Twinsprings Research Institute

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.

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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

Annual Garage Clean Out

Posted on December 16, 2016 by ellen

Mostly cleared car area

We use the garage as a work space during the warmer months and it gets filled with materials and tools. So I took today very late in the fall to clear it out so the car can fit in it for the coldest and snowiest time of the year.

I was able to rearrange most of the materials taking up room in the garage. Had a whole work table of items from building the soffit as well as insulation from the siding project. Some extra interior doors that are not in very good shape so they don’t merit garage storage, and various piping and solar controls that I hope to use some day.

Tools and stuff to clear away

We just bought a new old car at a Colorado State University online auction. I’m signed up for the notices of items for sale and this car seemed like a make and model we know something about. We’ve had our current Impala since new in 2001 and just had to put a sizeable amount of money it in to keep it running. There are still some issues like a slight oil leak and turn signals that sometimes just stop working, a cracked windshield. Plus missing interior lighting and other falling apart stuff that happens as a car reaches 15 or 16 years of age.

The “reused” car is a 2010 Impala that was formerly in the department of environmental science. It is a fleet car so at the bottom of the model line instead of our Impala which was at the top end. But as a university fleet car it had regular maintenance and is in pretty good condition. It has average mileage for a 2010 car at 81,280 at purchase. So hope it lasts at least 10 years.

New old car

I raised the scaffolding to provide some over the hood storage. I had read this idea on rv.net but they may have had a little smaller car.

Storage over hood

Ours just barely fits between the legs of the scaffolding when I pull it in as far as it will go.

Too close for comfort

I’m probably going to move some of the side items to the front to provide a bit more walk around space. There is room under the scaffolding and I could just drive up to it instead of poking the nose between the legs of the structure and still have room to get behind the car at the garage door.

Very tight fit

This means I’m not completely done but good enough until the latest bout of deep freeze temperatures moderate. The next few nights will be below zero and days in the single digits. But like us the car will be cozy and warm in the insulated garage while we bask in our radiant heated house.

Posted in Maintenance and Repair, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Birthday Boy

Posted on December 14, 2016 by ellen

We took a week off to celebrate our grands0n’s first birthday. We had a great time helping to plan and set up the party. Our daughter-in-law is Korean and we had so much fun learning about and implementing the Korean 1st birthday traditions. The celebration is known as Dol and the game the baby plays is the Doljabi. He was challenged to choose an item to represent his future, both from a group of traditional choices and a group of modern ones. He was shy to choose from the first set of items in front of the crowd and finally chose the gavel which represents justice. For the second set they had to hold him back because he zoomed right for the race car.

Second choice was the keyboard.

For this ceremony the family wear traditional Korean dress, called Hanbok. The Dol table is set up to represent the joy of the first birthday and the bounty of the family.

Baby sits at a table of plenty wearing hanbok and gold jewelry.

It is adorned with dol towers that congratulate him on his 1st birthday, have his Korean name, and the symbol of the year of his birth. For last year it was the goat. I made these towers with beans, leftover plastic pipe sections and a hot glue gun. The table is also decorated with authentic Korean silk cloths and tassels and Korean embroidery in a rich design plus towers of fruits to show abundance.

Dol Table

Of course the food table was also laden with delicious Korean delicacies and rice cakes were part of the desert table.

Korean Finger Food

The baby was loaded with love and gifts to celebrate this great birthday in Korean culture. The survival of the first year was truly a milestone in harder times. Another big celebration occurs when a person turns 60 (or in these days sometimes 70) as that is the opposite year from the first and again has the same symbol showing a joyous completion of the life cycle.

The grandmas with the baby

Posted in Diversions | Comments Off

Fixing Plumbing Inspection Issues

Posted on December 3, 2016 by ellen

The bar sink drain was improved by moving the drain pipe to the middle of the 2 x 6 wall. I raised the drain to the level of the trap and reinstalled the air vent.

Rerouted bar sink drain

The master bath drain just needed to be turned horizonatally to the drain pipe. It was vertical which broke the trap weir rule.

Changed master vanity drain

In the family bathroom, I removed the clean out that was unnecessary and replaced the sanitary tee with an elbow. I moved the drain over a bit to allow more room between the vanity and the shower wall.

Then I had to fix the gas piping. At first I kept the old gas valve and bought another gas valve, an 18″ black pipe and some more yellow gas tape since I could not find the roll I had. I altered the piping as the inspector recommended because there is no other gas valve inside to turn off the gas to the stove while I worked on it. Keeping the old valve allowed me to turn off the gas to the stove to install a new valve in the stove cabinet.

Because the drain was too close to the wall where the pipe ran, the pipe was going to need to be boxed in. An extra step and a pain for drywalling.

