My Acreage Project - Let the fun begin

[eblend]

Little update.

Fortis should be coming out sometime closer towards the end of the week/beginning of next to install my meter and the wire up the pole, so I will finally have power.

In preparation for that, I have installed my panel cover and a few breakers for the few loads I want to be able to run during construction. I also went ahead and installed the generator lockout on the panel for future generator setup.

The panel



Generator lockout kit. This piece of sliding metal prevents the generator breaker and the main breaker from both being turned on at the same time. You can physically only do one or the other. The whole idea is that if you left both of them on during a power outage, you would actually back-feed your generator power to the utility company and shock a lineman working on the pole, as there would be power where he wouldn't expect it. With this, if you want to run a generator, you are forced to turn off the main power. Pretty sure it's some code requirement.





Also went ahead and installed a single outdoor light for now. Will have this on all the time using dusk to dawn bulb, just to light the way through the door I use during construction. Bought it on clearance for like $10 because it was read....I wanted the black one but it was $80....so red it is for now. Maybe one day I will paint it. Can also see my outdoor plug covers. I installed 9 of those as that circuit will be live shortly and I will have power around the whole exterior of the house for whatever I need.



After all that was done, I wanted to put up some drywall to isolate the garage from the living space. I needed this up now so that it can be used as backer for spray foam between the garage and the house. Rest of the drywall will be done by a hired contractor sometime next year when I get to that point.



Now I am mostly working on terminating all the pot lights. I got 108 of them in the house, about half way done. Once I get power I will kick it into high gear and start working on gas lines. Those are a bit complicated right now since I don't have my boiler or furnace placed yet.....but I can do the gas pipes to the far end of the deck at least for bbq and fire table, and work backwards towards the utility room. Pipes come in like 21 foot lenghts....need to find a way to transport that...

[benyl]

Make sure you bus bar is rated 10% higher than you panel if you want to do solar to the max amount. Seems like a new rule got put in place in 2022.

Don't drywallers usually install sheets horizontal?

[eblend]

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Make sure you bus bar is rated 10% higher than you panel if you want to do solar to the max amount. Seems like a new rule got put in place in 2022.

Don't drywallers usually install sheets horizontal?

I have seen it done both ways. They make them in 8, 9, 10 and longer lengths for each ceiling common ceiling height. 9' sheets would be pretty useless horizontally I would think. I am not sure, I am not a pro, but either way, they will figure it out and tie it in whichever method they plan on using.

I know that the drywall edges are tapered along the long length, so if you do them vertically you can hide the seam in the recess, whereas if you do it horizontally, there is no taper, which means you have to artificially build up that area with an extra wide trowel I think. Doing two un-tapered joints seems like more work, whereas when you do them horizontally, the flat ends are at the top and bottom, and easier to tie in to the ceiling and covered by baseboards. I don't know, but all my life I did it vertically. Maybe someone smarted than me can chime in.

Didn't know about this busbar stuff, but looked it up for the panel, and Leviton says this:

Busbar rating (all panels): 225A

It's a 200A panel, so 225 is more than 10% higher, so I should be good. Thanks for the tip!

[spike98]

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Generator lockout kit. This piece of sliding metal prevents the generator breaker and the main breaker from both being turned on at the same time. You can physically only do one or the other. The whole idea is that if you left both of them on during a power outage, you would actually back-feed your generator power to the utility company and shock a lineman working on the pole, as there would be power where he wouldn't expect it. With this, if you want to run a generator, you are forced to turn off the main power. Pretty sure it's some code requirement.

I am pretty sure generator interlock's violate Alberta electrical code as they are not latching and only in place by its own weight. They are also not CSA approved though some are UL approved and some jurisdictions accept that. Lastly the device doesn't isolate neutral from the main feed which in some jurisdictions is a requirement. At least, i would chat with your SCO before you energize but the best course is to just install a proper transfer switch.

[littledan]

Ya if I recall our local utility did not allow gen interlock like that. The options were a generator sub panel or a transfer switch or an auto transfer gen plug at the meter base.

[schurchill39]

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Don't drywallers usually install sheets horizontal?

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I have seen it done both ways. They make them in 8, 9, 10 and longer lengths for each ceiling common ceiling height. 9' sheets would be pretty useless horizontally I would think. I am not sure, I am not a pro, but either way, they will figure it out and tie it in whichever method they plan on using.

