Solar Power–For Harvey and Beyond

by

A buddy of mine asked about buying a commercial “solar power source” for camping.  You know the story, got a new trailer, don’t want a big noise-maker.

After I jumped up and down and screams “Don’t do it!” at the top of my lungs, it occurred to me that a lot of people in Post-Harvey Land could use a SIMPLE short course on Solar Power. 

You wish is my keyboard…

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20 thoughts on “Solar Power–For Harvey and Beyond”

  1. I know this has absolutely nothing to do with today’s conversation but hey it is an interesting read.. I haven’t researched it to see its credibility.. but thought I would share.. sure would put a new light on some of the things going on or about to happen even though we have known for years that the USA is supposedly one of the largest suppliers of illegal arms to terrorist factions and the top one play each side against the other to get the results they are wanting to happen.http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2017/02/10-countries-export-major-weapons-170220170539801.html( IMHO These things aren’t going to happen we would be fools to do that..)
    its still an interesting morning read.
    https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-inequality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest/.
    https://trud.bg/350-diplomatic-flights-carry-weapons-for-terrorists/

  2. George,
    Just finished reading today’s Peoplenomics on solar power system design. Wish you had written it a month ago… Moved to the Oregon coast west of Portland a year ago, and began to get a little paranoid about the Cascadia fault doing it’s millennial unzip. Needless to say, now have half the system you laid out at only twice the price.

  3. Comments to “out of the box”:
    1. Arms data inflation adjusted? The $18b in 1960 is the same as $146b in 2016. Ergo, today’s arms spending appears to be 1/3 – 1/4 that of 1960.

    2. Saudi Arabia is listed as a big importer. Yep, the U.S. is shipping an airfoce to them almost as big as the Russian airforce.

    3. Dumb rich kids don’t graduate from college.

    Smart poor kids will need reasons other than money not to graduate. One seldom stated is that legal and illegal immigration takes their jobs, literally kicking them off the ladder of success.

    Otherwise, they pretty much get a free ride. Moreover, more qualified White’s, especially males, will be denied the opportunity. This helps explain why there are significantly more females than males in colleges.

    • LMAO.. I guess I will have to tell some of my rich friends kids they should quit while they are ahead even though I truly fear the future with two of them once they graduate because I think my dog is smarter than them and can’t see how they are even possibly making it through college.( needless to say I have never told my friends that I think their kids are a box of rocks even though one parent basically has the same fear I do but wants to see the best for their child like any parent.. in my opinion you should be able to read and comprehend what you are reading in college.. LOL LOL LOL
      as far as poor whit kids.. no one gives them a break on costs.. “The interest rate for undergraduate students is 4.45% for the 2017-18 school year, up from 3.76% for the current year. Graduate students can borrow at a rate of 6%, up from 5.31%. And for graduate students and parents who take out PLUS loans, the interest rate will be 7%, up from 6.31%.”
      for even a general college degree the person leaving would have to make at least three dollars an hour more an hour.. I don’t know how the wage scale is there but here a two year nursing grad going on to further their education will only get a twenty five cent increase for a six dollar an hour cost for increased college costs.. My wife was offered to continue her education after we did the math it just didn’t work out financially if we took out loans to continue the education not to mention the loss of income for loss of work time which has to be factored into this . I have four grandkids in college this year even with the scholarships they have will amass a debt of over a hundred grand and more just in tuition costs over the number of years they will have to go to get the degree’s they want.. I am sure two with the goals they have will be over a quarter mil the one at this point in his college will have to make seven dollars an hour just for the school loan payment… One is working three jobs and going to college trying to make it without getting any loans ( I hope she can do it she was just telling me that its hard but she is giving it her best). https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/02/19/seattles-15-minimum-wage-jobs-down-unemployment-up-this-isnt-working-is-it/#ab247982b5cd.
      Now.. if you meant refugee’s get a free ride.. well years ago I worked with a refugee.. we got less than ten hours a week of work but he was gauranteed forty because of him being a refugee.. he got housing, medical, dental, food stamps, a car and free college and back in those days they still sent out checks for the income tax .. I had to work six jobs to make enough to survive when he got his check he got every dime deducted from him for social security income tax and medicare he got in every dime the company sent in and it was the year they implimented the giveaway program of EIC.. his check was more than I grossed working six jobs and I had to pay in. so if you meant the refugee’s get the jobs our boys leave behind to go fight for their homes in their countries.. your right on the money a refugee has a better chance getting a job than a poor child in any city… Like I said.. I didn’t research the article I read but it sure was a good read..

