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Curiously watching as my neighbors attempted the same and were evicted by the county because they didn't have running water inside nor a usable inside toilet. County wouldn't accept the fact there was water stored on the property in an IBC tote or that that they were using a bag type camping bucket toilet.
There is an older house on the property that they are in the process of restoring and they wanted to live on site to save money. This is way out in the sticks where there is no city water and everyone is on a well. There is only 3 residences in the area including mine. The county here wants a permit drawn on anything more than 200 sq ft and permanently attached to the ground also. Their building was not attached to the ground. I guess the code inspector got his panties in wad one day when he was checking on the restoration. |
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Tennessee Squire
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I double and triple checked. No building codes at all in my county. If I connect to the electric grid, which I’m not going to do, then everything needs to be to code.
There is a state permit required for septic and wells but I’m not doing either. |
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Got a great start. Look forward to updates.
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Subscribed!
If not too nosey, what's your budget? Feel free to tell me to MMOB. |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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around $80k for everything above the dirt. some of the below are budget, some are what i paid. hopefully i can take a credit portion of the electrical on taxes due to the solar stuff. by my math, it's about $253/sqft which is about the going rate for construction of normal size houses in this area
shed23200 10 sok batteries5400 2700w renogy panels2963 victron smartshunt 1000a212 paint and stain460 bluesea 1000a busbars408 victron smartsolar 150/1001017 sunstar 16cf fridge2400 labor13500 24" gas cooktop290 cinderella comfort +4300 water heater recpro rv550 aims picoglf40w12v240vs1356 weboost destination rv650 sink500 faucet500 lighting1000 shower5000 (copper) flooring2000 walls, ceiling, insulaton5000 (tongue in groove) cabinets and counter2000 stereo amp speakers600 DC battery cables956 plumbing1000 1100 norwesco tank1700 concrete battery box and tank pad2000 planar 8d heater1111 fuse blocks394 fuses127 misc electrical500 |
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Thanks! Looking forward to the thread.
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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@taliv the only thing I would do is add two things a wrap around porch to increase outdoor space and twenty feet of shade cloth fabric with gravel covering it as a fire barrier. With today’s water filtration technology you could build a pond and install a concrete settlement tank and chlorination system and still be cheaper than drilling a well. I would also look at a perk test for your grey water discharge just in case the state gets picky.
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Chicken Farmer by choice hunter of shade tree's and hiding spots by nature.
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Thanks for the tip on fire prevention. I’ll look into that for sure. I have also been looking at fire suppression systems from another arfcom thread.
The cabin sits on about a half acre clearing and half of that is in shade due to the tall trees south of it. I’m pretty much saving all the sunlight I can for solar panels if I need them. The rest of my 80ac is all shade except for a clearing I made at the bottom of the mountain for a 60x40 garage. I’m building a little pavilion in the woods too for my shooting range. Lots of nice shady spots to chill. I’ll post pics of it too later on I decided to skip the well because I’d prob have to drill way over 1000’ and the electric draw from pumping 1000’ is really expensive in terms of how much more battery and solar I’d need |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Are you going to go with sliding barn style doors to save space? The tongue and groove is looking good. Are you going stain it or clear coat it?
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Chicken Farmer by choice hunter of shade tree's and hiding spots by nature.
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yes, sliding door for the bathroom. sliding library style ladders for the loft too so i can push it out of the way
undecided on stain. it's so light that during the day the whole cabin is lit up just by the natural light from the few windows. i don't want to have to burn electricity during the day for lights so i'll keep the wood light whatever i do. i'm trying to figure out a floor right now. really wanted a nice hardwood but thinking for low maintenance i'll do a waterproof vinyl. the woman wants grey wood floor but i think that would look weird. maybe it would look good with the copper countertops and shower. idk |
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That looks awesome! I like the cedar. The wood in mine is fir.
More work on electrical system today. Ceiling fans operational. I’m glad I decided not to spend $4000 on a DC AC system. Totally unneeded |
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Originally Posted By taliv: yes, sliding door for the bathroom. sliding library style ladders for the loft too so i can push it out of the way undecided on stain. it's so light that during the day the whole cabin is lit up just by the natural light from the few windows. i don't want to have to burn electricity during the day for lights so i'll keep the wood light whatever i do. i'm trying to figure out a floor right now. really wanted a nice hardwood but thinking for low maintenance i'll do a waterproof vinyl. the woman wants grey wood floor but i think that would look weird. maybe it would look good with the copper countertops and shower. idk View Quote |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Really taking shape!
