I'm thinking my 4 yr old abused GCB's are probably at the end of their lives.  Seems with little sun and not much use they draw down from 24.8v to 23.0v in just a few hours when I kick on the fridge (which does draw a lot of wattage when cooling down on first run) etc.  Gen came on after the sun went down and while it won't run at all for two weeks if the cabin is empty and only the phone, inverter, 120mm, 90mm dc fans and Genset battery charger are running (30-200w depending on what's doing what) it sure comes on as soon as I start to really use the bank.

So while I was planning on replacing this year but didn't, I'm thinking next year it will be a must.

Another trip to the cabin for a few days and nothing done.  Honestly I just felt like relaxing in front of the wood stove and getting to sleep early for a good nights rest.  Sure, it is always enjoyable to be here but alas, I didn't have the energy to make it a productive trip (probably because it was raining and I had to work during the day).

I'll be back again soon and perhaps on my next 'weekend trip' I'll actually do something

OJ Speaking of stoves you have a Vermont Castings? 

Yes, Vermont Castings Aspen.  I think it's a good little stove though frankly it could be better starting with the removal of the low particulate portion and changing the incoming draft to the front door (or both sides of the front) above the ash pan.

I can get it to burn for 9+ hours which is a good thing when living with the stove and while it does require a lot of cleaning (I burn crap wood -- Ponderosa Pine -- a lot) once you have a system down it works pretty well over all.

In the winter my routine looks like this:  come home after work, shovel out ash and dump tray, remove air cover plate and sweep out ash (if air channels are filling then vacuum out), replace air cover plate, prime stove (have two 90 degree bends), light stove and burn hot until good coal bed is formed then fill with logs (large round if possible) and tamp down full.  In the morning I bring it back to life (normally with little effort) and burn hot until I leave when I stuff it with wood and tamp down again.

Seems like a lot of effort but that's all because it is a state mandated low particulate stove and a very small one at that   I know others who have a lot more trouble with their stoves.

We also have the VC Aspen with a straight up and out chimney. Straight is easier to get started. For some reason we do not have any issues with ash build up in the air channel. I've only cleaned that once a year in 6 winters. Might have something to do with my add-on fresh air blower I use to get things going quicker. The stove and chimney is a tight enough fit that we never have had any smoke leaks. We burn P. Pine too, very dry... seasoned 2 years minimum as a rule. Of course we are in a relatively low humidity area and that helps get the wood dry in a normal years time.

Side Note: All wood has virtually the same BTU content when dry. The wood has to 'ring' when 2 pieces are knocked together. No thuds allowed; that = moisture content. Virtually the same BTU per pound; oak being denser than pine has more BTU per equivalent volume of wood.

Thanks for the post Don (someone else reads my blather? lol 

I often wonder about the ash and if a fan would prevent it...might be in order.

I try to burn Fir and am in a very dry place also but have to season wood for two years.  I do however try to cut as much standing dead wood as I can.

   I have a Dutch West from Vermont Castings.  It goes straight up out of the top.  It is the largest model.  So anyway just wondered what you had and about the care and feeding there of ...... 

We did purchase a blower fan for this.  So far well pleased other than easy right now with 50 degree temps to over stoke it.  Open goes the doors and the windows.  Says volumes for the insolutation. 

Also thanks Don.  We always try and season our wood a couple years but............ 

Our firewood needs are modest so it doesn't take much work to get ahead of the curve. 

Quote from: MountainDon on October 17, 2014, 02:42:44 PM
Our firewood needs are modest so it doesn't take much work to get ahead of the curve. 

This will likely be me in the coming years as I no longer live in the cabin.  I spend long weekends there about every other weekend though and it's always nice to have extra firewood.

Got back to the cabin today and brought up this:

It's my old plow blade that broke last winter and is now officially a 'scraper'

lawmanonline.com removed the old broken center bolt and replaced with a 3.5" scd40 pipe inside of a 4" sch40 pipe and remounted the lock plate, added 4" of blade to the top and beefed things up.



