The First Heat Wave

Back when it was minus twenty four degrees, I complained.  Sure.  Everyone does. But I don’t think I complained very much because I knew this time was coming.   It is crazy that less than a month ago I was contemplating snow delayed travel plans and this past weekend was in the nineties.  Today, my first day back at work from a holiday, it was ninety three in our big city.  But it was never really a sunny 93, more of a hazy muggy one.

This morning when I arrived I forgot to open up the roof vent.  But, really it wouldn’t have made that much difference if I had.  About eleven it was pouring.  The roof vent would have closed and the fan shut off when it sensed the rain.  Then it cleared enough so I could grab some lunch before it rained lightly again.  By four it had stopped raining and cleared to a haze but the van was in the shadow of our office building.   I popped out and opened up the roof vent.  At that point the ambient air temperature was still about ninety.  The van was actually cooler inside than the outside temperature.  I was temped to just leave it sealed up but then in the end, opened it and had the fan blowing at 85%.

The square cut out of the poly-iso foam
to expose the plywood underneath. 

About six thirty I was contemplating my dinner options.  Everything I brought today was still frozen so I was contemplating a walk.  That got dashed when I stood from the cube farm to check the weather.  Not good.  I came straight out to the van it was already sprinkling when I arrived.  Inside, it was warm but really not bad.

I have the ability, via some temperature probes and some little process control computers (that I will get to in a later post),  to know a lot more about my environment now.  I just finished heating some dinner in the microwave and it is eight thirty in the evening.  It has been off and on raining since I came out.  Prior to that, the cabin temperature of the van was eighty degrees.  Cooking raised that temperature by two degrees.  But, the outside temperature is a wet seventy.  If it ever stops raining I am going to be able to kick on my roof vent and drop my inside temperature right down.

If it would only stop raining…

Here is the tape tab I attached to the
square of insulation.  This will make it easy
to pull the insulation out without damage.

This weekend was a hot one as well.  Record temperatures and muggy.  Despite that, I had a job to do.  The one I had driven The BV home to perform.    As I mentioned in my last post, or to condense here; 1) I have to be able to access the tops of the batteries four times a year.  I have to visually inspect the fluid level and test the specific gravity.  2)The buggers are heavy, and for energy efficiency, on as short of wires as possible.  Their mobility was both limited and difficult.  Therefore some type of top access panel needed to be constructed.

I pulled the mattress out and brought it inside the house. -This one step was the bulk of why the job was happening at home.  The single most valuable investment in the entire project, I wanted it well out of harms way.

Underneath the mattress I have the panels which will become my under-bed vent system.  Until such time, this is just the most convenient place to store them.  Under that I have one inch of poly-iso foam insulation.  Then, three quarters of an inch of plywood.

Starting out was really the difficult part.  I had to figure out where the batteries sat and then transfer those measurements up on to the insulation of the bed.  I cut a slightly oversized hole in the insulation.  That part was difficult because the utility knife I have only cuts a little over 3/4” deep.  I ended up using a ginsue knife from my cooking drawer to make the final 1/4” cut.  My friend Craigie has one of those nice extendable blade utility knives.  That would really be the way to go.

Here is the lip that will hold the access
panel door in place.  This is only glued in.
I could have shot some brads in as well
but that would have required battery removal.

When cutting this foam to cut a block out, you have to cut a relief.  That’s a second cut, about an eighth of an inch outside your primary cut on two adjacent sides.  When I dug out this relief, the inset cut square of insulation could be lifted up out of the hole.  I wrapped the edges of these squares with wide metal foil tap. I also put foil tape tabs at each end of the squares.  These tabs will fold up over the top but make it easy to pull out the foam square in the future.

Now it became serious.  It was very, very important to not cut *any* wires while cutting the plywood.  I set my circular saw depth to barely cut though.  But then I also checked it out closely underneath.  I had one screw in wire clip holding one of the wires coming from the solar charge controller.  That clip was about in the middle of my proposed door.  I removed it.  That allowed that wire to drop out of likely saw blade harms way.  At the back I have a second shunt on the line going/coming from the inverter/charger.  I hope to some day record my high voltage appliance electrical usage separately from my twelve volt.  —Data geek, remember?

"We're in a tight spot!"

Once I had the foam out, the wires out of the way and the saw depth set, I was ready to cut.  And I did.  For almost two inches.   Ah yes.  Old house.  I used the saw to cut some lath and plaster in its last use.  I had to divert to the hardware store for a new blade.  The circular saw cutting was really fairly minor.  Only a few inches on each side, but it is way easier to control your depth of cut than a jig saw would be. 

I undercut the corners just a bit.  Leaving the square hanging.  Then, after a double check to again make sure no wires would be affected, I used a portable jigsaw to cut the final little bit in the  corners.  Once I had the doors cut out I used them to trace an oversized hollow square out of quarter inch plywood.  I made it a little over an inch wider on three sides, a touch narrower at the back because it was butting up to the divider wall between the battery compartment and the rear storage, behind the drawers.

You can just see the battery cap.

Once cut out, I glued it in place under the bed —Uh, that is after another trip to the hardware store.  Any project worth doing requires at least two trips to the hardware store.  My glue must have frozen in the great New Years freeze-up.  Back when I ran out of propane over Christmas break.  Back from the store with the glue, I clamped it all in place.  It was a tough job getting all those clips and clamps around in such a small space.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  But, in all of this I never did check the fluid levels so I will have to be in there again in a couple of weeks.  I will get some pictures of what is involved in the process.

The two battery access panels out and the glue-in lip
in place with clamps holding them.

It was an exhausting day though.  Temperatures in the nineties and lots and lots of climbing in and out of the van to check cuts, clearances, etc.  I think I drank about ninety ounces of water and sweated it all back off.  Plus, I used it as a juicy rationalization for consuming about half a jar of kalamata olives later that night.  ...I had to replenish my salt, didn't I? :-)

It is currently a little after eleven pm.  It has been raining fairly steadily (excepting for the periods where it was pouring) since a little after six thirty.  Tomorrow night, when we have forecast more of the same, I am going to park on higher ground.