Black gas pipe into stove cabinet

I kept smelling gas while working on the new piping so I decided to get rid of the old valve and run the pipe on the other side of the drain so that it would not stick out past the 2 x 4’s. I bought another gas valve and turned off the gas outside to install it at the beginning of the pipe run to the stove. I realized I could clear the drain pipe in the wall by raising the gas supply to the bottom of the air vent and running it on the other side of the drain.

Valve and gas supply to stove

I put in the valve and then a 24″ vertical pipe that clears the washing machine supply. At the stove, the pipe descends again 18″ and I used a 12″ pipe to attach the gas valve and flex piping inside the cabinet.

Gas pipe to stove

Next I had to install the new chrome back flow preventer on the tub faucet hand shower.

Backflow preventer

And finally to protect the pipe from nails or screws in the 2 x 4’s I installed metal plates on both sides of the studs over the places where the pipes went through the wall.

Metal plates to protect water pipes

While I had the walls and pipes exposed, I also installed the box for the icemaker’s water supply. The pipe now goes to a valve in the wall and can be shut off there as well as at the supply in the corner of the kitchen.

Icemaker water supply box for drywall installation

These tasks were all the inspector noted. So I think I can call him back to check the work and hopefully pass the rough plumbing inspection.

UPDATE: Everything fixed, everything passed! Check the rough plumbing inspection off the list.

Posted in Inspections, Plumbing | Comments Off

One Afternoon, One Siding Piece

Posted on November 26, 2016 by ellen

My brother couldn’t finish the siding on the lower house because we ran out of siding. So we tried to order more, just the unpainted stucco version, but it ended up being backordered so it didn’t arrive until this week. Unfortunately when I went to pick it up, they informed me that four of the five sheets I ordered were pretty severely damaged. So I just took one and returned the others as damaged.

I brought the piece home yesterday and today after the grandkids went home from their fun overnight at about noon, we took it out of the truck and I measured to cut it for the inner part of the master bedroom doorway. Even though the height of the section was a bit taller than a sheet of siding, I had to cut an angle in the top in order to slide it into place under the porch overhang. Unfortunately as soon as I took the nippers to the board, a big chunk fell out of the corner. So I had to trim the board by about 2 inches for the inside corner. Once that was done, Dave lifted it into place and I drew the line for the other edge. We cut the board and sighed with relief when it didn’t break.

Newly cut piece of siding

We tried nails to find the center of the box for the outside light, then I drilled a hole in the box and started a long screw. I thought some wet paint on the screw head would make a mark at the center of the box on the siding but if it did, it was impossible to see. Instead we measured from the top, bottom and side and drilled a pilot hole big enough to peep through. It was over the hole for the box so I made the hole bigger and tried to determine where the center of the box was located with a screwdriver poked through the hole. Eventually I had a circle on the panel to cut out with a grinder and some tile nippers. After trying it again up on the wall, I had to make the hole larger at the bottom but it turned out the opening was over the hole for the box which was fortunate.

I didn’t get the panel screwed on, just a couple of nails, not nailed in all the way are holding it up, along with a couple of boards leaning against the panel. Tomorrow will get out there and get it screwed in and painted. Since this is the unpainted and therefore cheaper version of the panels, I’m going to use some of the extra edge paint to have the whole panel match, until I get around to changing the outside color to better match the existing stucco.

I hope the pieces left of the siding are enough to cover the rear entry door area. That would mean all the torn off siding from last year gets replaced before deep winter arrives.

Siding to Master Porch

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

The Great Unwind

Posted on November 24, 2016 by ellen

For a couple of years we have been using my family’s 60’s silver Christmas tree. It is definitely a classic and with a new rotating light, fascinated the grandkids.

Antique Silver Tree

But this year I thought I would like to try one of those tall skinny fake trees. I want to use our traditional ornaments again and they are too heavy for the silver tree. I’ve been looking for a tree for a few months on craigslist but the sellers were either too far away or I was not as motivated as I am now. The sellers are smart to wait for the holidays to get the best price. I bought the tree from a family who pick them up at garage sales etc. all year and refurbish them if they can. They were decorating their house when I arrived to buy the tree, the kids were on the roof, and invited me back to see it at night. Last year they won a prize and their entire December electric bill was paid for them! This one had been prelit and they could not fix the lights. But I decided to take the lights off the tree.

Craigslist 9 ft. tree

Instead of just cutting them off though, like most of the examples on other blogs, I just unwound them from branch to branch. I actually think this was easier, because every other branch had a twig wrapped completely around the light and it would have been difficult to find them all and unwrap them. But I was rewarded with tons of needles falling onto the floor and to me. I think this tree is pretty old! But it serves the purpose for this year.

