We had a foot of snow yesterday. The solar air panels in the barn got up to 140F because the photovoltaic panels that provide electricity to run the fans were covered in snow. The temperature of the air panels is usually around 100-110F when the fans are running. When the fans aren't running, natural convection will cause air to flow through the panels at a much slower rate, hence the high temperature.

I need to add a picture of the barn with solar panels!

House wrap - good stuff. Make sure it overlaps by at least 4" so water won't wick up underneath.

This will be one of the most energy efficient houses in Indiana.

Looking forward to sitting on the screened in front porch.

More styrofoam today. And siding on the gable end of the east side of the house.

The front porch is started and the siding is on the west end of the house. Styrofoam is started on the south side of the house.

Soffits, facia, and house wrap are added. More to come.

You can't really see it too well but there is an "eyebrow" behind the scafolding. It will help deflect the rain from the garage doors.

Front view of the house. Most of the framing is complete inside of the house. The framers will start working on soffits next.

Solar hot water panel update - today it was -14F when I got up and it was sunny all day reaching a temperature around 14F around 4PM. The water temperature at the collectors was a maximum of 114F - the best we've ever had. The water going into the (radiant) floor was a maximum of 97.5F. By the end of the day today, the temperature of the slab was 61.5F. So we had the best performance of the solar water heaters on the coldest day of the year.

The hot air panels were running around 106-114F all day. Having snow on the ground really helps give the maximum heat.

The building temperature was around 65F at the end of the day today with the solar water heat, solar air heat, and corn stove all running.

Pretty much the whole house is covered with 7/16" OSB. The next step will be to add 1" of styrofoam insultation around the exterior to provide a thermal break between the wood (which is a thermal conductor) and the outside. All houses should have a thermal break for superior energy efficiency!

Jim has got 7 of the 15 steps made that will go from the basement to the upstairs. They are made of red oak from Shelly's parents' farm. They will be beautiful!

Almost all of the roof decking is in place as of 01/12/09. Hopefully we will have shingles some time in the next two weeks.

The roof decking goes on......we will have to shovel snow out of the house this weekend though.

All the trusses are now in place.

Installing the trusses on January 7th.

Now you can get from the basment to the upstairs.

Now you can see the garage on the left. With 12' celings, we can make it into a basketball court.

The house is starting to take shape.

This photograph was taken on 12/31/08. Jim spread straw from the barn to the house so you can get there without getting muddy feet.