Sunday Summary #127

Installing Solar through a Hurricane

Hi there,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 127th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in northeast Florida.

Last Week.

Our first Hurricane of the season passed just north of us (later downgraded to a Tropical Storm). It was a reminder that we are in Hurricane season and to be cognizant of the weather forecast! Fortunately, we were right in the middle of installing our walkable solar panels on our roof…

Fortunately, a few days prior, we moved the van to a covered location, and since the storm just missed us, we had only heavy rains and winds for a day. It was peaceful toiling away with our wires and getting everything connected.

Installing our solar panels took about 11 days from start to finish, much longer than we anticipated! Essentially there were a couple of pivots that we had to navigate:

1. It gets almost 110 degrees F (43 C) in the afternoon, and working on a black metal roof, where it was literally burning our hands, was out of the question! Before we moved to Kenny’s (thanks, Kenny!), we were stuck with working only a few hours after dawn and the hour before sunset!

2. The wiring and connections are more complex since we have an odd number of solar panels (5). On Pivot I, we had four solar panels so we could easily connect them with small wires.

3. Our walkable solar takes up almost the entirety of the roof rack, so we had to place the five panels EXACTLY in their locations and proceed to mark, drill, deburr, and paint, add a rivnut, and screw it all together. One. By. One.

4. This was our first time using a rivnut tool, and we had many, many mistakes, causing hours of “fixing”. If I messed up the rivnut and got a screw stuck, it would take roughly 3 hours of hard labor to fix it! This happened a few times 🙈

We came together with a good system and methodically worked through the installation.

When we are toasting a drink or enjoying our morning cup of joe on our roof deck, we will look back on these days and say it was all worth it!

This Week.

We finally make our way to the interior! Our goal is to start with the floor and let me tell you, we are stoked to finally have a project that doesn’t require drilling holes into our van 😅

We would like to accomplish more than just the floor but we know better than to take too much onto our plate (🙄).

Let’s hope that we have our first van project that goes according to plan!! 🤞

Videos.

We released our latest video, installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling our rear windows! We hope you enjoyed this very real look at our van build and enjoy it coming together piece by piece.

Instagram.

We’ve kicked off our van build reels, make sure you follow us there to see a different side of our van build!

From the Eyes of Ollie.

My parents are outside a lot which means I get to sit outside with them! I love sitting in the grass while they do stuff. I love to watch them because… well… they need supervision. Each time they make a mistake, it’s because they didn’t approve it with me. They’d be better off if they listened to me a little more. 😉

Gratitudes

This week Kenny was the real MVP for giving us a shaded place to work on the van. With the interior sections coming up next, we’re excited to see how the van takes shape.

See you next Sunday!

Peace and love,

Jen + Elliot