Glad to hear the report from the fire fighters though I am not surprised.  You've done a great job!  I'm quite envious and need to work on mine also.  I've been thinking that I need to remove a LOT more trees in the area North of our cabin and then MUST begin delimbing within 6-8 feet of the ground....lots of land to do it on, but you have to start somewhere right?

I also thought of renting a DR mower to tow behind the ATV and mow down the tall grass as I think that might help also.

The fire fighters crew that came up to see what was what, said cutting off the ladder fuel branches up to 10-12 feet was best. We have a extension handle that lets us reach that distance. One with a curved razor saw blade. It does develop the arm muscles; makes 'em a little sore if they aren't up to the task. Sometimes a rocking motion where you move your body is easier.

Keeping the grass whacked down is good too. As is bare dirt around the cabin. Stone, rock good too.

We have noticed that we get a fair amount of pine needles blowing in under the cabin. I'm looking into different methods of enclosing the bottom; skirting the space around the piers. The underside is about the only place ignition could take hold with all the cement board we used.

I have the same issue with leaves collecting under my cabin but I figured out I can blow them out with a leaf blower pretty easy. Sounds like you're holding your own.

OlJarhead is 100% correct about mowing.  Just because some wild grasses are green do not assume they will not burn.  This coupled with the fuels near the root at times are very prime.  They are a lot safer when mowed or string trimmed back.  Or better yet grazed!  But then I am a cow guy and sheep are pretty good for that as well.    Goats tend to eat bushes and browse so if your homestead is studded with those $50 bushes around your cabin, you might not turn the goats loose there.  

Mountain Don is right.  They will flat tell you high as you can when limbing with a chain saw.  Just as high as you can reach---I will put a disclaimer in here.  Never use a chain saw to do that, use a pole saw.  But say you did use a chain saw, make sure you have - one - good footing, and - two - a very good grip on the saw.  Third - What you are cutting is going to fall - be aware of that.  That is where pole saws work so nice.  Then remove the boughs to a safe area to either burn as slash in the late fall early winter when safe to do so.   Or you can bury them into one of those garden areas Glen and Sassy are doing.              

Some of the weedeaters also have pole saw attachments.  Ours is a medium large sized Stihl and we have the pole saw for it... somewhere.....

Quote from: glenn kangiser on July 19, 2011, 07:19:38 AM
Some of the weedeaters also have pole saw attachments.  Ours is a medium large sized Stihl and we have the pole saw for it... somewhere.....

When you find it, can I borrow it?  If I can find my power unit.   

We have one of these up at the cabin:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200432713_200432713?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Logging-_-Pole%20Saws-_-395167&ci_sku=395167&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword}

Not the cheapest solution but works very nicely.

OK, sorry for the continued HiJack Don!  But I just bought a Pole saw too

I just decided it was time to get some other things done (as if we don't have enough).

One thing I like about our manual pole saw is that when I put it away I don't need to be concerned with draining the fuel or when I forget have to worry about whether or not it will start and run properly.  


So what am I up to now?    Here's a photo showing part. I'm not fully finished so I thought I'd do a teaser.     When I have this all done, next week, I'll post the full info.  



EDIT: That is the outside wall.

I'd say passive solar room, but I don't think that's it at all...lol.

Cold Cupboard?

A hint: What I am doing will help keep the cabin interior cool in the summer.

Swamp cooler?

are you exhausting some type of wall unit a/c?

No swamp cooler, no A/C at present.


There is a plan for an A/C but it has nothing to do with this "what is it".

Quote from: rick91351 on July 19, 2011, 01:54:49 PM
When you find it, can I borrow it?  If I can find my power unit.   

Not a problem, Rick.  Drop by to pick it up and we'll do breakfast.

I'm going to guess passive ventilation with opening vents inside?... and vents on the windward side... but then that is probably a bad guess as you could open a window....

Quote from: glenn kangiser on July 24, 2011, 10:21:34 AM
I'm going to guess passive ventilation with opening vents inside?... and vents on the windward side... but then that is probably a bad guess as you could open a window....

I think Don would have thought about opening the window.  But you never know   

Without a better source of water and power I would discount any type of conventional evaporative cooling.  But it must be some sort of exchanger, you know Don is pretty dog gone crafty.  How about a ....  I remember now I have to get out the door to go to work....   

Quote from: glenn kangiser on July 24, 2011, 10:18:42 AM
Not a problem, Rick.  Drop by to pick it up and we'll do breakfast.

Great will be down your way after I retire as it stands now in February.  Mostly likely will drop down that way and over to Death Valley for the spring bloom and some birding.  Before the rest of our lives open up for us.     

Cool, Rick.  We will dig a hole for you.

Death Valley --- Western edge... Saline Valley Hot Springs -- doing a bit of skinny dipping?   

Hey Don, when wiring up my Dietz timer and relay for the well it occurred to me that it could be used to utilize extra charging power during the winter months to provide heat in places that you might want it.

For example:  Set the time to come on only when you won't be at the cabin (you can switch it to 'on', 'auto' and 'off' so turning it off when at the cabin is easy enough -- or you can set it to only come on at specific days/times too).  Set it to kick the power on to an inverter (secondary inverter) that is set to 'on' all the time but powered off until the relay kicks and then have a space heater hooked up to the inverter and also set to 'on'.