I took it for a spin down the road and it did a nice job of scraping the driveway and cleaning it up.  I have no concerns with plowing snow now!

http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html
I last set my panels in September I think as I seem to recall setting them to 41 degrees.....was thinking it was time to adjust them and that my generator was running more tan I would like (though it has been overcast and raining) so I went to my favorite site for adjusting my panels and it says 25 degrees now....hmmm..... better get to it! lol

Genny has been running more than I'd like lately (and I wasn't here) but then it's been raining and I didn't adjust the panels...guess I better do that tomorrow!

County assessor has been by too which means our taxes will go up (I'm guessing triple).

Back at the cabin for the weekend and hoping to get a little wintering done as well as some other work.

Looking forward to the weekend

Just in time I'd say!  Going to be in the teens next week...high on Veterans day is only forecast to be 20F and I'll be leaving the day before and not coming back a while......so it's good I'm here this weekend as I'll be able to shut down the water etc and prep the cabin a bit for the cold weather.

With luck I'll leave it ready for a deep freeze and won't have frozen water, broken hot water and frozen drains when I return! lol

Looking up my solar angle again just to be sure I thought "this seems awfully steep" because I'd read (back when I was first building my system) that the sun varies about 15 degrees between extremes and to get maximum generation at those times you would add or subtract that from your latitude (mine is 48.69) and you'd be set.  Thus in winter if I were at 33.69 degrees (I rounded to 33+) you'd get max generation and that's what I did.

Now looking at these calculators that's not quite right.  The sun angle for my panels according to two different calculators (one uses lat/long based on zip code, the other uses country, state, city nearest you or on the same plane) my angle should actually be 24.82 degrees (using altitude also) and as steep as 18 degrees in the middle of December.

So I'm going to go out and adjust the panels and see what that gives me

 

I am happy to report that I've FINALLY fixed the 'state of charge' lights on my Charge Controller.  I discovered that I had ONE dip switch in the off position instead of 'on' which prevented the controller from excepting the settings I was trying to give it.  Now it's working as it should

On a side note I've had almost NO float charging going on in the last few weeks (clouds and rain etc) which is unusual for up here even this time of year and I'm hoping that we get some good solar production weather despite the cold.  After all, I'll need it to keep from having to run the genny so much!

After much procrastination I managed to finally get the new jet installed in the Housewarmer 8000BTU heater in the back room and the heater re-lit.  I also noticed that the heater did not come on when on 'low' and about 40-45 degrees in the room (good thing).  So I've reset my remote thermometer which I use to monitor the room and will see how the heater does on low while I'm gone (going to be in the teens for a while so it will get a work out).

Also got the composter rotated and the drawer emptied and refilled so it's also ready for me to leave

Did some road work so the driveway in at the steepest section is nice and graded with some crown to it.  I like to get it smoothed out a bit and crowned before the freeze so it will be easier to plow once it snows.

Worked the ground around the grey water drain too and added a good 6" of fill on top of the drain from the cabin which should help and buried the dry well better also (and removed the drain I'd mistakenly installed in it).

I'll have to come back tomorrow after getting the troops out working and shut the water off and drain the lines and hot water heater, then I should be ready to leave the cabin for a week or three without having to worry about frozen pipes etc.

And we're planning on heading up to my place this weekend ...    Guess I'm a glutton for punishment.  I want to get gable ends done and windows and doors in.  Should be fun.

Looks like you're all set for winter.

Quote from: JavaMan on November 12, 2014, 12:10:00 PM
And we're planning on heading up to my place this weekend ...    Guess I'm a glutton for punishment.  I want to get gable ends done and windows and doors in.  Should be fun.

Looks like you're all set for winter.

It will be COLD.  No snow likely as it appears that it will be clear but the temps will be in the single digits at night.  BE PREPARED!

It's been a few weeks since I was here and actually staying long enough to do anything and.....

Brrrrr...got to the cabin and it was well below freezing inside.  The power was OFF and the generator was in alarm (over crank).  With the power down to 22vdc I knew have to get lucky to get the generator running since the cabin power keeps it's battery charged but after a few attempts on manual it finally cranked!

