Off The Grid

Can you use low volume compressed air?

Went over to local farmer doing the $24,000 system today to help him reroute a conduit out into his yard. He ran power "almost" to his shipping container and we needed to jog the conduit to one end of the container and extend it a bit. At the house end, we installed an additional panel box next to his primary and needed to move that same conduit over to the new box. So the whole time I'm carping about how you need to glue all the joins in the conduit under ground so it doesn't fill up with water.... and the far end that stubbed up near his shipping container had the last elbow broken so the conduit was full of water. If you can't lick 'em , join them.... So I drilled a weep hole in the bottom of the conduit and we will fill gravel around it. I don't know how to get all the water out except to tie a rag to the pull string and use it like wadding.

A little parable about solar.... Once upon a time there was a twilight zone episode where an astronaut was to trave to another star. It would take 70 years. He took off and humanity kinda forgot about him. In the mean time, scientists developed a faster way to get to this star. When he arrived 70 years later, there were already people coming and going to from this in a day's travel. Such is the tale of the Ivanpah solar plant. It was created when PV solar cost a lot more than it does today. It would have been profitable if the cost of PV panels hadn't come down so much. Like our 70 year astronaut, we never imagined the price would drop so much in 15 years. Everyone crying about the US solar tax subsidy going away.... the price of panels has come down so much that the project can be done cheaper today for cash than it could 10 years ago with the subsidy. The panels are the cheapest part of the system and also the most visible. Panels are usually 40c per watt give or take. You'll spend as much on racking as you do solar panels so those two a tied for cheapest part of the system. Next is inverters and MPPT chargers. Plan on spending anywhere from $1500 to $6500 for inverters. And the most expensive part of the system is the batteries. Plan to spend between $5000 and $12000 for batteries for a serious system. It is 100% possible to run a heat pump heated/cooled 1600sq ft house for $24,000 worth of solar equipment.

Heat water with spinning magnets. A poorman induction heater. Now imagine this on a windmill??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZAsmNeREXA

Rainy day today.... I figured out how to attach the 2" square tubing on end wall of greenhouse to the round tubes that are not straight up and down. And since I had dusted off the lathe, I turned two axel stubs for my future combination grocery cart bicycle cart. I'm going to put wheel chair wheels on a grocery cart to make a utility buggy for around the property.

The right tool for the job. I need a bushing inside a square tube to keep bolt from crushing it.... hobby lathe and bobs my uncle.

1940s infant exercise device designed to build leg strength

Your HVAC air handler will condense water when the air conditioning is running. That water has to go somewhere. If you just straight pipe it to the outside world, a portion of your precious cool air will escape out the pipe. The trick is to install a trap in the line with a "dip" that is greater than the inches of water pressure in the HVAC air handler. Water will fill the trap and stop errant air flow. When the trap over fills only the excess water will run down the drain. Two additional details. There needs to be a vent (or vacuum breaker) to prevent the drain pipe from siphoning all the water out of the trap, and TWO you need to install a drip pan under the HVAC unit with a shut off float switch. That way if the drain pipe gets plugged up and water backs up in the air handler, it will drip into the pan instead of your ceiling. The float switch will drop the HVAC system until you solve the problem.

When penetrating a wall for a flue pipe, tilt the bit that goes thru the wall downward slightly. All other horizontal runs of a flue should "run" up or level. Only the last bit sticking thru the wall should go downward, and never more than 1/4 the diameter of the flue. LP gas will cause water to condense in the pipe and 1) you need that water to run out, 2)water raining on the house of the house might run into the wall along the flue, so tilt it slightly down.

Another water tip. If you have a long horizontal run of something, water will run along the bottom. To stop that, put a stripe of caulk across the bottom of the pipe. Water will run to the "speed bump" on the bottom side of a pipe and stop... and drip there.

Tip du jour... Drip loop. There is no way to prevent water from forming on a cable or wire and then following it downward. So we use a drip loop. it can be a "belly" in the wire before it gets to your junction box or wall penetration or a loop. Water will run to the lowest point and drip off rather than continuing into your equipment. It is also advisable to bring wires into the bottoms of boxes rather than the sides if possible.

Greenhouse progress

Oh boy! A cauldron to cook children in!!

https://youtu.be/i7cHlEqKPPw very imformative.

Also, a family member works for Lowes, so I got an 80v Kobalt tiller for 20% off today. I'll use the large cultivator on the tractor probalby once a year, but I can spot till small sections of the green house at any time now.