Northern Michigan Solar Powered CabinAlternative Energy Living at the 45th parallel
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First of all, welcome to our site! We've been around for several years and conduct all kinds of half baked DIY projects on our show, This Old Shack. Be sure to check out all of our half witted articles and pages. If you have questions, just Email us and we will do our best to confuse you beyond all belief.NAVIGATION Email or Contact us here
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We're going to build our own solar panels!Read the diary entry here. |
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Disaster planning should be part of every single household across America, strike that, the world. When disaster strikes, people die or lives are c80%hanged. In times of plenty, forego the Playstations and buy extra food. You can explain a lack of toys better than a lack of food to your children.
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In
1980 our military switched its entire food ration program over to the full
moisture MRE pouch system. These are the meals we tested on "This Old
Shack". |
Quite possibly the best preparedness site in the world.
There were several reasons for the switch:
Sprinkle of rain = power failure.
Giving a little back by not using so much.
Independent living.
Xantrex Charge Controller07/21/2010Note: we'll be replacing the C12 with a C35 charge controller once we have made our new solar panels (that's right, we're going to finally start building solar panels). At that point, we'll retire the C12 as a spare if we need it.Update: Our Xantrex C12 charge controller has been in service since 2006. Since that time, we've had no problems with it aside from the "night light" feature going wacko one time a couple of years ago. The thing works great - we leave the shack and the bank is at 80% charge and when we get back it's 100%. The charge controller has 3 stages two of which are set by the user - bulk and absorption. The unit enters the float setting by itself.This is a Xantrex C12, a 25 amp version of their C controllers. This particular model features Pulse Wave Modulation (PWM) charging. It has field settings for bulk charging, absorption charging and float charging. It also has settings for automatic equalization (or it can be done manually by pushing a switch). Unique to the C12 is a feature that will turn on 12 volt lights at night, what they call the "night light" feature.The C12 also has a 12 volt distribution output for running 12 volt appliances up to 25 amps. A good place to order this controller from is Infinigi.com - I've ordered parts and supplies from them and they're very good with customer service.You can download the specs. or the manual at www.xantrex.com
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Plugs and ads |
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How I testThere are several people on various newsgroups and discussion areas that waylay in uninformed or those just starting out in the off grid world of self power generation. This involves an almost religious belief in a phantom 6v golf cart true deep cycle battery that is superior in every way to any other battery in existence.
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