Unwinding the lights

As it was it took me about five hours to unwrap all the lights. There are more blackened bulbs than clear ones so it was probably a power surge that killed these lights.

Broken light pile

I’m not sure if these strings of lights have enough value to save for another project. There are several fused plugs and it is always good to have extra plugs around but they are only rated for 3 amps. They are all white lights.
I’m thinking of ordering sets of LED bulbs to replace them with. Some say the LED’s are too bright but I have some that are not very bright. Just a bit large for the tree. I like the look of this tall skinny tree though. I had to rearrange all the living room furniture to fit it into the room.

New Christmas Tree

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Family Affair Soffit

Posted on November 20, 2016 by ellen

Both my brother and my sister helped install the soffit for the ventilation ductwork. We finished two ten foot sections.

John Installs the Soffit

John recommended building it with the metal studs and he showed me how to use them. Jean was very helpful as ladder holder and getting tools and screws.

Jean Holds the Ladder

The duct will exit the attic into the metal soffit or shaft.

Soffit for Ventilation Duct

Under the windows, I will install corian as light shelves. These will reflect the sunlight up to the ceiling and allow it to penetrate the room more fully.

Soffit Under Window

We think this area might need quarter inch drywall to stabilize the studs without being too heavy. With the soffit in place, I can install the ducts and the ventilation system.

Posted in Construction, Ventilation | Comments Off

Back to the Siding

Posted on November 11, 2016 by ellen

My brother generously offered to visit and help with the house construction. It is sort of a vacation for him and he likes house building projects almost as much as I do. He is much more of a perfectionist though, which can’t be a bad thing when cutting and hanging panel siding!

One of the big chores for the siding was to replace the insulation over the trombe wall areas. There is a gap behind the upper siding and the interior block wall that is inaccessible from inside the house. We first noticed this area when the original drywall was torn off.

Block wall is thick but does not hold up the rafters

Another photo of the inaccessible area from the master bedroom stoop when the siding was taken off. There is a gap between the block and the surface of the trombe wall.

Left side interior, Right side behind slag block wall

Left side interior, Right side behind slump block wall

The only way to get into the gap area was to tear off the outside siding and polyiso sheathing around the trombe wall glazing area. Then we removed and discarded all the old insulation.

Gap Over Trombe Glazing

Tearing off the siding and removing all the nails, sheathing and insulation was time consuming.

Tearing Out Old PolyIso and Fiberglass Insulation

There was a gap of about 12 inches or the width of the outer trombe masonry.

Size of the Gap

Then the gap was refilled with Roxul rock wool insulation.

Filling Gap with Roxul Insulation

The Roxul insulation was cut to fit behind the outer wall that is over the block masonry wall and up into the rafters.

Insulation Going In Above Window

After resheathing with foil backed polyiso the drip edges were installed above the siding. Then the sheathing was covered with Siga exterior membrane, layered with the rain screen, and lined with steel wool above and below to keep out insects and mice. Finally the siding could be cut and fit over the wall assembly.

Applying the Siding

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Trombe Wall | Comments Off

Rough Plumbing Inspection #2

Posted on November 8, 2016 by ellen

Failed again!

Plumbing Inspection Report

I was disappointed to find that there were several errors in the plumbing that I have been working so hard to get to the inspection stage. I broke a couple of rules, one that I knew about and another that I didn’t know.

First one of the most common errors that I KNEW about is using a sanitary tee for a horizontal drain. In my quest to include a stupid cleanout behind the family room bathroom sink, I ended up extending the pipe with a sanitary tee. Just not thinking I guess.

New Sink Plumbing

So I’m just going to eliminate the cleanout and use a sweep elbow for the drain.

The second error was not something I was aware of or understood. The water in the trap may not be above the opening to the vent. They call the normal water level in the trap the water weir.

Rules for fixture venting

Some additional illustrations of the trap weir rule.

Trap weir not higher than vent

I broke this rule both at the master bathroom sink by raising the drain at the end of the pipe run, and the bar sink.

Master Bath Sink Drain

Bar Sink Drain

In the master bath the solution is to turn the upturned pipe towards the sink, and for the bar sink I will have to raise the air vent tee.
I also have to install nail plates on both sides of the studs where the water pipes run. He said they had to have clearance of 1.5 inches from the stud edge. And a back flow valve on the hand held shower in the master bath to prevent water from entering the supply if the shower is dropped into the tub.

Besides looking at the plumbing, the inspector looked at the gas line to the stove and said it has to be black pipe all the way into the cabinet, not flex pipe. He also looked at the wood boiler, and said he needed the installation instructions to be sure it was installed correctly. So I sent him the manual and the data on the pressure relief valves and an explanation of our installation.

Posted in Inspections, Plumbing | Comments Off

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