
Install the nailers for drywall.
Insulate the plumbing in the walls.
Decide on phone and sensor cables.
Decide about the master bathroom wall and light fixtures.
Decide about the guest bathroom light fixtures
Reinforce the vent shaft with corner braces.
Alter the master bathroom wall for drywall.
Be sure the vendor uses Denshield in the bathrooms.
Pack the kitchen and other cabinets into boxes and move to the garage.
Move furniture into the garage.
Move tools into the garage.
Tarp stove and TV cabinet. Put TV cabinet on sliders.
Remove outlet and switch covers and tape
Set up back rooms for entertainment and eating.

All of this needs to be finished by the end of March or early April and we are leaving for almost two weeks during this month. So it will be a challenge.
We started with caulking, polyiso and membrane around the doors and insulating and closing up the wiring chase. The back door needed a difficult application of slanted polyiso. Here the membrane is partially applied.

Polyiso and Membrane at Back Door

The back hallway had insulation installed and the polyiso layer has been started. It will need membrane and boards screwed in for nailers.

Insulation and Polyiso in Hallway

The wiring chase is almost finished being insulated but will need a polyiso layer and then membrane and nailer boards.

Insulation in Wiring Chase

And the insulation continues in the wiring chase to the front closets. The phone wire that is hanging is not hooked up. Should we run a line to garage in case we ever want a hard wired phone? Probably not. Just will terminate this wire in the attic for some possible future use.

Insulation with Orphan Phone LIne

The work so far has taken a couple of days. I estimate that closing the ceiling and installing membrane will take another several days on the ceiling. Then we have walls to do and finishing touches on the location of the bathroom sconces etc.

We only have about ten working days left in March. So we will definitely run into April. Hopefully not too far into April so that we can get the drywalling done. My goal is to have that finished and the wall painted by my birthday in mid May.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Planning | Comments Off

More Ventilation Ducting Fixes

Posted on March 3, 2017 by ellen

Working on the join.

We just enjoyed a visit from our friends Jan and Mike from Indiana and got some good help and ideas from them. They wanted to work on the house. What are good friends for anyway? So we redid one of the most difficult connections in the duct work with stainless bands. Of course it was not an easy task.

Stainless steel bands

First the gorilla tape I had used instead of the foil tape had to be cut to open the insulation. Then the duct itself was only taped here and not zip tied. A mistake since I thought I had zip tied all the connections, but this one was just taped.

Once the insulation was separated and the pipe exposed I removed the tape holding the flex ducts onto the connecting duct. Then the bands had to be installed over the flex duct and onto the connector. That was not easy because the band is just slightly bigger than the pipe and connecting it while it is on the pipe was impossible for me. So I tried a larger clamp but it would not get tight enough to hold the pipe. Finally I started the ten inch band first and slipped it over one end of the connection. Then it was just a matter of squeezing the flex duct under the band all around the pipe. And it tightened!

The connection was then taped over the bands to make it air tight. I don’t know why I decided to do the bands first and then the tape. In most cases I did the taping first and then secured with the bands! The last step was retaping the insulation together. This time I used the silver ducting tape.

Taped bands

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Central Vacuum in Action

Posted on February 28, 2017 by ellen

Ahhh. Listen to the whooshing sound of the air sucking up tons of dirt. Wow, look at the dust disappearing from the duster into the innards of the pipe opening. A bit louder but what a great tool the power head is for picking up small debris from the nubby rug and entry mats.

A bit of the black nubby rug was sucked into the power head and it quit. I had to remember to reset it to get it to start again. There is a small red button on the back of the power head. I had read the instructions so I knew it was normal that it quit completely if it got stuck in order to keep from burning out the motor. Luckily I knew the reset button was there.

I zipped the quilted hose cover on the 30 ft. power head hose. I was wondering why they recommended a hose cover. But after I put it on, the hose didn’t kink nearly as much and apparently the hose can be hard on baseboards and furniture legs.

Zippered Vacuum Hose Cover

I ordered a longer hose cover for the 40 ft. hose. The longest zippered hose cover is 35 ft. but I read the covers don’t have to reach the entire hose. Leaving a couple feet at the handle and at the end will be as effective as covering the entire length of the hose. There are hose socks that offer longer sizes but they don’t have the zipper and look harder to put on and are not as thick and it seems they would do less to stop kinking and marring. And just owning a 30 or 35 foot zipper is quite an experience. I have never seen such long zippers!

I may have gone a bit overboard on the vacuum attachments. I thought having two hoses, one for each side of the house or one for the power head and one for other attachments made sense, but when I actually used the 40 ft.hose it reached all the way across the house using just one inlet and I have several more available, including the upper linen closet in the back of the house and one right at the garage entrance, but I just used the living area inlet in the middle. I like it that the second hose has an on off switch too so it can stay connected but not run the vacuum while moving furniture or changing the attachment.

Closet full of vacuum attachments

The vacuum is quite a pleasure to use even though I dislike house cleaning completely, it will be nice to have a tool that is so versatile and effective.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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