What did you do to prep today?

[therosery]

Well, I’m starting to see results with my solar voltaic power generator. It’s been a long haul, that’s for sure. There were only two really frustrating issues to the project time time/cost and finding an inverter that would power the pellet stove. The time was directly related to cost. This stuff isn’t cheap, even if you are building one yourself. Everything was purchased new, resulting in more time to completion.


Then, when ordering an inverter for the 110 VAC generating side of things, I purchased an inverter that was specified as a PWM controlled inverter. I misunderstood the term PWM to mean that the output waveform would more closely represent a sine-wave, rather than a square wave or even a modified sine-wave. The issue with the PWM based inverter was that the pellet stove would light but when the recirculation blower came on, the pellet stove reset and the ignition cycle would begin again. While attempting to monitor the wave form with an Oscilloscope, the inverter bellowed it’s smoke throughout the house – it was totally destroyed.


The search then started for a suitable replacement. I determined that I would break out the bucks and get a True Sine-wave inverter, even though it cost about 4 times that of the PWM based inverter. The True sine-wave inverter was also capable of delivering a lot more power, as well. My decision landed on a Xantec SW-2000. That solved my pellet stove cycling reset problem.


I did some testing of the Solar panels, battery bank, charge controller, inverter and pellet stove for about a week. Everything looked good to go. There was a period of about a week where it was cold enough to where we could justify running the pellet stove so I decided to see just how long the whole system would operate, before the inverter complained about the battery voltage being too low. The grid power was severed and I let the system operate on it’s own. By the way, the system has a transfer switch built into it. When the grid power fails, the transfer switch automatically transfers the pellet stove over to inverter power.


The system did real good on battery power. After three days of continuous battery/inverter operation I realized that the igniter was consuming a considerable amount of power when the pellet stove was lighting. In addition, I also discovered that the recirculation blower motor operating current could be reduced considerably, simply by reducing the blower speed a little bit. It turns out we got almost 9 full days of continuous battery/inverter power use before the inverter screamed that the battery bank did not have power enough to continue with inverter operation.


There is an interesting side note here. I currently have 15, fifteen watt solar voltaic panels feeding the charge controller. During that 9 day test run, there was not one sunny day. Even with total overcast the solar panels were delivering 2 to 3 Amperes of charge current.


As if the above success isn’t enough, there is some good news, news that I had hoped I would eventually hear from the wife. We have been heating the house for the past 5 years with several 1,500 watt oil filled space heaters. Our electric bill last year was nearly $450.00 for the month of November, in the year 2010. Our November electric bill for the month of November in 2011 was slightly less than $200.00. I agree, it is a bit warmer so far this fall/winter. But we did run the pellet stove continuously and the electric bill was reduced by a little more than half.


There is another aspect to the electric bill reduction, as well. In October, I installed a Honeywell, programmable 7 day timer that restricts the water heater power usage to 7:00am to 11:00am. The hot water tank is a 50 gallon tank. We have insulation fully encasing it. After more than two months of restricting power usage to the hot water heater, we have found that we still have all the hot water we need for daily use.


So I guess only time will tell, just how effective I have been at reducing my power usage.


Now, even with all of the good news, I’ve only discussed the solar voltaic power generator while supplying energy to the pellet stove.

The added benefit is that, even with the grid down, I can still power the refrigerator, freezer, and small appliances and 12 VDC LED lighting with prudent power rationing and management – especially if it’s a cloudless day.


In the summer, I probably won even need to ration power.


Even now, we are putting money back so we can purchase more solar panels, enabling a faster charge recovery time and more charge current on cloudless days.

15Watt panels?? I was told to get 3 240w panels just to run my 5amp freezer. How do you do it, with only 15 watt panels, albeit however many you've got? pm me and let me know, please. rosie

[microcarl]

15Watt panels?? I was told to get 3 240w panels just to run my 5amp freezer. How do you do it, with only 15 watt panels, albeit however many you've got? pm me and let me know, please. rosie

Currently, I have 21, fifteen watt panels. The choice, in part, is because those high wattage panels work best in near full sunlight. With the type of solar voltaic panels I'm using, they produce an overall lower output, compared to the most current technology but, with this older solar technology I am still able to develop about 3 amperes of charge current, even on a pretty cloudy day.


Another thing is, if I lose a panel or two, I still have the bulk of my solar array to keep charging the battery bank - all of my eggs aren't in one or two baskets, but 21 baskets.


And lastly, I simply could not afford something like $500.00 a shot for the high wattage panels. Money rules!


Even with the lower wattage solar panels, I’ve spent a small fortune on deep cycle marine batteries, a Xantrex Pro-Watt 2000 watt true sine-wave inverter, wire, etc.

