Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

[Tickhill]

OJ, chronic fatigue syndrome is rampant among those born after 1975. Don't ask how I know.
Tickhill

[OlJarhead]

Key bimmer!  Re-key the cabin locks to match the house keys.   Just an idea... leave home and lock up, drive, use same key to open up.

Great idea! How does one do that though?  Guess I could ask my locksmith buddy.

[OlJarhead]

OJ, chronic fatigue syndrome is rampant among those born after 1975. Don't ask how I know.
Tickhill

Seriously!  And they seem to think they are hard done by!  Sheesh.

Now my Champion $300 generator is stating to die.

[MountainDon]

Great idea! How does one do that though?  Guess I could ask my locksmith buddy.

Remove the keyed lock cylinders from the door and take them to a locksmith or a good hardware store like an Ace or True Value. Most of those do re-keys at $5 a pop. So does Big Blue and Orange for that matter. Might be easier to re=key the home locks to the cabin keys as the doors have to be left with no locks for as long as it takes to go back and forth to the lock shop.  It also reduces the number of keys on your keyring. Small element of danger having everything using same keys I guess, but I think it is a non issue. Axes on doors and concrete blocks through glass trump keys any day anyhow.

[OlJarhead]

Remove the keyed lock cylinders from the door and take them to a locksmith or a good hardware store like an Ace or True Value. Most of those do re-keys at $5 a pop. So does Big Blue and Orange for that matter. Might be easier to re=key the home locks to the cabin keys as the doors have to be left with no locks for as long as it takes to go back and forth to the lock shop.  It also reduces the number of keys on your keyring. Small element of danger having everything using same keys I guess, but I think it is a non issue. Axes on doors and concrete blocks through glass trump keys any day anyhow.

That makes perfect sense!  Thanks!  I could do that easily enough.

[MountainDon]

I wasn't this brilliant naturally. I became this smart after driving 1 hr 45 minutes to our cabin and finding myself without keys.   

[UK4X4]

I have a set left at my site and a set with a friend in the nearest town


after flying for 12 hours the idea of leaving the keys behind makes you a tad paranoid !

[OlJarhead]

I wasn't this brilliant naturally. I became this smart after driving 1 hr 45 minutes to our cabin and finding myself without keys.   

LOL a drive that 'short' I'd make!  But alas I'm a good 4+ hours from home so no driving for me.  I took the broken key to Ace and had them make me a new one   IT works nicely.

Now to change how I keep keys (as in a set on each vehicle keys) and to plan on changing out the locks some day soon.

[OlJarhead]

It is definitely tough sometimes when working alone in a remote location in a building you must also live in.  However I am finding that as long as you remember to take the time to sweep the place up and put things away it isn't too bad.  Of course you must also except that you cannot do everything at once so you pick your battles, for battles they are some times, and take each challenge on one at a time.

Today I'd hoped to get the new heater in place along with finishing the composting toilet install, mortaring in the cinder blocks at the entrance to the compost room and to backfill the area around the room as much as possible.  However, the best laid plans of mice and men as they say and I found myself heading to Home Depot in Omak to pick up a few things I could not get locally.  I did, however, take back $29 worth of valves I didn't need to the local hardware store and while there got a key made for the porch door using a broken key (it works perfectly).  So now we have an extra set of keys that I will put on my truck keyring along with one tractor key when they arrive.  The other set I'll put on my Jeep keys and in that way I will always have a set of keys regardless of what rig I'm driving!

While in Omak I went by Walmart and bought some fruit and salad stuff so I could get back to eating salads and fruit (fruit I started last week thanks to Kurtis McVay).  I arrived back at the cabin around 1PM and set to the task of getting ready to mortar the cinder blocks in.  This is when I discovered I had to have an additive for cold weather so I shifted gears and did some back-filling (shovel work) to work off frustration.

Realizing that I'd not yet started the composting toilet work I set down my shovel, having worked out my frustration at not being able to mortar, and set to figuring out what needed to be done with the 4" vent stack.  That's when I realized that the boys hadn't testing the sewage pipe for clearance.  Can't blame them though as they'd not installed one of these things before.  So, after some testing I got out the sawzall and cut off some of the inlet pipe so it would clear the drum when rotated. 

