FLOOR HEAT COMPONENTS ARE HERE!

It's getting closer to floor heat every day. Just took delivery of some of the critical heat components, In the picture is the stainless steel 3 loop manifold. It's a Uponor with adjustable water flow ports, (need to adjust water flow in each loop to equally adjust for heat) ball valve shutoffs, temp gauges & assorted fitting, 2 Taco pumps - one for mounting on the boiler for water delivery - the other is thermostatically controlled for water thru the manifold, Honeywell mixing valve to drop the temp of the water going into the floor. It's bad to have to hot a water into the concrete (over 125 deg is bad)the concrete will actually deteriorate much faster. This valve is adjustable so the water temp will be much lower than the delivery temp (which is 185 deg - 195 deg). I"ll start out at about 85 - 90 deg at the manifold and see how that works. there is some experimentation involved to get it working correctly, should be fun. The valve mixes the incoming hot water with the much cooler water coming out of the floor. The green box is the thermostatically controlled relay system for the pump. So these are the parts, I'll need to build a panel to mount all this stuff.

RIGGING SUPPORT IN THE TRUSSES

When I built the trusses last summer, I did not build in any triangulation. They were already very difficult to build {being 30 feet long & 18 in tall made it very difficult} I did not want it any harder. Also I could not have gotten them up into place if they were any larger. Remember, these are additional to what is already in place. I decided to get additional support for the new trusses by tying them into the existing trusses with rigging. By using 3/32 steel rope (1000 lbs break), 3/8 turnbuckles (1200 lbs break) 3/16 tubing and cable clamps. I used three sections of tubing on each support. I bent the tubing around the existing trusses near the top and under the new trusses in the middle of the truss. I threaded the steel rope thru the tubing and thru the eye bolt of the turnbuckles and clamped them. I did the same going under the truss. I did this for all ten trusses. took out all the slack in the steel rope before clamping them off. Then it's tighten the turnbuckles until there is no bounce in the truss. Worked out very nicely. Will work great for additional support for sheetrock and insulation loading. The pictures makes alot easier to understand

INFRASTRUCTURE WORK, INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT BUT

it is the most tedious, patience testing, sometimes hard situation in doing a buildout. Then add in doing this in the 10 deg weather and no heat in the shop yet and the time do the simplest operation probably doubles. Just adds to the frustration. Makes it go very slowly.  

GREAT!

Now that infrastructure work on the outside is done (boring, hard, and very tedious which makes it spectacularly unexciting!) I'm going back to work on the inside. I'm continuing with the electrical and at the same time going to complete the work above the ceiling. This will house the exhaust system, some additional lighting, alittle structural work for the trusses I built and installed and blowing in about 18 in worth of insulation I ask myself why I'm putting myself through all this, well when it comes time to fabricate great race car parts for our great race car it will be done in a great shop! Sure does test a persons patience tho!

IT'S ALL BACK FILLED!

It's all back filled! Lines are in the ground (except for a short distance for cable & phone) the back filling was hard work mostly because I did alot of it in the rain. The mud sticks to everything, the shovel gets heavy, your boots weigh 15 lbs. each and I was getting wet. Anyhow it's done for now and let it all settle until spring. Also had Beaudry moved the propane tank, installed new gas line to the house and shop, supplied a new regulator for the shop. Took the gent about three hours to do all this. Charged very little for labor. I paid for the gas line, fittings, and the regulator. I feel it was a bargain since it took so long and he used a small boom truck!

our view off our deck. The propane tank is soon to be moved.

Moving the propane tank. A very good gent from Beaudry moved the tank. He also intalled gas line for the shop and house, installed a new regulator for the shop.

Moved the propane tank about 150 ft to the backside of the shop. This whole process took about 3 hours to complete. It was a very good price since labor was very inexpensive and I paid for only the gas line, fittings & regulator and he used their small boom truck!

A very nice view now with no propane tank.

Tank is now set on 4 concrete bricks that I leveled. Here the trench is back filled and the new shop regulator is visible.

Visible here is the 5 in corrugated tube with the insulated pex going into the shop. I will wrap the pex with insulation for more protection.

This the cable and phone lines. I will dig this trench in the spring by hand. This doesn't need to be nearly as deep and the distance is much shorter. I couldn't get the trencher in here because it might have gotten stuck getting to close to the pond.

The back filled trench going to the house. at the Y, going left is the gas and right is the phone & cable.

All back filled (ti was alot of work simply because I did it in the rain) Just pex to the junction, the pex, gas cable & phone all in the same trench until about the wheel barrow, the cable & phone go off to the shop, gas & pex continue.

Gas to the house, cable & phone to the right-bottom of  pic.

Cable & phone to the house.

PEX IS IN THE GROUND!

Got most of the pex in the ground yesterday. It's tough to handle because it's stiff in the cool weather. I'll back fill as much as I can now, but ultimately finish that in the spring. To build a high quality, energy efficient, inexpensive to operate shop, takes time. By making use of the wood boiler, in-floor heat along with a lot of insulation in the walls and ceiling, this will be a energy efficient shop.

This where the pex comes into the shop.The yellow tubes are the infloor pex for the floor heat. When I get it finished there will be a 3 port (6 port counting in & out lines) manifold with isolation valves & temp gauges, a thermostatically controlled pump, a relay box and a mixing valve all mounted on the wall here.

This is an outside view coming into the shop. I'll get some help to finish getting the pex inside. It's to stiff to handle alone. The trench going to the right is for the gas line. It shares the same trench as the water lines. The propane tank will sit just to the right of the picture. The trench from the back of the shop is for the gas line from the tank going into the shop for the backup ceiling mount heater.

135 ft away is the boiler. The cool weather makes handling the pex difficult. Ground is frosty about 2 inches deep, trench is about 18 to 24 inches deep. I'll try to back fill as much of the trench as I can but ultimately finish it in the spring.

Boiler sits on this concrete pad, with a formed area for the pex lines to get in. The green lines are for the house where there is a heat exchanger mounted in the furnace plenum. Here is seen the continuously running pump (only draws .7 amps so it very energy efficient and spins at over 3000 rpm!) Ball valves on both side of the pump so it can be serviced with very minimal water loss. The new pump will go on the flanges just above the incoming lines. The silver wrap is the insulation. One line will be shortened and connected to the ball valve just to the right. So the pumps are attached to the high ports taking hot water from the boiler and the lower ports are the cooler returns. Inside the panel are the electronics for the boiler, wiring schematics, on-off switch, micro processor for draft door operation, fuse, pump outlets, and temp sensor for the water in the boiler.

PEX IS HERE

The pex arrived today. I saved about $60.00 by having it shipped to a business in town. Shipper wanted $120.00 to ship it to a home address. So now we got 135ft of insulated pex sitting in the entry way! The whole thing weighs only 120lbs, so I unloaded it off my trailer myself. Two 1 inch water lines, wrapped 3 times with insulation, inside 4 inch corrugated plastic tubing. Bury the whole thing under ground in the trench. Heat loss is minimal @ less than 1 deg per 100 feet. I'm starting to get excited! Another step closer to heat in the shop! The end goal is to have really nice shop to base our race car operation inside.