The Log house Project begins........

[PILOON]

Piloon did you ever get any ice build up on it? That's the only thing I am concerned about.

Nope, at least none that I am aware of.
Could add that the pitch is minimal, like 4" over 8'.

 

[tony Cecil]

Hi
I was wondering how you fared with the temp down for a bit of an extended time? I noticed today that I was comfortable with the house registering sixty two...Just amazing how the human body adapts to what ever the elements...In the summer I would be freezing at sixty two Tony

 

[MotorSeven]

Tony, it was -3 here this AM, basement was at 77, main floor was at 64(and that's with marginal firewood). The power went out twice last night, so I had to shut off our water and drain the lines back down to the basement or the outside instant hot water heater & lines would have frozen. Looking back, I think opting to put the HW unit outside was a mistake, I should have put it in the basement and vented it because it is the only thing that is freeze susceptible at the Treehouse.

Then, I had to drive down to the quonset hut and light a few Coleman Lanterns, one went in the apartment side, one in the shop side, one in the pump house and one in the neighbors pump house. Colemans put off quite a bit of heat and are cheaper & easier to set up than a generator. Power was off for a few hours, came back on then went off at dawn so back down I went to re-fill the lanterns.

It topped out at 14 degrees here today even with a blue sky and awesome sun. We have only been lived here 7 years and the coldest we have seen was 6 degrees. I know the Yanks deal with much colder winters all the time, but we can almost make a bet we will lose power when it approaches zero even if there is no wind & ice...why I don't know:confused3:

So when it warms up I am going to just go ahead and shut off the water to the quonset, drain and blow out all the lines. Then the only thing I have to worry about is the Treehouse HW heater. Some day when this one needs replacement I am going to re-plumb it all into the basement.

 

[s219]

We lost power this morning too, and the power company said it was "equipment failure due to cold", whatever that means. We went three hours until it came on. Stoked up the fireplace to keep things comfortable. Another hour and I would have fired up the generator.

 

[MotorSeven]

-2 this AM, just re-loaded the stove. I'm kinda glad for the cold snap, it has let us know where all the air leaks are in the house. The biggest culprit is the 3 French Door thresholds.....I completely forgot to seal them underneath from the outside with foam, then put on a cover board and run a bead of caulk where the flooring meets the inside threshold. I also knew that the garden window was a poor design for cold weather but I didn't expect it to freeze like this. Yes the panes are double insulated, but the blastic bottom is not so I need to add soe of that 2" high density foam to it:

Les thinks a heavy curtain that could be hung on hooks across the opening would help out and I agree. Yesterday/AM the whole bottom of the thing was a solid sheet of ice.

 

[pacerron]

-2 this AM, just re-loaded the stove. I'm kinda glad for the cold snap, it has let us know where all the air leaks are in the house. The biggest culprit is the 3 French Door thresholds.....I completely forgot to seal them underneath from the outside with foam, then put on a cover board and run a bead of caulk where the flooring meets the inside threshold. I also knew that the garden window was a poor design for cold weather but I didn't expect it to freeze like this. Yes the panes are double insulated, but the blastic bottom is not so I need to add soe of that 2" high density foam to it: Les thinks a heavy curtain that could be hung on hooks across the opening would help out and I agree. Yesterday/AM the whole bottom of the thing was a solid sheet of ice.

What is your indoor humidity level?
Are you running a humidifier?

We heat with a heat pump forced air system. Of course the heating elements in the inside unit are doing most of the work at this temperature.
We do run a humidifier to keep the moisture up. With the outside air being so cold relative to the inside, our inside gauge still only shows 34 % this morning relative humidity to the indoor temperature of 73 deg. Normally it is 40-50%.
Even so, on the bottom edge of the double insulated window panes and even on a routed lifting recess in the wood
frames of the glass double hung style and fixed style, a line of ice about 3/8" up on the glass forms similar to
what you show in your pictures. At warmer outside temperatures if we get the inside relative humidity too high this will be water droplets.
Ours is a result of condensation from the indoor humidity against the cold glass surface rather than an air leak.
In the flower room where my wife raises orchids there is an indoor fountain to add even more humidity to the room
so the icing is a little worse in there.

Your garden window bottom is bound to collect moisture from the inside air. We don't have one, but I know people who have to sponge mop theirs a lot in some weather conditions.

EDIT. Added picture of current ice.

 

[MotorSeven]

It's at 43% right now & looking at your pic, we have some of that light frosting on some of the windows too. We have pretty wet winters here, so any air leak is just contrubuting to the problem. As soon as it warms up a bit I am going to do some caulkin' & foamin'.

 

[pacerron]

It's at 43% right now & looking at your pic, we have some of that light frosting on some of the windows too. We have pretty wet winters here, so any air leak is just contrubuting to the problem. As soon as it warms up a bit I am going to do some caulkin' & foamin'.

Do you have a fresh air/make up air pipe bringing outside air to your wood furnace in the basement?
It has to get it from somewhere.
Air leaks around doors and windows are usually less if you have a dedicated combustion air supply.

 

[ben2go]

It looked like it snowed around the inside windows on our old house trailer.We have been using K1 heaters to heat the place.Hopefully we won't be here much longer.

 

[MotorSeven]

Ron, funny you should mention that. I am already contemplating a OAK for my secondary tube on my stove. I can't put one on the Primary because it has a bi-metallic coil that controls a flapper, but it only runs on Primary at the beginning and end of a burn. The secondary brings in 80% of the air and will be a cinch to run a pipe into it from outside.

Ben be careful with that kero....I know the trailer sounds leaky, but make sure you have fresh air always inbound.