Yesterday, my cold weather travels from Check Point continued ...
I hopped over
to Jean Marie River for a community visit and to share AEA energy
efficiency information with students & staff from Louis Norwegian
School and a number of residents from the community. We had a great
time and everyone went away with new information & a few helpful
energy saving devices or home winterization materials :)
While
I had to hop away from our "off grid" perch here at Check Point, Pam
was busy taking care of the wood pellet stove & boiler operations, ... during the coldest days we've had so far this season (Autumn)!!!
The temperature during that time was a consistent -35 degree Celsius,
which made it much more challenging to reload the pellet hopper
outside. Pam figures it took twice as long to do because of the extra
time needed to stop & warm up her hands along the way. Thanks for
taking one for the team, Pam, much appreciated :)
These colder temp's also contributed to a little
waterline challenge, when I was getting ready to head off to Jean Marie
River in the morning yesterday, I noticed that the water was not
draining out of the kitchen sink. Turns out the waterline had frozen,
so Pam ended up setting up a portable heater to help thaw the line.
It's been a problem in the past, so Wayne will know that to do when he's
back to take care of the frozen line more fully.
As well, the wood pellet stove in
the main building was bumped up a notch yesterday to kick more heat out
to maintain the room temperature in the main living space at 20C.
Otherwise, the temperature would only have been maintained at 15C as a
result of the colder temp's outside this week.
The
2 dogs here have also been enjoying a little extra special treatment,
as we've made sure they aren't out in the freezing temp's for too long.
Yet, Max & Nikko are happy to hop outside to run around & check
out their territory!
It
also appears that the higher wood pellet stove setting over the past 24
hours may have increased the amount of black carbon deposited in &
behind the burn pot of the pellet stove ... as we have observed while
dealing with cleaning the wood pellet stove again. We're doing this
cleaning a few days earlier, at Wayne & Lynn's request, to make sure
it is done prior to & not after the timing of this coming Monday,
when they'll be in the thick of getting settled back at home here at
Check Point.
We'll have a more reasonable temperature to deal
with when we go out to top up the hopper for the wood pellet boiler in a
little while, since the outside temp. has increased to -26C for today!
We'll also be packing up here at Check Point to
get ready to head off to Lindberg Landing, where I'll be posting updates
on Sue Lindberg's "off grid" living operations. Sue's primary &
ONLY heating source is wood, with propane for the majority of cooking
(wood as secondary), while the primary electricity at the Lindberg
Landing Guesthouse comes from a Solar Photovoltaic (PV) array with
battery storage.
Thanks HEAPS to Wayne & Lynn for the
opportunity to learn and experience the day-to-day tasks involved with
maintaining a wood heating system that operates with wood pellets. Both
Pam & I have learned heaps about wood pellets and we've pumped up
our biceps along the way too! I am also very grateful to Pam as well, for
helping make this "off grid" blogging experience possible, with her
keen interest in learning about & helping maintain these systems :)
"Mahsi cho!"
We'll connect again, further "Up the Dehcho ... without a Powerline," ... from Lindberg Landing ...
Teresa ... & Pam
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