Progress in Tom's Workshop

Despite his gimpy-ness, Tom got a MASSIVE amount done in his workshop this past weekend!

ALL the walls are now insulated and paneled. The ceiling is insulated but still waiting to be finished (with just Plywood). Then, the stain can go on the last 3 walls and ceiling (or maybe he'll paint that white?).

This first view is taken towards the door leading outside to the Central Boiler and woodshed. If you look closely, you can see the door trim of the door leading into the garage on the left.
















The workbench will go against the southern wall: the already-stained wall against which Tom is leaning is this picture.











Here he is finishing up the ceiling's insulation - a hideous job!











And, finally, a door which we hope to get great use out of in the near future . . . the one leading out of the workshop and up to the new pub! ;)
We did run into one unexpected "problem", though, as a result of getting the workshop fully insulated and enclosed. I'll try to make the explanation as simple as possible.

a) The generator (which charges the batteries when there's no sun) is in the utility room of the garage next to Tom's workshop.

b) The generator is air-cooled (vs. water-cooled) and so needs a source of cool air . . . which it receives through a vent in the bottom of the wall between the utility room and Tom's workshop.

c) The generator creates a lot of hot air which needs to be vented out. The exhaust gets vented directly outside. The safe, "just hot" air gets vented directly into the workshop so that it heats up Tom's workspace.

d) BUT, now that the workshop is air-tight (generally speaking), it retains all of the hot air that the generator pumps into it. What that means is that there's no longer any cool air for the intake vent to bring into the generator & utility room.

Result?

The utility room gets too hot (110 degrees!) and the "overheating kill switch" on the generator gets tripped resulting in the generator going off . . . which means that the batteries aren't getting charged up . . . which means that we have no electricity!

Immediate solution?

Negate all the hard work that Tom did to get his workshop toasty warm by leaving all the doors and windows open!

Long-term solution?

Install a new fresh-air intake vent in the wall between the utility room and the (unheated) parking area of the garage . . . and another forced air vent blowing even more hot air out of the utility room. That's the latest project on the docket for this weekend. We'll let you know how it goes! :)