My Industrial Cabin Build

[pmsmechanic]

I looked into on demand electric water heaters. Higher amounts of energy needed and you require 30 amp and larger circuits for them.
I make myself crazy with all of this. I think space limitations are going to force my hand and make me use the tankless propane. If I had experience I would know that I needed a larger mechanical room. Probably twice the size.

You have "attic" space on both sides of the house with adequate room for a water heater. Just getting them up and down those stairs could be interesting.

 

[airbiscuit]

What is going in your mechanical room that is making it feel too small?

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I have run into another issue that is much more troublesome. My mechanical room is too small. It is 8’9”by 5’6”. I am thinking of moving the electrical panel to an alcove near the back door this would put the panel on the outer wall, making it easier to pull the electric in. That would free up the space i. The mechanical room that I need.

Be careful where you put that elec panel... code requires ample room to either side and I believe 36" clearance in the front. NOTHING can impede access to it. Oh, and no water lines near it as well.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

What is going in your mechanical room that is making it feel too small?

On the full 8 foot wall, I have my radiant heat manifolds and will use most of that wall for the radiant heat plumbing and mechanicals. The wall to the right of that (if you were standing in the doorway, looking in), will have an on demand heat pump on the wall. I cant figure any other way to do it. I also need to have a water softening system and a well tank. That is a lot of real estate. On the other side is the electric panel, unless I can figure out somewhere to move it. The alcove wont work. You need 30 inches to place it in and 36 in front of it. The 36 was fine but the it is only 24 inches wide.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

On your bump out that you added for your vent line being off a little. I would either do the entire wall that thickness, or cut the concrete and move the vent line.

Jefanna loves the bump out. It stays. But I have to say,it reminds me of my childhood. I have a lot of relatives in Luzerne county PA. And there is a little road where my Grandparents lived when I was a little kid. Across the street were several houses going to the right and left, and our family lived in every one of them. They had all been built by family members. Some were better built than others and they all had some “features”.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

On the full 8 foot wall, I have my radiant heat manifolds and will use most of that wall for the radiant heat plumbing and mechanicals. The wall to the right of that (if you were standing in the doorway, looking in), will have an on demand heat pump on the wall. I cant figure any other way to do it. I also need to have a water softening system and a well tank. That is a lot of real estate. On the other side is the electric panel, unless I can figure out somewhere to move it. The alcove wont work. You need 30 inches to place it in and 36 in front of it. The 36 was fine but the it is only 24 inches wide.

Can you add an a small room on to the house directly outside of your mechanical room? Put in an exterior door and use that room for all of your plumbing, radiant heat, etc; no one says it has to be "in the house".

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Can you add an a small room on to the house directly outside of your mechanical room? Put in an exterior door and use that room for all of your plumbing, radiant heat, etc; no one says it has to be "in the house".

Holy cow. That would add some complexity to my life. If I can’t figure it all out, I will put a small sediment filter in place, get the room going and move in, then revisit it. For wlectric I am going with the original locatiin and just moving forward.

 

[Carl_NH]

Have you tested for hardness/minerals that you know you need a softener? With a large 1" sediment cartridge filter and water softener you could "stack" the water tank above the filters/softener in the corner of the room taking up a 2x2x8'H space.

The well bladder tanks are light (empty) but the softener canisters are heavy. You could add a large sand filter if needed later next to the softener.

Do you have a drain in the utility room? As I recall there is a Bathroom next to this utility room?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

A quick sketch of the mechanical room. And yes there is a drain built into the floor.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

We put up some siding this weekend, and I painted it today.
Why would I put up siding at this point? Well the far side of the house had no siding on it. And to get the electric run to the house, I need a disconnect on the outside. And it seemed logical to me that I might want to put up the siding first and then attach the disconnect box. Unfortunately we only got half a wall done. We had some farm business to take care of that ate up a bunch of time this weekend.
I have also been working a deal to get a second tractor up here to help me deal with some of the things that have been giving me a lot of challenge and don’t exactly fit into the realm of my Kioti. Looking forward to that, even though we have very little time to spare for farm work.
I just need to chew harder.