Success! The tracker was up and running before the New Year's Day deadline. And luckily it was sunny so energy was produced and we qualified for the Federal tax credit. Here's our first 16 kilowatts:

The tracker is beautiful. The bifacial panels, that can generate power from the back side from reflection, are somewhat transparent, so you can look right through them:

On January 3rd we met with Diana Stowell, one of the head designers at Crown Point Cabinetry. We discussed the kitchen layout, spoke about our aim to have a Scandinavian/Natural theme to the cottage. Finished cabinets should arrive sometime in April.

Something was wrong with the chips. For two weeks one of the thermometers was reading a steady 130°. Now I do believe the combination of chips and whey create heat, but it's hard to believe they'd keep the water down there at that high level for weeks at a time. I figure the thermometer broke when it hit Saharan Desert levels. So to see what's up I dug up the container and put in a new digital thermometer. Here's the new pile.

Water temp was actually down to 59.4° at the outset:

My son Graham was home for winter break from the College of William & Mary, so I dragooned him into helping me get 150 gallons of fresh whey from the farm:

We added the whey to the pile and in 9 days the water temp rose to a respectable 68.4°.

A set back occurred earlier in the week when the plumbers had an HRV system delivered. We actually wanted an ERV, see this post for the reason why: why: ERV vs. HRV . We contacted Zehnder America and ordered the correct system directly. Its a ComfoAir 350, maximum air circulation with a low energy footprint. So this all got sent back to wherever it came from:

Temperatures at the turn of the year were below-zero. Pretty uncomfortable for the carpenters, plumbers and electricians who were all over the cottage. They guys tried a variety of heaters to get the interior warmed up. They ultimately brought in a large house heater that was vented outside, unlike this one: