No. We are not going to sit around after hot yoga and do “Ooouuummms” all day. We’re not doing chakras, we’re into another kind of energy – the sort you write checks for.
Energy of three types, in fact.
- Moods in soft space of the living room while the telly is on.
- How to get the max out of solar panels.
- And how to get the greatest effective radiated power (ERP) from your ham radio adventures working HF DX.
Why, it’s the kind of Column that should attract people from all walks of life:
- The Suzi Homemakers trying to capture that Sunset Mag look.
- The Greezers trying to save a buck on power bills.
- And the Exceptionals who are ham radio operators.
The only things missing are sex secrets, flying stories, and a couple of shots of hooch. Ah, but hey, the day is early… Just don’t confuse the teflon drawer spray with the adult lubricant and…oh…off script?
The Halogen Hanging
No bones about it; I was terribly disappointed in the Amazon Prime deals this year. Maybe it’s because we’ve slammed into the wall of Consumer Super-Saturation (we all have too much shit). Or, maybe because when the end of Life is in sight (most of us can find it on a map now) the detachment process gets organized.
Case in point?
That halogen torchier lamp in the living room. Dimmable. Elegant. Also, stupid.
Elaine had it on one night, and I — being curious and a bit reckless — held my hand over the top of it. Just to see how much heat it threw off.
Answer?
Too damn much.
Picked one up during Prime and it was like $55-hucks. The reason was simple. Halogen lights are a two-edged sword. Not only will they put off 300 watts of light, but most all of that turns into heat. And in the summer in East Texas, you get to pay twice. Because with the five ton unit running hard enough to keep the house a comfortably 75, we were (dumb as it sounds) paying twice.
- Once to generate heat the light threw off
- And again to get rid of it
Laying on of Hands: It’s gone. Into the guest room (/G2 quarters when he’s around). That room is fairly well-insulated and vacant in the summer. In the winter, a 300-watt with it’s heat lamp costume on is fine. Live and let live.
Let’s Run the Numbers
8,760. Number familiar to you? No? That’s how many hours are in a year.
At 300 watts (light and heat) and another 300 watts to remove it, that’s 5.256 megawatt hours a year if the light’s on all the time. Or, 5,256 kilowatt-hours. Which at 20 cents each sucks how much out of the wallet? Potentially? $1,051 per year.
The new LED light – cranked up as far as it will go – tops out at 30 watts – so that makes its energy consumption annual right around $105 bucks.
Beer Money Found!!!
Obviously, the savings of $900 and change won’t happen IRL (In Real Life) because no one is stupid enough to leave a 300-watt halogen all the time. (Unless you have kids or guests, then all bets are off so let’s just pour shots and be done with it.)
Still – given Elaine likes soft ‘mood lights’ the payback on this could be as little as 4-5 months. Certainly a one-year break-even.
And that’s how we “channeled some energy” from the hot house back into the wallet. This free up beer money, though at just $75 a month for beer you won’t have many friends…
Ready for another OGT (Old Geezer Trick)?
Solar Rewire
The second energy channeling session this weekend involved the weekly inspection of the solar panels. We (finally) had a few days of full sun this week and the solar was happily cranking, not selling back as much to the grid as I was expecting. Here’s what the Solar Detective found:
No, that solar 3-way “Y” connector didn’t come from the factory that way, melted to that odd angle. It simply got up to near the melting point because I had done a “simple” job of wiring the north array panels. Current becomes heat if you add enough – remember welding school?
A simple wiring of panels is easy, but you have to use big-ass (expensive) thick primary wire. The racks are all coming in on #4 to the power center and even this was sketchy. But now let me show you something most people don’t know. If you just hook up the (+)’s and the (-)’s and run them on big cable to our charge controllers, you may be outside the “normal range” for MPPT (maximum power point tracking) controllers. Fine print for ours turned up and in the fine print they admit not not getting really useful until much higher voltages are seen from the panels. How’d I miss that?
