Birdwidow, I thought of that, but had already wired it - though I don't think it would be that much of a problem to cut into the line and rerun part of the wire. That may be what I end up doing - I want to first see how it works (once I energize it) and see if the manual by-pass with a second chain remains practical. I also thought of simply turning the thermostat way up before I utilize a by-pass so they would not turn on. I have the shutter motors hooked up to a dual stage thermostat and down line from there I could put in another weather box and switch. I put in several weather boxes in a line on one wall. . .the first is a GFI outlet, then the thermostat, then a line to the motorized shutters and on to the next box which houses the variable speed control for the fan. I think your solution is the most logical one. . .I would just have to remember to turn the switch to off before I engaged the by-pass. Or, when I talk to the mfgr on Monday, they may tell me it makes no difference if they happen to come on while I have by-passed them. By the way, for general info for those in the forum, I had opened both 16" shutters manually while I was working inside on other things - and I had already installed outside of one of them one of those attic vents - louvered and screened. The other one was just open the outdoors without any vent. . it was amazing how much of a breeze came in the one without the louvered vent compared to the opening with the louvers. So, I have decided to take off the louvered vent and protect the opening from the weather in another way. . . The air flow restriction would not likely be as much with the exhaust fan on, but it really made a difference when it was just open for the breeze.

Wow two replies and two direct bullseyes!!! Thanks folks, I had surfed 'til I nearly drowned on this subject and couldn't find a thing--I was THAT CLOSE to suffering the extreme humiliation of having to call the mfr about this! ;) >Apparently the motor is a powerful magnet motor because if it was a brush type it would burn up. Dunno what a "magnet motor" is gardenerwantabe but like you I tried to hold it with my hand and it clearly was Not about to yield to me! >I found that the bar is DESIGNED to stop the motor arm Good story gardnergal; something that confused me was in the motor instructions where it says "don't let the armature be stopped by the motor housing" which implied to me that it would grind itself up. Apparently that warning is just to assure the shutter opens fully!!? Thanks again; you-all have reassured Me and no doubt future generations of hobby GH builders (who use google)! Maybe when I get a rainy day I will email the mfr and suggest a Sequence of Operation paragraph for their "installation instructions"!

Hi DAX I had to take a look at that package and man is sure looks good, I may jump on it myself, a good value. Still looking for the air heated thermal mass floor heating link, I may have to go through old email and find the link that way, it was sent to me by a friend a while back. I have posted another interesting link below to solar heating,I had bookmarked tons of links on this, maybe to much to sort through, but i'll get there. On recessing the house into the ground "The other question that comes to mind is that obviously I need to have the trench bigger than the house so I can walk around the sides and repair it when necessary etc." I have not read any spec's on having an open space in the recessed treanch around the g/h for repair options. All the designs i've seen show direct contact with the earth using lower walls made of suitable. I plan on using just the top portion of the 10 ft. hoops which would be about 5 feet tall mounted to concrete block walls that are 4 feet high. As for the gravel thickness compactions I'll have to find the link but as memory serves me the gravel for it was less than 12 inches with 3" of finer materials on top of that. I'll get more info on this soon

I found something online called Shuttereaze that looks like it would be great for my plantation shutters, but it isn't for sale yet and they don't list prices. If this actually ever becomes a real product that works as described and isn't overpriced, I would likely get it. Youtube video link below. Here is a link that might be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKJSqjFHWQ8