I had worked the off shore and remote mountain oulfields for yrs - In the mountains at hiht altitudes it droped to minus 60° F - the radators were on the out side the enclosures - The radiators had electric driven fans that came on when the radiator coolant was to high returning to the engine - Eather way we didnt pull cold air from out side and through a radiator then discharge the air out the engine shack - All sewer lines even below the frost line - were rapped with two heat trace wires - one heat trace was a spare - A 4 inch pipe was rapped with insulation and in a 6 inch pipe. - There were probs in 1/2 pvc pipe down next to the sewer lines down below the frost line - if it droped below 35"F the heat trace came on - All water pipes were heat traced including vent pipes - on the outer 6 inch pvc pipes - they cut the 90" elbows in half and glued and hose clamped in place at the 4 inch 90s and offsetss -
You are an extremely HONEST individual Ryan , videos like these are invaluable to those seeking to follow in your footsteps ... thank you Ryan and Von for sharing as always 👍👍👍.
It takes roughly 3yrs to get firewood supply to level that’s comfortable don’t ask how I know also leaving 2-3” space between your rows prevents mould on wood stored over longer periods air must be allowed to circulate all sides found this out the hard way hurts to have to lose mouldy firewood after all the effort getting it. Your honesty is appreciated.
Regarding the temperature problems in your generator shed. If you’re sure you’ll never need to run the generator in the summer, then plumb the air intake from the outside to your air filter (don’t draw air from inside the building). Then close the vents that you’ve been using for the radiator and use the air inside the shed for cooling. If you want to be able to use the generator in the summer (as a backup if your solar inverter dies, for example) then move the radiator outside and force air through it with an electric fan. Either way, you don’t want to exhaust all the warm air that has passed through the radiator outside and suck cold air from the outside into your shed to replace the air passing through the radiator.
One problem is your driving over your septic pipe. Remember when the frost is in the ground and your driving over it , your driving the frost deeper into the ground. Good luck from another old veteran.
We knew we’d be driving over it and that’s the reason for the foam board insulation. Frost should not be able to penetrate through the 4” of foam board.
I thought the same thing. Here in northern BC we get -40 almost every year. We buried our line sewer line, four feet down without insulation. It’s one of the few lines that hasn’t t froze. But we never drive over the line. Anyways glad you got it thawed out. The first winter is always the hardest. 🇨🇦🌷ps……we have a Arctic entry and it’s insulated but not heated. We don’t get the frost at all but saying that, we have only had -50C once. Great video guys, you guys rock
Regarding the arctic entry. Insulate but don’t heat the arctic entry. The result will be that the arctic entry will be cooler than the house but warmer than outside. Make sure that air can flow freely between the metal roof and the roof sheathing. Air should be able to enter at the eaves (above the sheathing) and vent at the ridge cap.
Install the ceiling in the arctic entry and insulate it thoroughly like the rest of the house. The heat from the house will likely escape through the interior wall enough to warm the arctic entry. Chilly, but warm enough. Whether a vestibule in an office building or an arctic entry in your home they both are buffer areas from cold to comfort.
You need to put a wood box attached to your house make it into a bench lift up the bench pull your wood out of the bench that's on the inside of your house you load it from the outside less mess in the old Days woodsheds was on the back porch My dad's witch shed was 10 feet away from the house along one side of the house our wood stove was downstairs so all she did was throw the wood down the stairs open the basement door and there's wood Pile underneath the house
Hello Ryan, Great Video. One thing that caught my attention, In the attic the placement of the reducer from 3" to 2" needs to be vertical. The reason is with the reducer mounted horizontally the condensate will pool and freeze at the reducer and it will not be able to drain when it thaws. For your generator shed one thought is to place you air inlet closer to the generator. Place intake above the generator on the same wall as your exhaust. Or another idea is to use a greenhouse exhaust fan on a thermostat. Then only exhaust warm air from the building to keep the ambient temp in the building cool enough to remove the waste heat from the generator. This would require you to remove the current hot air exhaust duct and recirculate the air that passes over the radiator back into the room. Greenhouse exhaust fans move a lot of air. I am confident it would be sufficient to keep the air temp low enough for the radiator to work properly. The exhaust fan woul be place as high as possible on the wall above the generator.
You have a cold roof in the house and without a vapor barrier on the ceiling in the Artic entry and insulate it allows the heat to draw up into the cold roof.
We live in Michigan and we have insulated vent pipes to the exterior. And your bathroom vent pipes should have been wrapped with insulation to the outside If you bring the pipe flatter it will just puddle more in the pipe. So the shortest to outside and insulated all the way to the outside.
To keep the room warmer duct the radiator air to the air intake louvred which will bring back the warm air. You only need enough fresh air for the engine intake. The rest of the air intake is the radiator fan flow which can be recirculated.
I have experience with generators in very cold climates. You need to reverse your fan to draw air through the radiator backwards, sucking air. Then you can put on a damper operator to ether exhaust the air outside or a second one on the side of the duct opening to the inside of the building to dump warm air from the radiator back inside the building. Hook the two dampers together so they move together one closing while the other opens. Set the temperature on the thermostat so regulate the damper to adjust the heat dumped back in. Hope that makes sense I’m a mechanic not a writer lol
Try a thermostatically controlled fresh air damper in your generator room. It really only needs cooler air in the summer when the generator could run too hot.
