Diary from the shack

These are the old blog entries. Read the newer blog entries here which has an RSS option that may or may not work depending on the mood of some guy in New Jersey.

7-26-10

In our efforts to keep all of our batteries as healthy as possible, we've turned our attention to one of the old time original batteries that we purchased back in 2006. This is an EverStart Wal-Mart deep cycle (aka, trolling) marine battery. It was one of our first ones which was a bank of group 24 79 amp hour batteries. These guys performed well over their lives. Two have headed to the big battery bank in the sky and this is our last one. Well, we've succeeded in equalizing this thing using the methods that I describe in the "Equalizing a battery bank" page. Tonight, we start testing it on a real time load running the laptop from it. At 79 amp hours, using a 5 amp draw, the battery should power the lap top for about 4 hours before reaching a 75% charge using the hydrometer.

7-25-10

Dateline, Saline, Michigan at our main headquarters. The shack where we do all the alternative energy is 250 miles north at the 45th parallel. Major storms moved through the area while I was at the shack attempting once again to shoot an episode of "This Old Shack". Lightning hit the trees behind the headquarters, along with 90 mile an hour winds, which fell onto power lines. The lightning then traveled down the power lines, setting them and the forest on fire, exploding several other transformers and going into all the buildings. The police, fire and power company responded to the fire. Once I heard about the disaster, I headed back with the battery bank, generator and inverters. We're now running on alternative energy. Our power company because of all the damage expects our power to be out for up to 7 days. At this point while running everything from the generator and battery bank, we lost the computer in our hot water heater, a large freezer as well as who knows what else. Updates as they occur.

7-20-10

Things are moving along at the shack quite nicely. We've installed the new battery bank and it looks like we were able to merge it with the older East-Penn (Deka) battery that we already have successfully. Doing that required a healthy equalizing effort that we'll repeat when we next visit the shack. We brought back the two EverStart (Exide) Wal-Mart batteries to the "This Old Shack" headquarters to equalize them via grid power. While we would normally do this with the generator and dump 10 amps into them for 4-6 hours, time didn't permit it this past trip.

Another part of the entire system is to rely less and less on using the inverter to supply power - making the entire shack run on 12 volts will increase the efficiency of energy use. An inverter will at most be 90% efficient which means that you're losing 10% of your power right off the bat. When you're producing your own power every little bit helps or hurts. The next step in this process was to reduce our wall warts by one - the cell phone charger. 

We now have a Ray-O-Vac charger for the phone. And get this, it's USB! That's right, while the laptop is sitting there happily buzzing away running on 12 volts, the cell phone can charge from it, even when it's in standby mode! With more and more devices designed to run on USB supplied power, it's time for a list of our USB powered stuff!

7-14-10

We haven't received our 108 solar cells that we ordered on 30-JUN-2010. 

In an email conversation with the company in California that we purchased them from we were told that they are "30 days behind on shipping".  Thus, our opinion of the company that we purchased them from is being reserved for when we actually get them in hand. 

One thing I will say is that we had high hopes for this particular supplier which are rapidly fading. While we'll build the panels with the cells we won't name the company for obvious reasons.

I write these diary entries so you can learn from my mistakes and hopefully skip a few steps in the learning curve. All of this is intended as an educational experience and hopefully entertaining too.

All diary entries here.

7-13-10:

Here is an excerpt from an email discussion I'm having with a new alternative energy user I'm consulting with about his system:


The low voltage or inverter decision is difficult to make but I'll take a stab at giving you what knowledge and thoughts I have. I'm also going to put this reply on the blog at the site since it's getting pretty involved in this discussion. Might even make it into an episode of This Old Shack. Whether it's a DC or AC system, you need a breaker box, breakers, wiring and outlets. It's all the same, system protection.

