Ellen and I met with Graham of Southern Energy Management about solar hot water for Cassilhaus. He brought this cool gizmo that tells you what sort of efficiency you will get in different months of the year given your surrounding trees. Here you see them on scaffolding approximating the location of the panels. We will have partial shading November to January but the system is still very viable.
Our system would have 2 4'x8' solar panels on the section of roof that drops down below the bridge's metal roof
(in front of 3 small windows toward top center). The panels have food grade glycol running through them which heats the water in the solar storage tank using a heat exchanger. There is a backup hot water heater for periods of extended shade. We are very excited about harvesting the energy of the sun. Stay tuned.
Speaking of the sun it will be in plentiful supply in our master bedroom. Framing is nearly complete. It is unusually short and wide as it comes at the widest point of the trapezoid.
There are three very generous windows in addition to the clerestory around the entire perimeter and a soaring ceiling that comes to a peak at the NW corner.
The sun also brought out another picnic crew on Friday--my friends MJ, Saskia, Elizabeth, Deborah, and David enjoyed quite a spread
in our soon to be dinning room.
More internal framing is underway with the footprint plate of the guest bathroom in place. We discovered a conflict with wall
locations in this bathroom and the mullions of the clerestory windows above but thankfully Leon, Myron, Dwayne, and Ellen were able to resolve it quickly, adjust the mullions and come up with a more interesting design in the process. Fortunately Leon decided to order the windows in stages anticipating such shifts in the sizes during framing. Each day there are issues and conflicts to resolve but the team is fantastic and most things get solved on the spot. I'll close with another shot down the bridge showing our lovely "floating roof"
There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.
Archibald McLeish
Comments