The snow is flying, though it’s only October 3rd.
My winter preparations went a lot faster this year than last, largely because I
already have everything made and fit the way I need for a long, cold winter.
Winter here is eight months out of the year, so I don’t have much room for
error on my inventions. This year, I can reflect on my last winter’s lessons
and hopefully improve for the coming year.
My skirt job has proven versatile, durable, and fit to the
weather here. Considering that I pieced together a skirt from modified canvas
tarps and stainless steel screw snaps and made it through last winter without
issue, I’d say the job is a total win. However, I have learned something about
water proof canvas tarps… they shrink when they get wet. This year has been
exceptionally rainy, which has caused the tarps to shrink more than they did
last year. If I were to do the skirt job again, I would actually build it with
a little more slack. No serious problems caused by the shrinkage, but a lesson
learned.
My windshield insulation job is solid. Using two cheap
quilts from Wal-Mart made for an excellent windshield insulation that even
looks good. Using black in this climate was even better because they pick up
heat during the day. If I were to improve this design, I would line the folded,
safety-pinned quilts with another quilt – perhaps old ones, or other cheap
ones. The point is: This insulation can be built up to have additional loft. A
pro job would be to set snaps, instead of using safety-pins. The safety pins
aren’t visible, but snaps would be sah-weet.
My heated water hose design from last year was good, but I
dissected it this year to see just how good it was. I had taken a water-grade
hose, wrapped it with Easy-Heat wire, then wrapped with foil-backed fiberglass
insulation, then wrapped polyurethane foam around that. Well, turns out there’s
not enough heat conduction in the water hose to allow the heat wire to
self-regulate. Long story short, the water hose was heating too much, so the
plastic was swelling – I knew this, luckily, and so avoided poisoning myself
with plasticizers and other nasty chemicals by running water through the
[short] line last winter.
I fixed the above issue by redoing the heated water hose
design this year. First, I shortened the hose, so it wasn’t 10’ where I needed
4.5’; the new hose has been shortened to ~6’, which is much more reasonable.
Then, I wrapped the hose with heavy-duty aluminum foil and made sure it fit
tightly around the hose. I wound the foil-wrapped hose with Easy-Heat
self-regulating wire, with coil spacing that will protect down to -40 deg F;
then wrapped with a couple layers of fiberglass batting insulation. To make the
hose entirely portable, this time, I heated the spigot and the hose
independently. So, to make the hose modular, I wrapped each end from the base
of the threads to about 4” up the insulated hose with electrical tape, making
it so that the hose can be removed without skin:fiberglass contact. On top of
the fiberglass insulation, I wrapped the plastic wrap that came with it in a
spiral wrap with 50% overlap in the direction that water will not make into the
fiberglass, should the polyurethane foam be compromised. I banded this material
on with electrical tape every 4-6” or so. Then, I covered the whole thing with
polyurethane foam with duct-tape bands and a seam down the split spine. I
formed each end, so it would insulate the angles present at the base and the
RV-threads.
Details, details.
In the end, I think I’m ready for Winter and hopefully
slightly better than last year. What I am going to work on this year is better
moisture management and perhaps some clever window insulation for the rest of
the windows. I’m thinking some greenhouse wall material might be good for the
smaller windows. Design ideas will likely show up here as I come up with something.
However, since I’m heating a 26’ x 8’ x 7’ box insulated with polystyrene, I’m
not extremely worried about retaining heat. There are houses in this college
town that have no insulation, they have single pane windows, and they’re over
1000 square feet… they’re likely using 10x as much energy as I am for heating.
