Comment

Comment by Daniel Niendorff on January 14, 2024 at 6:27pm

Sam- glad to see you are near the finish line on your set up.  I know it’s been a long journey but will be worth it!!!  Well done!

Comment by Dave steinke on January 12, 2024 at 11:33pm

She is a beauty!

Comment by Samuel McNair on January 8, 2024 at 8:30am

Bob, I had the walls and door sprayed with closed cell foam.  2" on the walls and door, and 4" of closed cell  on the ceiling because I did not plan to further insulate the celing. I added 8" of fiberglass bat to the walls under the sheetrock and 3/4" OSB (1st 6 feet of the walls). Spray foam plus fiberglass bat is the most economical means to obtain nearly airtight construction plus high R value.   The door and ceiling exposed foam were sprayed with Dow 401 flame retardant then painted.  Code requires the retardant if the foam is exposed in a occupied area. But you can hold a chunk of the foam in a propane torch flame and it eventually will char and flame a little but it immediately self extinguishes.  On the house end of the building  I have 2" of foam on walls & ceiling plus 8" of fiberglas bat (= R40). I installed my geothermal heat pump system myself and I can heat or cool the entire 50' x 90' building for about $80 per month total electric bill.  When I add the appliances and move into it I expect the bill to peak out at about $100 per month. The sealing effect of the foam and attention to detail makes the building so tight that when I pressure tested it Iended up having to install a forced makeup air exhange unit with filters and a heat recovery exchanger.  Otherwise the bulding would be too tight for proper building health.  Leakage was measured at 0.7 volume leakage per hour at 50 MPa. Energy Star rating allows up to 4.0 volume leakage per hour.  It's like being in a styrofoam cooler with a tight lid.  Getting sod established on the north end of my runway where I buried the geothermal loops is the reason for the runway not being open for use yet. If you are a DYI sort of person (I have DYI'd the entire building and runway) you can install a top of the line geothermal system for around 1/5 of what the contractors charge. 

Scott, the generator goes outside. It works as it came on either natural gas or propane with a simple turn of a valve4. For about $160 I bought online the manifold and carb necessary to convert it to gasoline in a pinch. I like redundancy options. I have had 3 of these Generac units in previous houses since 2003 and put one in my Mom's house. They are very quiet and incredibly reliable. You can count on either a spring ice storm or a drunk hitting a power pole at least once every year, and 1 year power was out for several weeks. 

Comment by Scott Ahrens on January 8, 2024 at 7:52am

Nice hangar.  I like you generator.

Comment by Bob Simmons on January 7, 2024 at 2:03pm

Nice. What kind of insulation is that on the door?