Off The Grid

I think he's cracked the code.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srs_4LDm5Vc These videos are actually quite good. Here's what hyper inflation looked like in Germany in 1923. It's coming to the US.

My neighbor welded a tube over the center of the axel I got him the otehr day and extended it to be 110" wide. We moved two shipping containers today. Got them close enough to where he wanted them that he can move with a jack and some fence posts now.

I just learned something today about Victron inverters.. they have a power boost feature that allows you to undersize a generator. Let's say you have a 1000w generator. I'ts not enough to run a microwave oven or make coffee... so when you turn on the microwave the inverter makes up the difference from batteries. When the microwave shuts off, the generator is used to charge batteries again. But wait there's more... it has what they call dynamic power boost... when a generator is given a sudden load it make slow down or droop in voltage. These changes may exceed the limit of the invetrer and it will think there' something wrong with the generator and disconnect from it. When the dynamic power boost, the inverter will take the brunt of the new load and gradually relinquish power over to the generator.. .so the generator sees a gradual increase in power draw and the inverter takes the sudden surges. The really put a lot of thought in to this.

I've just learned that Victron makes a smart shunt that is only $75. This is the gold standard for keeping tabs on the state of charge of your batteries. JKBMS is a great BMS but it's SoC reading can be pretty inaccurate. You can use an ESP32 to convert the serial data from Smart Shunt to pylontech compatible inverters. https://a.co/d/3fjeeur

Where the usa is headed

Pro tip: install your solar ground mount in a shady place so you don't get too hot working in the sun. What are they THINKING????

Shipping containers can also rack and twist causing the doors to misalign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS_IM9fnhxE

I am at 33 degrees north. Since my house is well insulated, my HVAC system doesn't use any more power in winter than summer and since we drive the electric cars the same amount each month, I need to generate the same amount of power each month of the year. By running various tilt angles through the PVWATTS calculator (on line), I found that a 29degree tilt gives me the most annual production 15503kwh vs 15291kwh at a 40 degree tilt. I'm able to trade some higher producing months in the summer for a little extra production in the winter by tilting my panels steeper than textbook. Here we see that February is bad no matter what you do. The solution is to add more panels until February usage is covered.

Interesting seasonally adjustable panel mount... but... it needs jack screws, and if the wind kicks up it'll need to be stowed horizontally. There are part of me that loves this... and theres a part of me that says too much opportunity for a failure point... just buy more panels. The panels are the cheapest part of the system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u04C-M-FS9E

Man lost a lot of weight in an extended hospital stay. Dog didn't recognize him at first. The nose knows.

I lived in a tiny cabin on 50 acres for about a year before my wife moved in. I was sleeping on a cot, lived out of a duffle bag of clothes and had a rifle rack and a stack of ammo cans in the corner. This was all I needed. We’re simple creatures… Shit got harder when she came, I eventually had to upgrade the house, with that came greater expense…

Today: went to a neighbors house and killed and dressed 6 pigs. Hes got a storage building that is heavily insulated and chilled using a minisplit. We hung the 12 halves inside to be processed tomorrow. Sorry no pics.

Teachable moment. Don't break or over tax what you can't replace. A neighbor uses a pair of these mobile home axles to move his shipping containers. he didn't want to take an extra hour to unload 60 sheets of plywood nor his 1500lbs zero turn mower... and has now bent this axle. I found another mobile home axle yesterday but we have now discovered that it is too narrow. In the end, he unloaded the 60 sheets and drove the mower to my house for storage... but for lack of an hour of labor, he's cost himself a few days of hunting to replace that axle. We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it again.