It was a beautiful, blue-sky California day.  The morning fog lifted around mid-morning, leaving a warm, but not too hot, day.

Perfect for documenting our progress at the job site this week.

Putting Down a Deposit on a Nissan LEAF

We had some friends over for dinner, including Mike Calise.  Mike is with EVadvise, which is an consultancy firm that focuses on electric vehicles (EV).  Mike explained the benefits of electric vehicles to us and, after a bottle of wine (Chardonnay?), we went to the Nissan LEAF web site and put down a deposit to reserve an all-electric Nissan LEAF.

In California, there are special high occupancy vehicle lanes (known as carpool lanes or, as Nik and Kate say, ‘diamond lanes’) that only vehicles with more than a stated number of people can use.  In most areas, high occupancy vehicles have two or more people in the vehicle.  On most roads, the carpool lanes only allow HOVs from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and from 3:00 pm to 9:00 am. 

To promote the adoption of hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius, the (Great) State of California passed a law allowing a limited number of hybrid vehicles with only the driver in the vehicle to use the carpool lanes regardless of the time of day.  These vehicles have yellow stickers, signifying they can be in the carpool lanes at any time.  The stickers expire on January 1, 2011 so in only five months there will be 85,000 more vehicles in the non-carpool lanes.

However, the legislators are considering changing the laws to allow all-electric vehicles, such as the Nissan LEAF, to use the carpool lanes.

Considering we missed buying a vehicle with yellow stickers, we certainly want to buy a vehicle that is allowed to use the carpool lanes.  This is an opportunity that we simply cannot miss.

Summary
 

Trenching

• Sewer connection inspected and passed, and backfilled
• Sewer to garage and South West corner of house completed
• Connection to San Jose Water meter completed; inspection by the City of Monte Sereno on Monday afternoon (08/02/10)
• Trench from underground cistern to storm sewer connection completed to sidewalk on Winchester
• Trench to fill/overflow stubs for underground cistern completed 

Roof

• All four (4) skylight curbs completed
• Upper flat roof fascia completed
• Two (2) of five (5) gable fascia ends completed
• Twenty (20) linear feet of one hundred (100) linear feet of gable to flat roof connections completed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re now focusing on completing the roof. 

Several items need to be constructed so we can put the membrane on the roof, including the perimeter fascia, the skylight curbs, and the infrastructure to support our photovoltaic solar panel installation (mounts and conduit).  After these items are completed, we can put down the tapered insulation, put in the remaining roof penetrations (plumbing and dryer vents), and then put down the white roof membrane.

Building the Skylight Curbs

The skylights need to be raised off the roof deck and be mounted on curbs.  The curbs need to be above the roof deck by the amount of the tapered insulation and an additional six to eight inches.  Also, to reduce the solar gain and to allow water to drain, we are sloping the skylights to the East.  This slope will provide some solar gain when we need it in the morning, and reduce the solar gain in the afternoon.

Importantly, the curbs need to be insulated.  We have an R-47 SIP roof so installing uninsulated curbs would allow energy to move into and out of our house.  Thus, we are putting two layers of rigid foam around each of the skylight curbs (R-20 with no thermal bridging).

Solar Panel Mounting Infrastructure

Since we have SIPs and there are very few flush beams inside the flat SIP roof, we had custom mounting infrastructure manufactured for our photovoltaic solar panels.  We wanted to limit the number of penetrations of the roof inside the thermal envelope while, at the same time, providing a rock-solid mounting system that could withstand high wind loads.

Accordingly, we had Larson Steel manufacture our solar panel mounts for the SIP roof.  Akeena Solar would then have their racks attached to these mounts.  Pete Larson dropped off the mounting brackets last night. 

Akeena Solar is now on the critical path for our roof membrane installation.

Trenching for San Jose Water Company

Our water meter is in the public right of way in front of our house.  We are responsible for the trenching from the water meter to our house.  With PG&E’s restrictions on keeping at least three (3) feet of separation from water pipes, we need to have a new trench dug from the water meter to the house.  

Ugh …