Video

Cool hope you can post a video of your mod when you get them done :-) on my CZcams page I have one showing the lights working at night I'm really impressed how well they work for the price. One of the best upgrades I did since I do some of the road maintenance at night to avoid the summer heat and sun.

@@keppypaul Definitely come in handy!

We pulled the trigger when Costco had it for $200 off at the store making it $599 plus tax now their at $899 most places and Costco doesn't stock it anymore in the 8500 watt version.

@@keppypaul That was a great deal!

No I used crushed decomposed granite against the Trimco membrane waterproofing using bentonite backed waterproofing rolls. I got the crushed granite material for free but had to pay for delivery. I wanted no insulation between the shell and the thermal mass fill materials. I did dispose of the larger sheets in what we called the atrium between the two domes and the passage way between the structures. We also bagged the smaller foam pieces in 50 gallon trash bags around the base of the structure because we didn't want the materials to go into a landfill. So no we didn't in reality use the foam as detailed in the construction manual. While I didn't use it the way FormWorks building details to use it. We did show them in photos what we intended to use on the the shell in lieu of the foam protection and they approved of our change.

We did not trim the Trimco bentonite matting to fit the curved shell we used the overlap as further protection from moisture intrusion. The savings in materials waste and labor made sense to us. We also overlapped the base layer (first layer) with 2+ foot of Trimco. We had a 2' thick layer of sloped gravel about 3' high to cover the perimeter drain. We placed the perforated drain about a foot below the seam between the shell and foundation. That initial layer of bentonite application was overlapped by 2' of bentonite matting from above. It has yet to show any signs of moisture intrusion. But has shown daylight weeping of water out of the drains. We used bolts and wing nuts along with 4"x6" cut portions of custom cut masonite washers with 1/4" fender washers and wing nuts along with plumbers tape to secure the foam to the rebar using 1" foam spacers. The wing nuts allowed for easy bolt removal as well as no intrusion of concrete into the electrical boxes. We didn't need to grind any of the bolts off either. I will try to post Flickr links but we are really swamped at the moment. Rains are imminent but we aren't ready for it yet.

I will need to find the water proofing photos and upload them to Flickr

@@keppypaul Pics would be great! thank you and no worries on time, we totally understand the situation you are in and we won't be doing it for a while.🙂

The reason I did not need to do that burial process was because I don't get snow and we only have seasonal rains. It is the runoff that we have issues with. Finding a way to control the runoff and direct it to where it is less harmful to the the effects of surface erosion. We live effectively a desert that is experiencing a 20 year drought. Arizona had to tap into the Colorado river as a source of water just like California did. It was called the Colorado river project. We voted on a law that made it part of a developers requirement to prove that they had 100 years of water to support their development. The Developers got the public to vote and pay for the Central Arizona river project. Developers spent a ton of money to spread propaganda and scare the public into voting for it so they could bypass that 100 year water source law.

and your views are simply stunning!

Oh, I see you have the retaining walls....curious what you used?

@@CreatingASimplerLifeOffGrid 12" grouted block with lots of rebar.

@@CreatingASimplerLifeOffGrid We are on Flickr account too not too sure how to share that

@@keppypaul is it under this name?

@@keppypaul Was that a company or did you do it yourself?