Hi Ryan, Folks learn from others mistake's. Thanks for sharing. I spent 25 years near Nenana in the 60's through the 80's. Doing our own building we ran into many of the same issues. Here are some of the solutions we came up with: 1-Septic system plumbed with wood stave pipe>> won't melt if you need a steam genny. 2- Add a few oatey ABC one way drain/vent valves inside. Won't freeze. Home depot. 3-Use a leach pit instead of lines. The septic tank is really just a holding tank and needs to be pumped each year. Pit allows you access to output if needed. 4-Use insulated 4" vents from exhaust fans. Insulate the fan housing too. 5-Insulate artic entrance and good vaper barrier. Use a little heat. Maybe 40 degrees. 6-No experience with power shed, but you have way too much air flow. I would try dumping some of the engine cooling air from radiator in to power shed. Maybe damper it between inside and outside. Karl
Heat tape in the future for sure, but I'm not convinced all the clean outs under the house were necessary. I can only surmise the reason for freezing was started at the above ground clean outside, maybe some sort of insulation or box built for winter? The cold air in the generator building would be an expensive fix, to preheat the air and hold it in limbo until use. Ya'll are doing an awesome job in spite of the few "changes". Love ya'll ❤️
Just a thought for the power shed....enclose your outer shed with the tank in it and duct your exhaust from the generator into the shed and put intake in the outer wall to preheat the air from the exhaust that way you recycle the heat from the exhaust...let us know what you decide...Enjoy watching your journey
My opinion for the generator is to put an air intake to the engine from the outside, in the winter time keep the heat in the building, thermostatically en it out if gets too hot,summer tie is the time to vent the radiator heat out
Pex is your friend. Coil of pex behind your wood stove. Use glycal need expansion tank use smallest circulation pump use pex wrapped on your waste down stairs with insulation and or going out side to be by septic line. Could put timer for pump to go every now and then. Could put temperature gauge on it going in and out by stove. I live in Chugiak Alaska.
Put the 4 inch pipe inside a bigger pipe ( 6 or 8 ) with two pipes to the surface that way you can pull a heat tape through or change out the tape if it stops working.
Seeing as you just started using your septic system , there is not enough going on in the tank yet , once things start working in there it creates its own heat and should keep the lines from freezing again . And as far as the bathroom fans go , we just dont use ours in the winter and open a window if needed lol.
If you didn’t make a mistake or few, you wouldn’t be human. I just like that you two keep at it anyways! Working together you’ll figure it out. Thanks for sharing the good, bad, and ugly. I love the channel because it is real life! Great video
Ryan, great video. I love how you shared some of your mistakes which, by the way, don't seem insurmountable. You are keeping it real. I'm not sure if it would meet your ultimate need for a 50' workshop; however, could you possibly repurpose the woodshed to be a small shop and then build the other woodshed that meets your needs? Kind of like a baby step toward your ultimate goal.
Regarding your generator shed issues, I think that eliminating bringing arctic air into the shed when the generator runs is the answer. This may be difficult, but I think if you piped the generator’s radiator, intake and exhaust outside, then you wouldn’t need to bring outside air into the space. I assume the radiator could be outside there, and that might be naive (I don’t live in Arctic conditions), but this change would keep the generator cozy and keep the deep freeze away. The hard bit will be relocating that radiator. You might be able to cut a hole in the wall and push this out, and seal around the opening. You can buy solutions for the intake and exhaust off the shelf. But I think this would pay off big time when implemented.
Ryan, try a large diameter flex tube going from wall inlet vent up and overhead to the engine even if you have to build a box around the engine. Having frost in the attic, you need to get as much of that out as possible to prevent ceiling damage. Thanks for a great video.
Couple ideas: 1. If your really long sewer line thawed that fast, my guess is that your frozen issue was extremely close to the outside clean-outs. Box them up for winter. That is probably the weak point. 2. Put a clean-out in your vent system either in the basement or roof. Easy to open that up and put a blow dryer in the clean-out to thaw it out if it freezes vs. a ladder up the side of the house at -60°.
Ryan, I think the freeze came from your outside clean outs. The pipe will transfer the cold down into your system. You need to maybe heat tape them. Remember hot water will freeze before the cold will
I followed directions of old timers that have lived in this areas for many years. The foam board should stop the frost being driven into the ground and make it go around the piping. That is why we insulated all of the way around the piping.
Warmer air for the gen building. ... I'm just thinking here... What about(this summer) building a subterranean network of pipes, as in, as deep as you can. with a good amount of distance, either back and forth with elbows, or one big long stretch. And at the furtherest point away from the building, have an intake as the air is drawn through let the earth warm the air? As far as the artic entry, put you an exhaust fan out there. Something larger than a fart fan. Put a switch on it so it comes on strong when your front door is opened, exhausting to the outside, not the porch side.
Fixing mistakes is a pain but nothing too bad has happened. The cold air into the generator cabin is one which is difficult to fix without spending money on preheating the air. If the generator was nearer the house you could use waste heat from the stove chimney maybe with some pipes winding around it to act as heat exchanger for the air to then feed into the generator. With your house distance from the shed that's not feasible.
A potential fix for the generator issue could be incorporating some heat sensitive louvers like used for greenhouses. Set up in such a way so the air inside the generator shack is circulated inside the shack until it reaches a certain temp and then open slowly so the blast coming in isnt 50 below. Good luck and Im sure you will get it all sorted eventually. ;) Take care
You Should try to find a Military Herman -- Nelson Heat Heater. They run on Diesel without electricity. People who have never lived in Alaska don't realize what problems extreme low temperatures cause. I have some horror stories for the time I spent in Alaska.
Ive made alot of mistakes. 1 lesson i learned is never use osb once it freezes and thaws it "pops" the glue and fiber and makes it nothing but a worthless moldy sponge after a couple seasons. #2 is your walls and roofing using 2x6s is not nearly enough to control the transfer of heat to cold.
Hello, northern Minnesota rural homeowner here. Not this winter but most winters we get a -40 stretch. For the most part any water lines you don't want traffic crossing over. No vehicle or foot traffic. It just drives the frost down. Your foam box should help with that. I have a clean out stack like you on my grey water drain. I have opened it and it was completely plugged with frost. Just the stack, not the drain. I suspect that frost grew down and plugged your drain. There should be no standing water in the pipe to your septic tank to freeze. So, maybe building a super insulated box to house your clean out stacks would be a start. I enjoy your videos. I'm a former residential contractor and plan on moving to AK in several years so your videos check several boxes for me.