Next was the vent that I wanted to run up next to the cabin so it could be properly secured to the roof and to do so I needed to add some 45 degree elbows and secure the stack to the rafters.  Once I had the first part done I drilled a 4" hole through the lower portion of the roof (our roof is 1/2" OSB followed by 2" foam board and another sheet of 1/2" OSB) where the vent would go through it and then went onto the roof and offset drilled the next hole so the stack would rise up vertically without any issue.  Once done I was able to work the vent into place and secure it with straps. I was able to wrangle the vent pieces together (I'd already glued most of it on the ground) and though I forgot the rubber seal on the roof side I was able to go back and install it.  Finally I used spray foam to fill the gap so I wouldn't lose any heat out that way  While on the roof I also sealed the propane hot water heater vent with high temp vent sealer.

So, with the 4" stack installed and the sewage pipe installed by the boys earlier (and tailored a little by me) I just needed to put in the overflow and the 2" stack.

The overflow was pretty straight forward and took little time to complete.  It was fortuitous that I decided to set the compost bin on top of 2" foam insulation as it made it easier to ensure the overflow would be at the right height for the outlet we'd installed in the floor.

Next I learned that I would need to find all the parts from the original install of the composter 3 years ago because I would need at least one coupler in order to get the vent going up to the roof at the right spot.  As it was getting late I set it in place, covered it and tested everything as is.  Nothing leaked (thank you Kurtis and Josh Miller) and after a little silicone I was ready to use (no I didn't but I now have a functional bathroom again!).

I still need to run some power to the vent fan (easy) and find the parts for the 2" vent (should be in the shed but they aren't really needed anyway so it can't wait).

I didn't get to the heater despite putting in 6 good hours (3 hours I was driving/shopping) but that leaves tomorrow and I did get more backfilling done.  I also prepped the concrete for mortar work and hauled all the bricks over from the stack in the wheel barrow (no tract means I am the tractor).

Finally I made dinner, which thanks to my beautiful and awesome wife, Darci, was really just me warming up meatballs and roasted pineapple and habanero sauce over rice (Darci takes care of me).  For the rest of the evening I'll relax a bit, have a drink and listen to music on the new car stereo, or perhaps watch some TV.  I'll likely be in bed early too -- like last night -- as staying up late burns electricity and I can't afford to do that!

[OlJarhead]

So last night I thought the 6 or 7 year old $300 Champion generator was crapping out.  It was running very roughly and I didn't think it would last the week.  I added oil and hoped for the best since I couldn't install the new backup generator until the weekend now (at the earliest).  So I was stuck hoping the old genny would hang in there.

Then, tonight after my shower I had to go out and set the heater in the composter room and close it up tight for the night and decided to crank up the generator to see if it would run ok after a good warm up.  It started fine as usual and ran ok for a few minutes.  Then it began to run rough again and for whatever reason I decided to hit the choke and see what happened.  The choke lever was loose!  As I went to move the choke I noticed it was moving freely and had no stiffness to it.  I moved it about and the generator struggled, then I held it open and the generator run great again.  Hmmmm......so I wired it open an gee whiz if this old El Cheapo Chinese generator didn't go back to running like a Champion (pun intended)

So all is well with the genny and I'll be able to leave the internet running while I flick on the TV to see what's on tonight   Sweet!

[OlJarhead]

Ahhh Coffee!  Worked hard yesterday so treated my self to some French Vanilla flavoured coffee today   See Cabin Life isn't all that rough   Heck I even watched TV last night and am listening to classic rock this morning.

My day will be full though as I need to visit a customer this morning and help them out a little and pick up the stickers I loaned them) then assuming Home Depot has a mortar additive for cold weather I'll make the attempt to lay some bricks.  If I can get that done then I can concentrate on prepping the area the new generator will go this week and if I get the new heater installed (today hopefully) then I can get the auto generator switch installed as well as the battery monitor.

It's going to be a full day!

[OlJarhead]

Ahhhh how I want to smack myself

I had not checked my batteries in a while, a long while, and knowing that they were not holdin a charge well I finally got around to clearing them off (note to self:  don't use the box as a storage place) and checking them.  Let me put it this way:   

The plates were showing on all cells of 6 of the 8 batteries.

I kept thinking "Damn I wish I paid more attention to MountainDon's posts!"  and to others.  So to those of you who have stressed battery care and maintenance my hats off to you.  I feel like a dunce really because you simply cannot ignore things like this and I KNOW IT!  But still I ignored the batteries for too long and undoubtedly am paying for it.  So, I added water.  Pure water (the best I had was 99% pure eye wash water I brought from work because they were going to toss it (it was 2014 dated but they wanted 2016).  I topped all cells off, started a charge with the genny (since the sun is starting to drop behind the trees and then read NOT to top them off just yet 

OK so at least I didn't overfill but it seems it's best to cover the plates THEN after fully charged to top them off to 1/8" from the bottom of the well.

