More Solar Panels and Electrician Rough-In

 2022 May

     Finally we were ready to attach the second row of solar panels to the roof. Josh had constructed special racks to the right size and placement and with little screw-on holder things. 

     We only had to get the panels onto the roof.

     Each panel measured 1070 by 840 mm and weighed about 10kg. 'Only' 10kg says Josh. Well I think that 10 kg is pretty heavy! Anyway between Josh on the roof and me at the bottom of the ladder we got them up there, and I only blew out my knee once (still ruined 2 years later as I write this). A reminder to everyone to try and do things the easy way and don't push your body too far no matter what other people say.

     Josh installed all those proper electricity things like breaker switches and whatnot, not my area of expertise! With double the solar panels we now had extra electricity production.

     Then in June we had the electrician come and do the wiring rough-in for the house. This meant running all the wires inside the walls ready for lights, light switches, fans, smoke alarm and power points. First we had to decide how many power points we wanted, and where they were going to go exactly. I didn't want them low down on the wall so that I would have to bend over every time I wanted to plug something in, so we decided to have them about 900mm high. Of course we wanted lots of power points but keeping in mind the cost we didn't want to spend a stupid amount of money, because the electrician was charging us a certain amount for each one.

     We also decided to get BLACK light switches and power points. The electrician wasn't actually sure if they were available but he looked it up and yep, only slightly more expensive but so classy. It would go with all the other black design elements that we wanted to incorporate. White, or even worse beige, now seems so ugly to think about! The electrician brought his teenage son who is his apprentice, and they listened to what we wanted and we made a plan for the circuits. At the end of it all there was a spaghetti of wire going in and out of random holes all over the house.

     It was all a lot more complicated than it seems at first thought.

     With all the wire in place that now means the insulation could be put in the walls, and the plywood internal cladding screwed up. The electrician said Josh could cut the holes in the plywood for the plugs and switches, and then he could just screw the powerpoints straight onto the plywood. He was a bit confused because most houses have gyprock walls which require a metal frame to be screwed to the wall first before the powerpoint can be attached. We are certainly doing things a bit differently!