I was wondering when you were going to finish sealing up your power shed. Ideally, you want no outside air entering the building except when you need to cool the building to keep the engine cool. I suggest running an 8" flexible vent pipe from high outside thru the wall and into your air intake for the generator. The generator will then be pulling all its combustion air from outside directly. You will want to wrap the intake pipe with some insulation so that the cold air doesn't cool the interior and create ice on it's way to the air filter.
Wow! That’s how you learn! Sometimes we can do our research in advance but people can get caught up in analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything at least you are building your home and learning as you go and when you make mistakes you work hard to correct them. Thanks for sharing it was very interesting to watch. Yea wood shed closest to your wood stove is definitely important regardless of how it may impact your view. God bless.🥰❤️🙏🏻🇨🇦🍁
hi ryan, first winter here in mich. all my field and septic froze up. neighbor farmer said because i had no grass growing over area. that summer planted heavy grass. no more freeze the next winter.them heavy grass roots helped. i built house look just like yours. ryan just get nice looking trailer that is covered. back up to wood shed load traier, back up to front porch. should last a couple weeks. you hook to tractor. proud of you guys larry laskey carleton mich
Hi Ryan, I'd recommend an air to air heat exchanger on the air discharge end of the generator. This will let your hot air discharge preheat your incoming fresh air. This is commonly used on residential HVAC systems. This should cut down on freezing the building in the winter. I hope this helps.
For the wood shed, use and IBC Tote. You can move it from the porch to the wood shed with the pallet forks, fill up the tote and haul it back to the front porch.
You can get heat trace that can run inside the pipe, I ran heat trace through my inside clean out cap with a rubber seal then you can turn it off and on from the inside. No need to dig it all up
I’m just not sure about the cleanouts under the house. Seems like they would be a lower than the toilet point and you would have a face full of black water in your face if you ever have to open one if there is a backup down stream. Love the channel and it is always great to follow what you and the Mrs are doing. Thank you for sharing this one. Has me in deep thought over cold weather plumbing needs.
oh, and for the firewood, completely fill your wood shed and then have a nice stack of logs right beside the wood shed just in case you need extra wood. Then it is already staged and ready.
Warming the intake air for your generator. Place a stainless steel pipe, sized for the intake air, inside a larger stainless steel pipe. The inner pipe should be longer than the outer pipe. At both ends, cap the outer pipe to the inner pipe. Attach two pipe perpendicular to the outer pipe, one very near each end, to provide an input and output for your exhaust. The exhaust will flow from one of these perpendicular pipes into the space between the two concentric pipes, along the length of them, and then out through the other perpendicular pipe and then out of the building. The intake air simply enters at one of the inner pipe and then go from the other end to the generator. You may need to experiment with the length of the concentric pipes to get the intake air to the temperature you want. Too hot would reduce the efficiency of your generator. Of course, it will take a little time to warm up the intake air, but it will be much faster than how it is now.
Thinking about this a little more, is the air intake for your generator drawing air from inside or outside the generator shed? If it’s already drawing air from outside and you’re having the described problem, then what I wrote above should help. If you’re drawing air from inside, the just plumbing your intake to outside your shed may solve your problem.
If you turned the generator 90 degrees the incoming air and outgoing air on that side end of the shed. And put something up to keep that space just for running the generator. Just maybe it that might work
Hey guys, thanks for the latest update! In reality, your mistakes could have all been way worse, and you have at least now found them. You'll get them all sorted for sure, and your home will be even better as a result. Moving forwards, you will have the peace of mind that the issues you have identified have been resolved at the point in the build where it is easier to do. It will all be worth it once finished. None of us are perfect 🙂 You are doing a fantastic job!
I really like your video Ryan, Power House Generator hot cold problem turn the generator 90 degrees so it draws cold in on the left side of the building and blows hot out the right side of the building put a interior wall with a door.
You're going to have water sitting in your vent pipe because your reducer is in the horizontal plane in stead of being vertical. You could heat your arctic entry just a little like around 32 - 40 degrees. As for air in your generator shed, the only fix I can see is to duct incoming air directly over to your generator. But then you have duct work that you will have step over. For your garage/shop, in one of your bays, set it up so you can put a winch on the back wall so you can winch a truck/tractor/wheeler/etc into the shop. Also set up at the garage door so you can hook up a pulley and winch around the corner. For the heat trace on your septic line, just confirm it is safe on foam board. You don't want it catching the foam on fire. I would put the heat trace on the bottom of the septic line since heat raises. Just curious why you don't stack firewood on your front deck. You could use the tractor to move large amounts of wood from the shed to the front deck. When spring comes, don't bring any more over. One suggestion I would give that you didn't talk about is putting open/close valves on your water lines before and after each component in the basement. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the update on lots of stuff! My wife and I are planning our homestead, and you have given us a lot of inspiration for how to go about it (such as doing ICF foundation with an unfinished tall "crawl space"). Something that caused many arguments though is i am adamant that we build the shop first, before any other major structures. Plus i think it would be more comfortable to live in a shop in an RV or something rather than an RV just outside.
You’re very honest in your approach to the faults, and the solutions to them. Great video, I’m in the United Kingdom, can’t believe that your pipes froze even though they were sunk well into the ground! I can’t really comprehend it getting that cold! We complain at -10! Love your positive attitude to life and all that it throws at you both❤
Off set the rad for the gen set and use electronic rad fan on rad and then duct it in . Air in the shed will remain in the shed than and air for the rad is in and out .
No need to heat the entrance, just insulate it and add a small wall vent, I don't have a vent, when its above freezing outside i leave the door to the house open for a few hrs to rise the temp and dry it out, frozen water cant damage anything only when its turn to water will it do damage.