When the timer kicks the relay the inverter powers up, the heater coils heat up and the excess energy  from the panels provides the power.

Of course you would have to set this for solar noon and perhaps only to run for 15-30 minutes but I'm guessing that it's doable and would help keep the cabin space warmed up.

Thoughts?

If we're still guessing I'm guessing a gas fridge is backed up to that spot.

So what are the vents for? Don_P hit the squarely nail on the head.    Sorry, there is no prize other than being correct and as smart as I am. 

Think about how much heat a refrigerator pumps into its immediate environment while it cools the refrigerator and freezer boxes. Some of the year that heat is welcome. However, in the summer it is not welcome, IMO. The usual household refrigerator adds enough heat to the environment. A propane fueled refrigerator is double bad news as there is also the heat from the pilot light and burner.

Decades ago when we moved to the SW it struck me early on that the refrigerator was a demon when summer rolled around. Back then I figured out a method to remove most of that heat from the house interior. If anyone is interested, ask me and I'll report on what I did. That method involves electric fans. I could not use the exact same method, or at least did not want to, because I did not want the electrical load, being off grid.

This is the lower vent from the inside...



So I borrowed a little technique from the RV world. As can be seen in the photos below I installed a 1x8 pine board, floor to ceiling, on the right rear of the refrigerator. This is screwed to the wall; conveniently there is a wall stud right there. It does not appear to be an airtight fit in some photos but there is a hidden rubber gasket. I added a 1.5" wide x 1/8" thick aluminum strip to the right rear corner of the refrigerator. This was needed to clear components of the cooling system on the back of the box. There already was a small lip on the top rear edge.  I boxed in the area above the refrigerator as illustrated. The refrigerator is pushed back against the 1x8 on the right side and the upper enclosure.







For use in the summer foam rubber pipe insulation is pressed into the 2" space between the left side of the refrigerator and the wall. This is curved back at the top to meet with the upper boxed in area. A second section of this rubber insulation is pressed into the space under the front edge of the refrigerator. The lower right edge of the refrigerator has a permanent baffle I installed. This all quite effectively seals off the refrigerator from the rest of the cabin interior. Warm/hot air is exhausted through the upper vent in the exterior wall by convection. Cooler air enters via the lower vent.



There is an access point to reach the gas valve for the refrigerator.





The other three seasons of the year we have cooler exterior temperatures. When we reach the point that some extra interior heat is desired the system is converted. 1. The rubber pipe insulation sections are both removed. 2. The door at the very top of the boxed in area above the refrigerator is pulled open. 3. The exterior vents will be closed off. The heat will then all be retained inside the cabin. I have a plan for making the closing off and reopening of the two exterior vents easier than the way things are at present. I'll update on that later.





Venting the heat to the outside made an amazing difference in the interior temperature over the past week. The weather this week was more or less the same as the previous, with some afternoon cloudiness and some rain. This week the interior never got to the point where it was uncomfortable in late afternoon as it had previously. Fortunately the evenings cool down.

Note: I had purchased the exterior vent kit sold by thenaturalhome.com when we bought the refrigerator. It is made for the Servel 400. It uses an inlet tube and a new sealed cover for the burner to supply fresh air to the burner. There is a second tube that connects the burner exhaust outlet to a second exterior vent. The idea is to eliminate any CO dangers inside the cabin as well as remove the combustion heat. I ran into a problem with it.

We have prevailing south winds. The cabin wall behind the refrigerator faces south. The week I installed the venting system we had some serious winds as well as the usual milder winds with gusts. The burner would flame out frequently. There were enough of these flame outs that it would be impossible to leave the cabin for a day without the danger of loosing refrigeration. Contact with the folks at the natural home revealed this is a sometimes problem. The suggestion was to move the fridge or vents to another wall; impossible. Another suggestion was exterior baffling. I had tried baffling the vents on the exterior wall, but there were still problems with gusting winds. In the end I removed that vent system completely. I have retained a short length of the exhaust tube (flexible aluminum) to bring the exhaust gases to just above the evaporator on the refrigerator back. The idea there is to duct those hot exhaust gases to above the coils rather than have them flow up the back coils. Sorry, no picture of that right now.

We have two CO monitors/alarms in the cabin so there is little worry about that eventuality when the refrigerator is venting inside the cabin. Two and one is two years newer than the other. Most of these should be replaced after five years of use.

It's all interesting & good ideas 

Don,

Not sure this would be code legal.  Is there a way to put a flapper check valve on the vent for the fridge?  The problem is (I assume) high pressure blowing into the vent and blowing out the pilot, not the other way around.  A check valve like you see on dryer vents would prevent that if it could be made to work safely.

Interesting concept.  I was wondering with the restriction of the factory tolerences of clearences for air circulation around the frig.  I just installed a Dometic 400 and haven't ran it enough to see what adverse effect it will have on the interior.  Today it was 92FOS and 77FIS but I had the doors open.  Normally it will not get above 70F if left closed up.  Maybe a back draft diverter will work similar to those in exhaust fans.   The problem is there is no actual forced air to open it up.  Maybe a small computer fan or battery fume exhaust fan in the line to force the exhaust out via the diverter.  I guess I will just have to see what happens both on your end and mine.