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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 changed. 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.
Three
years ago, our home caught fire. I spent time in intensive care and almost died,
thus I know from whence I speak.
As
we go into our third season of "This Old Shack", disaster planning and
survival episodes become more important. After all, that's what alternative
energy is - the ability for you to survive without an infrastructure. All of our
episodes of This Old Shack and our new show, "CSI:SALINE" will reflect
this in 2009. Oh, of course there's going to be laughs and beer drinking - this
survival crap is depressing to think about.
So,
practice your fire drills with the crumbcrunchers, practice evacuating
yourselves, your pets, your neighbors. Learn how to use a fire extinguisher. And
watch our videos!
NAVIGATION
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DiaryDex
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This Old Shack
Cheap solar water heater
A trip to the cabin!
Xantrex Charge Controller
Death of a battery
About the system
Photos of my system
Battery bank setup
My generator updated
Generator article reprint
Generator buying tips
Battery wiring
Installation
Wiring the cabin
Appliances for cabins
Building your own panels
Handy conversion formulas
Gas mileage (Dodge Dakota)
Privacy policy - please read!
Sitemap 4-8-07
Links
Earthquake/vocano activity
But why solar power?
There were several reasons for the
switch:
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.
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Photos of my system
Visit our new photography
site!
 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. |
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