The panels that I’m about to replace – in fact I’ll be working on these this morning – is the middle rack which was done this (simple, lazy, quick) way because I started off (2008) with a sketchy charge controller. But later (2010-2012 – somewhere in there) – I upgraded to the pair of Outback FlexMax 60’s. Here’s the difference. The old panels (being upgraded under the same conditions) were putting out like this: (squint, this is a test)
Second line: 26.3 volts times 32 amps. Volts times amps is power so the old panels are putting out only 841.6 watts.
The less old panels (bought used) – the south rack – are sitting right at the output limit of the charge controller:
Shopping tip: the current rating on charge controllers is on the output of the controller – which for the Flexmax’s is 60 amps on the output to the 24 V battery bank.
26.5 volts times 60.2 amps. (second line down). Which is (V x I = P) 1,595.3 watts. When the new panels go on the middle rack, even without any change to the charge controllers, we will pick up a “free” 754-watts so about one more horsepower (which is 745 watts) worth of “work”. And that will be all the time. (yes, when the sun’s up…duh)
That that doesn’t solve the “melted connector” part of the equation. That’s on the north array. Again, simply paralleled the panels.
Because I was using old Trace C40’s and was running the “simple” wiring – which lead to the high current fail of the connector – the right answer was to dump the old C40s and put in a 100-amp MPPT controller which ought to be along this week thanks to Prime days. When it shows up, the north array will put out 80+ volts (open circuit -VoC) and the current will be halved.
When all’s said and done, we can then sit the FlexMax’s combined 26.5 volts and 120 amps, plus an additional (up to 100 amps at 26.5) which should let us sell a lot more power into the grid. This will get all the panels into the “sweet spot” for MPPT controllers (1.5-2X battery voltage) and that in turn will give us another (effective) 1-2 hours of daylight driving the system.
Side-by-side the MPPT with series parallel panels (putting out 80V into he charge controller which drops it to 24 V) was putting out almost 300-watts early in the morning while still in the shade. While the “normally wired” (all parallel panels) was only putting out between 60-90 watts. Because our panels are oversized (if you go by the NEC specs) we will still be getting useful power even on partly cloudy days.
The NEC spec for the FlexMax’s recommends 2000 watts of panels (on a 24 V system). The additional above that (on the new middle rack which will be 3,250 watts of panels) will be current-limited to 1,600 watts. BUT on those partly cloudy days, lower light and all, we will be much closer to breaking even on all but air conditioning loads.
A further bonus: Because the wire runs (on the #4 wire from the racks) will now be at twice the voltage the ampacity tables tell us to expect big reduction in power losses. You can illustrate this by remembering #12 house wiring at 120 volts can do up to 20 amps (If pushed), but that means at 240 volts, you can run the same current and get twice the work done. Because it’s 2.4 kilowatts on the 120 volt circuit and 4.8 kilowatts on the higher voltage leg. Same principle works on panel to controller wiring.
No, you won’t have to take a test on this, but if you want the most power (least losses) in like an RV install, remember that two panels in series putting out 40 volts instead of two parallel panels with VoC of 20V, will have better low light and less wire losses.
My God, you’re clever, huh?
Ringing the Decibels
Here – look at this off-center fed dipole antenna. Spot the problem?
“Does that line to the left really go UP? Up on the right, too”
Bingo!
That’s why my fascination with getting rid of the big (very good) balun in the middle came from. It’s too heavy to get up really high on a floppy fiberglass pole. I haven’t had time (or the inclination) to take the antenna gun or drones out to flop a halyard over the 100 foot pines, besides, those leafy trees gotta come down anyway and it’s still too hot for logging. So I just hung it at the 30-foot level over the summer. That worked, OK…but barely. And on 20-meters modeled out like this:
Yeah, not totally sucky for what it is: 4.41 db compared to a dipole which makes it about 5.87 dbRef (adding back modeling losses) and then add back the dbi convention (2.15) and it’s been OK with the middle at 30 feet with much higher ends.
Definitions: dBRef is the EZNEC model gain relative to a reference antenna. When you are modeling to compare to sa conventional dipole, the comparison is set to 2.15 dbi.