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Cool project OP.
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I survived the cockpocalypse of 11/21/2012.
Bacon grease, the Muslim approved .mil lubricant. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Tag!
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Nice. Like the way you didn't skimp on wire and homed all the batteries to bus bars vs daisy chaining and ending up with imbalances.
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Aimless: "F@ck that. If my kid was sitting on the floor I would launch my wife at the teacher like a hawk on a rabbit!"
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Originally Posted By kallnojoy: Nice. Like the way you didn't skimp on wire and homed all the batteries to bus bars vs daisy chaining and ending up with imbalances. View Quote thanks, that's why cable management is such a trainwreck. i went to considerable length (no pun intended) to make sure all the cables were the same length so that the batteries would stay balanced right now i'm trying to figure out the best place to put the victron battery sense as well. it's that little blue square on the far left battery. it senses temp and voltage directly from the battery terminals and sends it via bluetooth to the smartshunt and both mppt chargers. in theory, it makes it so that voltage drop from cables in between the battery and chargers doesn't affect the charging, and if the temp on the battery is too cold or too hot, it stops charging. but... since i can only measure up to two batteries and i actually have ten in the bank, should i connect it to the bus bar? or one battery? i can see pros and cons for each. i have a question into victron support, so will be interesting to hear what they say. |
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You have obviously put a lot of thought into your electrical setup. It sounds like your planning is really paying off.
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"When you need it and ain't got it, you're singin' a different tune..."
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Awesome project, very well thought out. In to follow along for the ride!
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Won't be long and y'all will be moving in.
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Chicken Farmer by choice hunter of shade tree's and hiding spots by nature.
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Which water heater did you go with?
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Originally Posted By taliv: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B084GWQLSP?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title View Quote |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Outstanding work on the electrical. Well the whole cabin build.
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"To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen."
James Mattis |
hit a snag on my DC power ports for laptops.
i got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3WVFKN1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details and unfortunately, even though it says 65w pd, i think it requires the input voltage to be 2v higher than output. so if i'm pushing about 13v to the outlet, it will probably do 5v and 9v PD standards but won't hit the 14v. i'm only seeing it pull less than 2a and closer to 1a when charging my iphone using a fast charging cable. and i still see it pulling 1a charging my dell laptop, which identifies it as a "slower charger". i'm not saying it's trash, but definitely not what i expected. now this may be what I expected, or not https://www.amazon.com/Charger-WOTOBEUS-Charging-Cigarette-S21Ultra/dp/B09GJTF54Z it claims to be able to do up to 120w and is definitely designed for 12v cigarette lighter adapter. it even claims to do PPS. however, it says it takes 12-24v so maybe it will convert my 12v input to 20v output, or maybe it will just stop at 9v too. and i admit the changing LED to indicate the output voltage is pretty cool, but the slick form factor isn't helping as i'm trying to mount it into a wood wall. i don't really want to have to mount a cigarette lighter socket into the wall and then just plug stuff like this in, but it may wind up being the path of least resistance any suggestions on how i can power laptops and phones would be much appreciated. |
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Originally Posted By taliv: hit a snag on my DC power ports for laptops. i got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3WVFKN1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details and unfortunately, even though it says 65w pd, i think it requires the input voltage to be 2v higher than output. so if i'm pushing about 13v to the outlet, it will probably do 5v and 9v PD standards but won't hit the 14v. i'm only seeing it pull less than 2a and closer to 1a when charging my iphone using a fast charging cable. and i still see it pulling 1a charging my dell laptop, which identifies it as a "slower charger". i'm not saying it's trash, but definitely not what i expected. now this may be what I expected, or not https://www.amazon.com/Charger-WOTOBEUS-Charging-Cigarette-S21Ultra/dp/B09GJTF54Z it claims to be able to do up to 120w and is definitely designed for 12v cigarette lighter adapter. it even claims to do PPS. however, it says it takes 12-24v so maybe it will convert my 12v input to 20v output, or maybe it will just stop at 9v too. and i admit the changing LED to indicate the output voltage is pretty cool, but the slick form factor isn't helping as i'm trying to mount it into a wood wall. i don't really want to have to mount a cigarette lighter socket into the wall and then just plug stuff like this in, but it may wind up being the path of least resistance any suggestions on how i can power laptops and phones would be much appreciated. View Quote |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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If you put down vinyl floor do not restrict air flow under the cabin.