I guess better over then under.

Now I need to know what Glenn puts in his batteries (Hydrogen Peroxide?  Something like that?) to descale them (right?) 

I still plan to get the other 4 which are about the same age (sounds like some are the same age and some are a tad newer).

On a side note the 2 yr old batteries were not down much in water whereas the 3 yr old ones were.  I found that interesting.

[OlJarhead]

This morning I ran to a customers in Okanogan to pick up some stickers I'd loaned them after milling up about 600 board feet of pine this summer and I brought along my plane since they were having issues with one they rented.  The Dewalt they rented just wouldn't plane anything and after some fiddling around I pulled out my trusty and beaten up Ryobi and what do ya know?  It worked like a charm and I left it with them on the agreement that they would return it when done with a bottle of Jack Daniels as payment

We had a nice chat an then I headed to HD to check on additives for mortar in cold climates.  You'd think they would have that sort of thing since this is a place that can get cold...but no luck.  SO I headed home and determined to go ahead and do the mortaring anyway.  After all it was very warm out and likely to be warm all night (might get to freezing in the morning but certainly not for a while. and the mortaring had planned was for a retaining wall anyway.  So with that in mind I set to the task and completed, mostly, the work I needed to get done.  I then spent a little time cleaning up before tackling the batteries (posted above).

[OlJarhead]

The retaining wall entrance to the new room.  It aint fancy but I think it will work.


Here you can see the propane tank (50 gals), the new addition and the now heavily covered and insulated retaining wall structure.  With luck it will be ready for backfilling as son as I get my tractor key and am here to do the work (have to go to meetings Wednesday and Thursday).

[OlJarhead]

Hmmmmm......

So I got home and whipped out my voltmeter and checked voltages on each battery, then pulled out my hygrometer and came up with the following:

1. 6.34 - 1.200/1.225/1.225
2. 6.36 - 1.200/1.200/1.225
3. 6.36 - 1.225/1.225/1.225
4. 6.34 - 1.225/1.225/1.225
5. 6.33 - 1.220/1.220/1.220
6. 6.37 - 1.225/1.225/1.220
7. 6.35 - 1.220/1.220/1.220
8. 6.34 - 1.187/1.187/1.187

Interestingly enough the 1.187 battery was NOT one of the batteries that had low water 

So if memory serves Trojan recommends equalizing if there is a 0.015 deviation between cells after fully charged and while I cannot be certain they were fully charged I'd say it's high time I did some equalizing.

So I got the generator fired up, used a hand pump to syphon gas out of an ATV because I was about out of fule in the Genny and the can, set the Iota charger to equalize (so I thoiught) and flipped the breaker.  I marked the time and 20 minutes later checked voltage and found the ban k at 14.2.  Hmmm    Checking the book I discovered that I was wrong and the Iota does not equalize.   It just has two settings:  13.6 and 14.2 

So with that I took it off the 14.2 setting and let it drop back o 13.6 figuring that the batteries were supposed to be charged when I arrived (which we will see they were not so I'm not sure what I was thinking).

Anyway, looking at the voltages I see that according to trojan a voltage of 6.31 should be 90% of charge and all of my batteries showed 6.33 or better (see above).  This would stand to reason since the sun wasn't hitting the panels at all and I had a fridge and freezer running.

Next looking at the specific gravity Trojan shows 1.217 at 70% of charge and all mine were 1.220 or better except that one battery mentioned above. 

OK Admittedly my eyes are getting tired and I had to switch to my 2.50x readers in order to read the numbers on the hygrometer (or is it hydrometer ) and I didn't get specific (no pun intended).  If it was within a line of 1.220 I called it 1.220 etc.  Only time I noticed a real difference was when I saw the one batter well low of the others.

So, either my SG readings are off or my votages are off or the SG readings are more accurate and I ought to go with them but then it begs the question:  If it was just 5:30PM and the panels had sun at least a couple hours ago then shouldn't they be higher then that? Well of course.

And thus I'm worried about the batteries.

Worst still is that I cannot equalize until Saturday or Sunday since I won't be here during peak sun hours to do so and need the inverter to remain on.

