Winter Storage

Lol. Al that sounds like a plan buddy! Maybe in the Spring I can get them to come back over and help me re-assemble by luring them in with cold beer and White Castle burgers(man, have I missed White Castle)....

I bought a 40ft shipping container to store 2 of my cars for the winter. Take batteries out, add some moisture absorbing crystals I got at Home depot and shut the doors. They are a little tight getting in there width wise but they are out of the elements and they are mouse-proof.

Pray tell, what does a 40' shipping container cost, and where does one buy them?

Minneapolis has a yard full of them Storage Pros is the name I think. Mine cost me $4000 for a 40ft high cube. New ones are $6000

Thank you for the pricing info. Interesting!

Winter weather is really here now and I just came in from working on that garage temperature control. I have had a gas furnace in there since 1988. I just turned it on when I went out to work. With the digital age upon us check this out>

I ran a CAT 5 wire the 150 feet to the garage inside one of those thin plastic water lines. I decided on hard wire instead of wireless. That wire connects to my router in the house and a web based thermostat processor for the garage. Here's a shot during installation:

I needed to locate the thermostat off an outside wall so conduction wouldn't keep it too cool. I mounted it a little over 5' off the floor on the edge of a shelf:

Now I have local control or I can open a browser on my phone in the diner and let the furnace make it nice and toasty while I drive home.

I plan to set it for 53 degrees and see how it works out. The processor is capable of calculating my cost based on the BTUH input so I can watch an ad hoc budget and adjust or curtail accordingly.

Another feature is inputs from other devices. I'm going to alarm the doors and windows as well as install fire and smoke detectors. The inputs will text or email me an alarm in about 15 seconds.

All that and I still have biased tires on my old cars. Go figure.

Oh, and how is this for blending into the hovel in that corner of the garage:

Bernie

Technology! Gotta love it.

Ben

Time for a couple of perennial favorites:

Monitoring the garage and running 17%, that's about10 minutes per hour in the low 20's. 49 degrees inside, snow covered roof, and a hint of icicles.

I think its going to be good.

Bernie

We are pretty much out of the winter now and the raw figures are in. Our winter was about 10% colder by degree days than average. My natural gas bill next month will have the final total. It looks like heating the garage will total about $350 for the season; about $85 per car.

I monitored the run times of the furnace online and settled on an average of 40 to 42 degrees when unoccupied and ran it up to 60 when I worked out there, maybe ten times for any duration.

The roof of the garage is visible from my bedroom. Each morning I would check and adjust the temperature so I could usually see snow on the roof.

For my money, none of the contents of the garage dropped below freezing. Paint, chemicals, polishes, and the like were protected.

The cars have not been at a temperature below dewpoint so condensation has not occurred on any surfaces, painted or bare. The mass of the concrete floor stabilized the temperature and helped minimize the warming time when I did go out and work.

It was worthwhile and I will do it again next year. I have had the '60 and the Chevy out in the last couple of weeks; no real hibernation and stuff is ready to go. Some days I just massaged on a little detail spray on the dusty spots.

Bernie