Last week I built a battery box using a single sheet of MDF I had on hand. It's insulated with 1" and 1.5" foam insulation and painted with some orange paint I had leftover from another project. It should easily hold four golf cart type batteries which I plan to use in the solar system. The purpose of a battery box is to a) keep things from coming into contact with the battery terminals like dropped tools and b) safely vent the flammable hydrogen gas created during certain charging cycles. The box is insulated because the capacity of FLA batteries is negatively effected by colder temperatures. The lid of the box is sealed with some weatherstripping and copper pipe was use to vent the box to the outside.

I finished sheathing the inside of the utility room and installed the service panel cover and "attic" access hatch.

I started installing the heater which will be supplied by two 40lb propane tanks connected simultaneously. Propane tanks are also negatively effected by cold temperatures so using both tanks should provide adequate pressure to the heater in cold conditions. I'm using the two 40lb tanks versus a single 100lb tank for ease of transport and handling. I needed a fitting I didn't have to connect the tank regulator to the 1/2" steel pipe so I'll have to finish that next weekend. I threw together a 2x4 "cage" I'll use to more easily transport the tanks in the truck bed.

Finally, I've been having a problem with birds damaging the cabin's exterior wood so I added a fake owl and some kind of anti-bird streamer type stuff. Hopefully it will work.