March 25, 2025
Day 1,271 of the Adventure
The house building continued today with some plumbing and electrical "lifelines". We installed a water main into the basement last fall but still needed to get sewer and electrical connections through the cement block walls. All of that happened today. It's amazing how many little things there are to consider when taking on a project of this size. You may notice there are two electrical conduits through the wall. This is part of our electrical service strategy. The one closest to the corner will be fed by the Solar Battery Bank. Before it makes it to the house, it all runs through an Inverter which converts the 48 volt DC battery power to 110 and 220 AC "household" power. That power source relies primarily on solar, however it does have a grid backup along with a generator backup wired into it. The second conduit is a dedicated grid connection. Why not utilize the grid connection that runs through the inverter you may ask? It's all about backup options. About two years ago, our first (admittedly lower cost) inverter failed and would not even allow the grid power to bypass through it to serve the cabin. Fortunately, we had the same set-up with the two service panels in the cabin. So, even though we lost our solar feed, the grid did supply power to the essential needs of the cabin without disruption while we worked through a new solution for the inverter replacement. It's odd to think of the grid as the "backup" system rather than the solar as the backup. Yet that's how it worked out in that case. I'm honestly still not sure of how practical it all is. I can say though, that the system as a whole, has been bullet-proof in the sense that it's never let us lose our power supply. Our grid power has gone down seven times, that we know of, since we've been here, and the solar plant inverter has failed once. During all those failures, we've never been without electricity, heat, refrigeration or anything that caused an inconvenience. It's all about backup options.
Adventure Quote: “You have as many options as you give yourself.” ― Kasie West
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