Moisture will be absorbed by your subfloor and it will rot within 4 year. Sincerely, -Guy who tells people not to block airflow under their cabin but they do it anyway and I deny their warranty. I repeat, every time you put a vinyl floor down and put trailer skirting or wood around the outside edge of the building your subfloor absorbs moisture because the moisture has nowhere to go. It gets moldy and soft. You’ll call and blame the people who built the building, they won’t do anything. You’ll fix it yourself at a great expense. |
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i have the cabin wired for 110v ac outlets and 12v dc outlets. and i have a 4000w 120/240 split phase inverter that runs off 12v input. my goal was to have everything DC to avoid the inverter tax (energy loss of converting from dc to ac which i assume is around 10%).
as i mentioned, the reason i have this particular inverter is the incinerator toilet runs off 240 split phase at 2000w. since that is a load that's only incurred when "flushing" the toilet, i was hoping to put the inverter into a standby mode. according to the manual, it runs at 50w with no load and 21w in standby mode. at 50w that's basically 100ah per day totally wasted. at 21w, it cuts down to 42ah per day doing nothing. that's 4-10% of my 1000ah battery. Unfortunately, it seems it takes a 100w load to take it out of standby. because the toilet starts with some low draw motors before getting to the 2000w burn phase, the toilet itself would never kick on the inverter, so one of my contractors suggested putting a 100w light bulb in the bathroom, so turning on the light would kick on the inverter, then leaving it on until it's done with the fan cool down. all that's a long winded explanation for why it turns out i'm probably just going to leave the inverter on and eat the 100w penalty. so yeah, i could run AC loads whenever, but i'd still prefer not to. |
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Originally Posted By Waldo0506: If you put down vinyl floor do not restrict air flow under the cabin. Moisture will be absorbed by your subfloor and it will rot within 4 year. Sincerely, -Guy who tells people not to block airflow under their cabin but they do it anyway and I deny their warranty. I repeat, every time you put a vinyl floor down and put trailer skirting or wood around the outside edge of the building your subfloor absorbs moisture because the moisture has nowhere to go. It gets moldy and soft. You’ll call and blame the people who built the building, they won’t do anything. You’ll fix it yourself at a great expense. View Quote thanks for the tip! i was thinking about putting some insulation under the floor. are you saying just don't use vinyl? if i just use regular hardwood, will it have the same problem? TN in the forest is super humid. definitely want to avoid mold |
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Originally Posted By taliv: i have the cabin wired for 110v ac outlets and 12v dc outlets. and i have a 4000w 120/240 split phase inverter that runs off 12v input. my goal was to have everything DC to avoid the inverter tax (energy loss of converting from dc to ac which i assume is around 10%). as i mentioned, the reason i have this particular inverter is the incinerator toilet runs off 240 split phase at 2000w. since that is a load that's only incurred when "flushing" the toilet, i was hoping to put the inverter into a standby mode. according to the manual, it runs at 50w with no load and 21w in standby mode. at 50w that's basically 100ah per day totally wasted. at 21w, it cuts down to 42ah per day doing nothing. that's 4-10% of my 1000ah battery. Unfortunately, it seems it takes a 100w load to take it out of standby. because the toilet starts with some low draw motors before getting to the 2000w burn phase, the toilet itself would never kick on the inverter, so one of my contractors suggested putting a 100w light bulb in the bathroom, so turning on the light would kick on the inverter, then leaving it on until it's done with the fan cool down. all that's a long winded explanation for why it turns out i'm probably just going to leave the inverter on and eat the 100w penalty. so yeah, i could run AC loads whenever, but i'd still prefer not to. View Quote |
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“So, never give up. Continue to fight. You’ll either find a win here and there, or you’ll die fighting. I can accept either of those out comes”- March 31st, 2020 - Until Valhalla
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Are you worried about water tank freezing?
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The tank, no. It’s 1100 gal and fairly flexible plastic. I think it would expand a bit and be fine.
