coolin' down the house in a green way

[mckitterick]

For part of yesterday and all of today, I worked at installing a solar-powered attic fan. This I did because my attic gets as hot as an oven in the summer. I did it now because... well, my attic gets as hot as an oven in the summer, and I didn't feel like working in an oven.

Anyhow, after overcoming a variety of obstacles, the fan is installed and venting heat from the attic, thereby cooling my upstairs to the tune of three or more degrees, woohoo! Obstacles included having to install the 10-watt solar panel almost all the way across the roof to where it was exposed to direct sunlight, because the tree on the south side of the house provides a great deal of shade to the roof: Good for keeping things cool, not so good for powering a solar panel. This entailed cutting and splicing another 18 feet of wiring into the power supply, running said wiring beneath the roof's crown shingles, and sealing the shingles so no water gets beneath where they're raised slightly for the wiring.

The attic would have been unbearable to work in this afternoon (was cooler when I installed the fan part in the morning), but the roof wasn't much better. I wore a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, but also gloves because - WOW! - roof shingles get hot in Kansas August! Even with half of 'em shaded. I have a multitude of lacerations and bruises from the composite roof, including a doozy of a bruise along one side of my chest from leaning over the edge of the roof while drilling and screwing fasteners into place.

But it's done! And my house has moved 10 watts into the future!

I'm expecting not only that my upstairs will be cooler, but that my elecricity bills will be smaller.

Best,
Chris

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

A couple degrees cooler in the attic and the air moving will be a big help.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[justaqt.livejournal.com]

Good job going green(ish)!!
-gives you two thumbs up-

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

One day, my entire roof shall be shingled in solar panels!

[charmed-art.livejournal.com]

I am impressed with your mad ninja home improvement skills.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks, man! This is a minor thing compared to replacing the downstairs carpet with tile, the upstairs carpet with hardwood, painting the whole joynt, finishing the garage interior, building a new carport, and on and on....

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

And the major triumph in our house, also carried out in the attic, where our studies are, was the half hour I spent up a step ladder, replacing an entire pendant light fitting, including drilling new holes in the ceiling and doing fiddly wiring stuff, while PK handed me tools, and two of the cats sat and offered support. I now need a fluorescent light bulb, but other than that, it works, the new light shade looks fabulous and I'm very proud of my handiwork. I'm also rather less damaged than you appear to be, other than having to empty a lot of plaster dust out of my clothes afterwards.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Go you! That sounds like a lovely update. Congrats on doing all the electrical stuff; that gets scary. Let me tell you, when I was connecting the wires to the solar panel, I was working VERY CAREFULLY to keep the thing in complete shade before joining the wires....

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I of course omitted to say how desperately impressed I am with your electrical skills, and the whole kit and caboodle really. I don't think we could do d-i-y solar panels without damaging ourselves more permanently.

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

hi chris!
you are so cool!! (ahaa ha! funny pun!)

gosh, you're so handy. you can fix cars AND install solar panels AND figure out the wiring...can you cook an omlette, tho? that is the real question.

i know what you mean about the blistering heat of the composite shingles. OMGPLZ!! i had to scrape the paint off the front of the house before re-painting and i sat on the porch roof to do it. my poor behind got SO BURNT!!!

sorry 'bout your chest. OUCH!
s

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

That's very cool, amigo.