Northern Michigan Solar Powered Cabin 

 Alternative Energy Living at the 45th parallel 

If you have any questions, contact us. I'm always happy to provide a convoluted answer to a simple question.
Updated:06/22/2010                  ENTIRE SITE IS COPYRIGHT 2010, MC PHOTOGRAPHY     

Learn about alternative energy, hybrid systems and watch pointless videos!

THE NEW SEASON OF THIS OLD SHACK HAS BEGUN! THIS YEAR'S EPISODES CAN BE VIEWED EXCLUSIVELY AT OUR SURVIVAL BLOG, SURVIVALTHROUGHINFORMATION.COM.

If you have something to say or would like to appear on the show as a guest, email us or contact us at our bug out phone, 734-945-1547.

Peukerts formula explained
T = C/(I/(C/R))n X (R/C)
Reviving Deep Cycle Batteries

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We now sell the Xantrex Powerhub 1600 with two solar panels, deep cycle batteries, generator automatic transfer switch, wind turbine ready. This is a house ready alternative energy product. Click here for more.

You are viewing the old site. Visit the new site. Become a member there and contribute your input, thoughts and hangover information. - Bill Xam

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But why solar power?

There were several reasons for the switch:

  • Sprinkle of rain = power failure.

  • Giving a little back by not using so much.

  • Independent living.

Benefits:

  • Renewable power.
  • Learning about solar power.
  • Own stock in the solar panel company. :-)
  • I like batteries.
  • I can sit around smoking a cigar because I'm an energy mogul!

Drawbacks:

  • Maintenance.
  • Installation.
  • Bunch of black glass panels sitting around.

sunset_over_ypsi1.jpg (389444 bytes)Northern Michigan Solar Cabin

Learn more about alternative energy

 

Alternative Energy Learning Resources

 

  National Weather Service Article  

 

Xantrex C12 Charge Controller, 12A, 12V

Diary from the cabin, page 10

7-16-06

It's been a couple of weeks since I decided to spend a weekend in the sun and fun at the cabin catching fish and doing what you do when you have a cabin. Work on the damn thing. The good news is that I have reached my goal: My 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a 4.7 liter 8 cylinder engine now gets 24.5 miles per gallon, which means 1/2 of a tank of gas each way to the cabin (10 gallons used and 245 miles traveled). At 3.00 + a gallon for gas, this is good news for me.

PICT0725.jpg (130442 bytes)

I have to admit something right away. I made a mistake. An error of epic proportions that could have spelt the ruination of the entire northern half of Michigan and parts of Winsconson where cheesy people live. 

 It started so innocently as all bad things do. If you remember from exploring this site, my original plan for the totally incorrect battery bank was to have (2) 67 amp hour batteries at the ends of a bank of (3) group 31 (110 amp hour) batteries. All deep cycle, of course. Well, upon reflection, I decided to approach the deal from a different direction. I would combine the two smaller batteries to produce a 134 amp hour battery string and connect that to the other (3) to get my 400 amp hours. But like an ass, I hooked the whole thing up wrong then spent 3 weeks scratching my head wondering about two things:

1. Why didn't I have any capacity in my battery bank?

2. Why wouldn't the bank charge up past 13 volts?

Why indeed! I discovered in a brief period of sobriety that while I thought I hooked everything up right, I had indeed made the entire bank smaller. My original intent was to create two strings, one of 300+ amp hours and one of 130+ amp hours and combine them in such a way as to make them think that they were all a bunch of big ass batteries instead of (3) big and (2) small batteries. This is what happens sometimes when you don't keep things simple like you should. 

Here's a couple of graphics to demonstrate what I mean. The idea was to have 4 big batteries. What I had done by accident was create a smaller bank by choking the entire bank through one end of the bank. Not good.

before rewire.jpg (32699 bytes) after rewire.jpg (40940 bytes)
Bad. Good.

Could have exploded the whole deal and then it would have been goodbye Winsconson. So, I hooked up the bank the way that I had intended to in the first place and Volia' everything works like it should. Trace the wiring in each graphic and you'll see what I mean. My intent was to have the charge enter the bank from both ends and the discharging from the opposite end. What I had done was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here's an example. First, I know my solar panels and how much they will charge the bank, taking it up to 12.75 to 13.00 volts while I'm not at the cabin. Not equalizing voltages, but enough to keep the bank in good condition by minimizing the sulfur deposits in them between full charges. Much to my surprise, the bank was only at 12.45 volts for the past 4 weeks. I ran the generator for 4 hours the last time I was here at the cabin only to be able to get a total bank voltage of 12.79 volts instead of the equalization charge I should have been able to get.