Note to self:  don't leave the auto start switch set to 22.5vdc as it clearly is too low!  I'll reset to 23.5v tonight after I put it back on auto mode and with luck won't have this problem again.

Meanwhile the 3 coke cans in the fridge exploded (they were fine Monday when I stopped by) and made a nice frozen mess for me that I cleaned up enough for now (when I have running water I'll have to wash it out).

I then went out to get some water (since the water is off) but the 'frost free' spigot was frozen and I couldn't get it to work!  Grrrrr.....but the main valve is freeze from ice (there was water down there when I shut it off (probably from the frost free when I shut it off) so I think once the cabin is warmed up above 50F I should be able to turn the water back on and at least have cold water until tomorrow when I put the hot water heater back online.

The back room was 44F so I also need to turn up the heat in there a little but at least it was working.

So now, for the next couple hours I'll just have to relax by the wood stove and wait for the temp to rise to a comfortable range (it's 42F now).  Fortunately I have the back up heater which is helping a lot to get the cabin up to temp much faster than if I only had the wood stove.

So, time to watch TV and chill (no pun intended) I guess.

Yep never fails that when things go wrong you are not there to check on them.  Wondering if the propane would not flow right because of the temperature/and or low capacity that caused the generator to overcrank but not start. Might be something to consider.

You should also have a LBCO on your inverter.  My Magnum does which will not allow it to drop below the Low Battery setting which would help not dropping the battery voltage too low.

I have been experiencing "low oil pressure" alarm on mine which happened last fall for the first time thus causing the generator to not start until I reset the controller.  It has happened several times this past summer and fall but there is sufficient oil capacity but not getting the oil pressure as required.  Have replaced 3 different components(pumps and sensors under Warranty) which would cause this but as of now they have not rectified the problem.  Have one more component to swap out and then a new motor is in order. 

Sorry to hear your troubles!  Sounds like an oil pressure gauge fittd to the generator might be of use.  Then when it gives the low pressure alarm you can see what it's actually getting and make a determination as to whether it's a bad sensor or actual low pressure.  My guess is sensor even if it was replaced once already -- or a blockage in the feed to the sensor.

I used to run into this problem with old British sports cars all the time

In my case the propane is at 60% (or was on Monday when it was 24F out -- so actually it was probably around 65%) and it's worked all the way down to -20F so I'm certain that's not the issue.  Which leaves the battery.

I found last year that I couldn't leave the inverter in sleep mode because it wouldn't charge the battery on the generator which would cause it to crank for a bit and then stop  and then try again (the magnum ato start tries 3 times) causing an overcrank alarm.  So this time I lef the inverter on but set the auto start too low and the inverter went into 'low batt' alarm and shut down which in turn shut down the charger on the genny and the above occurred.

When I got here the inverter was off and in alarm and the genny took 3 or 4 manual cranks before it fired and even then took a little to fire up.

I'm going to go back to 23.5v auto start and set it to two hours run time.  That way it will give a boost to the battery bank when it drops down (usually in the early morning if there wasn't much sunlight) and since it will run more often it should remain ready to fire when needed...I hope anyway since I'll probably not be back for a few weeks again.

With Christmas coming I'm likely to not get back until New Years but am thinking of making arrangements with my neighbor to check on the place for me so I don't have to go through this again

Ahhhh cabin life:)

Slept in until 6am (if you can call that sleeping in considering I was up at midnight at 4am stoking the fire) and the cabin was 72F degrees finally  

Water is running at all taps now and I can turn on the hot today but will need to put the stock tank heater into the grey water tank to thaw it out and I'll need to build an insulated lid over it to help with that. 

I think I'll also tackle something that's been long in coming:  installing a breaker panel for the generator power inside the back room.  It will have to breakers so the generator can supply power off one to the inverter/charger and off the second to an outlet for 'generator only' power.  It's on this 'gen only' outlet that I'll put the stock tank heater on and that way every time the generator runs the heater will come on and thaw the grey water tank.  The generator comes on nearly daily now too and while it won't run for more than 3 hrs each time hat ought to be enough to keep the tank thawed out unless it really gets cold and then maybe it will keep it somewhat thawed so that when I arrive and kick the generator on for 5 hours it will fully thaw. 

