MECHANICAL ROOM

Last week we were motivated to clean, organize and pitch everything we hadn't touch in two years. Mat and Danielle were coming to do a short doc on our "Life Off Grid" and our mechanical room needed a complete overhaul.

These are our 16 batteries that store the solar energy we are able to obtain when the sun is shining. It costs about $8,000 to replace these and they last anywhere from 6-10 years. So solar isn't free but so far it has been cheaper than the grid and it has exceeded our expectations.

Our in-floor heating is divided into three zones and each zone has its own motor and thermostat.

Each zone has one or two manifolds with each room having its own control valve. This means we can have the bedroom cool but the bathroom floor hot, which we prefer in the winter.

You can click on this photo to better see these three tanks. The blue tank is our pressure tank and it holds the water pumped in from our well. From there it goes out into the house as cold water or over to the far small tank. This is a 15 gallon electric water heater which on a sunny day we use to heat the water. From there it flows into the middle propane tank for further heating if necessary. This saves us a considerable amount of propane throughout the year.

This is the heat exchanger for our in-floor heating system, a box smaller than a Kleenex box. The hot water from the tank and the cold water from the floor do not mix but simple exchange heat through a rad system inside the box.

Our mechanical room not only holds our electrical and propane systems but my tools as well. Now that it is clean and organized it is so much easier to find something. Searches have been eliminated since everything has its place.

If you have any questions about our systems please feel free to contact us.

Safe travels everyone and thanks for stopping by.