Weekend, What Weekend?!?

Well apparently the weekend has passed? Who would have known? For the past 3 days (nights too) I've been working on the Solar Hen House (SHH) don't tell anyone about it, it's top secret. Progress has been slow, but things are starting to come together.

I started with the construction of the trailer floor, walls and ceiling. Though some of you may be thinking "what's so hard about putting together a couple of small-scale walls?"  well, these are a little different than your average stud wall. These are actually homemade, Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) and they require a few extra steps (materials and money).

I also spent a few hours at Lowes picking up more supplies (electrical, caulk, paint, knobs, hinges, etc...) and put in an online order for a 12V-deep-cycle-35Amp-hour-Sealed-Lead-Acid-Battery and some MR16 Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) light sockets to round out the Photo Voltaic (PV) system. I hope to have it all up and running by next week.

Here are some photos of my progress, sorry about the blurry images, they where captured on my computer's camera:

Let's get this party started

Painting the solar air heater's absorption plate, high-temp.black

A pile of materials will hopefully turn into a prototype

45 deg. angle cut

3 sheets of 3/4" Blueboard + wood sheathing = R13

slowly starting to take shape

The basic form is complete, so now it's time to add: end-walls, doors, nest box, vents, windows, solar panels, metal roofing, paint, electrical system, bells and whistles and then install it onto the trailer. More next week!