Today I spent an absolute age removing one of my mushroom domes and clearing away the plastic mesh and mosquito mesh underneath it. It wasn’t eventually time well spent. Here’s why...
When I put my trusty anemometer on the inside of the ventilation system with the mushroom dome and mosquito mesh in place I had a reading of 1450 feet a minute. Without the filter or a dome this rose to 2500 feet a minute. Putting the dome back and using no filter I had 1850 feet a minute. Without a filter but with the louvered vent I had 2500 feet a minute. With the steel louvered vent I had from West Marine, I was down to 1450 feet a minute.
I really liked the West Marine vent. Mind, I liked the louvered vent too. Now the louvered vent came from Lowes (hiss, spit) and was listed as paintable. Thus, I prepared it by painting it grey like the rest of the bus. That, as it turned out was a total waste of time as though it’s “paintable”, it must be paintable in the same way soap is paintable. It can be painted - but the paint won’t hang on there for very long. I think Lowes (hiss, spit) is running some kind of scam there.
On of the other problems was that the louvers didn’t close properly every time. That means it’s an entry point for outside critters. No thanks! I have enough to deal with the critters that come in anyway without extras. I had to exterminate a spider the other day. I don’t know whether it was a friendly spider or an noxious spider but it was exterminated as the chance of it being venomous was too great.
In the end I put a piece of mosquito mesh over the hole, screwed down the vent cover and trimmed the mosquito mesh before repainting and recaulking with silicone caulk. Unless something else comes along that looks like it’s going to do a way better job, the ventilation is staying as it is.
Yesterday I started to mount the new fuse box but ran into wiring on the other side of the wall so I stopped, not wishing to damage insulation and cause a short circuit. I also realised I should have a light in the back closet. It’s not essential but would be nice. Today I installed my new fuse box after making sure the attaching bolts would not run afoul of any wiring.
The box is top left. It’s not connected to anything right now but soon will be. As darkness was falling I rigged up a temporary work light. That worked so well I did consider making it permanent. I’d have to buy another G4 bulb mount though. The pack I had, had 5. I’ve used one each in the bedroom, bathroom and galley. I’m planning a second in the bedroom and the galley. That makes 5. The closet thus might not ever get a light.
As can be seen I had a huge bundle of cables to put into a sleeve. I did that but though I had light in the back, I needed daylight to find some of the tools and parts I needed. I wanted to clamp the cables to the ceiling using the existing torx screws that hold the ceiling panels in place. My torx screwdriver bit is somewhere at the front of the bus as is my ratcheting screwdriver. The plan is to connect the cabling to the fuse box then as before, add each circuit as I complete it.
I set to and drilled holes in the last of my eBay project boxes. This is the one that was advertised as steel but which is actually quite solid aluminum. I’ll mount it vertically but I do need to visit the store. I have two switches - which is fine. One will be a light switch and the other will switch a USB charger on/off. That’s the USB charger that’s currently winging its way from California, the last one from China being just plain wrong. I need a pushbutton switch so that might be a trip to an auto-parts store. I quite like my rectangular red push button switches but as I got those from the now defunct Radio Shack, I don’t think they’re going to be available aside from at high prices on eBay.
At some point I might revisit the extraction vents but that’s not a current plan. That’s a plan for some future point. Right now I’m getting the bus conversion completed so I can work on other things. I’m using my in-between jobs status as good time to do this.
Things remaining to be done:
1. Complete the current electrical section
2. Install the key code unlocker
3. Tidy the keyed unlocker wiring.
4. Connect the solar wiring from the external solar input.
5. Put a cam lock on the fuel door
6. Put a locking latch on the battery door.
Yesterday I visited Grainger to see if they had the latches I was after. They certainly had latches but as it was a warehouse everything had to be looked up on their computer. The only latch found was a horrendous price and the cam latch couldn’t be found either. Overnight I thought about it and decided that I’d probably be better asking the International dealer on the other side of Columbia.
My next idea for the ventilation system involves off-the shelf components like a drier outlet that has a steel tailpipe. That will involve probably redoing my interior carpentry on the inside of the vents but what the heck. I just need something that allows me to pump the full 2500 FPS of air out. It gets pretty hot in summer!
No comments:
Post a Comment