Anyways, you can go low voltage all the way and get low voltage appliances (try roadtrucker.com) or a mixture or stick with an inverter based system. It's all a matter of what you are comfortable with. The lower the voltage, the more resistance any wiring will have therefore the larger the wiring. I use 10 gauge from the panels to the charger. For an actual wiring circuit, I'd go with 12 gauge for short runs (less than 15 feet) and 10 gauge for over that. Yeah, I know that's some big wire but it will make the system more energy efficient by reducing the resistance and power usage. Another question you're going to have is what the heck kind of outlets do I use for a 12 volt system so I don't plug in my 50" HD television to a 12 volt outlet? Simple, use 240 volt style outlets like this one. Get some males, wire them up and off you go! No muss, no fuss. Makes things a lot easier if you do decide to go with a mixed system (DC and AC).

That said, while a 510 ah battery is sweet as honey, it's still 510 amp hours (250 amp hours usable - don't go below 50% charge!), which is about the size of our bank at the shack. I try to stick with low voltage as much as I can (12 volt laptop power supply, 12 volt lights, etc., etc..). What I do for lighting is use (believe it or not) some 3 light LED lighting kits that I picked up at Lowes. They're designed as yard floodlights but they have their own solar panel, batteries and about 30 feet of wiring. I've been using them for 4 years, year round. They light up at night and go off during the day. I love them. 3 or 4 of these things and some creative mounting inside and you can take lighting off your list. Add 12 volt switches to them and you can shut them off. Plus they light up the place when you're not there. I actually use them for lighting when I'm video taping at night, that's how bright they are. For me, it's a no brainer but some people don't like LEDs because they are slightly blue but not much. You could even go with 12 volt CF bulbs in regular lamps.

As far as an inverter goes, that again goes with what you are powering with them. For a fridge, television, stuff like that look at pure sine wave inverters. Remember, however, that you can get those too in 12 volt versions but they're more expensive. Pure sine wave inverters will suck down an additional 200-400 watts just by themselves so be careful there. Remember to size it right if you go that way. If your stuff will use 1,000 watts, get a 2,000 watt inverter to account for start up loads. Forget the "surge" rating of the things. For anything else, go with a modified square wave. What one of my projects is is converting a UPS to use as an inverter. Much less expensive and you can use them with a battery bank and they can be grounded.

For a breaker box and circuit breakers, I would stick with Square-D "QO" low voltage breakers all the way for a 12 volt system. They fit in a normal breaker box. If you decide to wire AC, just go with a normal breaker box. Again, this is where you can get into a gray area with codes and such. Any system must be grounded, that is a given, the panels, battery bank, inverter - really any wiring. That type of inverter is a lot more expensive than one that doesn't have a ground. An ungrounded inverter is something like $100 for a decent one and plan on $300 plus for a grounded one like this one. However, I'm comfortable with the grounding I have. What I do, and this is not really code but it works is use a small inverter (400 watts) and use a suicide cord to an outlet connected to the breaker box that feeds to the breakers. Again, not code but it works for my needs - all I run off of AC is two CF bulbs at night if I need them.

There you go. I'll close by saying that with some careful planning and downloading the program called HOMER to help you design the system and you can prevent a lot of the growing pains that you'll have with alternative energy.  Free and it works - it's what I used.

7-5-10

UPDATE: 7-6-10; The new bank has been running our Acer laptop using a 12 volt power supply (5 amp constant) for 9 hours pulling a total of 45 amp hours. Math indicates that we should be at 80% charge. Hydrometer agrees with the math exactly. Conclusion: the new bank is working better than expected. 

After getting back to our headquarters from the shack, we've started a new regime for cycling the new batteries to get them to their full potential. As you can read in some of the earlier diary entries, we've learned that it can take up to 30 to 50 charge/discharge cycles for a deep cycle battery to reach it's full potential. That's what we're doing right now with our East Penn deep cycle batteries. Let's take a look at the the results so far:

Don't forget to refer to the battery temperature compensation chart when you are testing your batteries. As you can see, each cycle gets us both a shorter charge time, longer cycle time even though the loads that we're placing on the batteries are increasing. The goal is to have this new bank run an older laptop 27/7 and will use one of the new solar panels that we are building to use as a game camera at the shack.

