The Anvil Crawlers are Gone! HOPE is now on the Grid!

Friday we were finally able to install the hydro meter at HOPE. I knew the day had to come eventually, but I'm still surprised to realize that I feel a little sad about it! It is a bittersweet moment!

While the focus on HOPE has mostly been about our EPIC three day build, I want to take a moment to highlight some of the other incredible accomplishments we achieved and what we've been able to prove so far!

We deployed three Anvil Crawler Solar Generators for the build, one for the food service area and two for the build. We never needed any added power for the food area and beside the crane for the roof, trucks for moving product, lot grading and the diesel generator we deployed to dry out the drywall mud the first night, the other two solar generators provided all the power needed for the rest of the build. So for the actual home construction we've estimated that approximately 60% of our energy came from the sun!

On Saturday morning we discovered that the full moon had actually generated about 30 watts overnight, that's enough to run about 5 LED light bulbs Amazing!

Jesse Niemen our lead electrician for the project was able to work out permission from the electrical inspector to permit us to hook one of the Anvil Crawlers up to the house to provide electricity. The system is designed for one Crawler to provide 30 amps of power. We did the rough math and figured we had enough to power up the lighting and mechanical. (The 100 amp panel had an additional 40 amps wired for electrical outlets, including for the stove and dishwasher. So about 60% of the homes electrical wiring is dedicated to the occupant).

We were able to start the HVAC system a day early, on Saturday afternoon, and we held our breath until we saw it actually running the system. A very special thanks to the boys from HYMARK for coming back early to fire up the system.

And it worked. We never needed the propane backup, the one Anvil Crawler was able to generate enough energy during the day to both run the home and recharge the batteries that were used to run the home at night.

All together, the Anvil Crawlers ran the air source heat pump for AC, the ERV, the furnace fan motor, the fridge and all the necessary lighting for the first 5 weeks after HOPE was built. Incredible. This was only possible because we got our energy loads so low in this home, with a very tight and well insulated envelope and very low energy use mechanicals.

If this is starting to sound like an ad for Anvil Crawler, I guess it is. I want to congratulate Mark Dupuis and the entire team at Anvil Crawler for creating such an amazing product. My wife Carolyne wants to turn one into an outdoor kitchen. Not a bad idea.