I started the clearing of the lot in the early winter of 2006. Lots of trees and about 50 nice oak logs were gathered. I had all the logs sawn in lumber which is now being used to finish off the inside of the house. I first built a 12x16' workshop and installed 8 115 watt solar panels, a set of L16 24 volt batteries and inverter to supply all my electricity to run the tools and support a RV for living and cooking. This modest system ran all the tools, refrigeration, satellite internet, lighting, well pumps and more. Since then, i have doubled the size of the PV array to 16 panels which are producing 1.5 kws and doubled the size of the battery bank, exceeding my energy needs.
The radiant heating system performed much better than anticipated. Last winter (06-07)I built the large 800 gallon, highly insulated hot water tank that was heated by a small indoor Tasso wood boiler. There is 500' of 3/4" copper coils for heat exchangers inside the tank in which the fluid for the radiant floor, the domestic hot water and the solar heated water all circulate. It has worked phenomenally well. This winter, (08)the water in the tank will be heated by a parabolic concentrating dish that will track the sun from morning till night, hopefully providing most of the heating requirements. Plastering of all the interior walls and ceilings is complete. Staining and sealing of the concrete floors came out great. Building of the kitchen cabinetry is complete. The outside curved deck is up. The Stucco finish is done which was a lot for one person, but came out great.
Built the solar concentrator out of an older 9' satellite dish. Seems to work well though still have many improvements to be made. The curved wrap around deck was recently finished. The lawns are in and seeded. The NESEA Green buildings tour on Oct. 7, 2007 had a great turn out of over 40 people. Thanks to all that showed up and for their interest in my house and solar energy.
3/13/08 Been a mild winter. I have recorded all the temperatures outside and inside, which clearly shows the consistency of the inside temps as well as humidity. I am working on installing thermocouples on the hot water system so that will be monitored.
I have the solar concentrator dish just about complete for the second time around. Found that the new receiver that I made isn't transferring enough of the heat. Starting to build a new one. Also the Mylar that I put on last fall has degraded. Need to put on a better product that can be cleaned with out marring the service.
7/15/08 Practical Solar installed one of their prototype tracking heliostats on the property so tests of operation and different experiments be evaluated.
9/16/08 Practical Solar installed 5 more heliostats and I built a temporary receiver of 50' of 1/2" copper coil attached to a large piece of aluminum plate, insulation on the back. The heliostats performed flawlessly and we achieved promising results.
10/04/08 Thanks to all that showed up for the Green Buildings Open house. It is encouraging to meet so many people that are interested in making changes in this world.
Also finished most of the wood work inside the house. All the balconies and door arches.
Click on the thumbnails to see the larger picture. Updated October 12, 2008
(More pics at the Visitors Gallery)