I know that the drywall edges are tapered along the long length, so if you do them vertically you can hide the seam in the recess, whereas if you do it horizontally, there is no taper, which means you have to artificially build up that area with an extra wide trowel I think. Doing two un-tapered joints seems like more work, whereas when you do them horizontally, the flat ends are at the top and bottom, and easier to tie in to the ceiling and covered by baseboards. I don't know, but all my life I did it vertically. Maybe someone smarted than me can chime in.

Both ways are totally acceptable and up to the individual crew. I prefer to run vertically if stud spacing allows for it on my developments, as does my dad who is a general contractor. On 9ft ceilings running horizontally gives you a 1' strip they end up running down the middle of the wall. Usually guys will try and do things horizontally when they have access to 10-12' boards so they can hang everything standing or kneeling and not have to go up and down each board. If you have good mudders then it doesn't matter at all which way you go.

[ExtraSlow]

I worked ONE DAY with shoemaker drywall as a swamper, delivering that fucking drywall all through the house's for some builder. Let me tell you two sheets of 14 foot drywall is heavy as fuck. Fingers and forearms just destroyed after one day. Plus those shitbags fudged my timesheet so I got paid for like 2 hours less than I worked. the folks at Adecco didn't care, so i told em I wasn't going back. Shitbags.

[eblend]

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I am pretty sure generator interlock's violate Alberta electrical code as they are not latching and only in place by its own weight. They are also not CSA approved though some are UL approved and some jurisdictions accept that. Lastly the device doesn't isolate neutral from the main feed which in some jurisdictions is a requirement. At least, i would chat with your SCO before you energize but the best course is to just install a proper transfer switch.

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Ya if I recall our local utility did not allow gen interlock like that. The options were a generator sub panel or a transfer switch or an auto transfer gen plug at the meter base.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware. This goes to show that you can't trust everything you find on the internet, and that not everything that is sold on Amazon.ca should be sold in Canada. Anyways, I first learned about interlock kits from YouTube, and thought they were cool idea, although kind of ugly, but at the same time, simple. When I looked up what was available from Leviton that came up. Looking at the same description now on Leviton site, it does indeed say it can't be used in Canada, it didn't at the time when I bought this probably about a year ago. It's interesting, because the panel itself, which is fully CSA compliant, specifically has words Generator Breaker engraved right into the plastic behind the breaker, and says specifically if you intend to use a generator, that is where it should go, so I put it there without thinking twice about it. At any rate, I had this all inspected and the inspector didn't even say anything. I didn't have the interlock kit installed fully at the time, as it mostly sits on the cover, but there is a hold down bracket that's not painted, that gets installed over the breaker and a screw that goes into the panel to prevent the breaker from coming out, and this was all installed during the inspection. In fact, it was the only breaker installed at that time. I was there with the inspector, and he asked me about the generator, and I said it was going to be just a plug for a standalone generator to connect to if needed, and that was the end of that discussion, he never objected to anything and passed me....so dunno, he either didn't care, or because it isn't a full time wired generator, the same rules don't apply...I don't know.

The other end of that will simply go to a plug like this. I would then connect the 50A output from my generator to this in the event that there is an extended outage and I want to run some basic things within the house.



If they catch it at final inspection and object to it, then I will remove it and remove the breaker, and reinstall it after they are gone. Reading a bit online about this, it appears that their concern is to do with the fact that this can easily be bypassed if you remove the panel cover...while true....you can also easily bypass a need for a breaker with the panel removed....among other things..so it just seems like more typical government over-reach. Not too concerned about it. This is only being done for the short term anyways, as an alternative option. As I may have mentioned a long time ago in this thread, long term goal is solar panels, full house batteries and a DC generator, with an automatic transfer switch and all that, so really this setup is just a poor-mans "Better install it while it's easily possible" solution to a possible problem. I spoke to the neighbor there who has lived in that area for 25 years...said he only remembers one power outage that lasted longer than a day, so really this will probably never be used anyways.

