A Few More Projects...

I have been finding lately that I don't work well with small amounts of time - at least not when it comes to projects that require tools, planning, and materials. The cold doesn't help very much either as it seems to add complications to everything. It generally seems to take half the time for any given project to get set up for it, one third of the time to clean up again, and whatever is left between the two often goes to trying to remember just exactly where I left off last time.

Anyway, now that I've done my wincing and wining about the difficulties of it all, here are some things that have actually been accomplished over the past month or so:

The Fresh Water Tank

I had originally thought I would put the water tank flat on the floor, but decide to stand it on edge instead. I still need to cut plywood to cover the top and front, but the support frame is built and all of the pipes are installed. This tank holds 54 gallons and is good for a backup water supply.

I decided to use a small RV style pump. This one runs on AC power. This picture also shows the pipe going out for a hose connection outside.

 This picture shows the fill pipe coming in from above and the air outlet and overflow pipe going out through the wall in the middle. Sure lots of holes in the wall!

 Yet another hole - this one in the floor for the drain pipe for the tank.

Here's the outside view of the fill spout, air and overflow pipe (it will be cut off shorter), and the hose connection and valve.

Hot Water Heater
The hot water heater has been installed for a while, but the gas lines are in now and it is fully functional.

 Here's a look at the inside. It was jostled around rather roughly in transport and the spark probe was slightly out of position. Tech support at the Precision Temp headquarters was very helpful though and now it's working very well.

Cold weather is an issue for RV style hot water heaters. This one is less affected than any others that I looked at, but it still does get cold inside because of the air intake and exhaust outlet, both of which go trough the floor. It turns itself on briefly when it gets down to a certain temperature. This is great as long as there is gas and electricity. It could be a problem if the power goes out for too long though.

 Here's the view from the front, with the cover on. I haven't had an opportunity to try it for any length of time, but it does put out hot water and seems to react quickly when the water is turned on.

Side view showing the gas lines coming in, and the AC/DC converter to power the heater's electronics.

This is what it looks like under the floor. I made a tin box to go around the air intake and used a larger pipe to provide space around the exhaust pipe. This is so that the space stays open and clear when the foam insulation is blown in.

I had to make several other tin boxes to cover and protect various things under the floor in preparation for the insulation. Here are the flat pieces of tin ready to fold.

...and here's the box with it's bottom lid. This is filled with fiberglass insulation and goes around the trap in the drain under the bathtub. I may have to use a heat tape on the trap as well. It's the place that seems most susceptible to problems from freezing, unfortunately.