Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (farm, area)

[wannabehippie]

Hey Lisa, just wondering what type of flooring you are looking into. My research on passive solar homes has suggested leaving the floor in concrete and staining it for esthetics or covering with stone to allow for for the heat to be absorbed during the day through the south facing windows and then released back into the home during the evening. The homes that I have been looking at aren't berm though so I was wondering if the berm really provides that much protection from the elements that you will not need to optimize on the solar heat gain.

[Heynow999]

Thanks for asking about my solar system.

All the panels are installed and the wireing is done up to the last dissconnect before the meter. The inverter is installed and works fine. I am just waiting for my local hydro to approve it. It bugs me wasting all those electrons, with the panels not hooked up to the grid yet.

[ylisa7]

wannabehippie- Passive solar houses are designed to obtain as much heat as they can. That's why they are south facing and have lots of windows. The temperatures will also fluctuate more. In the winter they might be great but I would worry in the summer about staying cool. It's much less money to heat a home than to cool it if it's done right. After all you can heat a home with a wood burning stove using your own wood. Not so with cooling.

A berm house does not need to be south facing because the earth keeps the home at a constant temperature of 58 degrees or so which means it uses less energy to heat and to keep cool. I'll be putting in a thermometer to see what our house does. I do know that this summer our house without any cooling stayed cooler than the motorhome(with the a/c running) and that's pretty amazing.

Also a berm house is more protected from the elements like wind and tornadoes. I know I will feel very safe in the house.

I could never do a passive solar or a south facing house because I hate the heat. Maybe if I was in the very northern states or Canada but not here in TN.

Back to your question about the flooring. We are covering it with a higher end one piece vinyl as we aren't worried about heating.

I hope this helps. I know our house doesn't fit any molds and the norms but I think it will be just right for us.


Heynow999- I'm so glad to hear you are ready to go. Now if they could just get you hooked into the system. I know how you feel about all that wasted power. It was the same for us when the panels where on the roof and Mike was figuring out the wiring. Good luck and I hope you get hooked up soon.

Lisa

[wannabehippie]

Thanx Lisa, sorry I thought I read that you were facing south somewhere I just assumed you were doing both solar and berm together in your plan. That's what my husband and I are looking into. We are located in central Alberta, Canada so we thought by having both we might be able to better maintain the temp inside the house. The frost line here is a little deeper so I'm skeptical berm on it's own would be enough for us if we maxed at an 8 foot ceiling. So far we haven't found too many examples in Canada that are as thorough in detail as yours, or are in a region of Canada that reaches the same temps in the winter that we do. It's hard to find balance because our summers can easily reach over 100F but in the winter we can be -40F

[Lillie Meredith]

Hi Lisa and Mike what is the square foot of your new home? I love reading your updates. Lillie

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by Lillie Meredith

Hi Lisa and Mike what is the square foot of your new home? I love reading your updates. Lillie

Post #8 says it is 30x38. When I do the math that comes out to 1140 sq feet.

[ylisa7]

Good morning everyone. We are so excited and nervous today because our flooring is going in. Yeah! We had a lot of rain so we are also a little nervous about them making it up our hill. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

OK, it's time for our story. We had a really good week. We are so close now.

Monday 9-22
We had to go over to our other property and take care of the lawns. I think we only have 1 more round until next spring.

Mike called the flooring place to see when they were coming to do the installation. They can't come until next Monday(which is now today). We'll just have to finish some of our other projects. It's not like we don't have anything else to do.

Mike finished wiring the rest of the electrical outlets in the house. Next he has to working the light switches. At least there aren't as many of those.

Mike installed our outside light.



Tuesday 9-23
We installed one more kitchen cabinet for above the refrigerator. Check it out it was only $23.00. Woo hoo!


I started bringing stuff from the motorhome down to the house. The coach is breathing a huge sigh of relief to get some of this weight off. I am so excited to play in my new big kitchen. I can't wait until it is done. Right now I am stocking the cabinets.


When we move in I can be an organizing fool. I love to organize. It's so much fun.

Mike worked on the switches while I was stocking my cabinets. This is what he did. First he pulled the wires out of the box, stripped them, and cut them down to size. Then he tied the grounds(copper) together with an extra leg that goes to the bottom of the switch. Then one black(hot) wire goes to the top of the switch and one black(hot) wire goes to the bottom of the switch.


Then he tied the two white(neutral) wires together. because those wires are not needed on a switch.


Mike finished all the outlets and switches in the house. He tested everything and they all work. He only got zapped once.

Mike also installed an outside receptacle.



Wednesday 9-24
We hooked the trailer to the jeep and headed for our propane company to pick up some of our appliances. On our way we passed Jimmy's(our grader) and we saw he picked up our concrete retaining blocks and they are sitting on his loader(all 40,000 pounds of them). That's a good sign. He should be coming this week to install them

We got to the propane company and loaded our fireplace, washer, and dryer. They didn't get my stove in yet. The woman tracked it down and it was sent to one of their other stores in Georgia. You would think that after almost a month that store would have realized they didn't order that stove. Anyway they will get my stove by next week. My refrigerator should also be in today or tomorrow.

On our way home we stopped at David's to pick up conduit pipe to put our water line and electric line inside. We want to keep the lines protected when they go underground. I finally got my apple picker. While we were there we ran into a bunch of people that we know. We even saw some people that we haven't seen since we owned the Roller Skating Rink here.