After I had fixed everything, I had 12.95 volts from the solar panels and after running the generator for 1 hour, I had the bank up to my equalizing charge of 14.3 volts (this is from a 10 amp regulated charge). This falls perfectly in line with my original plan: use 10% of the bank capacity during my stays at the cabin. This allows for another 30% use in emergencies if we are ever forced to stay here. So, now while I'm writing this (using my Tripp-Lite line conditioner and my generator) I'm equalizing the batteries. Again. Insert your own swear words here > %^&*$@$%!!

The whole idea is to charge the bank once in a while instead of every day and I had ruined the whole idea by doing what I did. So now that summer is half over, I get to start over. Sigh.

Speaking of my generator, as you read in one of my previous entries, I have the thing in the storage shed. What I wanted to do all along is to have a nice large fan blowing air into the shed so I can have the door closed and keep the thing nice and quiet. Mission accomplished. Using one of the fans from my enormous fan collection, I have been able to keep the thing nice and quiet. It has also reached it's first oil change and has been switched over to Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

Northern Michigan is home to many oil and natural gas wells including several pretty close to the cabin. This area sits on the Antrim Shale Deposit that runs east-west across northern Michigan. 

Here are some photos of one of the wells and shots of another being sunk.

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Photos of a new well being put in
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A natural gas we ll near the cabin
7-14-06050.JPG (1415532 bytes)
Yep, they're eve rywhere

 Michigan has recently cleared oil companies to sink dual wells (that is two wells next to each other called "Twinning"), one below the shale deposit and one above it to produce more natural gas. Here's a link about it. In the immediate area where the cabin is, there are several dozen wells, a natural gas processing facility, a gas pumping facility and a small diesel and gasoline distribution center.

 

Plugs and ads

If you're here you'll probably be interested in using all natural garden pest control from The Beneficial Insect Company!

This product is simple and works great. If you use a lot of canned food either in your home or cabin, the can organizer rotates your food from the oldest to the newest; no more checking expiration dates!

 

 
We've teamed up with Amazon for our product listings after some really bad experiences with an online auction site.

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How I test
There 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.

A simple examination of the specification sheet for a line of 6v and 12v off grid batteries will tell you quite clearly that there is no one single best solution for all circumstances. It is not accurate to say one is best.

Our system has been using the much maligned Harbor Freight 45 watt solar panel kits for 4 years. Over these years, we've moved them back and forth from the main home in Saline, Michigan to the shack in Gaylord. They've been dropped, exposed to heavy rain, snow, sleet, hail. One even has even had the glass on it shattered from a tree limb dropping on it.
Look, using testing equipment is all well and good but those spec sheets don't mean squat if you can't run YOUR stuff for as long as you want to. So what I do (so you don't have to) is get the equipment (batteries, inverters, solar panels) and put what I run on it. Usually about 30-50 watts at 12 volts - few amps of draw. You know, turning lights on and off, running a computer (a laptop) and whatnot. 
Throughout the test, a digital meter is run on the bank and a hydrometer is used once an hour to determine whether the meter is reading the correct voltage. During the sunlight hours on the panels, there is another digital meter installed at the primary junction box (where the panels feed into the 10 gauge cables that feed to the charge controller) that measures panel voltage and amps.
One of the things that I like the best about alternative energy is that you can make it as complicated or simple as you like. Some people, even though they use alternative energy simply don't have a good grasp on the entire substance that goes into the makeup of an engineered system that has been built from scratch.
Don't ask me why, but I've recently become interested in studying earthquake/volcano activity around the world; ash plumes and such. I've added a page with RSS feeds and links to satellite imagery. 
Sierra Nevada Airstreams battery temperature compensation chart Even worse, watch a Feedjit Live Blog Stats Battery bank setup My generator updated Email Me Temperature compensated charging chart Read about the system Solar Panel grounding from the dean of solar, John Wiles. Alternative Energy News Feeds Photographs Xantrex Charge Controller latest lightning video Read the diary entry here. DiaryDex Live weather from the shack Check it out! Building your own panels Are you moving your home (like we are) or your small business? Then the Small Company Moving Guide is for you! This Old Shack About the system THIS OLD SHACK Air Tabs energy blog Old Shack here Energy News Feeds battery desulfator schematic Earthquake/vocano activity A trip to the cabin! You need recipes Battery charge chart Sun activity widget added to earthquake activity page Generator buying tips Quite possibly the best preparedness site in the world. Appliances for cabins initial diary entry Privacy policy - please read! NREL redbook Death of a battery Battery wiring Cheap solar water heater Peukerts Wiring the cabin Photos of my system Gas mileage (Dodge Dakota) About the alternative energy system New battery bank testing continues. Read about it here. Live weather information from the shack! Peukerts formula explained Handy conversion formulas Generator article reprint Alternative energy news feeds (NEW) Installation