[spike98]

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Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware. This goes to show that you can't trust everything you find on the internet, and that not everything that is sold on Amazon.ca should be sold in Canada. Anyways, I first learned about interlock kits from YouTube, and thought they were cool idea, although kind of ugly, but at the same time, simple. When I looked up what was available from Leviton that came up. Looking at the same description now on Leviton site, it does indeed say it can't be used in Canada, it didn't at the time when I bought this probably about a year ago. It's interesting, because the panel itself, which is fully CSA compliant, specifically has words Generator Breaker engraved right into the plastic behind the breaker, and says specifically if you intend to use a generator, that is where it should go, so I put it there without thinking twice about it. At any rate, I had this all inspected and the inspector didn't even say anything. I didn't have the interlock kit installed fully at the time, as it mostly sits on the cover, but there is a hold down bracket that's not painted, that gets installed over the breaker and a screw that goes into the panel to prevent the breaker from coming out, and this was all installed during the inspection. In fact, it was the only breaker installed at that time. I was there with the inspector, and he asked me about the generator, and I said it was going to be just a plug for a standalone generator to connect to if needed, and that was the end of that discussion, he never objected to anything and passed me....so dunno, he either didn't care, or because it isn't a full time wired generator, the same rules don't apply...I don't know.

The other end of that will simply go to a plug like this. I would then connect the 50A output from my generator to this in the event that there is an extended outage and I want to run some basic things within the house.



If they catch it at final inspection and object to it, then I will remove it and remove the breaker, and reinstall it after they are gone. Reading a bit online about this, it appears that their concern is to do with the fact that this can easily be bypassed if you remove the panel cover...while true....you can also easily bypass a need for a breaker with the panel removed....among other things..so it just seems like more typical government over-reach. Not too concerned about it. This is only being done for the short term anyways, as an alternative option. As I may have mentioned a long time ago in this thread, long term goal is solar panels, full house batteries and a DC generator, with an automatic transfer switch and all that, so really this setup is just a poor-mans "Better install it while it's easily possible" solution to a possible problem. I spoke to the neighbor there who has lived in that area for 25 years...said he only remembers one power outage that lasted longer than a day, so really this will probably never be used anyways.

Its also the fact that it doesn't decouple neutral. A malfunctioning or incorrectly installed device could send current to neutral which in essence poses the same hazard as no interlock device at all. A proper transfer switch also offers a much higher degree of flexibility and ease of use if you aren't convinced from a safety perspective. With a transfer switch, you need only one toggle and you will have power to circuits you want to power. In an outage, you don't want to be fumbling to shut off unnecessary breakers in the dark before you transfer via your interlock. With a transfer switch, you simply toggle from line to generator and you're done. Mine even has individual breakers and power gauges for monitoring and protection.

At the end of the day, its your house of course, but it looks like you went to a lot of trouble to do it right and not half ass things. Going with a transfer switch would follow suit.

[eblend]

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Its also the fact that it doesn't decouple neutral. A malfunctioning or incorrectly installed device could send current to neutral which in essence poses the same hazard as no interlock device at all. A proper transfer switch also offers a much higher degree of flexibility and ease of use if you aren't convinced from a safety perspective. With a transfer switch, you need only one toggle and you will have power to circuits you want to power. In an outage, you don't want to be fumbling to shut off unnecessary breakers in the dark before you transfer via your interlock. With a transfer switch, you simply toggle from line to generator and you're done. Mine even has individual breakers and power gauges for monitoring and protection.

At the end of the day, its your house of course, but it looks like you went to a lot of trouble to do it right and not half ass things. Going with a transfer switch would follow suit.

Yah, been reading a little bit more into it. I have the ability to put a transfer switch next to my panel for this, and the existing cable could reach, so I might, but at this point it's a low priority item that I can do at any time between now and drywall, so I will delay any decisions on that until later. I am a bit surprised that the inspector didn't say anything. My panel in the house is actually considered a sub-panel to the main service entrance, which is in a combi panel on a post outside. I wonder if that had anything to do with him not mentioning anything. My ground and neutral are bonded on the outside panel, but not on the inside one...don't know. Either way, point taken and will be re-evaluated. I have the ability to kill all power to the house with an outside panel, so I can make this change even after the service is energized.

What I really want is a Generac PWRCell system, I hope someday it gets approved for use in Canada. Their PWRManager module does what your transfer switch with a individual breakers does, but in the main panel, without having to have those individual breakers. It's a module that sits in-between the panel and the circuits you want to protect, and activates during a power outage, it's kind of neat.

In an ideal world, I would have the entire PWRCell system, using solar to charge whole house batteries, automatic transfer switch with the PWRManager, and a DC generator to charge the batteries in absence of Solar Power if needed. It makes all other systems that I have looked at so archaic, especially my interlock setup.

This wall is my dream setup, perhaps with another battery cabinet

[eblend]

Figure I give a little bit of an update. Nothing groundbreaking happening, just slowly chipping away at random things.

First thing first, I got power!!!! It's glorious!





