Monday, October 15, 2007

Not so experimental electronics

A beautiful October Sunday, perfect for reading schematics at the picnic table. Probably best to have a full day to dedicate to this task, rather than spending several nights after work making tiny strides.

So, the furnace needs electricity (we had buried electric cable in our trench along with our pipes, so that was ready to go), the furnace pump which is in the basement needs electricity, and the radiant pumps and control center needs it too. This is all pretty basic wiring, and the big break came when I discovered that I wouldn't even need to add another circuit to our panel for the heating - there already was a circuit that was feeding nothing more than a single outlet just above the basement window. Given that our basement has close to one billion outlets, I cut the juice, removed the receptacle, and got down to it.

Is there anything interesting about describing how I went about wiring up a middle-of-a-run switch for the furnace pump or a digital setpoint controller? No, probably not. Hmm, what was interesting? I'm thinking..I mean, it was kinda fun to do, and I did manage to slice into my hands and finger with sharp implements a few times (one is particularly deep), but that's nothing new. These days at work I feel like a monster when I'm handing something to someone...it's like, hey! look at these sliced and skinned paddles o' mine! sorry for the blood on your document!

I'm avoiding the subject. It took all day, but we're wired up now. And it looks good. Can't see wires, either! Well, except for where they come into the house, but I'm going to wrap those. But this is progress. Now all we've got to do is insulate this system, reconfigure our domestic water plumbing (not hard), and get the furnace ready for fire!

All Sunday night I was just like, "we're gettin' there. We're getting close," 'cause we are.

- John




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