Stay tuned for the propane water heater

       I hope that today you guys won't mind the pictures are absolutely all over the place. I took some with my phone and I can only email them to myself 5 at one time so they got all messed up and all jumbled up. Sorry about that, but I  hope that everybody will take a close look  for some ideas on what's going in. Maybe when I finally get done with this project, I will go a little bit more into detail with all of the tools I used used and how some of the parts for put together. 

Here is the 3/4" PEX piping  with some of the fittings I'm using

Below are more PEX connectors and also the blue drain 

is for the reverse osmosis filter system 

Here is some of the finished PEX piping with the clamps

Here is a close-up shot of the front water heater with the flexible waterlines 

The big view of the water heater again

These are the 1/2" water lines going in and out of the heater 

You can see I've installed a in line water filter to the cold water on the right side

Here is the plastic waterline 3/8 inch size 

This is the part to make my do-it-yourself hose 

Here is my finished 25 foot new hose,

can easily be expanded to 50 or 100 ft

I insulated the underfloor PEX water lines 

The gray valve is the main PIA of this project ,

I really had to jam the metal cap on there it did not fit properly, 

Selling a plastic tab that would fit, well that is totally impossible 

The under floor drain pipe

Oops here is the trailer is taking a leak :-(

It is the excess water from the RO process 

While making reverse osmosis filtered water 

About 3 gallons go down the drain for every gallon of filtered water that is made 

This valve that goes on top of the expansion tank is also impossible to find 

The water filter system just temporarily attached to verify that it's working 

The RO storage tank, just temp hook up, about 1.5 gal maybe

have decided to install 2 tanks inside the cabinet

This is a little different part only 1/4" to make my do-it-yourself hose 

I found this alarm only $25 - great deal at Home Depot

This looks like something new , a great timer

I am think about this faucet as I do not like the cheap plastic faucet

that came with the RO system

I am also thinking to use this CSST for the gas / propane installation

Another easy connector I liked

Water is finally coming

         It's been quite a while since the start of my project, but finally I have begun to make all of the water connections. So far I have set up the system so that the cold water now runs from my house hose. The 2 x 40 gallon interior water tanks are also ready to be connected and to be filled with water. The 12V - 3 GPM  water pump has now been installed and connected to the electric system. My final water connection coming soon will be the hot connection to the endless water heater. I have been switching between snap together PEX connectors and brass fittings which are clamped on with a special tool. If you like the compression ring - I would strongly recommend you get the one handed tool. After that is completed, I will try to connect the propane for the water heater. That should be lots of fun since I purchased the parts about a year ago and I hope I can find everything that I need to make the gas connection. 

Here is the underside of the faucet, it was a MAJOR - PIA 

to connect as in total there were 11 connections, would you believe it ? 

All connections were made reaching sideways 18" into a 4" 

space behind the shower fixture wall that allows

all the pipes etc.

Here is the faucet, I got this because of the almost 6ft long metal sprayer

the faucet is rated at 1.7 GPM - supper low flow

Here are some snap or push together connectors for PEX & copper

The connectors for the water pump

The underside with brass connectors & the end cap 

allowing me to test the system

The 2nd under the trailer shut off valve / hose bib

Close up of the brass connectors & metal band clamps

The connection to the front water tank

Here is the planned reverse osmoses water filter & and 2nd tank

Top of the tank and inspection cover

4 Cabinet door locks

Cabinet locks magnet used to open doors

in the right spot they stick to the wood

Interior view of the cabinet locks

2 locks yet to be installed

The 10 year smoke alarm 

it has a battery 4 x regular size

On my next trip I will also get this alarm for explosive gas

Problems with LED lights

        Okay here is the lesson, never believe what you read on the manufacturers label. The package on the left is the $35 LED dimmable bulb. The green package on the right is the $30 non-dimmable bulb. Today I also decided to test the power usage. As soon as I got the package unwrapped I already ran into problems. So here we go with all my problems !

The $35 dimmable bulb - never got tested

Problem can you see the difference already ?

