Off-grid housing
| 2 min read
Well, kinda... But until I'm figuring out how to route the wires both my house and apartment are disconnected from the main power grid.
Earlier this week I found a good deal in a building supply store for a 20 gallon electric water heater. They delivered the thing the same day which prompted me to clean up the wiring in the area where it will be installed.
I'm still working on renovating the house I bought and making some preparations for the re-building of the top floor, which will be a separate apartment. I've removed the shoddy wiring for both the house and apartment and am thinking on where to put the new 1 inch pipe for the new wires. I haven't quite decided yet since there is a metal gate in the way.
The old heater had some weirdo lightswitch to turn it off, rated way too light for the high amps. And while figuring that out I also discovered that the old water heater wasn't connected to the main load center at all. Oh no, that would be logical, and logic isn't allowed in this house. The previous owner installed a flexible hose from the heater directly to the meter on the street.
I thought this ugly hose was how the mains power was connecting the house, seeing that the top floor apartment ran the same route with 3 loose wires zip-tied together to the roof.
That's all gone now. And once I think of a good way to bring the new wiring to the back of the house to where I relocated the load center we'll be on-grid again eventually.
I'm saving up some tasks, or jobs, so I can hire a certified electrician to hook things up to the meter again and replace some of the main breakers with the correct amps and make things nice.