As you can see, we've stopped using voltage readings for the new batteries. While voltage is handy for a general condition it does little for you while a load is on the battery. As a for instance example: Your battery is at a 90% state of charge (12.48 volts), while under a load, it might read 12.10 volts. Using a hydrometer, your off load reading would be 1.245 and under the load it would be 1.245. As you can see, using the hydrometer method is both more accurate and better. However, certain safety protocols change - wear goggles, wear rubber gloves, have a glass jar or cup to put the hydrometer in to keep the electrolyte from damaging your stuff.

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7-6-10

Survivalist tendencies go along with off grid lifestyles, regardless of your reasoning for pursuing the lifestyle. When you're dependant on yourself for your basic survival, your outlook changes somewhat from supplies management to energy production. Having access to the latest scientific and public intelligence allows me to pursue several possible courses of action for any given activity. 

As an example, my latest thoughts: I started looking for any association between PV output and solar flares/sun activity. Well, I didn't find any of that but I did find some disturbing information. The popular opinion is that ground based PV systems would not survive an EMP pulse (natural or man made). So, is it enough of a concern to keep some PV panels in a faraday cage (a faraday cage is an electrical shield around sensitive electronics. The first modern use was equipment to test nuclear bomb tests)? Quite possibly. At the very least a couple of hundred inexpensive solar cells in a foil wrapped box would be a good idea along with a charge controller.

An EMP pulse is generated when there is either a high output event from the sun or from a man made explosion (nuclear detonation), probably from orbit. As an example a relatively small nuclear explosion in orbit from a country that doesn't like us like Iran over the central United States would fry every unprotected piece of electronics from the entire electrical grid to vehicles, aircraft in the air from the east coast to the west, north to south. Exceptions would the the northeast, northwest tier of states and some pockets. Having the shack as far north as the 45th parallel suddenly seems like a pretty good idea.

So there you go, another twisted bit of logic that may or may not be accurate. Only time will tell.

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7-3-10

Test cycle number 2 and 3 on the new testing batteries is done (East Penn group 31 deep cycle, 119 AH each). This cycle I connected one of the laptops to each battery in turn for 3 hours each and ran a web cam on the computer. As you probably read in the initial diary entry about the new batteries, it takes 20 or more cycles before a deep cycle battery reaches it's full potential. 

This can be pretty disconcerting to a alternative energy novice and even some professionals. The theory is that deep cycle batteries have heavier lead plates and better plate separators. When you first get the batteries that you are going to use, the strength of the electrolyte is at a certain point from the factory where it was made. 

As you cycle the battery, the electrolyte gains strength. My first group 31 battery (made by the same company as the new ones, East Penn) was a disappointment when I put it into service - this was before I actually spent the time to research what I was doing - it just plain sucked. The cycle length was pitiful and it took too long to charge. Now, after three years of use and about 100 charge cycles on it, it performs like it should. Had I taken the time to learn and read, I would have known this from the start.

Now that the new batteries are starting to get their "legs" I'll run the next couple of cycles at a higher amp level using not only the laptop but a small inverter and a 7 watt CFL bulb. The idea is (and this is only the way I condition deep cycle batteries, how you do it is up to you). 

