We Have Power...

11:55 am - 63 degrees - gorgeous day...

I am beyond excited to finally be able to say... we have power! 

It has taken a long time to get to this point - reliable 24 hour power.  The end of May will mark 5 years living off-grid with only a generator for our occasional power needs.

For the past several months, after Tony got home from work, he would go straight to work again on our “control room”.  Some concrete, framing, plywood, insulation, sheetrock and the room under the stairwell was enclosed to house our power system.

Once the control room was enclosed Tony was busy making battery cables, connecting the 16 deep cycle batteries together, connecting the batteries to the inverter, wiring the inverter, numerous trips to different stores to get parts, and several phone calls to Magnum Energy to get questions answered.  

There are still a few small details that need to be finished or worked out, but for the most part... our battery bank and inverter are finally hooked up and working!

Last night was the first time we were able to turn on a lamp without having to run outside to turn on the generator first.  It is amazing how exciting it is to be able to turn on a simple lamp.  

This morning, as I'm tying out this blog post on our desk top computer that is being powered by our own power system... I am in awe of my amazingly awesome husband who I believe can do anything and is Superman in our children's eyes.

Insulation...

47 degrees outside - 10:32 pm - it is raining at a rate of nearly .75 of an inch an hour, with wind speeds gusting 30 to 55 mph out of the S/SW...

The weatherman on the radio this morning said that the snow level is supposed to drop to 1000 feet by the end of the week.  Everyone knows how hard it is to predict the weather in the Northwest and how quickly the weather reports change.  If this one is accurate than that means we will have snow by this weekend.  Since I have already told you that we heat our home with firewood, I figured I would tell you how we are keeping the heat in.

There are numerous insulation products available and just as many arguments as to which one is the better.  We went with Knauf EcoBatt Glasswool Insulation, which is made primarily from sand and recycled glass.  It contains no phenol, formaldehyde, acrylics or artificial colors.  It is also Greenguard certified for children and schools. 

We are putting R-30 and R-38 in the roof, R-30 in the second floor, and R-21 in the walls.  The first floor will be concrete with radiant heat over R-12 foil backed foam board insulation.