I spent Saturday up at the cabin.

I had a nice afternoon up at the cabin. My In-laws found a beatiful old wood heater for my cabin, I didn't get a picture of it yet but will post it as soon as I do. It is a vintage beautiful piece that will look very nice in the corner. They also gave me a table and some chairs. Now the cabin is beginning to look and feel like a cozy place to hang out. I will be spending some time up there this week to do some studying. Here is a picture of the inside and outside.

I changed the positioning of the fan.

I almost forgot to mention, I put the fan outside of the cabin. The air flow from the fan, which is 80 CFM is too high when it is inside the cabin. Therefore I put the fan housing outside and below the main entry into the cabin. This will allow the air to enter the building more gradually and be far more comfortable for the building occupants.

THe cabin is just about closed.

Here are some updated photos of the cabin. I am just about to lock up. I put in the door and the ceiling joists. The walls are pretty well insulated except for one gable. Once that is done, I will be putting up my vapour barriers and will decide what to do for my interior finishing. I am pondering using boards from used pallets since it would be free. It would be nice looking, but very labour intensive. It has been unbelievably hot at the cabin the last week or so. I had high reading of 38 degrees celcius at the tube intake. The data logger is in the shade. The cabin gave me slighly lower readings, but that logger is in a shady spot. The tubes continue to work well, but I can only get 24-32 hours of run time before the battery runs down. I think some sort of timer would be good so It would only run during the peak cool or warm periods. Anyways here are the new photos.

Full moon last night!

I spent the night at the cabin last night so I could get some work done. The night was crystal clear with nary a cloud in the sky. The moon was bright and full. Here are a couple shots.

Heading up to the cabin tonight!

I'll be heading up to the cabin tonightto get my building envellope finished. Hopefully, the battery lasted for the last few days so I can get good data for my report. I will be posting part 4  and 5 of the photo recap in the near future. I hope everyone has a great weekend after the first week of school. Two more semesters to go. 

Photo recap part 3!

Photo recap part 2.

Great article I read on Common Dreams!

Here is a link to a great article I read on Common Dreams.ORG. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-3

It is called;

Less Work, More Living

Working fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.

by Juliet Schor

 This type of writing always gives me lots to think about. Good stuff pertaining to green building as well.

I was going through some photos and thought I would post a little pictoral recap.

 

 

Heat for the winter months!

Now that the cabin is just about closed up, I am looking at passive systems to heat the cabin in the winter. I will be using the cabin as a getaway, and writers space. I will be able to find a small wood stove, but want to look at passive heating systems as well. The windows are south facing and will provide good solar gain during the day. The earth tubes will also provide conditioned air. I found this on you tube to supplement my heating needs. Here is the link. Simple, and cheap. When I have some time, I'd like to try it out to see if it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is5yd4PPdpI&feature=related.