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7-2-10

Here are some photos of the new veggie garden. Watering is done using an inexpensive drip irrigation kit (comes with tubes and little drip thingies) that uses rain water drawn from the cisterns using gravity (siphon). We're going to draw off of both cisterns at the same time using a "T" fitting in the lines. I don't know if it qualifies as alternative energy but it doesn't use any power! Click for large photos

We are eagerly awaiting the delivery of our shipment of solar cells to produce our first panel. We should be able to produce either (2) 60 watt panels or (1) 120 watt panel. The key is not actually making the things. The real issue will be making them weatherproof. See this diary entry for more

Yet another exciting day at the 45th parallel. Our new batteries are passing the initial test that I'm throwing at them which is running a laptop with a 12 volt power supply and a web cam to record scenes from Big Bass lake during the day and our animal visitors at night. After 4 hours of use the first test has the batteries at 85% charge for battery number 1 and 80% for battery number 2. Our test and review of our new solar lighting system is underway. Thus far the lights are working fantastic and are able to stay lit for 9 hours or more.

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7-1-10A

We will be at the shack shooting another exciting episode of "This Old Shack" this weekend (7-1 thru 7-5). Up this time around is the first test results from our new solar lighting system and building a small generator house on the cheap. While we're there, we'll be trying out the At&T wireless at the local McDonalds in town - a 30 mile trip - and maybe some on the spot diary entries!

7-1-10B

Good news! After 3 years of attempts, switching between two different synthetic oils, moving around the air filter, mounting air dams and Air Tabs on the official "This Old Shack" truck, we have hit on the perfect formula for getting the very best fuel mileage. Using the hyper mileage driving technique and all the other additions to the truck, we have achieved 25.5 miles per gallon over a 750 mile loop. Starting at 17 miles per gallon and adding the side skirts, air dam, low rolling resistance tires, the airaid air filter and several other small additions to the truck, we have been able to get the thing to a constant 25.5 miles per gallon. Look for an upcoming mini episode of "This Old Shack" detailing this amazing increase in mileage in the near future. 

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6-30-10 

Well, it's time! Those of you who watch the show would probably assume that it is beer time (of course) however we will finally be doing something that is our most requested topic - we're going to build our own solar panels! Using a solar cell kit available on the internet that we're ordering this week, we will build solar panels. These kits are supposed to come with all the needed stuff, rosin, taps for wiring and everything.  How is it done? 

Remember my article on series versus parallel connections - series adds the voltage, parallel adds the amps. So, to make a solar panel what you would do is connect a series of solar cells (cells make up a panel) to the correct voltage (something like 21 volts not connected to the battery bank, that is what is called the "shorted voltage"). Then you take several of these series of cells and connect them in parallel to get the amperage that you want. So if you want say, a panel that puts out 60 watts, you would take a series of cells to get to your 21 volts (not connected to a battery bank, that is what is called the "shorted voltage") and then take several of these series and connect them in parallel to get the amperage that you want.

Building a panel is fairly easy. The most difficult part is building the housing that the things sit in. I've seen commercial panels that have no, repeat no glass over the cells and some that do have glass over them. The trick, I believe is to create a perfect seal between the cells so there is no possible way for moisture to get in there and using an aluminum channel to mount the panel in. Here's an idea: Using those little plastic tile crosses that space ceramic tiles to space the cells. That will allow us to apply a perfect seal between the cells (something like silicone caulk).

As for the mounting of the cells, I suspect that using Lexan or Plexiglas to mount the cells to is the way to go. 

We will, of course, see if that idea works. Mounting the series of cells would be using a silicone adhesive not a hot glue because the things will get HOT in the sun - up to 150 degrees on some days.

Stay tuned to keep up to date on this most requested project.

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Photographs of weather stations in Michigan.

Each entry in the energy blog now has a comment link for posting comments. The comments are courtesy of Halo.

Watch our latest lightning video, shot at the shack last week.

Oh baby, do we have a video for you! I'm a storm chaser and as luck would have it we had a major lightning storm here at the main house. Lightning hitting the street in front of us, transformers blowing up and our neighbors getting hit by lightning. Check it out!

If you've watched my Youtube trailer for the season premier of This Old Shack, you're probably saying, "Bill, what the heck happened to your hair?". Go here to find out more.

And finally the data you've been looking for, excerpts from the NREL redbook!

A lovely photo of the cabin in summer

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