Hi guys, i lived in the mountains of PA and most people wouldn't think PA could get to -38 F ,wind chill -60 F but it did and froze our septic tank because we didnt have any snow cover. We had to move out for 2 months. We lived at 3000 ft. One step forward and 2 backward, that's how I learned to dance😂😂
Great video! Disclaimer I don’t plan on moving there myself but in early years experienced some of your issues. While what you have had to fix may seem boneheaded in hindsight there are millions that would have done the same or worse. Keep doing what you’re doing. Smart people😮will listen and thank you.
no you can rent or buy a heater like that one. if your pipes are frozen you going do whatever the cost is to fix it. most people can't and won't live with know toilet and bathroom.
Can you delay the vent from opening, after the generator is running to warm up the room and heat up the extended cold air vent which would be insulated. It seems the air coming in is so cold the frost happens immediately so hopefully heating up an extended insulated vented area may help.. just a thought
In the shed with the generator I think when it's below zero you would have less trouble buy diverting the radiator heat, left in the shed rather than pushed out. Then less fresh air would be pulled in.
Hello to my favorite couple. There’s always a problem when you are a home owner. You two will figure everything out. Stay positive and great attitudes and God will guide you. Have a great week, always wait for your next video.
It’s just an idea, but what if you put heat tape on your main drain out under the house and that warm water going out that warm pipe might keep the outside pipe from freezing
When I lived south of North Pole in AK, my duplex neighbor and I had a foot path in the snow between our doors. Unfortunately, that path meant no fluffy, insulating snow...right over the water and septic lines! Yep, our landlord was not happy. The packed down snow allows the frost to dive down lower than areas with snow cover.
20:30 thanks you! I'll be showing this to my wife and drawing up plans. lol. Seriously, thanks for sharing your lessons learned! 36:48 could you insulate that pipe and cover the exterior penetration better?
Cold air and frost going down the clean out risers. Build an insulated enclosure around them and let the snow bury them. Frostex heat tracing cable is self regulating and runs on 120 VAC. Great stuff but a bit expensive. Make sure attic is well ventilated. Roof turbines work with a light breeze and move lots of air, just make sure there’s enough soffit vents to let air in. You should have put the 2” to 4” reducer in the vertical pipe. Water will not drain back to waste when you reduce in the horizontal pipe. Would only be a problem if the outside end of the 4” frosts over in cold weather which seems to be a likely condition for your environment. Takes a brave individual to admit mistakes and work through them. I’ll be watching to see how your solutions work.
it will be tougher on the generator however if you direct vent to the intake of the generator then it alone feels the cold. my oil burner is hooked that way. you then stop exchanging inside are from the outside. i have done the same with wood stoves. that stops them from getting their air from the cracks and crevices.
Seams like you could just run a pvc air intake that would run directly to the air cleaner. And only let the big air intake when it gets over a set temp inside. Awesome setup that’s nice generator
This was a really good video. Not to highlight any mistakes but as a warning for others to learn from these mistakes. I would do as I think your daughter/SIL did by building a pole barn first and putting your RV in it to protect it from the elements during construction is the way to go. It also should provide enough storage to keep almost everything else indoors. Unfortunately all the research someone can do can't prevent every problem and hindsight is 20/20. Keep on with the progress! 🙂
Well done Vonn and Ryan showing the reality of your lifestyle. I think I may have a solution for the septic line. A company called Heat-line. It has an inline heat tape that goes inside the pipe. It threads in to make a water tight fit. No need to dig up your line for heat tracing. It can be put on a timer etc. please check it out. Scott ,Alberta Canada
Great video! So helpful for others as they might be building. Just an fyi we had a heated arctic entry with insulated ceiling in our cabin in AK - attic was open and very similar to yours - did not have bathroom fan type vents - also used heat tape on sewer and water (outside well source, not like yours). Only turned it on as needed.
I had worked the off shore and remote mountain oulfields for yrs -
In the mountains at hiht altitudes it droped to minus 60° F - the radators were on the out side the enclosures -
The radiators had electric driven fans that came on when the radiator coolant was to high returning to the engine -
Eather way we didnt pull cold air from out side and through a radiator then discharge the air out the engine shack -
All sewer lines even below the frost line - were rapped with two heat trace wires - one heat trace was a spare -
A 4 inch pipe was rapped with insulation and in a 6 inch pipe. -
There were probs in 1/2 pvc pipe down next to the sewer lines down below the frost line - if it droped below 35"F the heat trace came on -
All water pipes were heat traced including vent pipes - on the outer 6 inch pvc pipes - they cut the 90" elbows in half and glued and hose clamped in place at the 4 inch 90s and offsetss -
You are an extremely HONEST individual Ryan , videos like these are invaluable to those seeking to follow in your footsteps ... thank you Ryan and Von for sharing as always 👍👍👍.
I appreciate that!😊
It takes roughly 3yrs to get firewood supply to level that’s comfortable don’t ask how I know also leaving 2-3” space between your rows prevents mould on wood stored over longer periods air must be allowed to circulate all sides found this out the hard way hurts to have to lose mouldy firewood after all the effort getting it. Your honesty is appreciated.
Regarding the temperature problems in your generator shed. If you’re sure you’ll never need to run the generator in the summer, then plumb the air intake from the outside to your air filter (don’t draw air from inside the building). Then close the vents that you’ve been using for the radiator and use the air inside the shed for cooling. If you want to be able to use the generator in the summer (as a backup if your solar inverter dies, for example) then move the radiator outside and force air through it with an electric fan. Either way, you don’t want to exhaust all the warm air that has passed through the radiator outside and suck cold air from the outside into your shed to replace the air passing through the radiator.
One problem is your driving over your septic pipe. Remember when the frost is in the ground and your driving over it , your driving the frost deeper into the ground. Good luck from another old veteran.
We knew we’d be driving over it and that’s the reason for the foam board insulation. Frost should not be able to penetrate through the 4” of foam board.
