Renewables in MN

Well, it's been a busy year in the world of renewable energy systems in the government market here in Minnesota. I've designed and bid almost 200 kW of projects, with most of it came online in the last quarter. I have been hearing some about some poor decisions being made by other design professionals in this area including the design of a solar thermal system without the use of glycol to protect the piping and system. We had successful bids on a 25 kW system for Three Rivers Park and a 30 panel solar thermal system for the Audubon Nature Center in Sandstone MN.

Ottawa NWR 80 kW PV HD version

GPVC dedication

Attended the dedication of the new Grand Portage Visitors Center at the US Canadian border on  Sept 25th. It's a cooperative project by MN DNR, MnDOT, and the Grand Portage Band. LHB folks provided MEP services including LED site lighting and geothermal HVAC systems. MN DNR, Peter Paulson was the architect and MnDOT did the site design. Soon to come, a 10 kW LHB design ground mount solar PV array.

Autodesk features three LHB projects within Revit

Autodesk features three LHB projects during a slideshow when anyone in the world is installing Revit Structure 2011. See the three images below; two of which are Kevin Holm's projects and one by Bruce Cornwall.

Out with the Old Bridge!

Big mess at the coumpound as the county is removing the old bridge over the Schmidt creek. They needed a lattice boom to break it down and remove the concrete pieces. Finished with the increek portion of the work just in time as the creek opened up for the season a day or so after they were done with that phase. The rain and heavy clay are really making a mess right now, can't wait until it's done.

Spring is coming!

Warm this spring, some small green shoots in the hoop house, hoping they will turn into spinach. Got the starts going inside, peppers, cabbage, green onions, snap peas, putting them out in a week or so.

Fall work

Getting the turkey gravy ready today, I use the NYT recipe from last year to get a head start on it: use 6 pounds of dark turkey meat (legs and thighs), brown in oven to create a nice fond (deglazed with sherry), then boil for 6 hours with carrots onions and celery. This makes a great flavorful broth to create gravy. I used to do the Cook's illustrated method, probably only a 3 or 4 hour task, but you need the bird thawed out for that and I don't want to work that hard on Thanksgiving.

Aliceon and I also worked on the woodshed. Our cut and split wood from two years ago is about 2 inches too long so we end up cutting it all in half. Al worked on that and I kept her supplied with long wood while moving this years pile into the shed. We sawed and moved about a firepalce cord into the house and about 1-1/2 full cords into the wood shed. I might mention that we added another chain saw to the arsenal, a Stihl 180 with easy start to our older 025. The easy start was a must for Aliceon and I have to say it's great. Just a slow steady pull and it kind of builds up and then spins. It's a little wierd at first as you are used to that jerk/pull of a regular saw.

Then I added 2 inches of foam to the roof of my root cellar. The cellar was already part of the house, about a 8 by 6 space next to the basement, but I've have it sealed off until this year. A bit too exposed to the ourdoors I think with freezing just about assured, so the foam shold help with that. I suppose I should have added a thermal barrier, but it is it's own little blockhouse.