Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

I'm tossing the truck on to the train in sanford, friday around lunch time, so i wouldn't be able to wheel anyway.

luckily, it's just our design proposal is due tomorrow, and then the actual build is due in april.

things have been going well out by the ocean. you want to hang out in Jax in late Feb? I'm just starting a new bed rack build, and am delivering it to the customer in jax, one weekend in the second half of feb.

 

What are you doing for the build? A mini model house?

Certainly, I should be around. If you need to stay up here so you don't have to drive both ways in one day you're more than welcome.

 

much apreciated. I'll give you a ring as the time gets closer.

we're designing a net zero house. that's a house that produces enough energy to net a $0.00 power bill or better at the end of the year. plenty of these houses already exist, but the startup costs are so high, that you have to own the house for 30-40 years for it to pay back for itsself. our goal is to design one that will pay for all of the extra startup costs in 10 years. we will be building full scale, 100% functional, cutout of the house. i'll upload a drawing later for ya.

 

My pleasure.

Yeah I remembered the idea I just wasn't sure what you would be physically building. That's cool that you'll be going full scale. You going to do one of those solar water heaters?

 

yeah, we'll have one of the larger products at the engineering showcase in late april. the cutout section of what we are building will be about 7' wide, 5'-6' deep, and 14' tall. we're building it in sections that will effectively clip together on site and the showcase. a hot water solar grid on the roof will be one component to the project. some other included systems are PV panels on the roof, tripple pane, nitrogen filled windows, all LED lighting, and a new superinsulation structural wall system. the wall system is probably the most important for this particular project.

 

What about some attic vents and floor vents for the a/c like they do in vegas casinos?

 

well, one of the greatest areas of energy loss we found was in the AC ducting. the problem is that you consume all of this energy to cool down air to be pumped through the AC ducting, and where do those ducts go? after you've cooled this air, you run it through ducts that go up into an uninsulated attic. Being in florida, you are heating the hell out of that aur when it's in the attic portion of the ducting. our solution is to insulate the roof of the house, insteade of insulating the sealings. we are also sealing off the attic space, from freeflowing air like what you find in most houses, and controlling the airflow with baffles. when we pair all of this with a quite impressive AC unit and top of the line "smart" thermostat, we are saving a ton of energy, and therfore $$$.

To briefly touch on the smart thermostat, instead of programming it, via sensors throughout the house, it learns the ocupants of the house. if you are hot, you go the the thermostat and turn it down a coupel degrees, same if you are cold. over time, through visual sensors, it will learn your habits, and heat/cool to your prefferences automatially. it will do the same with other people who frewquently occupy the house. of course, when you are there, it shuts off the heating/cooling. you may think, but isn't it uncomfortable when you get how from work and your house is hot and muggy? well, part of the learning cycle it goes through is human traffic. it learns when you come home from work during the week, or go out on weekends, and preheats/cools accordingly. and finally, when you're home, why heat/cool a 3000 square foot house when it's just you in one corner of the house? there are servo mounted baffles build into each fork in the ducting. they are 4 position bafles (all open, all closed, one open, the other open). what this does is only send the AC to the room or area of the house that has people in it.

 

Wow that is really smart. Sorry I couldn't resist but seriously that's neat, I didn't even know they had such a thing. Interesting approach to insulate the attic.

 

insulating the attic works best in florida and similar areas. the attic volume is fairly low because of the low sloped roofs. if you go somewhere that it snows, roofs are sloped more to keep snow (which is heavy) from building up on roofs. this creates a larger volume of air that has to be insulated, which lowers the effectiveness of the strategy.

the smart thermostat already exists, but it only works so well. it already uses sensors to learnpeople and their habits. we are just piggybacking on the system and adding onto it with things like the 4-way duct baffles.

 

LOL I know about the problem of snow loading, I'm not a native here.

I wonder if a baffle and sensor to the garage would make much of a difference in the winter when I hot car is parked in there.

 

oh yeah, forgot your were a northerner once too

we haven't really looked into the garage thing, since we are using a carport. less space to insulate as far as the attic volume is concerned, and it greatly cuts down on building costs, which helps us reach out 10 year payback. that's a good idea though, for someone who would want a garage. could be easily integrated into the design if you weren't worried abotu the extra cost.

 

Carport is probably better for FL anyways since we don't want heat most of the time even if you can close the vents.

 

exactly. plus, it's a lot easier to fit a lifted tacoma under a carport

 

Haha! and when a fire breaks out from welding the house isn't at as much risk.

 

i don't know what you're talking about

 

I sometimes come in here to just watch your sig.

 

Winch came in today! went out this afternoon and got silicone and grease to seal up the solenoid. gonna seal it up tonight and installt he winch tomorrow. Alsogot some 1ga cable to power the winch. the winch comes with 4ga cable, and not a lot. If i've learned anything over the years, it's never skimp on wiring ANYTHING. got the heavy duty cable with a thicker shield, in hopes that i never have to mess with the wiring again.

good cable comes at a price though. about $100 in this picture



Also made the All-Pro callendar again this year. honorable mentions this time, with Mr. hard2kill! we're going 2 for 2 buddy!



Tomorrow's project



and the difference in the smittybilt cable vs the stuff you get at a welding shop. other than the size, the better cable also has more, smaller strands of wire in it instead of fewer large strands. you can see the effects of this by looking at the kinks in the smittybilt cable. the nicer cable just curves smothely, without holding kinks.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...-06-taco-expo-build-thread-3.html#post1594078