We just had a housewarming today, featuring a Tux the penguin cake because Rob and I have been using Unix for 25 years now. Who'd a thunk it? I remember when there were many operating systems and now we're only buying systems that run Linux. Even Cray is selling Linux systems. I'm so happy to not be using VMS or that IBM thing that believed all lines had 80 characters - and made it so.
Anyway, we learned a few interesting things about the Parade of Homes yesterday and today. The dean of Rob's department and his wife were coming out to see our house, but turned back because they didn't have winter tires on yet - and she was one of the judges. Nevertheless, we managed to take first prize on our kitchen - for what it's worth.
In other home news, it's feast or famine on the wind power front. Without wind, we have to run the generator every other day to keep things working in the winter. The solar panels aren't doing much good even when the snow isn't covering them every day. Still, now we get to gloat about being warmer than town by a noticeable amount, maybe 20 degrees.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Tuesday - Thursday
Thursday morning dawn, greatly enhanced picture. The digital camera just can't pick up the low amount of light. Moon and solar array as well :)
Tuesday evening: all the center island lights are working.
The drying closet has clothes lines:
One shower curtain hung:
A new toy. Fit2 PC, consumes at best 7 to 8 watts of power (includes a 160 Gb small form factor hard drive). Perfect for off grid use. Note the size, that is a quarter sitting on the unit. Need plenty of air flow around the unit. The unit does not have a fan so the chassis heats up fairly well. The plan is to datalog from the renewable system. Hitting a USB/serial barrier right now...
Tuesday evening: all the center island lights are working.
The drying closet has clothes lines:
One shower curtain hung:
A new toy. Fit2 PC, consumes at best 7 to 8 watts of power (includes a 160 Gb small form factor hard drive). Perfect for off grid use. Note the size, that is a quarter sitting on the unit. Need plenty of air flow around the unit. The unit does not have a fan so the chassis heats up fairly well. The plan is to datalog from the renewable system. Hitting a USB/serial barrier right now...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A great moving day
Record high temperature today made for a great moving day, one of many. Here we have parts of a bed and Rob looking out the window wondering why the wind turbine wasn't turning...
Reassembled:
Wind turbine was turning today, but only when there was room in the batteries. The turbine up the hill was turning but our was stopped at times. It wasn't for lack of wind, the wind turbine has a breaking mechanism to actually stop the turbine when there is no place to put the power. We have a full charge on the batteries again.
At this point, we are minimally moved in. We have a place to sleep and shower curtains. Water, power and food complete the circuit.
Reassembled:
Wind turbine was turning today, but only when there was room in the batteries. The turbine up the hill was turning but our was stopped at times. It wasn't for lack of wind, the wind turbine has a breaking mechanism to actually stop the turbine when there is no place to put the power. We have a full charge on the batteries again.
At this point, we are minimally moved in. We have a place to sleep and shower curtains. Water, power and food complete the circuit.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
It is done!
The Friday 4pm walk through was postponed to 1:30 PM Saturday.
The final walk through is complete. We have all the essentials. There is a punch list of bugs. Thorsten Chlupp stands by his work. There is a 90-day and 11-month checkup before the first year warranty expires on the workmanship for the new home.
Can we begin moving? I could invoke a well know former AK Gov. Palin expression... simply yes!
Things will get back to normal. Normal being defined as we can get back to our schedule rather than being on call for any questions that pop up about the new home.
Our phone number will remain the same (so far). It is currently a land line, we have plans to try and transfer that to an iPhone.
The new address will change to "5629 Reconstruction Road". The zip is the same.
... and the story continues ... just down a different path and maybe sneak some knitting back into the blog, how about that?
The final walk through is complete. We have all the essentials. There is a punch list of bugs. Thorsten Chlupp stands by his work. There is a 90-day and 11-month checkup before the first year warranty expires on the workmanship for the new home.
Can we begin moving? I could invoke a well know former AK Gov. Palin expression... simply yes!
Things will get back to normal. Normal being defined as we can get back to our schedule rather than being on call for any questions that pop up about the new home.
Our phone number will remain the same (so far). It is currently a land line, we have plans to try and transfer that to an iPhone.
The new address will change to "5629 Reconstruction Road". The zip is the same.
... and the story continues ... just down a different path and maybe sneak some knitting back into the blog, how about that?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Friday 4pm
Postponed walkthrough... next attempt is 4 PM Friday.
The generator was worked on all day Wednesday. We will get the details on what was done Friday. The generator had two known problems: (1) Output frequency varied wildly between 50 and 60 Hz. (2) During shutdown it would occasionally throw an overspeed error.
Further modifications are:
The generator was worked on all day Wednesday. We will get the details on what was done Friday. The generator had two known problems: (1) Output frequency varied wildly between 50 and 60 Hz. (2) During shutdown it would occasionally throw an overspeed error.
Further modifications are:
- Installation of timer for the pan heater to keep the genset warm during critically cold periods of time.
- Connection of autostart connection from the inverter to the genset
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
A walkthrough Wednesday?
Tony took this great shot from above!
Are you ready? The 1st walkthrough could be as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday). Weee!
Are you ready? The 1st walkthrough could be as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday). Weee!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Sunday drive
House on the hill, viewed from Murphy Dome Road:
Wind tower (not so active today; tower further up the hill was turning):
Solar array and wind tower:
Wind tower:
Solar array:
Wind tower (not so active today; tower further up the hill was turning):
Solar array and wind tower:
Wind tower:
Solar array:
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