I thought the same thing. Here in northern BC we get -40 almost every year. We buried our line sewer line, four feet down without insulation. It’s one of the few lines that hasn’t t froze. But we never drive over the line. Anyways glad you got it thawed out. The first winter is always the hardest. 🇨🇦🌷ps……we have a Arctic entry and it’s insulated but not heated. We don’t get the frost at all but saying that, we have only had -50C once. Great video guys, you guys rock
Regarding the arctic entry. Insulate but don’t heat the arctic entry. The result will be that the arctic entry will be cooler than the house but warmer than outside. Make sure that air can flow freely between the metal roof and the roof sheathing. Air should be able to enter at the eaves (above the sheathing) and vent at the ridge cap.
Install the ceiling in the arctic entry and insulate it thoroughly like the rest of the house. The heat from the house will likely escape through the interior wall enough to warm the arctic entry. Chilly, but warm enough. Whether a vestibule in an office building or an arctic entry in your home they both are buffer areas from cold to comfort.
You need to put a wood box attached to your house make it into a bench lift up the bench pull your wood out of the bench that's on the inside of your house you load it from the outside less mess in the old Days woodsheds was on the back porch My dad's witch shed was 10 feet away from the house along one side of the house our wood stove was downstairs so all she did was throw the wood down the stairs open the basement door and there's wood Pile underneath the house
Our clean out was Right at the bottom straight out to the a septic tank
Hello Ryan, Great Video. One thing that caught my attention, In the attic the placement of the reducer from 3" to 2" needs to be vertical. The reason is with the reducer mounted horizontally the condensate will pool and freeze at the reducer and it will not be able to drain when it thaws.
For your generator shed one thought is to place you air inlet closer to the generator. Place intake above the generator on the same wall as your exhaust.
Or another idea is to use a greenhouse exhaust fan on a thermostat. Then only exhaust warm air from the building to keep the ambient temp in the building cool enough to remove the waste heat from the generator. This would require you to remove the current hot air exhaust duct and recirculate the air that passes over the radiator back into the room. Greenhouse exhaust fans move a lot of air. I am confident it would be sufficient to keep the air temp low enough for the radiator to work properly. The exhaust fan woul be place as high as possible on the wall above the generator.
For the power shed, Install something like this above the intake air "Air Curtain Fly Fan Drive Thru | Berner | DTU03"
My dad put a clean out in front of every 90 degree corner
You have a cold roof in the house and without a vapor barrier on the ceiling in the Artic entry and insulate it allows the heat to draw up into the cold roof.
We live in Michigan and we have insulated vent pipes to the exterior.
And your bathroom vent pipes should have been wrapped with insulation to the outside
If you bring the pipe flatter it will just puddle more in the pipe. So the shortest to outside and insulated all the way to the outside.
Instead of venting the plumbing to the outside, you can use an air admittance valve.
Wood sheds one for drying and aging the wet wood and wood shed close to a door next to the house with dry aged wood for burning.
To keep the room warmer duct the radiator air to the air intake louvred which will bring back the warm air. You only need enough fresh air for the engine intake. The rest of the air intake is the radiator fan flow which can be recirculated.
I have experience with generators in very cold climates. You need to reverse your fan to draw air through the radiator backwards, sucking air. Then you can put on a damper operator to ether exhaust the air outside or a second one on the side of the duct opening to the inside of the building to dump warm air from the radiator back inside the building. Hook the two dampers together so they move together one closing while the other opens. Set the temperature on the thermostat so regulate the damper to adjust the heat dumped back in. Hope that makes sense I’m a mechanic not a writer lol
Try a thermostatically controlled fresh air damper in your generator room. It really only needs cooler air in the summer when the generator could run too hot.
Hi Ryan,
Folks learn from others mistake's. Thanks for sharing.
I spent 25 years near Nenana in the 60's through the 80's. Doing our own building we ran into many of the same issues. Here are some of the solutions we came up with:
1-Septic system plumbed with wood stave pipe>> won't melt if you need a steam genny.
2- Add a few oatey ABC one way drain/vent valves inside. Won't freeze. Home depot.
3-Use a leach pit instead of lines. The septic tank is really just a holding tank and needs to be pumped each year. Pit allows you access to output if needed.
4-Use insulated 4" vents from exhaust fans. Insulate the fan housing too.
5-Insulate artic entrance and good vaper barrier. Use a little heat. Maybe 40 degrees.
6-No experience with power shed, but you have way too much air flow. I would try dumping some of the engine cooling air from radiator in to power shed. Maybe damper it between inside and outside.
Karl
Thank you for the tips. It’s good to hear from others that have gone through it.😊
Put in a internal heating element inside the pipes which you can plug in anytime you want to. Its like a 1/4 in wire which goes inside the tube.
Heat tape in the future for sure, but I'm not convinced all the clean outs under the house were necessary. I can only surmise the reason for freezing was started at the above ground clean outside, maybe some sort of insulation or box built for winter? The cold air in the generator building would be an expensive fix, to preheat the air and hold it in limbo until use. Ya'll are doing an awesome job in spite of the few "changes". Love ya'll ❤️
Just a thought for the power shed....enclose your outer shed with the tank in it and duct your exhaust from the generator into the shed and put intake in the outer wall to preheat the air from the exhaust that way you recycle the heat from the exhaust...let us know what you decide...Enjoy watching your journey
I like your idea 😊 might be a tad expensive for custom duct work.
My opinion for the generator is to put an air intake to the engine from the outside, in the winter time keep the heat in the building, thermostatically en it out if gets too hot,summer tie is the time to vent the radiator heat out
Pex is your friend. Coil of pex behind your wood stove. Use glycal need expansion tank use smallest circulation pump use pex wrapped on your waste down stairs with insulation and or going out side to be by septic line. Could put timer for pump to go every now and then. Could put temperature gauge on it going in and out by stove. I live in Chugiak Alaska.
