Recent content by Short_Shot

I haven't caught up with the thread, but heat pump units have heaters on the coils to de-ice them in exactly this manner. Its less efficient, but still more efficient than just straight up resistive heating full stop. Modern units are designed to operate to sub-zero temps in heating mode, and...

I am no certified electrician, and certainly not one local to you to know the codes, but while it *could* be done safely, and safely for long term outdoor exposure, I would hesitate to say any code would allow it.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for solar, but how confident is your math on this? Are you truly planning on *all* the power coming from this, or just supplemental + good marketing? I am curious, as I have tossed about this idea a few times and the numbers just dont work out for a full day of...

Turns out its a thing. I had no idea either until just now and went and looked into it. There's no mechanical or chemical difference between positive and negative ends of a lead acid battery when fully discharged. Both plates in the cell are identical in composition at that point and the...

So after a year sitting in the driveway I had my battery apart, and can report the Poron foam I used is holding up well and still seems to be appropriately "springy". I built mine more or less the same way as @justgary by measuring the total stack width and subtracting the foam compression...

Been just under a year, but they have been outside the whole time. Thus far no issues and I have used them for a few projects now. Also happy to report that my 240AH of battery will run everything I need for an entire 3 day weekend without any solar input.

I am happy to report this person is reliably shading each panel with the panel in front of it even still. So they clearly have no clue how this stuff works. Each fall they get turned to face west, each spring they get turned to face SSE and shade each other all summer. The top roughly 1/4 of...

K. And yes I have, thanks. Kind of funny how a major feature and primary component of what their system does is what I described by providing grid surge suppression. Hardening against direct, local EMP (not a solar flare) is another matter entirely (which they also offer) and you still wont be...

Noooo. That's absolutely incorrect. Torque does not translate 1:1 to linear force. You would utterly crush the pack if you tried doing it that way.

I haven't had a chance to test mine but I can say that since switching to lithium I have had much less charging. I still suspect the battery voltage is so much higher that the panels struggle to reach bat +5v and voc isn't the answer. My panels only reach some 17.x volts and the battery is...

You don't need a diesel truck. You can put a fuel tank anywhere you want. The cheap ones are less than $140 usd.

I strongly suggest looking into a diesel heater. Either name brand or Chinese, they are insanely good. Especially if you have a diesel engine to begin with, as you can just put a pickup pipe in the fuel tank a few inches off the bottom (to prevent running it empty and not being able to drive)...

Research as in laboratory testing or reading on Google? Because I've got an entire chiller system full of aluminum, stainless steel, and brass, and if we slack on corrosion inhibitors the aluminum is the first thing to go. Anodized or not doesn't matter. Granted, outdoors you're simply subject...

Yeah. Definitely. I think my assumption is more the mounting area itself with increased space outside of the limited area. Like if you only have a van roof worth of panels but wanted some kind of goofy deployable thing and don't care if it's wider and taller. However... you would just do...

Bet you could do it with a bunch of heat sinks on the back. Or even the "sunpower" type panels that run cooler due to the huge copper backplate they use. Probably need both to get something that survives the heat. But the cost would be prohibitive vs just... another panel. If you have a very...