Thursday,
January 18, 2007 8:40 AM
A reader asked yesterday whether my picture of the Chinese
45 watt panel set included the inverter, as I had said it
had everything you needed except for a car battery. He was
right, I forgot to mention that almost always you will need
an inverter because almost everything you have is made for
120V, even your cell charger and small battery chargers
for radios, etc. You often can get charging cords for each
of these for the car cigarette lighter and connect them
directly to your 12V battery, but you will find eventually
that you should have gotten the inverter. The primary function
of the inverter for me is so that I can send the electricity
40 or 50 feet without worrying about power loss due to resistance
in the wire. I won't get too deep there but 120V has 10
times less resistance to movement down the wire than 12V
when delivering the same wattage over the same size wire.
I know, I know, I hear you sparky heads out there rising
rising to make points about inverter inefficiency etc.,
but really you'll need a cheap inverter. Pictured below
is one I found in one of my 5 gallon buckets in the back
of my truck, filled with Q dust. I blew it out, and hooked
it up; works. It is small, used, cheap and just right for
almost everything I do. You can find them in the back of
your truck, in the white 5 gallong bucket, at Walmart, in
every camping outlet, and of course, wait for it, ebay!
As you get good at this, and your battery bank gets bigger
- as we'll talk about in the future mid sized solar system
(using unisolar panels), you can have many different sized
inverters all working at the same time. I have four in the
Safari Airstream, one in the truck bed, and now this one
will be on the Harbor freight test unit. Even if it is only
a test unit, if I've made electricity, I'll use it! My goal
is to be able to run the satellite 24 hours per day instead
of only when I need to get on line.
This
gives you a better idea of the size of this inverter.
Not very big. The black cord (2 wires inside) goes to
the positive and negative of your car battery, and you
plug your extension cord into either of the 120V plug
ins on the front. |
This
one would be worth about $10 used, maybe $20. It can
continuously supply 300 watts, modified sine wave (makes
faint rolling lines on the old tube TVs). It can go
higher for short start up times, like for turning on
a small, small vacuum cleaner. 300W is about five 60
watt light bulbs. Of course 30amp draw out of the battery
is a very large amount for our small little emergency
system and we would not run a 30 amp draw for very long. |
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 9:36 PM
I don't know if I'm up to writing this tonight, as it has
been a hard day, personally. Sometimes when other things
are all in distress it frees me to think in a different
way. This morning I wanted to write about tribe, and what
a tribe of the future might be like. I read many people's
thoughts on tribe and I was trying to see how it fits with
what I think and feel. I kept reaching dead ends because
to think about the future you have to envision one, not
a hundred different ones.
Then it finally came to me why I have such difficulty in
seeing and setting a course when I think of the future.
For my future, maybe our future lies in seeing the futility
and destruction that awaits in an energy deficient future,
then disregarding that, and instead seizing this opportunity
to create a new way to live with each other. We have this
ringside seat to the a time of change, of the dying of the
old, and the birthing of the new. To do this, to be a participant
in the creation of our future, we have to hold several mutually
exclusive ideas and beliefs as true at one time and not
say to ourselves, these cannot all be true!. It is like
a weird math problem- it is as if truth A says 4.5 billion
die and we live a much smaller hunter gatherer life style.
Truth B is that none of us is smart enough to create a vision
future so radically different that perhaps there won't even
be trade, but only gifts. This truth must be forged by the
people who will live it because we are mired, every breath
and thought, in the "realness, rightness, normalcy"
of this life. Truth C is that what we expect to happen we
make happen.
It is like we are on a sea with a thousand islands ahead
on our course. We don't know which island we will land on
and all the islands are wildly different. The trick, and
this is it right here, the thought that has been nipping
at me all day, the trick is to concentrate on the sailing
and not the islands. Instead we will hold a firm vision
of a future better than what we have now, and by creating
that vision we literally change the islands that we will
find as we progress on our journey.
Here
are three bloggers who offer the improbable weave and expectations
that will eventually become part of our possible future.
