Today was a total washout. Literally. It rained hard all day, so the footings didn't get dug and nothing got done. (sigh) The clouds cleared out this afternoon so hopefully, tomorrow will be a more productive day.
Something I forgot to mention in my first post was the heating and cooling situation. The central unit that I currently have on the house has been nothing but a PITA since I got the house. The unit was new, but it was installed incorrectly and it's been giving me trouble from day one. It bit the dust again a couple of weeks ago just as I was needing heat. I finally found somebody who knows what they are doing with HVAC and called them to fix it. The motor on the fan was frozen up. While they were fixing it, they found that the unit had a 60 amp breaker on it, but it was wired with a 40 amp wire. It's a wonder the house hadn't burned down. Honestly. I know the guy that installed the unit. I went to school with him. I wasn't impressed with him back then and I'm even less so now. All I can say is that its a good thing he was nowhere to be found when they told me about the wiring.
So back to the original problem. No heat. Do I throw more money at the current situation or do I do something totally different. The problem is that just fixing the motor is not going to solve the problem because the current unit is not big enough to handle the house with the new addition, so I will have to put in a new unit, new wiring and new duct work. If I've got to do all that, I decided that I would check out something different, so....... I'm checking out putting in a geothermal heating and cooling system. It would cost more up front, but the operating costs are almost non-existent and it cuts your water heating costs by about 3/4. I'm there. Anyway, I got the man from Southern Solar to come out and take the measurements and he is suppose to get me an estimate this week on how much it would cost to install.
I love the idea of the geothermal unit and eventually I want to install solar for electricity which helps enormously. The geothermal would put way less of a load on the panels. Unfortunately, the electric co-op that I'm under doesn't allow grid tie-ins so I either have to be on grid or totally off.
My little farmette is becoming the great experiment. I'll keep you posted.
Something I forgot to mention in my first post was the heating and cooling situation. The central unit that I currently have on the house has been nothing but a PITA since I got the house. The unit was new, but it was installed incorrectly and it's been giving me trouble from day one. It bit the dust again a couple of weeks ago just as I was needing heat. I finally found somebody who knows what they are doing with HVAC and called them to fix it. The motor on the fan was frozen up. While they were fixing it, they found that the unit had a 60 amp breaker on it, but it was wired with a 40 amp wire. It's a wonder the house hadn't burned down. Honestly. I know the guy that installed the unit. I went to school with him. I wasn't impressed with him back then and I'm even less so now. All I can say is that its a good thing he was nowhere to be found when they told me about the wiring.
So back to the original problem. No heat. Do I throw more money at the current situation or do I do something totally different. The problem is that just fixing the motor is not going to solve the problem because the current unit is not big enough to handle the house with the new addition, so I will have to put in a new unit, new wiring and new duct work. If I've got to do all that, I decided that I would check out something different, so....... I'm checking out putting in a geothermal heating and cooling system. It would cost more up front, but the operating costs are almost non-existent and it cuts your water heating costs by about 3/4. I'm there. Anyway, I got the man from Southern Solar to come out and take the measurements and he is suppose to get me an estimate this week on how much it would cost to install.
I love the idea of the geothermal unit and eventually I want to install solar for electricity which helps enormously. The geothermal would put way less of a load on the panels. Unfortunately, the electric co-op that I'm under doesn't allow grid tie-ins so I either have to be on grid or totally off.
My little farmette is becoming the great experiment. I'll keep you posted.
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