Tested the fridge plug, to make sure all is good. Fridge is a dedicated circuit and one of few that I powered on so far for general power



All done. Got my cameras installed back on the pole. Removed it all earlier as it's not really supposed to be installed on their pole, especially when they are there working



Also got one light circuit setup on a dusk to dawn bulb. Will stay on all night.



Warm food finally!!



Other than that, nothing major at all. Run 1.5" conduit from attic to my server rack area, in case I need to run more stuff in the future that I missed.











Got a few minor things done as well around the house but don't have any pics yet, will take some later. Next up is gas and central vac! As I sat there eating lunch, I looked up and realized just how much shit and work has been done, and how much crap is needed to make the house function. Snapped a pic....shows just how much stuff goes into making a house. In this picture you will find plumbing, high voltage cables, low voltage cables, heat ducts, plumbing pipes and water supply lines, pvc conduits. Somehow this one picture makes all the small wins look so much more important to the whole bigger picture. Everything in this picture, aside from the heating ducts, was done by myself...sometimes I look at this and am surprised that I got this far

[prae]

what a milestone! congrats, looking good.

[Gman.45]

Truly a pleasure to watch this thread. I'm envious of this, and wish I had the time and patience to take on such a project.

I'm sure your folks and family are going to appreciate all the hard work that's gone into this project/home.

[eblend]

Thanks everyone.

Just another minor update on a couple of things that I have done before but forgot to take pictures.

This is part of my utility room. Some time ago I installed some drywall into a few places where it was going to be very challenging to install it later after HVAC is done, so I went ahead and mudded it and got it painted. The room if obviously not done, but everything that is painted is the part that would be hard to do later, so it's done now and ready for all the HVAC stuff to tie in. As you can see from the picture, there is lots of stuff coming back to the utility room for all my HVAC setup. In the future I can easily install the rest of the drywall without having to worry about cutouts for pipes and crap. The idea is to have this room look pretty snazzy, even if it's just a utility room. The fact that my HVAC contractor is very busy and works on my stuff as time allows actually played into my hands this time around as I was able to get things installed that I would have otherwise not been able to as it would have held them up.




I have also installed 5/8th plywood into every single one of my pocket door frames. This allows the frame to be more solid, and also allows for you to hang stuff on that wall through drywall, as it acts as backup for support. This was a pain to install and required special clips, which I was only able to find online and shipped from the states. They had them here on Amazon for ridiculous price, so I got them shipped to our work office in the states and reshipped over here. Perhaps they can be bought here, but I couldn't find them in my search. This is my first time with pocket doors, but I am throwing all the accessories at it that are available, which includes a hidden glide pin (small white thing on bottom on concrete to fit into a groove at the bottom of door for hidden look), and soft open and close to give a more premium feel.





This one is a bit special. The door frame was built to recess into the 6x2 wall by about 5 inches. This allows the access door to the shitter/shower to be 32" wide, while fully retracting out of the way in a standard 60" wide bathroom. If it wasn't for this recess, The biggest door I could have fit here would have been 28" wide.



And this picture illustrates that I have a mental problem and try to be a perfectionist, which really slows me down haha.

The idea here is that the hydronic heat thermostat for the garage will line up with the light switch on the wall (didn't have a dual gang plate, and used a plug to hold it temporarily), and then horizontally will match the door openers (yes I know middle one is lightly down, it has been adjusted after the pic ). The only reason I hung these now is to makes holes in proper locations to get the wires to come out where they need to come out. All of this has since been removed and will be reinstalled far into the future once the garage drywall is all done and things are painted.



From here on, it will be a while before I post any more updates. Everything else I am doing is very minor until I get to the gas lines and central vac stuff.

[XylathaneGTR]

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And this picture illustrates that I have a mental problem and try to be a perfectionist, which really slows me down haha.

I love your dedication to perfection I wish all trades were this anal. There's one fixture that is slightly out of true in my builder-grade dump of a custom-built house, and it annoys me every time I see it (which is often, since it's light switch at eye level in a bathroom).

[suntan]

They should be middle aligned.

[max_boost]

can't wait to see the tv set up, above the fireplace or not

[03ozwhip]

This is looking amazing. Congrats on it, really good work.

[ExtraSlow]

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They should be middle aligned.

This comment is fully justified.

[eblend]

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They should be middle aligned.

Haha, nah it's fine this way for me.

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can't wait to see the tv set up, above the fireplace or not

Not fireplace, so not above for sure

I am having a wood stove, standalone on the side, so no TV anywhere near it.