Update
Oh my gosh! Two updates in one week, oh my!
I am all enclosed, well except that whole roof thing… 🙂 Soon….
I finished up the sheathing tonight and trimmed it all up. I still want to go through and caulk all the horizontal seams to make a better air barrier, but I seem to have misplaced my caulk… don’t make that dirty ;-).
I am sort of scared to move beyond this part and into the electrical, the electrical is the biggest scariest part of all for me, I don’t understand it and it can make fire = scared Macy. But what better way to learn than to do??? So, onward! 🙂
I am enclosed, well except that whole roof thing 🙂
This is my space for the solar batteries, panel and inverter. It is 16" deep, 8 foot wide and just over 3 feet tall.
This is my space for the solar batteries, panel and inverter. It is 16" deep, 8 foot wide and just over 3 feet tall.
Inside the shop, it's going to be TIGHT to get it out but it will come out soon to put the roof on!
Hey there….I just wired mine entire house for 200 amp service and all but the circuit panel I ran it all myself and when tested it all gets current.
But yours may be a lot different than mine that is you are going with 50 amp service and with either wind or solar and then converting all that to AC or are you going 12 or 24 DC volt with limited 110 volt AC for back up?
If I can do it I am sure that you can……remember power to light then from light to switch. power to one outlet and daisy chain to up to 3 more. Ceiling lights most codes will allow up to 4 fixtures to be daisy chained.
I am glad YOU have confidence in me, someone here needs to! 🙂
Those are good questions, days before beginning I have no idea how to answer you. I have been doing a lot of research on various solar options and boy is it overwhelming! I have pretty much determined that solar is not going to fit into my initial budget (big surprise, right?) but I want to eventually have it so I need to plan for it now.
Thank you for your helpful hints I REALLY appreciate that! You rock!
awesome!!! I love your window on the front / gooseneck end – I like how it’s off-center. so cool.
Thanks Carrie, I actually like how it turned out too, I was a bit unsure 🙂
Just remember to watch your colors – black to gold, white to silver. Be mindful and you shouldn’t have any problems! Oh, and bare copper to green, too. 😉
Thank you Jonathan!!!
There is a great book I bought at my local hardware store called wiring a house. It was written by a master electrician and it explains in very simple terms and even includes some history of electrical wiring that I found interesting. I’m sure that it would be available at either home depot or Lowes… Or any other building supply store. As for the comment about running the power to the lights and then to the switch. Never, ever follow that advice. Pros recommend that the power for lights be taken at the switch, tie the neutrals(white) together at the switch box, and attach both black wires to the switch. This can prevent shock when trying to change a fixture by simply turning off the light switch. Wiring a house is very simple, with maybe the exception of three and four way switches, which your tiny house is not likely to even use.
Thank you Joe! Great advice, I’m going to go get that book 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Wiring-House-For-Pros-By/dp/1561585270
It’s even available on Amazon I just found it there
Awesome, I will be reading this tonight! 🙂 Thanks again!
Consider running some (or mostly) 12 volt circuits. The LED lighting these days is just beautiful and so power economical. A better tie in to solar. Inverters are inefficient, you lose quite a bit of power in the translation to 110V. Certain 12 volt appliances are better than 110V also.
That is a solid idea, I am probably not going to use it to start but it will be cheap to run at the same time, just in case for when I get my solar situation all figured out. Thanks George!
If you are saving money for you now, this is no way to do it. For a small house it will cost you at least $ 50 000. 00 In adoitidn, you need a roof at an angle to get the maximum benefit from solar panels, close to the sun is not blocked by trees. If you have snow in cold weather it will not work in the sun. Also, go to the top of your roof, you should be able to clean the panels every few days. In the long term sun is pretty cheap. It is very expensive start-up costs, any savings from the displays you really pay for it once. Do you want to save energy either from the panel, you can use a battery that can make your meter run backwards. The sun is made by people who really want to be green, are located in areas without electricity or.
Thank you for the comment. It’s sort of hard to understand but I think I know what you’re trying to get at.
However I have not seen any systems even close to $50k as far as solar is concerned on my house. I have greatly minimized my electric usage and therefore the amount of panel area needed. I have estimate that the system I will use is approximately $12k, batteries and all. That will come later down the road though. I have never intended to put my panels on the roof as they do need to be accessed and the orientation changes based on the time of year.
The reason I am going with solar is not to save money, I plan for this to be located away from any power sources in the end, not initially or even for the first few years, but eventually, so I have designed around that. Thanks again for the comment.