Put the 4 inch pipe inside a bigger pipe ( 6 or 8 ) with two pipes to the surface that way you can pull a heat tape through or change out the tape if it stops working.
Seeing as you just started using your septic system , there is not enough going on in the tank yet , once things start working in there it creates its own heat and should keep the lines from freezing again .
And as far as the bathroom fans go , we just dont use ours in the winter and open a window if needed lol.
If you didn’t make a mistake or few, you wouldn’t be human. I just like that you two keep at it anyways! Working together you’ll figure it out. Thanks for sharing the good, bad, and ugly. I love the channel because it is real life! Great video
Thank you 😊
Ryan, great video. I love how you shared some of your mistakes which, by the way, don't seem insurmountable. You are keeping it real.
I'm not sure if it would meet your ultimate need for a 50' workshop; however, could you possibly repurpose the woodshed to be a small shop and then build the other woodshed that meets your needs? Kind of like a baby step toward your ultimate goal.
You are doing a great job!!! You work like a dog!!! No one could have predicted all these problems !!!
build a wood shed over your septic line to help keep heat over the line.
Regarding your generator shed issues, I think that eliminating bringing arctic air into the shed when the generator runs is the answer. This may be difficult, but I think if you piped the generator’s radiator, intake and exhaust outside, then you wouldn’t need to bring outside air into the space. I assume the radiator could be outside there, and that might be naive (I don’t live in Arctic conditions), but this change would keep the generator cozy and keep the deep freeze away.
The hard bit will be relocating that radiator. You might be able to cut a hole in the wall and push this out, and seal around the opening. You can buy solutions for the intake and exhaust off the shelf. But I think this would pay off big time when implemented.
Duct in your fresh air intake to generator insulate on outside of plenum. Plenty of antifreeze in radiator. No need to bring in cold air to building
Ryan, try a large diameter flex tube going from wall inlet vent up and overhead to the engine even if you have to build a box around the engine. Having frost in the attic, you need to get as much of that out as possible to prevent ceiling damage. Thanks for a great video.
Couple ideas: 1. If your really long sewer line thawed that fast, my guess is that your frozen issue was extremely close to the outside clean-outs. Box them up for winter. That is probably the weak point. 2. Put a clean-out in your vent system either in the basement or roof. Easy to open that up and put a blow dryer in the clean-out to thaw it out if it freezes vs. a ladder up the side of the house at -60°.
Good ideas Brad, 😊
Ryan, I think the freeze came from your outside clean outs. The pipe will transfer the cold down into your system. You need to maybe heat tape them. Remember hot water will freeze before the cold will
Ryan,
A big mistake is driving over your septic and water pipes plus you shouldve used spray eurothane foam insulation...
BigT-Willow
I followed directions of old timers that have lived in this areas for many years. The foam board should stop the frost being driven into the ground and make it go around the piping. That is why we insulated all of the way around the piping.
You could put a exhaust fan into the ceiling that is activated when the door is opened.
Warmer air for the gen building. ... I'm just thinking here... What about(this summer) building a subterranean network of pipes, as in, as deep as you can. with a good amount of distance, either back and forth with elbows, or one big long stretch. And at the furtherest point away from the building, have an intake as the air is drawn through let the earth warm the air?
As far as the artic entry, put you an exhaust fan out there. Something larger than a fart fan. Put a switch on it so it comes on strong when your front door is opened, exhausting to the outside, not the porch side.
I would also suggest your sewer vent go up at a 45 degree angle just aid int the airflow.
Fixing mistakes is a pain but nothing too bad has happened. The cold air into the generator cabin is one which is difficult to fix without spending money on preheating the air. If the generator was nearer the house you could use waste heat from the stove chimney maybe with some pipes winding around it to act as heat exchanger for the air to then feed into the generator. With your house distance from the shed that's not feasible.
A potential fix for the generator issue could be incorporating some heat sensitive louvers like used for greenhouses. Set up in such a way so the air inside the generator shack is circulated inside the shack until it reaches a certain temp and then open slowly so the blast coming in isnt 50 below. Good luck and Im sure you will get it all sorted eventually. ;) Take care
engine block heater...oil pan heater...
BigT-Willow
Generator has a block heater and oil pan heater but we don’t use them. They drawn down the batteries way too much to running 24/7.
Extend your clean-outs to floor level wherever possible, opening the wrong one below floor level, could result in a smelly flood.
Hubby suggests reversing the flow through the radiator. Intake from exterior, exhaust inside
You Should try to find a Military Herman -- Nelson Heat Heater. They run on Diesel without electricity. People who have never lived in Alaska don't realize what problems extreme low temperatures cause. I have some horror stories for the time I spent in Alaska.
Ive made alot of mistakes. 1 lesson i learned is never use osb once it freezes and thaws it "pops" the glue and fiber and makes it nothing but a worthless moldy sponge after a couple seasons. #2 is your walls and roofing using 2x6s is not nearly enough to control the transfer of heat to cold.
Hello, northern Minnesota rural homeowner here. Not this winter but most winters we get a -40 stretch.
For the most part any water lines you don't want traffic crossing over. No vehicle or foot traffic. It just drives the frost down. Your foam box should help with that.
I have a clean out stack like you on my grey water drain. I have opened it and it was completely plugged with frost. Just the stack, not the drain. I suspect that frost grew down and plugged your drain. There should be no standing water in the pipe to your septic tank to freeze.
So, maybe building a super insulated box to house your clean out stacks would be a start.
I enjoy your videos. I'm a former residential contractor and plan on moving to AK in several years so your videos check several boxes for me.
Those beginning aerial views are absolutely gorgeous. ❤
I have finally caught up on watching all your videos. woop woop Remember hot water freezes faster than cold water.
