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.
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
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.
Here's a
photo of the solar panels during my test in
January of 2006. I just plopped them on the picnic table.
This our Xantrex C-12 charge controller.
This is our Schumacher "SmartCharger", 6/10/20 amp output.
This generator (2.2 kw - a fancy way of saying 2,200 watts) has a Chinese
knockoff of a Honda 5.5 hp gasoline engine. The generator currently has 400+
hours on it with minimal maintenance. Video of the generator is in the
generator episode of "This Old Shack".
4-20-06
Detail shot of the assembly.
The posts are 6 feet long and
sunk in concrete for 40 pounds of solar panels.
Oh, well.
A look into the secret world
behind the bank. Yes, yes I didn't use the upper
part of the mounting frames for the Harbor Freight
panels. See, I need them at 45 degrees. This is
perfect.
Here's the grounding for the
panels. The ground is hooked from the chassis on
the charge controller, the neg. of the panels and
the panel frames. Did the proper tests, all is
good.
4-20-06
Here's what the final installation looks
like.
Another shot of the install. The mounts
are wobbly until you get the panels mounted and
bolt the things down.
You can see in this photo that I've
mounted the 2 sets of panels at a 3 degree offset
to capture the sun as it passes by on it's merry
way across the sky.
Oh, the newsgroup mavens will love this
one. This is my reflector experiment. This
reflects the light in the mid-afternoon when the
sun isn't directly on the panels. See my diary for
more.
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.
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.