I had to get a true sine-wave inverter because my pellet stove would not run with a conventional square wave or modified wave inverter.

Then there was the Xantrex C60 charge controller and automatic transfer switch, also made by Xantrex

The deep cycle marine batteries are Xide 12 volt, 100 ampere hour rated.

The 1/0 wire is custom cut and terminated by PowerWerx.com. The 200 ampere fuse holders, 200 ampere fuses, 175 ampere and 50 ampere Anderson power pole quick disconnects were also purchased from Powerwerx.com.

The pellet stove will run continuously for about 9 days on the fully charged 600 ampere hour battery bank.

My goal was to put in more energy than I’m taking out, when running the pellet stove. And as of today, I am at that point. In the summer, with some management, I will be able to run the refrigerator an freezer for an hour or two per day, keeping them at temperature. They are in a cool area in the basement so the temperature differential is much lower than if upstairs in the heat of summer.

The thing about designing and building a solar voltaic generator is that, everyone’s energy requirements will vary. I started this project as an experiment several years ago and it sort of snowballed into something I had no intention of spending so much money on. But one thing led to another, and I suddenly had the beginnings of a system that could be made to work over time, and I’m still working on it.

My system has some shortcomings, to be sure, but every solar voltaic power generator design will dictate choices, sacrifice and limitations. Nothing is free, no matter what the book worms say. And I’ve read plenty of books on solar voltaic generation. The most prohibitive aspect of this endeavor was cost. If I had about $30,000.00, I would have done everything totally different, as I'm sure most of us have to do. My real advantage is that I have an degree in electronics and about 50 years experience in electronics both, as a hobby and professionally. So, I have a clear advantage with making technical decisions that many people attempting doing this type thing don’t have.

I will get away with less power generation because of knowledge of exactly how the system performs and management that many individuals can’t do because they don’t have the ability to reasonably design in the data collection and management automation.

I am at a point now where I want to start working on designing LED lighting into some existing light fixtures, further reducing my energy usage.

The only real advice I can give is, calculate your expected energy requirements and double it. Be willing and understanding of the fact that you will not get all you want or need out of any solar voltaic power generator. That is, do you have lighting tonight, or do you spend that energy on using your computer for some worthy purpose today. Do you listen to the shortwave radio tonight, or do your use the Jig-saw and power drill to fix the chicken coop today. The fact is, if you plan on having electric power in a grid down situation, you will necessarily need to alter your lifestyle to ensure that the most important energy requirements continue to be met.

I chose a solar voltaic power generator over a petro-fueles power generator for stealth and for the fact that I believe gasoline and Diesel will not only become scarce in a grid down situation, but impossibly expensive. With fiat currency turned to barter, you would more than likely have to give up valuable assets for that scarce fuel. Once set up, a solar voltaic power generator will provide 10 years or more of limited energy with no additional investment, other than some basic maintenance.

So anyway, as I said, your energy needs will more than likely be substantially different than my energy needs. You have to plan and design your system according to your perception of what will be a realistic energy requirement for you.

One last comment is in order here… I currently have a 600 ampere hour battery bank that that I hope to expand to 900 ampere hours over the next few months. At 600 ampere hours, the amount of available uncontrolled energy equates to 7.2 kilo-watts of direct current energy. At 900 ampere hours the potential uncontrolled energy of the battery bank comes to 10.8 kilo-watts of DC energy. If you do nothing else, make sure you understand the dangers of what you are working with and make absolutely sure you learn and employ safety practices relevant to the dangers you face with such a large DC energy source. Use proper fusing. Use proper wiring sizes and wiring practices. And for sure, use proper safety equipment when servicing the system like a face shield, a rubber apron and rubber gloves. This kind of stuff has serious dangers that you need to be constantly mindful of, when designing, building, operating and maintaining it.

I hope this helps.

[BrudderT]

Today I did part of something I've been thinking of doing for quite some time.

My office is 6.5 miles from my house. I've long thought it would be a real good exercise to get up on a weekend day, dress for work and drive to the office, just as if it was a normal day. Then, run a drill on myself in which something happens where I cant drive my car or get a ride home. Think EMP.

Then take just what I have with my at my office or in my car and walk those 6.5 miles home. I know I can do it but I want to see how long it takes and get a look at the ground I'd have to cover. You cant see it very well at 50 mph.

Well, today I had to drop my car off at the shop for some work. The shop is at the south end of Boeing field in South Seattle. My office is at the North end of Boeing field. So, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to at least do part of that walk.