When we got home we unloaded everything into the house.
Here are the fireplace parts.


The fireplace insert.


My dryer


And a matching washer which I didn't get a picture of.

We also unpacked the bathroom vanity that we bought at Home Depot last Sunday. We were pleasantly surprised to find out it is solid wood.
This is our vanity.


We also bought the sink top but unfortunately it had some damage on the
top. So we'll have to return that "all the way to Bristol Va", yuk!


Thursday 9-25
Today turned out to be an extremely busy day. Our grader showed up with our retaining block. This is how they had to unload each block. Each block weighs 4000 pounds and each half block is 2000 pounds.

First they hook a chain to the block.


Then the block is lifted.


Then they move the block.


And they put it down close to the house. Of course the nosy bull has to check it out.


The bull has been getting into our yard the past 2 days so we have to add more wire on the fence. Here is Mr. Bull posing for me.


This is Jimmy and Mike placing the block.


One side of the house is done.


The other side is done and back filled.


Now the block is up.


We are either going to stucco or rock the front of the block and other concrete. We haven't decided yet but at least the block is in place.


Then Mike had to move the motorhome so that are trench could be dug.
This is our new campsite with grass.


This is the trench from the house to the well.



Mike and I put in 100 feet of electric wire inside ten 10ft conduit pipes and then glued the pipes together.


We also put 100 feet if water line inside another 10 pipes.


And


Then we put the pipes in the ditch.


While Mike and I were working with the pipes the grader was digging a hole for our water tank. Mike helped him get the water tank in the ground.


The grader covered up most of the ditch line and left the ends open because Mike still has to tie it all in to the well, well pump, and the house.

It was a very long day and we are exhausted.


Friday 9-26
We woke up this morning to rain. Thank goodness we got the block in and most of the grading done yesterday. We drove to town to check a couple of stores for furniture and we picked up my counter tile from Lowe's.
We couldn't get any more work done today because of the rain.


Saturday 9-27
Oh, it's the dreaded day. We went to Hickory NC to look for furniture. We left about 9:30am and got home at 6:30pm. Poor Niki. She hates when we are gone a long time. I was a little surprised by the gas situation in NC. We aren't having any problems in our small town in TN, maybe because the population is so low. Anyway we drove over 75 miles one way and I would say about 95% of the gas stations had no gas. It wasn't even that bad after Katrina.

Ok, back to the furniture trip. We stopped at every store along Hwy 321 and Hwy 70 in Hickory. We probably went to 20 different stores and 2 separate outlets with multiple stores in each one. It was as bad as Mike and I anticipated. The furniture today is really big and mostly ugly. It wasn't looking good for us. Mike and I had a system-he would take one side of the store and I would take the other side. We would buzz through the store and if anything looked good we would show the other. Nothing looked good. We are so screwed..

At one of the outlets we both ended up in front of the same bedroom set. I said "I like that" and Mike said "do you know why"? Uh yeah, because I think it's nice. He told me it was the exact same line of furniture that we found online in the dining room set. So we ordered the bedroom set and the dining room set. They have to check the stock on Monday(today). The saleswoman gave us 35% off the list and she came in 50% less than the place online. We also don't have sales tax when they deliver across the state line.

We kept looking for a leather set for the living room. No luck. We were so tired that we gave up looking. It's hard to make a good decision when you are "done".

We drove home and Niki was thrilled to see us. I went online to check our furniture because I got the brochure. That turned out to be mistake. Our furniture line was discontinued in August. Now I'm nervous that the furniture place won't have our pieces in stock. I'll find out today. I really hope that whole day wasn't wasted.


Sunday-28
It's a little drizzly out today which isn't good. The flooring company is supposed to deliver and install our floor tomorrow. We need things to dry up around here.

Mike worked on some of the connections for the electric and water lines in the ditch. We also put the seal on our water tank.

Now that the trucks and track hoes are done on our front lawn we can work on it. We started raking it out which is very hard to do in the mud. Then we put seed and straw done. At least it is cleaner.

Front lawn before.


Front lawn after.



That's all for this week. More busy times ahead and another story next Monday. Have a great week everyone.

Lisa and Mike

[jguillot]

Wow! You got a lot accomplished. Congratulations! It looks like you'll be able to move in very soon. This may be a stupid question to some, but Is a water tank required with a well?

My wife and I will be visiting beautiful Tennessee in one month. We can't wait!

[ylisa7]

Originally Posted by jguillot

Wow! You got a lot accomplished. Congratulations! It looks like you'll be able to move in very soon. This may be a stupid question to some, but Is a water tank required with a well?

My wife and I will be visiting beautiful Tennessee in one month. We can't wait!

Not a stupid question at all. No a water tank is not needed with a well. We are doing this as a back up and also because of the "juice" required to get the water out of the well. A well needs a pump(electric or solar but our well is too deep fro solar) to get the water out of the ground and into your house. If you use a lot of water you use more electric which is a concern of "ours'. We will fill the tank every 2-3 weeks, and yes we will sanitize it, and it will be gravity fed into the house(no electric). At least that's the way we hope it works.

We'll keep you posted

Have a great trip. You will be here at the best time of year, IMO. Then again I'm partial to October because that's when I was born, lol.

Lisa

[jguillot]

Thanks for your reply. It sounds like you and Mike have thought of everything and have made the right decisions on how to save the most electricity.

I was born in October as well. (October 17). Happy early birthday to you!