Now look what will happen when I get the middle up to where it should be – and this is before the bonus from going to ladder line and a balanced tuner! Like with solar, higher voltage = lower losses.
Now we have 7.22 plus the modeling loss add-back, so what’s that 8.67 dbRef. Yeah…that’s more like it. Laid up at 50′ and with the antenna north-south (remembering that at multiples of the primary frequency above the second harmonic, OCFDs and dipoles in general tend to become ‘end-firing’ – so yes, this will be like running the amplifier, but without the power bill.
OR, finally getting around to DXCC-QRP but not sure if I’ll have time for that on this ride through Life, or not. There are booked to write, shop projects, and a 77th birthday at DisneyWorld you know…
OK, still have to open up the new Evolution table saw and do that whole review deal, but I won’t mention it because that tends to jinx things. Has so far…
Write when you get rich,
George@ure.net /ac7x
Knock, knock
Who is there ?
Harmonics
Harmonics Who?
33
Knock,knock
Who is there?
Harmonics
Harmonics who?
695
Knock, knock
Who is there?
Harmonics
Harmonics who?
288
Knock, knock
Who is there
Harmonics
Harmonics who?
371244 -bridge to infinity.
Who is Captain Bruce CATHIE ?
What is “ portal” that returning space vehicles must navigate to enter Earths atmosphere? Why do nukes have to be inside one when detonated ? Why John von Neumann only one who knew formulas for when where to detonate ? Why were the real scientists involved in making bomb WAVE ONLY scientists. Why has Never been a Picture of an Atom produced ? No not simulated, rendition, or any other false representation of Reality. Show this observer an actual Picture of an Atom and I will show You a real Nuke.
Until that Time, it’s all FAKE .
Waves bye-bye
This was actually covered in a novel – 1970 if I recall. Title was “The Jesus Factor” and it hypothecated as the plot base that nukes could not be exploded when in motion. And early leak of the idea? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jesus_Factor And who was Corley? https://web.archive.org/web/20091128195135/http://edwincorley.com/default.htm
In praise of LED lights. I live off grid with solar power and a small generator that occasionally get used in the Winter as a backup to keep the batteries topped off.
I use 12 volt LEDs sold as tail lights for cars to light my house. I use one “warm white” and one “bright white” in each of the $5 Jelly Jar porch light fixtures that I use. I took the guts out of the fixtures and just hung the LEDs inside. Several of such fixtures in a larger room and as few as one or two inside smaller rooms.
The light level in my house may not be as high as city people like, but it’s more than enough for my off grid lifestyle. Those wanting more light could just use more LEDs.
Led lights in glass jars get really hot. I have put them in blue wine bottles and in Mason jars. I have only used tiny string lights with batteries. I worried about them starting a fire. Have you had problems with that?
Wow – new one on me!
“No bones about it; I was terribly disappointed in the Amazon Prime deals this year. Maybe it’s because we’ve slammed into the wall of Consumer Super-Saturation (we all have too much shit). Or, maybe because when the end of Life is in sight (most of us can find it on a map now) the detachment process gets organized.”
G.A. STEWART: Kübler Ross came up with the five stages of grief and loss, “denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.”
When coming across my books and this website, the Alternative Media is still in the Denial and Anger stage. I got it right and there ain’t no hope; Alex Jones is not going to save you, Matt Drudge is not going to save you, Tucker Carlson is not going to save you, QANON is not going to save you; there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny, and Donald J. Trump is not your fairy-godmother.
My work here has allowed me to move onto the acceptance stage. Western civilization is going to collapse; when is the big question. I think that The When is what drives many readers to come to this website. Most of us have figured it out for ourselves, and we can all see that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. When being told that they have a terminal disease, most people want to know The When and how much time remains on the clock.
https://theageofdesolation.com/dedication-discipline-and-bullshit-patriotism/
Nobody is coming to save us!
