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Hydro Update on My Little House - How I Saved

Tue 23 Sep 2008 - 10:33

Hydro Update on My Little House - How I Saved
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Crystal_Jackson]Crystal Jackson

Now, if you read my first article, you would understand why we needed to update our hydro. I tell you, it is very bothersome to have a fuse blow in the morning before you go to work. You just get the hair dryer going and blah. Out goes the hydro in the bathroom and two outlets in the kitchen.

You see, we had a 60 amp service in this old house I bought and the old fuses just couldn't keep up to the demand that we had on the service. Once we knew we had to do some updates to this little home, we updated the water and now we have just finished upgrading the hydro system.

Learning to do some preliminary work for the electrician would save us some money so we invited a qualified, electrician out to our home and asked a lot of questions. This man was more than happy to offer us all the ways that we could save on our upgrade. You see, we would have to go underground to the road and that is over 140 meters (450 feet). Renting a trencher and backfilling it ourselves would save us over $200 off the top. Purchasing the 'big O' to have the hydro line run through and feeding a rope through it first to help pull the hydro line through would save us the time the electrician would charge us for. Cutting and mounting the new panel on the basement wall would also save us time. Adding the four new lines from outlets in our kitchen, bathroom and one in the front room to the basement panel area, feeding the line, mounting the boxes in the wall would save the electrician time when connecting them. Being home the day of all the work may seem to some that it cost us a days work, but in reality, it kept people working, and saved us labour costs.

This is how our week went. On the Friday, we booked a trencher to dig the trench to the road. Bought 450 feet of big 'O' and a roll of rope that was 500 feet long. Purchased a 3/4 sheet of plywood that was 4' x 4'. (lumber store just happen to have a half sheet) When we arrived home, we unrolled the 'big O' and placed the spooled rope at one end. We tied a pretty big rock to the rope and began feeding the rock (and rope) through the big 'O'. To feed it through, we just lifted the big 'O' up and made like a hill and valley for the rock to continuously roll down. It took awhile to finish the last fifty feet or so because the rock didn't roll well with the added pull from all the rope. The heavier the rock, the better. Maybe a steel ball or rounded heavy iron pipe would have worked better. Never the less, we got it through. We tied off the rope on each end so it didn't accidentally get pulled back into the big 'O'. We rolled the big 'O' back up a bit so know one would get smart (or stupid) and steal it. Next, we premeasured the area we wanted the new hydro box to be placed and mounted the new back board being very careful not to harm any of the existing wires. We mounted the new box on the plywood we bought and with the left over wood, we built a nice shelf and enclosure around it. We fed the wires to the new feeds that we wanted in the house. Drilling though the walls, floors and mounting new boxes.

Saturday, we decided to pick up the trencher bright and early to get the job done. I am very glad we did. We hit rock after rock for the first 4 hours. Over and over, we had to lift the boom to allow the trencher to go over the rocks. I thought, well, I can begin diging out the rocks. James would stop the trencher after a few rocks so we could get them dug out. By 2p.m. we were exhausted and starving. We left for town for some lunch. I called a few friends to see if anyone would be willing to give us a hand. Two couples showed up around 4p.m. to help and brought us some bar-b-que treats for later. By 6p.m. we were about 2/3rds of the distance. We broke for a nice bar-b-que and were so tired, we didn't bother with any more trenching. It would have to be done on Sunday. (personally, I don't like working on Sunday but sometimes...)

Sunday, we didn't get very early. For the two of us, we were pretty tired. Surprised by what we saw, there were the two couples out in the front yard digging up the last few rocks. Excited by this, with no breakfast we through on our clothes and went to help. (friends, what beautiful word) James gives the trencher a start and believe it or not, hit only one more rock. We finished digging the trench by hand out by the pole at the road and up by the house, drilled a big hole into the basement for the new line and to most of the afternoon off.

Monday, the electrician showed up bright and early at 7a.m. to hook up our extra feed boxes and prepare the new hydro panel. I knew he was coming that early but it sure felt more like 5a.m. to me. Don't get me wrong, this was no little job. And we knew it. If you are considering on saving by helping do this, the only thing I have to say is that I hope you don't hit any rocks. Hydro One cut the power at 9a.m. sharp. Hooked the hydro line up to one end of the rope we placed in the big'O' and helped us pull it through. That all went very well. They made us dig out a few spots in the trench were the sides had caved in and asked the electrician when he wanted them back. "Give me three hours," he said - He was done in just over two hours. We waited for an extra half hour for them to return but that was OK. We had time to back fill most of the trench. The electrician went out and got his lunch and returned only moments before the Hydro One guys did to turn the power back on.

Now we are so happy with the new updated 100 amp service. When you help to 'do it yourself' there is a great feeling you receive. I have been researching on how I can save energy and conserve energy in my little home online. I've bought new energy saver lights for replacement bulbs. All of the exterior bulbs have been replaced and we even gave some of the replaced bulbs to other people that said they would use them.

Keep in touch, I think that I will try to do some more research on how to save more energy in the home for another article.

Thanks for reading

Crystal

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Crystal_Jackson http://EzineArticles.com/?Hydro-Update-on-My-Little-House---How-I-Saved&id=1498669


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