A smarter and better way to live

Ever since we moved to the Japan countryside we have been conscience of our environment. We have been growing our own fruits and vegetables without chemicals. We bought a tiny car to minimize our carbon footprint. We tried to purchase the most energy efficient appliances (still have some work to do). We planted over a hundred trees in our yard. All of our light bulbs have been changed to L.E.D.. The paints and finishes I use are water soluble. We do our best to recycle and separate cans, bottles, plastic, non-burnable, and burnable garbage. We use paper instead of plastic whenever possible. Heck, we even try to stay home to keep our air clean. Still, we found that we needed to do more. 

Ten years ago the price of going solar was outrageous. Today, however, with energy becoming scarce and very expensive in Japan, the government has incentives to make that giant leap into reusable energy cost effective. To make a long story short...we did! We had our 5.5 kw system installed a couple of days ago. Actually due to the supply shipment backup being experienced around the world, we ordered the solar panels and associated parts over a year ago. Well, better late than never. The paperwork for the government and power company took six months to get approved. Once the materials arrived it took only two days to install and a couple of hours to get inspected and powered up. Honestly, I really didn't grasp what we had done until the following morning after the system was up and running. Erika was cooking breakfast and I glanced over at our new power monitor. The sun was out and the panels were fully operational. I said to Erika, "Wow! Isn't this amazing!" 

She asked, "What?" 

I said, "Look at the monitor. Everything we are using is being run by the sun! Not only that, but the extra power is being sold back to Kyushu Power Plant! Amazing!" Erika had a great big smile. We are saving energy and getting paid to do it. Of course it has been raining since that glorious day, but it won't rain forever. We were told that the whole system will pay for itself within 8 years. Well that's the first part of this story. The second part will come next week. Please stay tuned.

Installation day. Ten people showed up in five vehicles.

Installation went quick. These guys knew what they were doing.

A new circuit breaker box was added.

In less than a day the panels were installed.

The power converter takes DC voltage from the sun and converts it to AC for the house.

This is for next weeks post. Shhhh, it's a secret.

An additional power line was added from the house to the garage (panels).

The next day it was raining, but that didn't slow the workers a bit.

Routing for the wires was extra work as we didn't want to see cables inside the house.

My favorite part...the power monitor. 5.1 kw was divided into 4.5kw being sent back to the power company (money in our pocket) and 0.6kw we used.

The utility meter was upgraded to a remote reading system. No more meter readers. 

My mom

 

First I wanted to thank Bettie for taking this picture of my mom. My mother turned 93 years old this year. It was a tough year for her, but she made it through with the help of many kind people. Believe it or not she just passed her drivers test. She wants to go back to work at Costco and work one day a week. She has always been a hard worker and saves every penny for her spoiled sons. Neither my brother nor I are there to help her so we have to rely on the help of friends, neighbors, and total strangers to give her a hand. I can't thank them enough. I am forever in debt to them. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays. I love you.

And so it begins...

It's about time! Let's see, well, this is the wall that will have some stained glass panels installed. One problem though...I have to make some large holes in the wall. OMG!! This wall is in the entry area. It's dark and dark in this area. The glass will add a some color as well as much needed light to the area. I did some probing around to find the existing studs in the wall and any wiring that might bite me later. I don't like surprises. After deciding that the studs were fairly plumb and evenly spaced I did some preliminary sketches for the glass panel sizes. I came up with a four panel scheme that fits well in the space provided.

Here's the living room side. The cutouts were conveniently hidden (and insulated) by the movie screen during the winter months to keep out the cold air. I also placed four layers of blue sheet on the opposite side to insulate the wall. It worked well as the wood stove kept the room nice and warm.

If you look closely the wall is marked for cutting so on with the show!

OMG! It's the dreaded cross bracing. The house will fall down if I cut it. Actually, it's not a big deal. Instead of cross bracing like the Japanese use, I replaced it with 2x6's and treated it like a window opening. I believe in making it stronger than original. It also helps to have the wall boxed in by huge timbers. Time to relocate the wires.

With the wires relocated and the light switch moved, I went ahead and installed my 2x6 headers and framing and blocking and blah, blah, blah. Sorry no pictures as this is top secret information (translation: very boring).

Alrighty then, this guy is still smiling so I guess it went well. Moving right along I installed the painted mitered frames for the stained glass. I decided to make the frames the same size and space them equally. The gaps were filled with spacers and joint compound.

Scary isn't it? It almost looks like I know what I'm doing. Prime and paint comes later. The color has not been determined as I'd like to choose a color that matches the glass.

Here's our favorite addition to the room, a home theater. The plan is to have movies at night and stained glass during the day to let in the light for the dark entry. So, what will the glass look like? Stay tuned.