The dimmable bulb on the right is fatter and does

not fit inside the fixture , Grrrrrr !

Not very professional for a $35 bulb

The dimmable bulb on the right is fatter and does

not fit inside the fixture , Grrrrrr !

The power output of the fixture on high was about 18 watts,

that includes my TV at about 5 watts.

As I turned the power down on the dimmer -

the watts did not decrease,

so maybe that is what they mean with non dimmable ?

These little rechargeable  LED lights were also using a few watts

maybe 2-3 watts each

Not to bad for 2 lights and the TV in the off position 9 watts

vampire load on my system

Here is the reading from the 2 standard 50 watt bulbs - 20 for TV and 2 above lights 

is equal to 60 watts, but the reading should be 120 watts.

So again you can see 2 x 50 watt halogen are only using 60 watts,

what is up with that ?

Maybe this reading is really .81 amps x 120 volts ?

that would put it at about 97 watts -

much closer to the 100 watts 2 bulbs should use ?

The thing that I did notice however was that my dimmer switch

 did reduce the power of the 50 watt halogen on what almost looked like a 1 to 1 ratio,

as the light also goes down, but at least some good news

12v outlet & water screen progress

      Well I can report back the $40 drill shown below works supper great and cut the hole smooth as silk. I had a little bit of a "bitch of a time" trying to find my heat gun to install the PEX ? But with 2 try's and a pot of boiling water I was able to jamb the fitting into the pipe, thank god !

12V outlet is installed on the rear

above the license plate light, it will be switched from

the interior so "NO freeloaders are welcome"

With boiling hot water and 2 try's I was able to jam 

the fitting into the 3/4" PEX pipe,

will also use metal band clamp to secure PEX

It was still about 80 outside so I knocked off early

Low power interior LED lights and a new drill bit

          Here is the new bulb that I purchased at Lowe's. These lights look the same as 50 watt other bulbs, but are said to be rated as the 35 watt. The package says these are not dimmable, however I was able to get them to dim. I would guess from 30% to 100% , they did not dim below that level. I will report back in a few days how they look at night, which is the real test for me. 


          Fast forward: Well I checked them at night and they were great, but the 1 LED did not allow the other 3 regular bulbs on the same dimmer circuit to dim below 20% maybe. The good thing about the LED light was that it was instant on vs. the other bulbs were slightly delayed .5 to 1 sec maybe ? In conclusion I can tell you that 4 lights at 3.5 watts each ( 15 watts total ) will have you wearing sun glasses at night in bed, everything was way supper bright. The trailer could well get by on just 2 lights if needed. So that is a great drop vs 200 watts before - however the regular lights also work as a heater  when its cold 200 watts is also 600+ Btu heat value.

 The top picture is in the dimmed position

Bottom lights on full brightness

appears to be the other way around

Here is the package

The bulb close up, i'm not sure its a good investment as when

the other bulbs are dimmed, they are said to also use less power,

but then one also gets less light. Cost of each bulb is $30 vs $5....

But for trailer this may be a good deal with the need for a smaller solar system. 

Also when its hot, it will make less heat.

150 Btu vs 15 Btu heat output 

Here is new drill, mostly for drilling into metal cabinets.

A little new plumbing - almost stealth hose bib & exterior 12V plug

      Here we go with the exterior hose bib. This was not an easy project the rear has a double metal skin and is not easy to drill through. Three-quarter inch copper female allowed me to connect the brass male hose bib together. Then in the corner you can see the 3/4 Shark Bite. Event with some shims it was difficult to get the pipe as tight as I would liked to have had it. I had to use some extra pipe straps to tighten it up to where I was sorta happy. 

Here is the exterior view without the handle

I like it because its really small

im thinking to paint handle white to make it more invisible

View with the handle water on

View with the handle water off

I found an in line filter that I liked

Here is filter with top closed

Also found 2nd smaller filter & smaller screen

Finally I found a cool exterior 12V water tight outlet only $10

But I'm worn out from drilling the first hole through 

2 layers of metal and broke 1 drill bit in the process

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a little more time ?