Venting issues

See that white thing just above the back object? That is the boiler vent. The object just above that is the water spigot, and if you look up toward the corner along the same wall you can see the woodstove air intake. Still buried is the intake/exhaust for the HRV unit. I was able to stand on the snow and easily touch the roof

Our car. We got a near record amount of snow for a March storm

This morning we were awoke by the not-quite-full-on smoke alarm signaling intermittently. Not smelling smoke we quickly opened the doors and a bunch of windows in case it was a CO alarm, which it actually seems to have been.

We quickly ascertained that the boiler vent had been covered over by the prodigious snowstorm we experienced last night and today. The boiler is able to detect when the vent is blocked and will shut itself down which would prevent an accumulation of CO.

I suited up and went out to shovel the vent out. The amount of snow covering this thing was stunning. What was curious was the fact there seemed to be a bit of a bubble, for lack of a better way to describe it, around the vent. In other words there was a non-snow space that I shoveled into when I got near the vent pipe. What this makes me think is that the heat of the boiler vent gas was kind of creating its own little pocket under the snow and perhaps this was the reason the boiler seems to have not actually shut down, hence the CO alarm.

With the vent cleared and the house thoroughly aired out we shut the doors and windows and felt okay about the situation. It was a bit later that it occurred to me to check the HRV air supply duct as well. Like the boiler vent, it was also burried, and like the boiler vent it seemed to have it's own little air-space pocket in the snow once I reached it. Like the boiler vent it is venting warm-t0-hot air, so it makes sense.

We take this stuff absolutely seriously; I was aware of these potential problems when the installation work was done, but I got a bit of resistance and didn't push further about locating the venting higher up. I wish I had. The task now is to correct it.

To that end I'd already put in a call last week to the plumber about the situation, so we are going to correct it. On the upside, we are grateful for the alarm system and glad it works.

Stair Treads

Nancy spent a bunch of time today putting the first coat of finish on our cherry stair treads, which means more stinky stuff, but not nearly so bad as the smell from the floors after they got their coats of polyurethane.

Nance also installed the registers on the HRV air supply and return ducts. Its seems everyday there is one more little detail like this that says "finshed".

Adam is going to rejoin our effort again this week, so we'll see some good progress with both him and I working together.

HRV and windows

Our HRV unit is installed and running.

HRV is short for "heat recovery ventilation" and the main purpose of the system is to cycle fresh air into the house (and stale air out) on a regular schedule. The reason this is necessary is that the house was constructed so tightly that we can't rely on fresh air to simply work it's way inside as has been customary in most construction for as long as homes have been built.

Unlike a simple fan system, the HRV helps maintain the warm air in the house by a heat exchange process where the cool air coming in is passed by the warm air exiting and in the process acting upon each other to moderate the cool air so that we are not simply bringing in cold air that would cool the house and require additional heating to maintain the inside temperature. Secondarily, the HRV unit serves to move moisture out of the house that would otherwise build up from cooking, showering, and respirating. If you go into the bathroom what you'll find is not a fan switch, but a button that activates the HRV unit on "high" for twenty minutes. This does the same thing a fan does, but there is no audible sound (since the unit is located in the basement) and we are not just blowing heated air outside through a big hole in the wall.

Meanwhile, Joe and I have been moving ahead on the widow returns and trim. We've got the process pretty well streamlined and are making good progress. We've got six windows done out of 14, so eight still to go. They look great.

Plumbing continues

How to get a pipe in the house. Note the second hole to the left of the pipe

The pipe in place on the inside, one each through the two holes on the outside

The rigid insulation in the basement. You'd be surprised how many times I've whacked my head harder then I'd like on that white plastic pipe coming out of the wall.

I've been plugging away at the drain and vent lines.

What surprised me was that in order to get certain lines into place in the floor joists, you have to continue your line of holes right out through the side of the house. What do you do if you've built a house out of concrete?

I've been enjoying the plumbing work; you basically have a pile of fittings and you dry-fit them together with lengths of PVC pipe and when everything is good and they are pitched the way you want them, you glue them all together with nasty smelling solvent glue.

I've also been continuing with the insulation of the basement in advance of our HRV unit being installed. (HRV stands for Heat Recovery Ventilation and is the mechanism that will supply us fresh air, since the house will be highly air-tight and super-insulated. Without this system there'd be no opportunity for fresh air to enter the house, or stale damp air to exit. More on this later.)

Anyway, the HRV unit will be installed soon in the back corner of the basement and I want to have the insulation in place so I'm not trying to fit it behind the unit after the fact. Putting up the insulation requires hanging sheet plastic from the sill , taping the overlap seams of plastic (the red tape in the photo), then cutting the boards of insulation to fit over the pink board coming up from under the slab. I then drill a pilot hole through a piece of strapping and the insulation into the concrete and finally screw a concrete screw to hold it in place.