Month: December 2023

I’m done. For now. I need a mental break from all the decisions. I’ve never heard anyone talk about the sheer number of decisions necessary in a project like this – I guess the same as building a house?

I wanted to get the electrical system finalized this weekend so that I could run the diesel heater. I don’t want to add up the hours I’ve spent on this project. While rewarding, it’s been relentless. If I don’t make a decision and take action… nothing happens. So many decisions.

This is the simple electrical cabinet with 100Ah of lithium. The system is designed to scale up to 400Ah in the same cabinet by adding more batteries. For now, this is sufficient (I think).

The control panel is installed in one of the upper cabinets. The left circle is the display for a Victron BMV-712 that I can connect to from inside the house via Bluetooth to monitor the battery. The top right rectangle is the controller for the Espar diesel heater. The bottom 2 left dials are dimmer switches for the front and rear ceiling puck LEDs, the leftmost switch in the set of 4 turns on the battery heating pad. I installed a battery heater on a separate circuit (with switch) so that I don’t inadvertently try to charge the battery below freezing. I can check the battery temp, flip the switch, warm up the battery, then start charging.

Currently no power coming into the system, only system out. I have an external AC-DC charger that I’ll use at home until I install at DC-DC charger and solar (later…). For now everything looks good, works well.

It’s been a productive few weeks in the shop. The upper cabinets are in, mattress is back in and stowed with the folding bed. Lights are now on separate circuits with dimmer switches on each.

I built a custom switch panel for the Espar heater controller and installed it in the upper cabinet along with some spare switches for future lights… LEDs in the garage or in the upper cabinets.

Next week I’ll install the first iteration of the electrical system. Just 100Ah of lithium ion and a few Victron parts. I’m trying to keep it simple as we don’t have a fridge or induction cooktop yet, power will be for the diesel heater and lights.

Oh. And I copied a design that I liked for a composting toilet. It’s a separating toilet (separator from Free Range Designs). I used 3/4 birch and kerf bent on the front radius. I changed some of the dimensions, but it’s a copy of a Trobolo. It’s made to fit on a shelf in the rear cabinets.

The intention is to laminate the cabinets, but things are moving quickly through the (very small) shop, that I just don’t have room to keep long running projects. And it’s winter here (rain) so I can’t work outside. Next spring I’ll pull all of the cabinets out and laminate and finish the interior. For now, it’s form follows function – with speed of completion. I’ve been trying to work really fast – it’s been really challenging making fast decisions. Definitely YOLO’ing some things. I often don’t have time to set up a tool for the slow way, so I improvise with another tool. Example: My Bosch router motor burned out – it used to be my plunge router… and I keep a Triton in the router table and use a hand held router for small jobs. It’s a pita to take the Triton out of the table, so I’ll just use the little trim router like a plunge router… results vary wildly.

We’re in a Pineapple Express weather pattern, warm and wet. So no skiable snow quite yet. Once the heater is hooked up to electrical – I’m calling it good for the year and will pick things up again in the spring. It’s time to go skiing.