Each struggles intellectually and emotionally with that
which comes, as I do in my small way here.
From sustainability
unfolding, two quotes:
"It’s not enough. For the
most part all we’re doing is flailing around trying
to make sense of a world that we have already decided has
stopped making sense. The storm clouds seem so close and
so threatening that it’s hard not to be reduced to
a kind of smug, cowardice."
"Are all these terrible things
going to happen? Will we all be reduced to living off the
carcass of a spent industrial civilization?
"I’m
not going to answer that. I’m not going to answer
that because I’ve come to believe that our faith in
the future is what creates our future. I’m not going
to close my eyes to the calving of island size chunks of
ice, but I’m also not going to choose the end of the
world as the narrative of my life. I will adapt to any changes
that sweep through, but I’m not going to base that
life on the assumption that disaster is inevitable.It’s
only inevitable if I say it’s inevitable. Hope is
an act of will. Happiness and success and love are acts
of will."
From
Anthropik
"Few
renewable energy advocates suggest that any one source can
replace all of our current fossil fuel usage. Rather, they
suggest that it is a combination of sources working together
that will allow us to replace fossil fuels. As a practical
consideration, we will surely see many different renewable
energy sources employed as fossil fuels become increasingly
expensive, but should we expect these sources to allow civilization
to survive? Or was Jay Hansen correct in his assessment:
"No combination of renewable energy systems have the
potential to generate more than a fraction of the power
now being generated by fossil fuels"?
And
finally from I,
Bonobo a reference to Ran's discussion of how you need
different skill sets in a tribe, not sameness.
"So,
if you cared about the people in your tribe, you'd be willing
to take on things you wouldn't have thought you could do.
But if you're doing things in order to get something in
return from others, then you're not operating out of love,
but out of the same type of utilitarianism that we have
in our money economy, only you take the money out of the
equation. There's a difference between "I'm giving
you this because you need it and I love you," and "I'm
giving you this, and in return you can give me that."
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 9:56 AM
I received this from Gary this morning in response to my
request for feedback on wind generators. Gary had an Air-X
commercial wind generator mounted on his bus and share his
first hand experience.
I
think there's something wrong in the wind generator
numbers in your figuring there - My Air 403 (equiv to
the Air-X) had a built in charge controller and put
out quite a bit more power on average than you're numbers
come up with. Check out the specs of the Air-X at $500.00.
At 17MPH 120 Watts (10 Amps right?) average (150 Watts
clean wind). The tower is just Schedule 40 and some
masc. wire parts (less than $40 in the case of the bus
set up). If you are going to compare solar/wind and
be fair, the solar panels need hardware to mount to
something tilt/mounting brackets & bolts - or a
PV pole/stand - you don't set them on the ground...
Gary
included these two pictures with his email.
|
 |
Do
the math on the Air 403/Air-X at $500.00 and see how
it compares. I think your showing favoritism <grin>...
That being said, I have some complaints about wind generators
- especially. . .Continue reading
|
Wednesday,
January 17, 2007 8:03 AM
Good morning free chickens! I'm sending out a free chicken
letter this morning as some of the recent essays are (I
hope) interesting enough to warrant that, and new people
have been added to the list. It is a very divergent group
and someday when enough interests exists I'll put up a discussion
forum and you can talk to each other. However there is nothing
sadder than a discussion forum without a lot of participants
and Aftershock, commonsense, and the free chicken list is
less than 40 people so not yet. Meanwhile if you would like
to be removed from
the list just email me and say remove! Thanks!
Yesterday was fun (its still cold here by the way but nothing
froze last night in the trailer).
I'm testing the new set of panels as first sunlight hits
the desert. I'll have tests of the small emergency system
tomorrow, as I'll be taking readings all today. My test
subject is my Walmart car battery which I had exhausted
to flat 11.7 V two days ago during the coldest weather.