However, It looks like I’m building a little 30” box on the outside wall of the cabin to house the pressure tank, instant water heater and water pump. So I will need to figure out a way to keep those from freezing. One option is to use https://www.heatingelementsplus.com/heat-trace-cable/12-24-volt-self-regulating-cable/3-w-ft-self-regulating-heat-cable-fluoropolymer-jacket-12-24v.html Another is to divert a bit of the diesel air heater output but I don’t really want to do that because mostly I want to heat with wood stove. I was joking about running the flue from the toilet through the water box. Flush the toilet and 30 min of heat from burning turds would thaw it out lol. I haven’t figured it out yet though |
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ost
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Ad Lucem: Towards Light
This information is a general statement of law and procedure and not a substitute for specific legal advice from a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. |
Originally Posted By taliv: The tank, no. It’s 1100 gal and fairly flexible plastic. I think it would expand a bit and be fine. However, It looks like I’m building a little 30” box on the outside wall of the cabin to house the pressure tank, instant water heater and water pump. So I will need to figure out a way to keep those from freezing. One option is to use https://www.heatingelementsplus.com/heat-trace-cable/12-24-volt-self-regulating-cable/3-w-ft-self-regulating-heat-cable-fluoropolymer-jacket-12-24v.html Another is to divert a bit of the diesel air heater output but I don’t really want to do that because mostly I want to heat with wood stove. I was joking about running the flue from the toilet through the water box. Flush the toilet and 30 min of heat from burning turds would thaw it out lol. I haven’t figured it out yet though View Quote Any way to keep the tank pump and water heater inside? Build it into a cabinet or make a bench over the top or something? Would keep it warm and would look better than having it hanging off of the outside Cabin is looking awesome, nice work! |
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putting the pressure tank, pump and water heater inside was plan A. i was planning to build them into the closet in the loft. my contractors convinced me i'd have a lot more room if i moved them outside. they want to cut a hole in the wall so air from inside the cabin can flow into the attached box. i'm not worried about aesthetics because it's on the back side of cabin with an ugly water tank, antenna tower, concrete box, etc. you won't be able to see it from the front. but we will have to figure out how to keep it all from freezing
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Really nice
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Originally Posted By taliv: putting the pressure tank, pump and water heater inside was plan A. i was planning to build them into the closet in the loft. my contractors convinced me i'd have a lot more room if i moved them outside. they want to cut a hole in the wall so air from inside the cabin can flow into the attached box. i'm not worried about aesthetics because it's on the back side of cabin with an ugly water tank, antenna tower, concrete box, etc. you won't be able to see it from the front. but we will have to figure out how to keep it all from freezing View Quote What kind of winter temps do you have to deal with? Well insulated with mild temps shouldn't take too much, the on demand unit might kick off enough residual heat to keep it warm enough |
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i don't have official data, but it snowed a few inches maybe 4 times last year. prob at least a dozen days with temps below freezing. nothing below 0 last year. it rarely goes more than a day or two without getting back above freezing. that's why i don't think it stays cold long enough to freeze the tank, but definitely the pipes and water heater and probably the pressure tank
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never underestimate the stupidity of other people
GA, USA
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Originally Posted By taliv: i don't have official data, but it snowed a few inches maybe 4 times last year. prob at least a dozen days with temps below freezing. nothing below 0 last year. it rarely goes more than a day or two without getting back above freezing. that's why i don't think it stays cold long enough to freeze the tank, but definitely the pipes and water heater and probably the pressure tank View Quote Could you rig an old school incandescent bulb in there? If it’s well insulated those give off enough heat to keep things above freezing. Maybe set it so that only goes on if temps in the box hit 40 or something. We used to do similar up north in the winter for pump houses, and that was much colder/longer than here in the south. Great cabin build and trailer! |
"every exercise is a low back exercise if you do it wrong enough"
@MacManus |
Originally Posted By steviesterno16: Could you rig an old school incandescent bulb in there? If it’s well insulated those give off enough heat to keep things above freezing. Maybe set it so that only goes on if temps in the box hit 40 or something. We used to do similar up north in the winter for pump houses, and that was much colder/longer than here in the south. Great cabin build and trailer! View Quote If it is a small space and well insulated this could work well. Personally, if I was going to have a box attached to the back anyways I'd be tempted to add a little more space/capacity to toss other stuff in there that you'd prefer to keep from freezing. |
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Looks great!
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