Thursday, October 07, 2010

Electrifying

I broke down and ran electricity to the greenhouse yesterday. I didn't do it when I did the initial construction because I was in a hurry to get it up but I knew that I would eventually have to do so for heat and light. As winter approaches and the mornings get darker and cooler it became apparent that I need light and heat now. At 6am in the dark of the moon it's darker than an ape's armpit out there and with the night temps falling into the 40's it is getting too cool as well. I've been collected plastic gallon water jugs and filling them with water to add "thermal mass" to the greenhouse but there aren't enough yet to moderate the temperature.

The problem is I am a believer in following the electrical code which required running conduit since I didn't want to bury the cable a foot deep. Running conduit required drilling a 7/8" hole through the into the basement which I did through the wooden frame around the sliding glass door. All total it took almost 30 feet of 1/2" PVC conduit and three 90 degree turns to get to the greenhouse. More than one turn with 1/2" conduit and 12/2 Romex cable requires you to run the cable through all of the pieces of conduit and 90's before you glue it together or you will never get the cable through. Needless to say I got all the cable pulled through the straight and curved pieces of conduit only to discover that I had left out one union and had to pull out most of the cable, add the union and do it all over again. Silly me! Anyhow, got the one duplex outlet installed and hooked to a GFI 20 amp breaker in the box and so I had power for the heater last night. Today I am off to get a little more cable and a few more pieces of conduit bends so I can run a light and switch.
I am off to Home Depot to resupply and get to work. I also have to weed the garden. It seems like I am busier now than when I had a full time job as there is a constant list of things to do. My friends have also not forgotten that I mentioned building a wood fired oven and have asked me repeatedly when they could come for wood fired pizza so that is hanging over my head as well.

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