We have the Power!
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Well I think the portable sub-panel is as complete as it’s going to get for this year. I finally got around to painting it last week. I was originally going to paint it grey, but at the last minute opted for white with thoughts that it might blend in with the snow better. Well, let’s just say if I was going to do it again, there are many things I would have done differently.
Note that if you do anything like this, when power is applied to the unit, the SSRs are very live. I would highly recommend only applying power to the panel while the door is closed. If you have to do any work inside such a unit, please remove the power first. Also note that I am not a licensed electrician and as such make no guarantees as to the correctness of the wiring and/or hookup. I only show what I have done for entertainment purposes and would advise anyone wanting to do anything similar to hire an licensed electrician.
I had in my head that I wanted the whole thing white. Well, that too way more paint then I had anticipated. It still isn’t completely covered, as there are splotches that are still visible as the original colors, but I refuse to spend any more money on this aspect of the project. It’s just going to have to do for this year. If I were to do it again, I would have bought one can of white to touch up the inside and one can of blue to touch up the outside and left it alone after that.
I also thought it would be a bright idea to paint it in my garage because it was supposed to rain most of last week. I laid some cardboard down and figured that would take care of it. Well, let me tell you, spray paint sure can travel once its on the ground. Everything that was on or near the floor of my garage now has a nice white haze to it.
I took the time to put some caulking around the inside of the toilet flange / weather head to add a bit more sealing power there. I wasn’t too confident that it would remain sealed as it seemed that the sealant we used to glue the foam we put between the case and the toilet flange actually ate away at the foam, so I just wanted to be safe.
I fully tested the thing tonight, first by showering it with the hose. I only found a slight bit of water inside and I think it came from the door not being tightened enough, but the good news was that the weather head didn’t seem to leak at all. I’m fairly confident it will do well all winter long. I then did a test with power applied and everything seems to be working well.
The only other thing I would have done differently is to have the power supply cord come out the top of the breaker panel and move the panel down, this way the whole assembly could be put into the box so that it is correctly oriented both when the unit is down on its back and when it’s up on its wheels. As it is now, when it is up on its wheels, the panel board and outlets are upside down, not a big deal, but it annoys me.
I really haven’t gotten too much else accomplished. I’m currently working on pixels 7-10, with plenty more to go. I’m definitely going to have to start sequencing really soon! It’s quickly becoming apparent I’m going to have to cut some stuff from the show, as I am not getting accomplished this summer what I had hoped to.