[OlJarhead]

Typing away I left the door to the wood stove open (I was starting a fire to warm the place up and had left it cracked a bit to get it going) an heard a roar.  Strange I thought, is someone coming?  Then I heard cracking and popping in the stove pipe and realized OH CRAP!  I left the door open and probably came VERY close to starting a chimney fire!  I'm only guessing but I'm sure it was creosote burning in the flue.  Maybe not, hopefully not but I tamped down the stove and it eventually stopped and the hot smell the stove pipe was giving off started to lesson.

Dammit!  I can't get careless like that can I?

[OlJarhead]

Back to my batteries.

Looking at the log on my MPPT controller I see that I had only 133 minutes of absorption charging today with a max voltage of 14.56 an a low of 11.84 (which I presume was during the fridge or freezer cycling which of course drops the voltage).

I'm running Linux on this laptop so I don't know if I can get MSView to work on it easily or not but I'll have to try so I can get more data.  The panels produced 1720 watt hours (122.8 AH) of charging today.

The voltage suggests they dropped to about 65% discharged though I'm not certain of that since I know when the Freezer stops the voltage pops right back up.

[MountainDon]

If it was within a line of 1.220 I called it 1.220 etc. 

Temperature corrected??

Cold raises the sp gr. Hydrometers are calibrated at 80 F. Electrolyte temperatures
above or below 80 F must be adjusted. For every 10 F increment below 80 F, subtract 0.004
to the hydrometer readings, and for each 10 F increment above 80 F, add 0.004 to the
readings.

[MountainDon]

either my SG readings are off or my votages are off or the SG readings are more accurate

SG are the most accurate, when read accurately. Voltages are always suspect because of the way they change with charge and discharge currents.

[OlJarhead]

Temperature corrected??

Cold raises the sp gr. Hydrometers are calibrated at 80 F. Electrolyte temperatures
above or below 80 F must be adjusted. For every 10 F increment below 80 F, subtract 0.004
to the hydrometer readings, and for each 10 F increment above 80 F, add 0.004 to the
readings.

No.  So if I understand then  need to subtract about 0.008-0.010 from those readings so my SG of 1.200 is really 1.192?

[OlJarhead]

SG are the most accurate, when read accurately. Voltages are always suspect because of the way they change with charge and discharge currents.

It seems that I need to completely disconnect power for 6 hrs before checking accurately but I can't do that.  As it was I killed the power so there was no draw when checking but again, probably not nearly as accurate as I need to be.  THis weekend I'll see what I can come up with after fully charging and equalizing.

[OlJarhead]

I have been very busy this week!  But not on the cabin.  I had to travel to Spokane for meetings with the management team for Eastern WA and left Wednesday to return today.  I was a little worried because I had to leave the fridge and freezer running and the batteries are just barely keeping up with demands but I was happy to see them fully charged (or mostly) when I arrived tonight.  They had dropped to 11.7vdc each morning but charged back up during the day so while that's deeper then I'd like to see them discharged each day I picked up 4 batteries to add to the bank and plan to get the backup generator installed this weekend so I can mitigate that by having it run when the batteries are down about 50%.  I'm hoping the magnum auto gen start is able to be set for the right voltage to do that but am not certain it will.  However with the additional batteries I'm hoping it will. 

My plan is to equalize the battery bank tomorrow and with luck I'll get the cables to add the 4 batteries I picked up.  Then with luck I'll see some improvement.  One thing I noted was that I'm not getting the full absorption minutes I need on the bank right now.  I'm getting around 120 to 135 minutes of absorption and no float so having the batteries hang in there with that I think I'm doing ok.

With the new genny added I should be ok for the winter.

Also, the new room is working!  I has stayed between 48 and 60 degrees despite freezing weather and without the proper heater installed (the one that is in there is set very low so it could be raised a bit to warm it up more but I'd prefer to finish the room and install the right heater first).

Cabin was 50 degrees when I arrived tonight but I've gotten it warmed up nicely with the wood stove and while the water is low I now have the weekend to resolve that issue also.  So, I'll be busy this weekend but happy that the batteries are doing their thing ok since I added water.

Tomorrow I'll fire up the generator in the morning to charge them up a bit before the sun hits the panels, then when I have full sun I'll start the equalize.  I have to do that with the 8 I have installed because I don't have cabling for the new ones but at least I should, I hope, get the bank in better shape in the meanwhile.

Next weekend will be the real test since I'll be gone for 5 days for my daughters wedding.  THen I'll be back a week before taking a long weekend again so I better get the 2nd heater installed and the backup generator!  I'm really hoping that when all is said and done I can keep things energized without seeing the batteries nearly die over night!  Wish me luck!