Which is why I wrote Downsizing JC. I am marshalling resources, honing the focus, and looking to the handful of family friends and neighbors who will be the “tribe after government.” When their waving of a piece of paper proclaiming “ownership/title” fails and when money is seen as a shame, it will be back to the means of production – seeds, ground working gear, and maybe a lot of rounds…dunno. But it will be a different world and we needs to be ready. It’s liek Andy and the tide. Doesn’t wait. It’s coming.
True George,
Proverbs 13:20, “He who walks with wise men will be wise.”
Good insight,
You become the company you keep. This includes attitudes and torchier lamp, table saws, coffee cups and hammers. To The Hammer, the whole world nails.
nailed it!
Yesterday, I told the story about being in the company of Champions. and attitudes and a different set of tools. The Ace of Clubs and The Business tie.
This morning as I read Ure Sunday post, I am sitting in the sun, on the deck with a red headed bunny in the front yard shaking her tail, some female deer and Samual the Cat, who is a mighty hunter, smoking a cigarette, and drinking cup of coffee out of a Key Bank Cup while listening to the birds sing. I am entertaining the 5 stages of winning 5 times five, times five, 5 times been there done that, got the t-shirt.
I have no time for the 5 stages of grief.
Sam the cat is very wise and moves back and fourth between Samual the Prophet and Sampson the Great. Biblical for the rats of NIMH as he hangs out on the line of tall grass and freshly mowed and catches them in abundance there.
Thanks for the smile, fair trade.
MIT released an up-date to their civilization collapse scenario. About eighteen months ago we had roughly 24 years before the collapse of civilization.., when it all goes to hell., everywhere.
The new report says we have less than 15 years. Roughly 2040. And seemingly, very little we can do about it.
If you take the time to read [ the very poorly written research ] there were three very large caveats to that 15 years before we go nearly extinct. All three combined will drop that 15 years to around seven years – and that is barring any nuclear exchange. [ or biological?] Right around 2032.
The three caveats where not included in the computer data because we still have a chance to alter all three., to change the impact of them.., but even if we do it will only extend the time-line out to the 15 year scenario. They won’t add any more years.
As far as the computers’ take on the current world data – we only have 15 years.., and that the collapse will be felt starting in about 12 years. [ 2037 ]
– Personally.., I don’t think we have those 12 years.
You’re in Chelan, and we’re in the outback. The reason the PN piece was about the fall of city states? They all have an expiration dates. Beach with a lake or land full of snakes, not gonna be pretty for the city fakes.
In my own way, I do feel sorry for the people in the large cities. They’re not all bad., there are some good people still living in them.., but sadly I don’t think the good will get much of chance. Once any collapse starts in those cities it will expand and roll thru the streets like a wild fire. I don’t think that there will be any way to stop it from happening., once total chaos rules, the mobs and gangs will expand out into the subs.. and that is where the fight-to-the-finish will take place.
I really don’t want to see, or hear about it – but I know I will.
Denial of Climate Change is the real killer now:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/gaya-herrington-mit-study-the-limits-to-growth
“The MIT scientists said we needed to act now to achieve a smooth transition and avoid costs,” Herrington told the Guardian this week. “That didn’t happen, so we’re seeing the impact of climate change.”
At the same time, she says, the primary concerns of the MIT study have been supplanted. “Resource scarcity has not been the challenge people thought it would be in the 70s and population growth has not been the scare it was in the 90s. Now the concern is pollution and how it perfectly aligned with what climate scientists are saying,” she said. (Resources were a worry until U.S. discovery, we hold largest Oil reserves in the world – double edged sword, fossil fuel pollution will end our world!)
https://www.aogr.com/web-exclusives/exclusive-story/u.s.-holds-most-recoverable-oil-reserves
“The MIT scientists said we needed to act now to achieve a smooth transition and avoid costs,” Herrington told the Guardian this week. “That didn’t happen, so we’re seeing the impact of climate change.”
Retiree’s world definitely going bust in 2033, unless somebody learns math and fixes the surplus of Billionaires not paying taxes to the surplus of Seniors at the food bank:
https://apnews.com/article/social-security-medicare-trust-fund-trump-74e13292f510739724a555d7ded7c1a3
‘Meanwhile, Social Security’s trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. After that point, Social Security would only be able to pay 81% of benefits.
