utilities and services

Earlier this week, our photovoltaic (solar-electric) installer connected the wires for the p/v panels through the holes we'd carefully drilled through the steel trim at the top of the upper roof. These wires will be concealed beneath, and protected by, the final piece of trim that gets installed as a cap over the top edges of the roof's standing seams. Once the cap trim is in place, the roof will be finished.

The photovoltaic panels are wired into four groups (strings) of panels, which will be routed into a DC-to-AC current inverter in the garage. Normally these wires run through a big plastic tube, so running them through the steel trim will be a much more visually elegant option. The last set of wires will slip through the cavity of the corrugated b-decking, into the east mechanical loft, and down into the garage. Considering it was improvised on site, the solution is pretty sweet.

Just under the lower eave of the upper roof are several galvanized vent caps and PVC vent pipes. The vent caps are the discharge for the bathroom fans and the clothes dryer, while the PVC pipes vent the plumbing drains. Since we've never lived through a hurricane and are intensely anxious about the effects of wind-driven rain, we designed the house to shelter all these roof penetrations under the eaves, to provide another level of protection from rainwater infiltration. The vent caps and pipes are flashed and held in place with TEK screws (more than necessary) and made watertight with copious amounts of sealant.