Shabin Electrical Part 1

As mentioned in the last post, I was able to spend an entire weekend working on the shabin. I got enough done to warrant two posts. After finishing the loft railings, I got to work wiring the shabin for electric. My original plan was to wire the cabin for 12 volt DC power. The shabin will be off-grid, so the idea was to store power in large batteries, much like an RV.  As I got closer to actually doing the electrics, I switched to 110 volt AC. Technically, 12V power is more efficient for battery power, since the electricity is not converted. However, there are significant drawbacks. Because of the lower voltage, the current, measured in amperes, is higher. The higher current also larger energy loss over distance, which is dissipated as heat, not a good thing.  To alleviate that requires thicker and more expensive wiring.  Additionally, 12v fixtures, form switches to light bulbs, are specialized and more expensive. Finally, there is very little literature available on the best ways to wire 12v.

On the other hand, AC power is ubiquitous and all the necessary parts are cheap and plentiful commodities, and the knowledge on proper techniques is common and freely available.  AC is much more appropriate for moving power over longer distances than DC, which requires thicker and thicker wire as the distance increases. Therefore, AC allows me to move the batteries outside of the cabin.  The approach I took was to treat the shabin as one big AC appliance that I plug in. So, I ended up going with common household AC wiring



And here is the plug. This was the only unusual component I used, a 15-amp 110v AC inlet (inlet being the opposite of outlet, of course.) This was the one item I needed to order online. With this approach, I am free to use any power source, generator/solar/wind/grid, as long as it is converted to AC and has a power cord.



The rest of the electrics are standard, starting with the breaker box, which is where the power flows to first  from the inlet. I have done home wiring in the past, but this is the first time I had wired a breaker box. It was a bit daunting, but I read up on it and it turned out to be easy.  Typically, the most dangerous thing about the breaker box is the always-on high power line coming in from the grid. In my case, I was assuredly safe as long as I did not plug in the inlet while I worked.



Victory!  This was the first outlet I wired.  It is just below the breaker box. I plugged my gas generator into the inlet, and the circuit tester plugged in to the outlet lit up just as it should. That was a good feeling.



That good feeling was tempered when I nicked my finger with a knife shortly after this success. This would not be notable, expect that I forgot to pack the first aid kit. Lacking real band aids, I had to kludge together a paper towel and duct tape.



I continued to wire the rest of the cabin on Sunday. Since I want to insulate the walls, I ran the wires on the inside edge of the framing members.  This is done by snapping a two chalk lines one inch apart along all the studs of a wall.



I used my circular saw to cut 1/2 inch deep grooves at each chalk mark, and then used a chisel to create a notch in each stud. The wire is run and secured in the notches.



The wires are protected from penetration from future nails or screws which metal plates.



By the time I left on Sunday, I had wired in all the outlets, the bathroom light, and the loft lights as shown above. I had to stop when I ran out of wiring, so on the next trip I can finish the minor remaining tasks of wiring the kitchen overhead light and the living area ceiling fan.