Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Another Work Weekend

Last weekend I repeated my regular routine and hit the road for Nordegg.  This time I left really early on Saturday morning, as I wanted to get out there as early as possible.  I was expecting to meet Leonard, my mechanical contractor, at about 11:00AM.  He was coming out to install the forced air electric furnace at our cottage, and I was expecting to give him a hand.  I rolled into the driveway at about 10:00AM and found that the gate was open and Leonard was already there.  I'm not sure exactly what time he arrived, but the work was almost finished by the time I got there.  The furnace was mounted and all the ducts were installed and Leonard was just finishing up.  I know he has been super busy this fall as the onset of winter to a plumber is much like it is for my skylight company, only even more intense.  I appreciate that he was able to get this looked after for me.  All the weather critical work is now complete for the season at the cottage and I can leave the heat turned on low and don't have to drain and winterize anything.  This will allow us to come out and use the cottage over the winter, whenever we choose to.
Once Leonard had packed up and left I set to work wiring in the furnace.  I'm not an electrician, but my friend Rob gave me step by step instructions on how to connect everything.  We also talked through the process on the phone before I went out there.  And, I took some photos of my work as it progressed and texted them to Rob.  He reviewed them and made sure that I had done everything correctly, before I re-energized the building.
I had previously routed the cables over to near where the furnace was installed.  I ran the flex cable and connectors into the junction box on the furnace.  Everything was connected at the load end. Then I connected the light gauge wires to the thermostat and got that all hooked up.  Then, I turned off the main breaker at the panel, got out my flashlight, and opened up the panel.  I installed the big 50amp breaker, and then ran the cable into the panel.  I connected everything as per the instructions, and then closed up the panel.  I had the new breaker for the furnace turned off and then turned the main breaker back on.  All the power came back on in the building, and no breakers tripped and everything worked properly.  Then I turned the furnace breaker on and again there were no issues.  I went upstairs and turned up the thermostat.  The furnace kicked in, and cycled as it was supposed to.  Everything worked exactly as planned.
Later that afternoon I went out for a ride on the ATV.  Then I dug out the BBQ and had a nice steak for dinner.  Later in the evening, just as the moon was rising over Eagle Peak, I went out for a walk.  I ran into a neighbor a few doors down that I had not met before.  He and his family had just bought a lot this past year and were clearing it in preparation for building next year.
On Sunday morning I installed the bronze sheet metal flue that I had made for the exhaust vent on our kitchen range.  That didn't take very long and by lunch time I was all packed up.  I locked up the cottage and headed out with my camera.  It was a mild and sunny afternoon and a great day to be out.  I slowly made my way back to the city and stopped a number of times along the way to explore with my camera.




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