This is the most difficult test subject because it will
cause the panels to have to work down around 12V instead
of 12.6V. Panels put out less the farther they are away
from their open circuit voltage. On these the open circuit
voltage is 22 Volts. Here are some pictures of the panels.
 |
Here
the cheap Harbor Freight solar panels as I returned
from Scott's Dustyfoot where he was kind enough to let
me ship to him. There are three panel boxes, 1 box with
a little frame to hold them and then the small box at
the rear which contains cords, 2 12V light bulbs, the
charge controller.
What impressed me after I set it up was everything was
there and not one single thing was needed to get power
up (well, a battery to charge of course!). These were
(are?) $200 for all you see plus shipping if you don't
pick them up. |
Oh, yesterday
morning was fun at the Airstream. Mike W, a blog reader and
friend of Ed Moore stopped over and had coffee. Phil, Mike,
Ed and I drank coffee and talked about everything from cameras
to women (what a symposium of experts, right?), and my trailer.
Mike is interested in the off grid capabilities of my trailer,
truck, water, disposal system, etc. I realize I should do
a camera walk through and explain how my little space ship,
Safari, Airstream, 1965, allows me to live off-grid and for
how long without resources. That is not for today however.
I'll
be taking voltage readings and trying to get some real
amperage readings by bypassing the charge controller
during the day. |
Here
are the panels out of the south side of La Casa Blanca.
Left, I just set the controller down on the box and
pointed the panels toward the afternoon sun, and right,
I've got all the pieces connected in a test bed situation.
I'll sano this up this afternoon when it gets warm again. |
Side note:
Mike W is a photographer, and I asked him, as I have often
discussed with you free chicks personally the best/cheap digital
cameras to get. I'm always on the low end as I put my money
into sensible things, like my yuppie Gransfors Bruks hatchet
(below) :) Mike has strong opinions and according to Ed, Mike
lives the digital camera world. Here are Mike's suggestions
in three price ranges for the average free chicken.
| Sony
H2 from B&H (has image stabilization) |
$309 |
| Panasonic
(no model number mentioned) 35-432 optical zoom |
$249 |
| Canon
530 and the 540 - box stores |
$129,
$149 |
The afternoon yesterday proved very exciting as I got a call
from Scott that my hatchet had arrived. If you read the link
to Ran Prieur's ten most important tools he would not live
without a week or so ago, you would have found the Gransfors
Burks Swedish hand forged hatchet. I found it. OK, LL Bean
meets cheap boy preparedness dweeb. Capitalism oh I'm such
a slut, I ordered it. I got it and the little boy in my went
out and whacked some branches and loved every minute of it.
Childhood euphoric joy and fun and I hope I never lose that
ability to be so excited. I admit there are other hatchets
that could do the job. Hell if I build my own forge (which
I had back on my farm in the '70s) I can build something remotely
similar.
 |
 |
I have
forgotten, blanked out, repressed how much it cost so you'll
have to look it up yourself. I got mine on ebay of course.
Mine has MM stamped into the steel which when you look in
the little Axe book, you find that is a Mattias Mattsson.
He built my axe. Oww, I just felt a chill. I am so a product
of the material culture. What hope is there for me. Leave
it alone. Get your own hatchet. Go whack stuff. I guarantee
it ain't philosophy, but it sure feels good. Unrepentant,
mcnalan.
Tuesday,
January 16, 2007 9:25 AM
Here is a interesting thought. On Van down by the river,
a quote about what happens in times of great change, like
now. Van Down by the River - today's
blog.
“We have lost the way
of real life so thoroughly that upon being truly free, we
are lost and broken and would trade it all to have our shackles
back.” attributed to Dostoevsky (I
didn't check).
Many people will. Most people will. We all have a tendency
to look outside ourselves because we are really only comfortable
(not happy) doing exactly what we are doing, I think I am
like that. I watch old VHS tapes of 10 to 20 year old movies
at night to comfort myself, my blankie, my pacifier I guess.
Is that why we reach for the next movie, the next show on
TV? Are we just drugging ourselves because we are afraid
to be alive? Is that the nature of most of our addictions
and will they disappear when reality slaps us up along side
the head?