I dropped off the car at about 9am and started walking. I had to go about 8 blocks to get to the part that would be my normal route and I started timing myself then. The distance turns out to be almost exactly 3.5 miles and I did it at a brisk, deliberate stride without stopping. It took me 57 minutes to walk in the door of the office. I figure thats about a mile every 15 minutes.

I'm suffering a bit tonight because of it. Must have strained some ligaments in my foot. Good exercise though! One of these days I'll have to do the rest of it.

BrudderT

[ChristieAcres]

Been a while since I posted, been pretty busy! Today, have been working on rendering 20#s of the 50+#s of Pork Fat, from two of our pigs. This is the first time we have raised pigs or rendered Pork Fat. Yes, you can tell we will be set for quite some time w/Pork Lard. I am now researching how to can it. Lots of conflicting info on that... No big surprise, eh?!

[cyberiot]

Today I did part of something I've been thinking of doing for quite some time.

My office is 6.5 miles from my house. I've long thought it would be a real good exercise to get up on a weekend day, dress for work and drive to the office, just as if it was a normal day. Then, run a drill on myself in which something happens where I cant drive my car or get a ride home. Think EMP.

Then take just what I have with my at my office or in my car and walk those 6.5 miles home. I know I can do it but I want to see how long it takes and get a look at the ground I'd have to cover. You cant see it very well at 50 mph.

Well, today I had to drop my car off at the shop for some work. The shop is at the south end of Boeing field in South Seattle. My office is at the North end of Boeing field. So, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to at least do part of that walk.

I dropped off the car at about 9am and started walking. I had to go about 8 blocks to get to the part that would be my normal route and I started timing myself then. The distance turns out to be almost exactly 3.5 miles and I did it at a brisk, deliberate stride without stopping. It took me 57 minutes to walk in the door of the office. I figure thats about a mile every 15 minutes.

I'm suffering a bit tonight because of it. Must have strained some ligaments in my foot. Good exercise though! One of these days I'll have to do the rest of it.

BrudderT

4 mph on foot is an admirable pace. Ya done good.

[BrudderT]

4 mph on foot is an admirable pace. Ya done good.

Thanks! I'm in pretty decent shape... which is to say I'm not in bad shape.

I get out hiking lots in the summertime but I've been dormant for a while. I'm paying a steep and painful price for that tonight! Tomorrow is gonna suck.

BrudderT

[ChristieAcres]

I've been working out, too, but ease into it, as I don't like to overdo and pay the price. But some of us need to do that to get it in high gear, so good job BrudderT! I don't envy you tomorrow, know exactly how that feels... Yep, being in shape to hike 10 miles, had my DH push me to go 22 miles in one day, ugh... The next day? My oh my, hiking for 2.5 miles is all I agreed to do (had to stretch out the over-worked muscles a little). Right now, 5 miles is fine, but more would be pushing it. I'll get there, though :) DH is good for 10 miles right now, so I need to catch up with him... He has been working out and doing his cardio faithfully all Winter, but I haven't been as good.

[Summerthyme]

BrudderT... a nice soaking bath with some epsom salts will help those sore and aching muscles and ligaments a lot. Something about the magnesium in the epsom salts really does help.

You might want to cut back to a mile or so to start, and work your way into it. That's only a 20 minute or so commitment, and should be fairly easy to fit into even a hectic schedule.

Good job, though- I think one of the most neglected "preps" is physical fitness. If TSHTF, we may not have three or four days at a time to take it easy and recover from some hard things we're not used to.

Summerthyme

[tygerkittn]

I've been working out, too, but ease into it, as I don't like to overdo and pay the price. But some of us need to do that to get it in high gear, so good job BrudderT! I don't envy you tomorrow, know exactly how that feels... Yep, being in shape to hike 10 miles, had my DH push me to go 22 miles in one day, ugh... The next day? My oh my, hiking for 2.5 miles is all I agreed to do (had to stretch out the over-worked muscles a little). Right now, 5 miles is fine, but more would be pushing it. I'll get there, though :) DH is good for 10 miles right now, so I need to catch up with him... He has been working out and doing his cardio faithfully all Winter, but I haven't been as good.

Me too! I've been doing five miles per day, just got back from walking three miles this morning, DH and I will walk again when he gets off work. I'm working up to a steady ten (my knee gives me problems sometimes).
22, wow! The most I've done is 18 miles in one day, that's awesome!

[ChristieAcres]

Me too! I've been doing five miles per day, just got back from walking three miles this morning, DH and I will walk again when he gets off work. I'm working up to a steady ten (my knee gives me problems sometimes).
22, wow! The most I've done is 18 miles in one day, that's awesome!

Good for you! No plans here to do 20+ mile hikes, but if push comes to shove, would like to know I would be able to.