[considerations]

I am watching with interest. This will be my first winter with a new solar array and battery bank as well. Conditions change radically in winters here, shorter daylight hours, colder panels, colder batteries...who knows how things will turn out?

Brace yourself for a lecture from at least one of our emeritus members about letting your bank dip down below 12 volts. They got me to set the low battery cut out level at 12.1. 

Oh yeah...and I got religious about changing the oil in the gens.

The adventure continues...

[OlJarhead]

Oh I know!  I HATE to see the batteries dropping like that and only hope they will hang in there until late spring.  Meanwhile I did some work today

First I got out and started the generator so the batteries would be relatively charged up before the sun hit the panels.  THen when the sun was hitting the panels hard I set up the charge controller to equalize and let it go.  THat was a bit of an adventure becuase you have to set the controller to do so, but tell it to run every 0 days so it won't auto equalize, then you can hit the button for 5 seconds and start the cycle.  That took me a bit to figure out and some readin.

I marked the time when I started and since I'd aleady been out backfilling the propane line trench and around the new room I took a break, sharpened up my chain saw and went and dropped 5 ot 6 trees that were blocking my well pump panel.  Then I checked the specific gravity of the batteries to see where they were after 45 minutes:

1.  1.235/1.225/1.230
2.  1.250/1.235/1.245
3.  1.250/1.250/1.250
4.  1.250/1.250/1.235
5.  1.250/1.250/1.245
6.  1.260/1.260/1.250
7.  1.250/1.250/1.230
8.  1.235/1.250/1.235

I went back to backfilling and working the ground around the back room where the generator was going to be installed and checked the batteries again at 58 minutes.

1.  1.250/1.260/1.250
2.  1.250/1.250/1.250
3.  1.250/1.255/1.250
4.  1.250/1.250/1.250
5.  1.250/1.250/1.250
6.  1.250/1.250/1.250
7.  1.250/1.250/1.250
8.  1.250/1.250/1.250

THe equalize stopped at that point so I ran it again for 15-20 minutes but remembering something about overheating the batteries I shut it down.  At least my last readings were very good (Fair on the SG meter but good because they were within tollerance of one another) if not 'GOOD' for batteries that have been equlized for over an hour.

So with the batteries equalized and the sun still out and charging them and having reconfigured the controller to better match the batteries according to Trojan I went back to work on the back room and backfilling the space for the generator. 


Luckily I have a tractor and forks for it and I was able to move the generator into place.  I hooked up the line provided by the gas company but need to get some BI Pipe and do it right.  I'll work on that in the future but for now I managed to get the line ran into the generator and leak free.


You can see the backfilling.  Some of it was done by hand but mostly the tractor did the work.


Not the best lighting but you get the idea


Blurry but this is the Iota 55a charger now hooked up to a wall outlet which goes outside.


I temp ran some romex from the outlet to the genny -- originally this outlet was meant to be run to the portable generator inside a dog house so I could just run it and charge the batteries as needed but living here calls for some changes.


Again, just a temp set up until I can get a breaker box installed on the outside of the room and then run into the room and to the charger from there.  That will take some time though.


A closer shot of the ground work and genny


ANd the cabin as it sits tonight

I'm running the generator now and it's nice to be able to kust go out and flip the switch.  WIll be nicer though when I can let the auto start do the work

[OlJarhead]

Ran the genny for 3.4 hrs today and am hoping the batteries will hold above 12.1vdc tonight.  We shall see!

Meanwhile I noticed the back room seems to have a more stable temp since backfilling around it.  I'm hoping that once I've completely backfilled the area around the room that the insualtion will make it easier to hold the temp above 50 degrees for the composter since it was dropping to 48 on cold nights.  Might need to increase the setting on the heater but then it's not the right heater for the room and I need to get the right one installed which I HOPE to do tomorrow after getting the generator auto start configured and fixing the well pump.

Wish me luck I guess!

Meanwhile the TV is off, the wood stove is loaded and I'm thinking it will be an early nice since I don't want to waist too much power with lights (not using power for the laptop until the batter dies and I'll be done before then though I am leaving the modem and wireless router on since I am the manager on call this weekend -- just got notified today -- and need to know if anyone is trying to contact me via email in the middle of the night since my cell doesn't work other then on the net out here.  I need that network extender!  But that takes more power....ahhh the life).