      “In 2015, the United States led in arms transfer agreements worldwide, making agreements valued
      at $40.2 billion (50.29% of all such agreements), up from $36.1 billion in 2014”

      https://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44716.pdf

      http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2016/Costs%20of%20War%20through%202016%20FINAL%20final%20v2.pdf

  4. It’s eerie dealing with the Harvey event. I spent the last few days helping others clear out the mess of their possessions ruined by rising water. I typed a few comments on blogs where people were making all the noises about ‘poor planning’ bad zoning’ and all the rest. As if Houston is the only state where zoningn can be bought by rich developers. As if anyone was prepared for a 1000 year storm. As if on all of their second guessing and backseat driving.

    What is eerie is that in the face of this sh&tstorm, I don’t really give a tinkers damn about what the federal government is doing. It became very obvious that government and news media are 100% parasitic organisms with Harvey.

    Local governments are dictating orders from command centers where things are 2-dimensional and trying to make everything into an elephant – because they only have elephant guns. State is the same, just farther away and even less concerned at this point. Nationally, we have slipped off the media radar, except when they can gin up a story that makes Houston or Texas look bad – because we are predominantly a red state at this point.

    Locals have shaken off listening to government officials, and ignoring them in many cases, especially when their ideas and solutions are simply stupid, impossible to execute or outright dangerous. Government at all levels is overwhelmed, and if you even begin to see a story about how FEMA or some other entity has things ‘under control’ or ‘safely contained’ or other such – know it is absolute malarkey.

    What is getting people through this and making a difference is neighbors and churches and LEOs in many cases. It is good to see LEOs not blindly obeying orders but using their brains and listening to the locals. The ERTs are doing a great job too, and they are mostly non-government and church based.

    Like everyone, we have good and bad neighbors. Hence the looters. Most of those doing this stuff are actually being protected by laws – we can’t shoot them because the law would prosecute us. They will never be prosecuted because things are chaotic at the jails and such – they get cut loose mostly because they are teens. The gangs are the ones trying to imitate ERTs and they are beginning to get return fire today. We are done with certain things, such as looters, and police are in short supply. Many police have been flooded out as well.

    Reading the column today, it’s as if I am in another continent, and George is writing away as normal, but things are not at all normal just a couple hours away from him. I get the feeling this is a harbinger of things to come.

    Government is dwarfed by the number of people affected by Harvey, and their need for aid in one fashion or another. They cannot even prioritize, because there is just too much screwed up around the area.

    If we ever have some kind of event where the people get enough, insurrection or such, there is no doubt in my mind that government will be quickly overrun. I’m seeing it now all around. It’s a numbers thing, and they don’t have enough.

    Its also why, when things get hard like they have down here, stupid edicts and orders and laws will simply be ignored if they are contrary to people trying to survive and help their fellows.

    It gives me hope, but as I have maintained all along – until the suffering gets to the point that bearing it makes no sense any longer, things will continue as they are. But every incident like this, where federal people get in the way or glom on for airtime and to feel important, just lessens the pretense of their control of things.

    It is patently obvious down here who is in control, and it is Texans helping Texans and southerners helping southerners.

    Final note – met 2 ATF guys coming down from Missouri to ‘help’, when I got gas up near my farm. They were carrying their precious Glocks openly while riding down, with their ATF shirts all bright and clean. I asked them what they were doing, and their answer was “coming to help”. I asked how they were going to help, and their response was “we are the ATF”. WTF, over?

    That’s why solutions will become more and more local.

    • O2….You are right on the money in my humble opinion.. the Mud Monkeys in DC … That are on vacation.. won’t do anything unless it’s going to make them look good. Needless to say I don’t have a very high level of confidence in them.. maybe if they had learned teemwork at some point and came together to accomplish anything at all I would feel better. But since they haven’t been able to do anything at all for decades except let the lobbyists for the one percent control legislation I don’t see my level of confidence increasing anytime soon.
      I do have to say the church group efforts impress me a lot like the Mormon yellow shirts.. they gather strength and members from all over to assist in an emergency..the other one is the salvation army.. I bet they are hip deep in mud and much lending a hand.

    • Your commentary today reminds me of reading about West Point Second Louie greenhorns getting their commands killed off during the Indian Wars, because they were “smarter” than their line sergeants…

      You can’t teach experience in a classroom, only stupid (in this case, rules and protocols which have a general application, BUT CAN NOT BE APPLIED to ANY SPECIFIC INCIDENT) and no-one can prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime (or many lifetimes) event. Houston is different than NOLA, Joplin, or anything else in the memories of the still living (it’s probably most-similar to Galveston, BTW, unless Irma makes an unprecedented change in course.)

