Off The Grid

Just spoke to one of my old ham radio buddies. He's interested in solar and wants to run his large loads. His ground source heat pump, water heater, etc. So we start talking about his heat pump... He's pumping water out of a shallow well with a 1hp pump motor to supply the heatpump with water. problem is, he's LIFTING the water, not recirculating it. This means he's using well over 1/2 hp just to lift water any time the heat pump is running. that's an additional 400-750w on top of the 1300w that heatpump pulls. He said the last heat pump lasted him 22 years and he was so pleased that he got another water source heat pump. It keeps him from needing heat strips. All true but there's that nagging voice in the back of my heat about that extra 750w. Anyhow, I'm steering him towardsa hybrid system since he wants to remain on grid. He also doesn't have the yard space to put up enough panels to cover his annual usage. So I'm steering him toward a hybrid inverter that can run a critical loads panel 24/7 (ie all the smaller loads in his house including the stove), and have the hybrid inverter back feed his main panel which will continue to host the HVAC and water heater. If we put CT's (current transformers) on the lines feeding his main panel then his inverter will make /just/enough/ power to zero his meter but no more. If that HVAC system needs to start, the surge will come from the grid so we don't need to worry with surge capacity. When a storm comes and knocks down his power, the house will operate normally except for air cond and hot water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNIv_KvvQ8

How to safely remove a 9mm projectile from a cartridge casing. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CadZYBdTxXg

How to safely remove a 9mm projectile from a cartridge casing. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CadZYBdTxXg

https://youtu.be/SJTGPeJWh3E

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U8Ldw60_d6g Wife just pointed me to these wood stoves

American food ingredients then and now. Always read the ingredients and nutrition facts.

I was looking at the terms of netmetering for another neighbor 30 minutes away... His co-op will allow net metering and they say two things: 1)They do not pay out for excess power. OK, this is understandable. 2) they reset the account in JUNE. This is nuts for the consumer. If you have any overage "on account" then they wipe it out in june and you enter the summer starting from zero. Let me explain.... highest energy draw is heating and cooling... In jan/feb and July/aug we tend to pull the most power. In april/may and oct/nov we make lots more power than we need and it can be exported to the grid for our later use. So you spend the spring banking up excess power and BLAM the power company wipes out your account just in time for your air cond to come on. Lovely. Grid tie is less and less appealing.

One of our German Shepherds was with me at the pond yesterday. he's the "grumpy old man" personality. Zhere vill be no nonsense around zis dog from ze other dogz.... so he waded out into the water up to his shoulder and then started bouncing around like he was a puppy.... he came out of the pond quite happy and refreshed! Maybe a little non-sense today. We shall see.... lol

Pollen-pocalypse has begun

Pollen-pocalypse has begun