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OK, it might not really do anything solar related but I am pleased to announce the arrival of my new Baby Ex. It arrived yesterday afternoon after a short gestation period of less than a week. Weighing in a 2200#s (1000kg) and healthy from the look of things. I hope if I feed and care for it...

You know how it is. Your original intention was to see if this solar stuff actually works. So you pick up a solar panel or two and prop them in the sun. A voltage reading tells you they are doing something so you hook up a SCC and a battery and all of a sudden nothing happens. Oh yeah the...

Heck that's nothing. I run my house, power the neighborhood, mine thousands of Bitcoins, run an illegal grow operation, and still have enough left over PV production to waste on watching boring Youtube videos. I do it all on a few 100w RV panels, 1 battery and a small 12vDC- 10,000w inverter.

Almost 2 years back I decided to try out these new fangled LiFePO4 batteries. Because I am cheap, and distrustful of things that are new to me, I bought the lowest cost liFePO4 battery I could find. No communication, no uploads to the 'Net, no fancy apps to monitor individual cells, no internal...

The Great Solar prohibition era was a fascinating one in the history of our country. Illegal "Sunshine" setups popped up everywhere and the G-men were busy with raids. The more well off people would go to Speakeasy solar bars and lounges where the power was served up by scantily clad waitresses...

After a couple of sun days here my batteries are all caught up and I could divert production to heating water yesterday. By 1pm it was more than enough to have a glorious warm shower and to run a load of clothes. The organically made electricity from my backyard is so much more gentle and...

Thought I would post up my inexpensive ground mount setup I just built for adding some more solar panels to my mix. This is a fixed angle arrangement. My other panels are on fully adjustable mounts but overtime I am finding it seems to work OK by simply keeping a yearly constant angle. The...

And here I thought this Thread was about all of us loners that use Solar as a compensation for having real relationships. Without solar to monopolize my attention I would be the life of the party. Instead I spend my day anxiously scanning the horizon for storm clouds.

Global warming, whether real or not, does not change power numbers. If you need "X" amount of power it has to come from somewhere. Just waving your hand and saying use alternative energy does not answer the math.

As I prepare to mount my last solar panels and hook them up it strikes me that I have reached the point where there is nothing left to do. The months spent investigating, researching, planning, building, wiring, tearing out, re-doing and just generally occupying my attention, are drawing to a...

Perhaps it is just me but I do not see the messages back and forth concerning a possible product defect and company response to it as being personal private messages that would enjoy privileged status. I do see them as being something that may not concern others up until satisfactory resolution...

Another advantage of the wood stove is you can cook your meals on it. I just got done cutting all the vegges and adding beef to a large pot for soup that will cook all day on the stove. This will be my dinner the next few days and no electricity is needed.

Understandable. Solar, depending on grid availability and cost, can be uneconomical to put in. It has no real pay back where I live with low fixed electrical rates. In my case I dabble in it for reasons that are not to save money. I could spend my money on wine, women and song but at my age I...

Not living near a Rookery can help with that. Also a first flush system, or like I use a sand filter unit, takes care of that. Though I will admit after drinking, cooking and bathing in only marginally filtered rain water (I tend to disinfect my tanks once a year with bleach) for the last 25...

Been looking at all the new offerings for AIO's this year with all kind of impressive specs. Hopefully there will be many folks that rush out and put them in operation so the inevitable quirks, faults and operational gotchas will be exposed. Also hopefully these early adopters are eager to...

This blasted forum has cost me money!!! Spending for things I can't afford with funds I don't have. Just when I think I can take or leave it temptation grabs me and out comes the wallet. I am thinking that I should join a Solar Anonymous group. "Hello my name is MattB4 and I am a PV junky. It...

The time eventually comes that all those temporary and make do methods you used to test out this solar power stuff needs to be redone and prettied up some. The solar panels propped up on concrete blocks in the yard, with whatever wire you could find hooked to it by rather dubious connection...

Insufficient data in order to extrapolate. With 5 people, if any of them are female, your electrical needs are exponentially higher to avoid living like savages. Not to pick on savages as there are many that feel living that way is a good thing. I will take a total guess and say you are a...

I need to setup an online school to qualify people to do their own PV installations. After a rigourous course of reading this Forum, and looking at several Videos from Will, a Final qualification test would have to be passed. I would than issue a shiny "Certificate of Personal Home Solar...

Unfortunately even though they may be producing huge amount of energy the conversion factor seems stuck at about 20-23%. Though I will give credit to the Forum for providing large numbers of parallel connected individuals. Congrats Will on your successful Forum.

It gets lonely if you don't checkup on it daily and occasionally schedule fun time. But seriously if you plan to be your own power company you need to understand that you are the person that must ensure normal operation. It may work just fine for weeks, months or longer but some little thing...

With the last 2 days being socked in weather, and today starting off with snow drifting down, it is the other side of SAD (solar affected disorder). My batteries are at 20% SOC and not long before needing supplementing. Gone are the exuberant use of electricity to be replaced with rationing the...

Better question is why no wind turbines? You could generate a lot of power driving along at 60-70mph.

I am noticing that there seems to be a Solar Country Club type that tends to look down on us less well healed solar adopters. They spend $100k for mounting systems designed by the Engineering firm that built the Twin Towers. While those of us on the poor side of the solar divide mount our panels...

"Your call is important to us. Please stay on line and listen to hideous music or our latest For Sale specials for several hours until you give up. If you would prefer a call back rather than holding push 1 now. (1) Call return time is 2 weeks We are sorry for the delay but everyone is at a...

I have looked for green solar panels and I can't find any. They all seem to be either blue or black. Would be nice if you could color coordinate panels to house.

More batteries or more panels? Yes. Repeat until destitute or divorced.

I replaced my 5 year old phone yesterday with a new one that has a much better camera (never used my old phone for much photo work) so I decided to do some testing of it today and also how I could transfer it to my computer for later use. Bit of a gray day for doing this but it hit me that my...

Since I am not doing solar to save money or the planet I am happy to avoid grid tie complications. I do acknowledge that without the push from all the subsidized residential grid tie solar of the last 2 decades that many of the things I use now would not be readily available or cheap.

My home is not quite in the path of totality. It will be about 99.8% at close to 2pm. My PV setup is way more than needed this time of year without AC needed and minor day time loads. The batteries recharge from overnight discharge by 11AM-12 noon. So far clouds have been just a light haze with...