top of page

Previous Posts:

37) SunCottage Complete!

                   August 24, 2020 

36) Available for Rent!

                   February 13, 2020 

35) Furnishings & Triskelions

                   April 23, 2019 

34) Green Roof & Appliances

                   August 15th, 2018 

33) Between Snow & Summer

                   May 27th, 2018 

32) Sauna, Painting, Tile & Nest

                   April 1st, 2018 

31) Tesla, Geothermal ... Plasterers

                   February 17, 2018 

30) Solar Tracker is Online!

                   December 31, 2017 

29) Grid Connection & New Panels

                   December 31, 2017 

28) Interior Work

                   December 24, 2017 

27) Views of the Exterior

                   December 22, 2017 

26) Woodchips & a Bifacial Tracker

                   December 15, 2017 

25) Well Capping & A Minor Disaster

                   December 7, 2017 

24) Deep Wells, Green Roof & Chips

                   November 24, 2017 

23) Roofing, Windows, Bridge & Time

                   November 14, 2017 

22) The Crew & the SolaFlect Pad

                   October 31, 2017 

21) Walls & the Earth Tube

                    September 30, 2017 

20) Framing & Plan Change 

                    August 31, 2017

19) Foundation, ICFs & Radiant 

                    July 31, 2017

18) Demolition, Firemen & Footings 

                    June 15, 2017

17) Floor Plans   

                    June 2, 2017

16) The SunCar   

                    May 31, 2017

15) The Green Roof   

                     May 30, 2017

14) Energy Recovery- ERV or HRV?   

                     May 25, 2017

13) Triple Pane Windows, ICFs

                     May 24, 2017

12) Hot Tub-Small but Beautiful  

                     May 20, 2017

11) Solar Chimney 

                     May 18, 2017

10) The Tesla Battery- The Heart     

                     May 3, 2017

9) The Bottle Wall   

                     May 1, 2017

8) On Whey and Woodchips   

                     April 27, 2017

7) Geothermal  

                     April 13, 2017

6) Key Elements of the Building 

                     March 2, 2017

5) A True Passive House?                         

                     Jan. 26. 2017

4) The Systems: Solaflect Tracker   

                     Dec. 14, 2016

3) What to Build  

                     Nov. 23, 2016

2) The Story of the Old Cottage  

                     Oct. 22, 2016

1) SunCottage Genesis                         

                     August 29, 2016

32) Sauna, Painting, Tile & Nest

March came in like a lion and left like a lamb as it always does. Three northeasters early in the month dumped several feet of snow, to be followed by a week of really sunny weather (The tracker set a record of 43 kWh one day!). By the end of March things were starting to melt and you could actually believe spring was coming. Two geese flying north seemed to think so.

House-wise the crew used the lift to move the hot tub into place. It looks great! The room itself isn't insulated yet, which has to wait for the 'green roof' membrane to be emplaced. For some reason there has been a four week delay in getting this critical piece. But in the meantime it's wonderful to contemplate how it will be when full of hot bubbling spring water.

The Finnleo sauna kit arrived and the guys put it together in a single day. Jason works here on the sauna flooring:

Sauna

It's small, but I think it'll be perfect for two people. The three windows will give 'sweaters' a great view of the woods and the bottle wall.

Glenn Soule spent the month painting like a crazed Vermont DaVinci. Arriving a 7 am and sometimes not leaving until 7 pm. In fact it's Easter morning as I write this and he's up there painting the trim right now!

Once the walls were painted, installing the flooring could begin. Shawn and Dan started laying the hardwood birch floor on the upper level first:

A close up of the beautiful patterning of the birch:

Stair treads are in birch as well:

Cabinets arrived at the end of the month and were stored in the basement prior to installation:

A nice snowy shot of the cottage from the west:

Dave jumped on the tiling mid-March. Notice the two shower niches for your shampoo and such:

The porcelain tile in the bedroom came out very nice, really looks like walnut planking. We chose tile over wood on this floor for heat transference and retention.

Jason getting started on the cork flooring in the exercise room:

The finished product. Soft on the feet!

Contemplating the Bottle Wall:

On March 18th, just three days before the spring equinox, the solar tracker set a record for production: 43.55 kWh. Check out the chart below, the jags in the curve show where the tracker moved every 15 minutes to stay aimed at the moving sun:

This interesting chart, from Green Mountain Power, the electric company, shows what was happening power-wise each hour on the record-setting day. Blue columns are consumption, you can see that between 7 pm and 7am, when the sun wasn't shining we were a net consumer of electricity. This was solely to power the geo-thermal pump that was heating the house. Normally the consumption for heating was about .75 kWh per hour, totaling 7 kWh per day. ( At 15¢ a kWh, that's just over a dollar a day to heat the entire house!) It's high here because the windows were open to air out the paint fumes. But look at the dark green bar which show the power incoming from the tracker. Light green is power returned to the grid.

Nest, probably the world's most innovative producer of home control products, just came out with the Yale Nest lock shown below. It can be controlled over a cell phone and will allow guests to have their own codes to enter the cottage. No need for pesky keys! Since the front door is of exceptional thickness, 2 3/4 inches, I built this mock-up to make sure the lock could be modified to fit.

We finally succeeded in wiring the Nest Thermostat. It took about a week. The complexity of the geo-thermal heat pump made it problematic. Many thanks to Jason who spent hours online viewing wiring diagrams to figure it out. Like the lock, the temperature on all three floors can now be controlled remotely. I love this thermostat! It lights up when you walk by to show the inside temp, it displays the inside humidity and the outside temp as well.

Join our mailing list

Never miss an update

bottom of page