Off the Grid Hobbit Hole

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DrZzs
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:26 am

Off the Grid Hobbit Hole

Post by DrZzs »

Howdy!
We're building a 2400 sqft Hobbit Hole. It's an L-shaped dome with a basement. The dome is reinforced fiberglass that gets buried with dirt and grass. I was just introduced to LumenCache a few days ago and it seems like a great fit for our house. We're going to be totally off the grid; solar/battery, well water, septic, and even a geothermal system for heating and cooling.
I'm excited to learn and share.
Thanks!
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dc
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:23 am
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Re: Off the Grid Hobbit Hole

Post by dc »

Great to meet you today and so excited to learn about your DIY channel and Hobbit Home project! Scott Dixon, 5x IndyCar Racing Champ has LumenCache in his Indianapolis home and is from New Zealand. Would be great to have him do a video voiceover tour of the home with that perfect Kiwi accent :D

We have more in common than we touched on in the call. I just saw you converted your beetle https://youtu.be/d9IBVYfrUxE to EV. I have a 1955 Porsche 356C Speedster KitCar (1972 beetle underneath) I've been keeping to convert to EV...someday. Kind of busy at the moment plus it's on the other side of the planet.

Looking forward to helping with this unique home and watching you Hack The Home with LumenCache.

DrZzs
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:26 am

Re: Off the Grid Hobbit Hole

Post by DrZzs »

Finally time for an update. We got the house finished! Because we were being filmed for the TV show we did somethings out of order. Lighting has been one of the last things to get done. It has taken some trial and error, but I finally feel like I totally understand how Lumen Cache works. I've been using all non-lumencache light fixtures. It would certainly have been easier to use fixtures that were already tested and ready for the system but I've certainly proven that you can use ANY fixture you like. For about half the circuits I used RJ45 ends on the cables and SIB connectors. For the rest I've just been connecting the Blue/Brown wires to the fixtures with wire nuts. Not elegant, but totally functional. I've also figured out that I can use any normal Decora-type light switch by changing the setting on the DIM module and connecting the Green wires to the switch.
I'm sure the way I've done it isn't the way a contractor would do it for a customer. For DIY-hacks like me it's been a lot of fun to figure it out and finally feel like I'm in control and can make the system do pretty much everything I want.
For anyone who wants to watch the build of our "Hobbit House" the easiest way to see it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09GS22F9V We are in Season 12 Episode 3. The lighting system wasn't finished yet so it didn't make it into the final video. I'll work on putting together something about the system. Maybe a walk-through during a live stream one of these days.
Thanks Derek for all the support along the way!
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dc
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:23 am
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Re: Off the Grid Hobbit Hole

Post by dc »

What an awesome family home retreat and I'm glad you had fun reverse-engineering LumenCache 😄. For production homebuilders LC is click-click easy, but for the hackers of the world, the ability to Safely Hack The Home is a fun and exciting benefit. I hope you continue to evolve and play with the system and even produce applications and products over the open platform to show how much easier it is to make smart applications and products with this infrastructure as the solid foundation. I'm even making DEVcards in the Gen2 so you can safely make and test more advanced modules and still maintain safety compliance. Maybe we should make a "Dr.Zzs Signature Edition" 😄.

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