The go-broke date — or the date at which the programs will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefits — was pushed up to 2033 for Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, according to the new report from the programs’ trustees. Last year’s report put the go-broke date at 2036.’
“and maybe a lot of rounds…”
Hmm… if it gets that bad and the ranch is under assault, then use of fire power becomes necessary, resulting in a possible accumulation of dead bodies.
Dead Body Disposal.
Do you have a plan for that? A designated “Boot Hill” or perhaps a mass grave somewhere on the property?
Does Amazon sell portable crematorium ovens?
OK, I think I’ll go watch Vincent Price now in “The Last Man on Earth.”
Yeah we have plans
No we don’t talk about them
No we don’t want company
Yes everything we do is legal
Question is can govt make the same claims?
Uhm, take ’em to the trainstation? (Yellowstone last stop)
Too soon? Around here, way in the sticks? Nature will handle it.
Hope it never comes to this, some ugly stand your ground thing.
Let’s not,
Egor
I didn’t make any major purchases for Prime Day. There were some really good prices on things I want, but want and need only coincide by happenstance.
Restaurants and coffee shops which should be bustling with business are empty this morning.
You always give a trapped rat an out, otherwise you may get bit. The list of cornered rats keeps growing. Debt slaves and minimum wage service workers top the list. I look for a leftist counter-offensive to pick up steam in the fall.
I wonder if the scientists in North Carolina or the Wuhan Institute have started trying to turn this into a gain of function enhanced rage virus:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14888435/Teenager-dies-brain-swelling-bat-virus-India-officials-confirm-second-pandemic.html
What will the medicals think of next ?
Has the military or the State Department started importing yet ?
Maybe you could have a Sunday session to discuss bracing a wire fence for inward side-loads ?
The fed will spread that one – inflation rage
Mood lighting? When I was in the hustle, mood lighting was a couple of real wax candles.
That’ll get her in the mood.
Stiks
Old men say: Go to sleep with candle on, may not live to see the dawn.
Go to sleep with moody light, who cares what hour, day or night?
They make LED flicker candles now that won’t start fires, but still set a nice mood.
A kink emerges from somewhere deep in the southern Pacific. Ixnay on the burning hot Waxay..
Never once have I ever been “involved” in a candle “scene” where dripping hot wax was not part of the festivities..
https://youtu.be/Hu2BeyxdZyI?si=IG8QMeLl6YdISQFu
You GO Stiks !
Someone gave me a halogen light similar to what you describe. Every time it burned out, it tripped a breaker. I’ve been leery of them ever since.
always back to G . george my jedi senses are sharp . the dark side is weak ,they are desperate. so many have now been dragged into their evil spin. not G . its time G .may the force be with you
“That halogen torchier lamp in the living room.”
There’s a reason it’s called a “Torchier” (aka Torch). You could always retrofit the socket for a cool LED illuminair.
Series solar panels is a trick of the commercial systems. My leased SunRun system runs series panels at…(gasp!). 400 volts! There’s a reason for the warning stickers on the PV wiring pipes & junctions. Of course, the controller must me made for that high voltage. Keeps the inverter transformer smaller also.
“OK, still have to open up the new Evolution table saw and do that whole review deal, but I won’t mention it because that tends to jinx things. Has so far…”. Hate to be a spoiler, but In case you have forgotten, Marcury goes retrograde July 17. You may already be involved.
My God HGank – bang on dude – I am in it because I retro 2 weeks early – now my oral surgery makes way more sense. thanks
Gosh … and to think I still use an old style Thermometer.
WHAT WILL I DO? Does the fact that the thermometer goes negative mean that I will be D.E.A.D. … and not just know it?
OMG, and to think I haven’t reserved a date next week yet for the services. Do undertakers accept walk in’s? (or rather flat in’s … or whatever)
Hank, you really threw a monkey wrench in my summer plans … will switching to an electronic thermometer save me?
Umm…. Mercury the planet… Not your thermometer. And I thought mercury thermometers were outlawed. Are you in criminal possession?