I was wondering when you were going to finish sealing up your power shed. Ideally, you want no outside air entering the building except when you need to cool the building to keep the engine cool. I suggest running an 8" flexible vent pipe from high outside thru the wall and into your air intake for the generator. The generator will then be pulling all its combustion air from outside directly. You will want to wrap the intake pipe with some insulation so that the cold air doesn't cool the interior and create ice on it's way to the air filter.
Wow! That’s how you learn! Sometimes we can do our research in advance but people can get caught up in analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything at least you are building your home and learning as you go and when you make mistakes you work hard to correct them. Thanks for sharing it was very interesting to watch. Yea wood shed closest to your wood stove is definitely important regardless of how it may impact your view. God bless.🥰❤️🙏🏻🇨🇦🍁
Wish everyone was this transparent. This is how we all get to learn. I really appreciate how well thought out y'alls homestead is. Underrated channel.
Thank you 😊
hi ryan, first winter here in mich. all my field and septic froze up. neighbor farmer said because i had no grass growing over area. that summer planted heavy grass. no more freeze the next winter.them heavy grass roots helped. i built house look just like yours. ryan just get nice looking trailer that is covered. back up to wood shed load traier, back up to front porch. should last a couple weeks. you hook to tractor. proud of you guys larry laskey carleton mich
Hi Ryan, I'd recommend an air to air heat exchanger on the air discharge end of the generator. This will let your hot air discharge preheat your incoming fresh air. This is commonly used on residential HVAC systems. This should cut down on freezing the building in the winter. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the tip!
For the wood shed, use and IBC Tote. You can move it from the porch to the wood shed with the pallet forks, fill up the tote and haul it back to the front porch.
You can get heat trace that can run inside the pipe, I ran heat trace through my inside clean out cap with a rubber seal then you can turn it off and on from the inside. No need to dig it all up
Thank you so much ! We’re moving in April and will be building our home. These are things we need to know.
Glad I could help a little.
I’m just not sure about the cleanouts under the house. Seems like they would be a lower than the toilet point and you would have a face full of black water in your face if you ever have to open one if there is a backup down stream.
Love the channel and it is always great to follow what you and the Mrs are doing.
Thank you for sharing this one. Has me in deep thought over cold weather plumbing needs.
oh, and for the firewood, completely fill your wood shed and then have a nice stack of logs right beside the wood shed just in case you need extra wood. Then it is already staged and ready.
maybe make some kind of a more consintrated way to the air intake so you can keep more heat in the building.
Warming the intake air for your generator. Place a stainless steel pipe, sized for the intake air, inside a larger stainless steel pipe. The inner pipe should be longer than the outer pipe. At both ends, cap the outer pipe to the inner pipe. Attach two pipe perpendicular to the outer pipe, one very near each end, to provide an input and output for your exhaust. The exhaust will flow from one of these perpendicular pipes into the space between the two concentric pipes, along the length of them, and then out through the other perpendicular pipe and then out of the building. The intake air simply enters at one of the inner pipe and then go from the other end to the generator. You may need to experiment with the length of the concentric pipes to get the intake air to the temperature you want. Too hot would reduce the efficiency of your generator. Of course, it will take a little time to warm up the intake air, but it will be much faster than how it is now.
Thinking about this a little more, is the air intake for your generator drawing air from inside or outside the generator shed? If it’s already drawing air from outside and you’re having the described problem, then what I wrote above should help. If you’re drawing air from inside, the just plumbing your intake to outside your shed may solve your problem.
If you turned the generator 90 degrees the incoming air and outgoing air on that side end of the shed. And put something up to keep that space just for running the generator. Just maybe it that might work
I appreciate your honesty. That’s how you learn, and I’m also learning along with you.
Hey guys, thanks for the latest update! In reality, your mistakes could have all been way worse, and you have at least now found them. You'll get them all sorted for sure, and your home will be even better as a result. Moving forwards, you will have the peace of mind that the issues you have identified have been resolved at the point in the build where it is easier to do. It will all be worth it once finished. None of us are perfect 🙂 You are doing a fantastic job!
I really like your video Ryan, Power House Generator hot cold problem turn the generator 90 degrees so it draws cold in on the left side of the building and blows hot out the right side of the building put a interior wall with a door.
You're going to have water sitting in your vent pipe because your reducer is in the horizontal plane in stead of being vertical. You could heat your arctic entry just a little like around 32 - 40 degrees. As for air in your generator shed, the only fix I can see is to duct incoming air directly over to your generator. But then you have duct work that you will have step over. For your garage/shop, in one of your bays, set it up so you can put a winch on the back wall so you can winch a truck/tractor/wheeler/etc into the shop. Also set up at the garage door so you can hook up a pulley and winch around the corner. For the heat trace on your septic line, just confirm it is safe on foam board. You don't want it catching the foam on fire. I would put the heat trace on the bottom of the septic line since heat raises. Just curious why you don't stack firewood on your front deck. You could use the tractor to move large amounts of wood from the shed to the front deck. When spring comes, don't bring any more over. One suggestion I would give that you didn't talk about is putting open/close valves on your water lines before and after each component in the basement. Thanks for sharing.
Just run a a couple ducts for fresh air intake and exhaust for the generator.
Thank you for the update on lots of stuff! My wife and I are planning our homestead, and you have given us a lot of inspiration for how to go about it (such as doing ICF foundation with an unfinished tall "crawl space"). Something that caused many arguments though is i am adamant that we build the shop first, before any other major structures. Plus i think it would be more comfortable to live in a shop in an RV or something rather than an RV just outside.
Put a temp senoer on out side and set it to the building get warmer and then the out vent will open
You’re very honest in your approach to the faults, and the solutions to them. Great video, I’m in the United Kingdom, can’t believe that your pipes froze even though they were sunk well into the ground! I can’t really comprehend it getting that cold! We complain at -10! Love your positive attitude to life and all that it throws at you both❤
Awesome, thank you!😊
Sorry about the freezing issues.