That's the plan anyway but we'll have to see how well it works.  If it doesn't work well enough then in the spring I'll lower the tank two feet and that ought to resolve the issue.

We never made it up to the property that weekend ... I am going to post it in my thread...

You woes with genny and water are instructive.  I can now think of a million (ok, a few anyway) things I need to take in to account when I finally put water in my place.

Guess I should do an update! LOL

I only managed to build a 'well' of sorts around the grey water tank using cinder blocks I had on hand.  I then covered the tank lid with silver insulating blankets (several of them) and some 2" foam, then black plastic and a lid of plywood.  I'd already installed the stock tank heater which worked very well so I know this will hold me over until the spring.

Unfortunately my repaired instant on hot water heater broke again even though I'd drained it using the stock drain valve.  I guess it doesn't drain that well and some water was in the pipes in spots and one split before I got the heater adjust right in the room to prevent this.  Luckily I have a spare hot water heater so I can install it when I'm back and want to use hot water.

Beyond that I shut the power down to 'sleep' mode figuring I wasn't going to be there any time soon and there was no sense in running the generator so much.  With luck the system will be fine like that until I make it back which will be another week or more putting me at about 3 weeks away assuming I make it back before the new year.

I also managed to do a little snow plowing to clear the roads up enough that what was left can melt in warmer weather so I'll have less to deal with now that it's snowing again and I cleared some branches that overhung the worst part of the driveway.

All in all I had a good trip to the cabin at the beginning of the month but life, work etc has kept me away since even though I'm actually still working part time in Omak.  These days I make it up for a few hours and don't drive to the cabin despite being so close!  I do hope to spend more time there in the new year though.

Ol'J... i've been reading your posts about your adventure in the Okanogan and building an off grid cabin... interesting reading as well as being very educational.

My daughter just bought 20ac. out that way, a little north of Tonasket.  Plans are to build an off grid cabin up there for her, she's planning on living there year round so I plan on building a bombproof cabin capable of withstanding the chilly winters.  I'm a professional builder so the structure isn't my concern as much as keeping the lights on and water flowing is.

You mentioned that yours' was an unpermitted cabin... I wasn't going to build permitted due to time constraints as well as the typical BS that's involved with the entire permit process.  Any backlash from the county for not getting a permit?

Although I have extensive construction experience, I've never built in cold country.  The frostline appears to be 24" per the county site... is this deep enough to keep things from freezing up at -20F?  The plan is for a 14'x24' with a loft and a buried and insulated cement block foundation with 6'+/- headroom for systems and storage.  Based on your experience and assuming it's properly insulated, would that be deep enough to keep things from freezing?

I also see you have a composting toilet... how do you like it?  Any recomendations?  What brand is it?  Is it suiting your needs as far as capacity?  How is maintenence to deal with?  I'm looking into a "Sun-Mar"... as long as it works as advertised, it looks like a good investment.  Most of the time it'll be 2-3 people with year-round use.

For now at least, I plan on putting a 250 gallon freshwater tank in the basement with 110V and 12V pumps to move the water.  A second 125 gallon greywater tank attached to some sort of drywell/drainfield.  Drinking water will be brought in from town and stored in the basement as necessary.  I'm hoping that with a little heat from the woodstove being piped down there it'll be enough to keep it thawed.

Everything else will be pretty straightforward, standard construction, 2x6 walls, good insulation, good windows, etc..  I've got a good certified woodstove, it'll be way too much for the space but it's what we've got to work with for now.  Also have a small propane heater for backup, 5 burner cooktop, propane fridge, etc., all the comforts of home.  Solar power and year round water will probably be next years project... for now it'll be fires for heat, generators for power, lanterns for light, and hopefully she won't have to tap out 1/2 way thru winter. 

Worst case scenario... she has to board up the windows, open the drains, lock up, and leave until spring.  I'm planning on having a couple of valves capable of emptying the system completely in minutes assuming it's not frozen.

Any other advice or tips you have for surviving the winters would be much appreciated