      The rules that apply to tropical storms don’t apply to tornadoes, earthquakes, firestorms, radiation dumps, or any other large-scale catastrophe, except in the most general of terms. “Authorities” who read the manuals, take the general guidelines proffered in same, and specifically apply them to every catastrophic incident (I know… I’ve read the manuals and seen both how they’re written, and how FEMA, et. al. expect them to be applied.) This doesn’t work, for any incident, of any type, in any locale, for the individuals affected. Common sense and adaptability are really the required skills necessary for those who’re “on the ground,” yet are actively discouraged by the FEMA/ANRC guidelines.

      Every single affected individual has their own problem, which has it’s own unique solution. The “guidelines” are designed to maintain or re-establish governmental authority first (‘cuz we’z two stoopid ta knows what too do, on our own), then communication, then S&R (search and rescue includes “food” and “shelter” BTW), then recovery. It is a great template for a locale, but not for the individual inhabitants of that locale, whose priorities begin and end with S&R.

      Good luck with your efforts, Sir…

      • I guess.. I would have had a little more confidence in the mud monkeys on the hill if they would have taken the situation a tad bit more serious than they have.. like maybe start a special session work together and who knows maybe even pull out their specticals and actually read the FEMA guidelines.. but .. they didn’t.. they are suppose to be back this week though till they leave for their next vacation..
        it wasn’t that long ago.. that JR. caught a S/S of flack for not taking Katrina serious enough.. but then.. if the puppet masters don’t want it.. or they can see a profit in the devastation.. then that is which path we probably will head down.. gas prices up ten cents a gallon makes how much profit.. its all a business model IMHO

    • Dear Sir:

      I am responding specifically in regard to your comments about ‘zoning’. I have to admit that I haven’t kept track of zoning issues for a long time as ‘on the whole’ problems with zoning (except for things like small-scale glass manufacturing) have not been a concern in the Portland area, for a while.

      As I see it, there are a couple of focal points regarding ‘zoning’ having to do with the disaster of Harvey. First, what are the laws and regulations in your area regarding building in a flood plain – even one so ‘historic’ as a five-hundred or one thousand year event? Insurance or rather the lack of being able to get it – may end up being a controlling factor in the ability to rebuild.

      Secondly, and what is most amazing to me – is that residences and other business of non-dangerous types are in the same neighborhood as that plant that uses those chemicals that explode. This type of facility should be isolated, with other like plants, so that if the worst happens – people are not in immediate danger. (That explosion in West and the one in Henderson, NV. years ago, illustrate the inherent danger of some product manufacture as well.)

      Forty years ago, I attended a speech by someone from ‘Thousand Friends of Oregon’ regarding zoning, and its importance in regulating the quality of life in my state. Our state was thought as being elitist working on this idea.

      I think that Texas should consider the value of zoning.

      Thank you.

  5. I think your Displaced Moving Averages has some real merit… at least based on my first trade using it. Also, I back tested it & it shows a lot of promise.

    • I forgot to add – Trend Channels appear to be a very important part when using this system. I noticed how important they were when I did the back testing.

  6. Deutsche Bundesbank Frankfurt was holding 50% of Germany’s gold bullion as of repatriation completion achieved last week. Sunday, September 3rd, the money museum will be closed to the public as the Deutsche Bundesbank is within the evacuation radius of the 1.4 ton British WW2 bomb being defused nearby.

  7. We just went to solar pool heating. Love it. It was a hard sell to my husband but now he loves it. Works way better than elec and gas and costs nothing to operate. The down stroke was relatively cheap considering the cost and installation of the heat wave options. The only worry is Irma and if it survives but if it goes so will half the roof so who cares. I suppose. Irma is going to be big and somebody is going to get the brunt of it. Hopefully not us.

  9. How to help

    Visit or call your local V.F.W
    VISIT or call your local salvation army
    Bring a gas can
    Bring some water
    Bring some snacks
    Clean out your garage and donate . THANKS
    Call your local radio station and start something or join something. and thanks again

  10. Mr. Ure consider this your pattern interrupt and reframe on the don’t do it. The “value” of human labor in wattage is 90 or so watts for the upper body and 200 or so for the legs. (legs – 200 watts of pedal power) Thus any set of panels has a value like the labor of the people at the camper. The problem for Americans is they have a strong desire to consume electrical power and odds are that will exceed the output of the system that can be applied to the camper. The 1st and cheapest step for this requester is to go on an ‘energy diet’ for the camper. And understand that unless they decide to make the panels portable they have to thermally load the camper to obtain the electrical power. (AKA park in the Sun)

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