My problem
is that the sedation of fear, the quieting, lasts only as
long as the movie. Then I want to change things and be at
risk again, I just cannot shut the fuck up, or stop working
towards my own physical independence from the insane asylum
we "normal." Shit. Maybe I'll cruise the net awhile,
yeah, bunnies.com, a little CNN, and if I want to wire up
my gonads to NORMAL, white, us then of course, Fox News.
No I'll go sweep out the canopy and tables and pull the
solar box out of the truck, it might be above freezing out
there now. Why? Because there is energy I can put in my
batteries that has nothing to do with anyone else out there
today, and that energy, caught and stored by me, will keep
my pipes from freezing tonight and power my satellite and
yes, let me watch those old movies. Later chickies.
Tuesday,
January 16, 2007 8:34 AM
Freezing
weather continues here in the desert. That sparks all kinds
of thoughts in my little pea brain. If weather disruptions
are going to continue, food sources, emergency food sources,
like bunnies, ground squirrels, etc. are going to be heavily
impacted in just a short few years. But remember, water,
not food will be what local disputes are about. We can go
quite a while on stored foods, some of us, years, but water
is an everyday thing. Later on all of that, but before I
move on, I was getting water over at the LTVA's 800 foot
deep wells (this is an aside and not germane to the paragraph
- figure about 1400 watts at 120V or 800 watts 240V if I
had to splice in and pump it myself with my electricity
-see how I think, what a weirdo, as my step daughter often
says). Anyway, it was cold, cold, cold and the guy filling
his water tanks next to me in a giant diesel pusher, 40'
long, idling of course, says to me, "sort of makes
a fool out of the global warming idea doesn't it?"
That is so profoundly stupid that I almost let the hose
slip out of the water barrel and give him a little cold
shot of reality. Cold, weather disruptions, climate shifts,
ocean currents, are directly affected by global warming.
It IS the effect of global warming (maybe) that we are seeing,
but certainly it is so INSANE to think that because it is
cold today that global warming is something that Al Gore
invented to get back into serious politics.
But I held my tongue. I look at capitalist/democracy and
wonder how it is supposed to work when people are too lazy
to do the critical reading and research - ah fuck - just
shut off the TV would you, it is the mainline of useless
noise that is meant to bemuse, amuse and keep you busy and
spending. Well, no matter what, we are all passable organic
fertilizer.
Onto thoughts about today and what is rattling around in
my head. Above was yesterday. I've been trying to get to
my web hosting account to set up FTP access for my website
which would allow you to download things I tell you about
that privately that I would not want the public to see of
access (can you just imagine?).
My host provider is upgrading at the moment so I've been
thinking about local area networks for a moving tribes.
If we assume the group which forms our "compound"
is less that 10 structures, tents, lodges, teepees, buses,
class As, trailers or whatever it would be pretty simple
for me to provide connectivity between all existing computers
in the group from my wireless router. TJ, Gary, I'm thinking
tribal servers that connect to the internet via whatever
system is surviving or even up temporarily, so that resources
(information) that the compound tribe requires can be augmented,
downloaded and stored on a local server. I'm thinking a
small version of the library at Alexandria, with different
members of the tribe taking care to store and safeguard
information crucial to keeping life and limb together in
the long term. I've not gone into this thinking too deep
because I am always stopped by the philosopher's dilemma,
do I really want to make it possible to do what we have
done before, again? The computer part is easy, and at basic
levels it might be possible to keep the things running or
some of them anyway for a decade. That would allow time
utilize what is important and germane.
I will have guests in an hour, so even though it is cold
outside, I'm going to open up la Casa Blanca and clean off
the tables. As soon as it is warm enough I'll put together
the new solar panel and connect it to an existing small
battery for testing. I'm still in need of a second 12V car
battery, but I haven't gotten around to going to buy a couple
of used ones yet. So I'll have pictures today for those
who only come here to look at the desert and my life. Later
gators.
