diy solar

diy solar

Recent content by JeepHammer

  1. J

    going overboard with plants?

    If I stop, due to age and injury, I lock up. I can't say I didn't like the attention given to being fit when about everyone else my age had gained a lot of weight... Instead of driving 35 miles to do phsyical therapy, then driving back home, I just turned a lot of the chores into phsyical...
  2. J

    going overboard with plants?

    Honestly, 16 years in the Marines before I went back to farming and metal shop work... Call it 'Zen' or whatever, but I can't do anything about nukes, so I don't let them enter my plans/thought processes. Either you die or you don't... With 5 to 7 years of food stored for all my close friends...
  3. J

    going overboard with plants?

    Watermelons AND apples this week... They came in together this year, so I'm WORKING MY BUTT OFF! Can't complain much, other than living on ibuprofen for the old, sore muscles. The apple trees are so loaded we have had to rope the limbs off to keep them from breaking, and the fridge size melon...
  4. J

    Sol-Ark 15K AC coupled setup to reduce grid supplied power

    I don't want to side track the thread... Sol-Arc 15 has both AC and DC coupling capabilities (FINALLY!) and with a few installs under my belt I'm still learning g what it's capable of. You can do the 'Up' side of both AC and DC coupling if you can get the configuration correct... And so far...
  5. J

    Off grid people ill-prepared

    Application... *IF* you could get the appliances you mentioned in reliable, reasonably priced and available DC versions, that argument goes out the window. See DC water well pumps for example. My biggest complaint is designed for obsolescence and replacment instead of repair and upgrade...
  6. J

    Off grid people ill-prepared

    It's the learning curve that gets most people... OFF GRID... 1. You produce (panels) in DC. You store (Batteries) in DC. You had better have a grasp of how to COMPLETE a DC circuit... Seeing just battery cable terminals on every solar forum tells me most people don't have a grasp on DC...
  7. J

    Energy Observer Boat... Solar/Wind Over Hydrogen Efficiency

    I worked on a hydrogen combustion engine project that lasted for about a minute back in the 90s, really no point to it except they paid me. The dyno doesn't lie... The volume of hydrogen it took to make any horsepower at all barred any reasonable usage by internal combustion. The boat... He...
  8. J

    Energy Observer Boat... Solar/Wind Over Hydrogen Efficiency

    I'm not a 'pie in the sky' type person, I don't get emotional either way. It either is, or it isn't. Political slant has no place in science or engineering. This would be a retrofit of a 100+ foot (103 feet i think) aluminum hull, beaching cargo/ferry catamaran. Holds one big truck/trailer or...
  9. J

    Energy Observer Boat... Solar/Wind Over Hydrogen Efficiency

    A former customer sent me this link (and others) and wants some idea of how this could be adapted to small cargo delivery throughout smaller islands. I don't know crap about hydrogen electrolysis or fuel cells, but if this is correct they are way more efficient than fossil fuel engines. Any...
  10. J

    Watching 'Stupid' In Action...

    Road signs, barns/sheds, farm equipment, cabins, even livestock, solar panels, anything that catches their eye... I subscribe to de-evolution theory now after 50 years of seeing what stupid people do. Explained by de-elolution theory. Humans are tribal and territorial by nature, take away...
  11. J

    Watching 'Stupid' In Action...

    Morons will find you there too... I'm the LAST DRIVEWAY on my county road, 17 miles from the nearest town, and they plugged in political signs on the mowed area at the end of my 9/10 mile long driveway. Ideally, I'm the ONLY person that will see them, so why plug them in on posted private...
  12. J

    going overboard with plants?

    I NEED daily phsyical therapy. If I don't I lock up solid because of nerve/bone damage. If you DON'T need the exercise, then go with a POWERED cement mixer. Try and find one you can get (or make) different drums for. Most of what you do won't be anywhere near the weight of concrete so plastic...
  13. J

    going overboard with plants?

    Sifter/screener. It's a box frame with a screen in the bottom, or if you want to power it, a drum with screen sides that rotates. One way to mix is a long piece of construction plastic, lay out your components on the plastic (sand, lime, leaf mold, whatever) then pick up one end and roll up the...
  14. J

    going overboard with plants?

    Never thought of it that way, but yes, kind of... About half wild grown. Rotten straw/hay, weed cuttings, etc become compost and I grow directly in that. Throw some bales/thatch on top for winter, just go turn it until I find potatoes as I need them. If I have greenies, or they have bad...
  15. J

    going overboard with plants?

    I've given up on 'Planting' potatoes entirely. You beat them into the ground, you beat them out of the ground, and you try to keep the bugs off them while they are growing. I went with rotten straw and hay bales. Dig a hole, throw the straw/hay/cut weeds in and plant in that. Really easy to...
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