Off set the rad for the gen set and use electronic rad fan on rad and then duct it in . Air in the shed will remain in the shed than and air for the rad is in and out .
Love the drone in the beginning. Beautiful
But I missed the smiling one
No need to heat the entrance, just insulate it and add a small wall vent, I don't have a vent, when its above freezing outside i leave the door to the house open for a few hrs to rise the temp and dry it out, frozen water cant damage anything only when its turn to water will it do damage.
Hi guys, i lived in the mountains of PA and most people wouldn't think PA could get to -38 F ,wind chill -60 F but it did and froze our septic tank because we didnt have any snow cover. We had to move out for 2 months. We lived at 3000 ft.
One step forward and 2 backward, that's how I learned to dance😂😂
Great video! Disclaimer I don’t plan on moving there myself but in early years experienced some of your issues. While what you have had to fix may seem boneheaded in hindsight there are millions that would have done the same or worse. Keep doing what you’re doing. Smart people😮will listen and thank you.
Much meat in this video Ryan. Just rolling with mistakes made - perfect! Nice work:)
Good thing you had that big heater. A lesser man might have been out of business til spring. Good job Ryan
no you can rent or buy a heater like that one. if your pipes are frozen you going do whatever the cost is to fix it. most people can't and won't live with know toilet and bathroom.
Insulate the arctic entryway,and use a smallgas wall heater and keep around 30 to 40 degrees. Love your videos..
This seems to be the most popular suggestion, so I suppose this is the direction we’ll head. Thanks👍👍
Good solid advice for people wanting to build off grid. As I watch this I'm definitely taking notes 😊
Can you delay the vent from opening, after the generator is running to warm up the room and heat up the extended cold air vent which would be insulated. It seems the air coming in is so cold the frost happens immediately so hopefully heating up an extended insulated vented area may help.. just a thought
In the shed with the generator I think when it's below zero you would have less trouble buy diverting the radiator heat, left in the shed rather than pushed out. Then less fresh air would be pulled in.
That’s a good idea but when it stays in the shed, it’s like a hurricane in there.😊
Hello to my favorite couple. There’s always a problem when you are a home owner. You two will figure everything out. Stay positive and great attitudes and God will guide you. Have a great week, always wait for your next video.
Yes! Thank you! 😊
It’s just an idea, but what if you put heat tape on your main drain out under the house and that warm water going out that warm pipe might keep the outside pipe from freezing
a glycol preheat coil on the intake piped from the radiator.
Also, try slow pouring a 5 gallon bucket of warm water down your sink to keep any ice build down. Maybe daily, or every few hours?
Now that we’re warming up, it’ll be next year before I see if what I do is going to work. 😊
Great video. You have some unique and difficult challenges that make what you are doing very impressive. Keep up the good work.
When I lived south of North Pole in AK, my duplex neighbor and I had a foot path in the snow between our doors. Unfortunately, that path meant no fluffy, insulating snow...right over the water and septic lines! Yep, our landlord was not happy. The packed down snow allows the frost to dive down lower than areas with snow cover.
Looks like you should add more attic insulation with all that cold winter conditions.
It’s in the works for this summer.
20:30 thanks you! I'll be showing this to my wife and drawing up plans. lol. Seriously, thanks for sharing your lessons learned!
36:48 could you insulate that pipe and cover the exterior penetration better?
Cold air and frost going down the clean out risers. Build an insulated enclosure around them and let the snow bury them.
Frostex heat tracing cable is self regulating and runs on 120 VAC. Great stuff but a bit expensive.
Make sure attic is well ventilated. Roof turbines work with a light breeze and move lots of air, just make sure there’s enough soffit vents to let air in.
You should have put the 2” to 4” reducer in the vertical pipe. Water will not drain back to waste when you reduce in the horizontal pipe. Would only be a problem if the outside end of the 4” frosts over in cold weather which seems to be a likely condition for your environment.
Takes a brave individual to admit mistakes and work through them. I’ll be watching to see how your solutions work.
Someone else caught the reducer issue also. Not sure how I dint notice that when I was installing. Oh well, one put it on the list to fix.😁
it will be tougher on the generator however if you direct vent to the intake of the generator then it alone feels the cold. my oil burner is hooked that way. you then stop exchanging inside are from the outside. i have done the same with wood stoves. that stops them from getting their air from the cracks and crevices.
Seams like you could just run a pvc air intake that would run directly to the air cleaner. And only let the big air intake when it gets over a set temp inside. Awesome setup that’s nice generator
Good option have to do some thinking on a bunch of these comments. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing Ryan. Good job fixing everything up👍✌️🇺🇸❤️❤️
use the exhaust to heat antifreeze and engine cooling water through a large radiator in front of intake air loures to heat intake air.
This was a really good video. Not to highlight any mistakes but as a warning for others to learn from these mistakes. I would do as I think your daughter/SIL did by building a pole barn first and putting your RV in it to protect it from the elements during construction is the way to go. It also should provide enough storage to keep almost everything else indoors. Unfortunately all the research someone can do can't prevent every problem and hindsight is 20/20. Keep on with the progress! 🙂
We played a very large roll in their decision to build a shop before starting on their house.😊
Well done Vonn and Ryan showing the reality of your lifestyle. I think I may have a solution for the septic line. A company called Heat-line. It has an inline heat tape that goes inside the pipe. It threads in to make a water tight fit. No need to dig up your line for heat tracing. It can be put on a timer etc. please check it out. Scott ,Alberta Canada
Thank you, we’ll check it out.😊
Vevor has 12 volt diesel heaters for about 105 dollars😊 I bought one for my 40 ft conex but I don't live in ur climate
Great video! So helpful for others as they might be building. Just an fyi we had a heated arctic entry with insulated ceiling in our cabin in AK - attic was open and very similar to yours - did not have bathroom fan type vents - also used heat tape on sewer and water (outside well source, not like yours). Only turned it on as needed.