Where is @Will Prowse?

Will Prowse said:

I wonder how large a thorium reactor would be to produce the same as rtg used on Mars landers. Last I checked they output 120W. Pretty simple devices:
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At the end of the day, solar + lifepo4 is ideal all around. Hard to beat the price and accessibility.

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Thinking about one of these for my car, perhaps you could review one first?

SparkyJJO said:

Alright. Time to build your own reactor.

Might have to go dumpster diving for a bunch of old smoke detectors...

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That's a video I would watch.

Rocknemo said:

No what he did was compare three sets of panels with one of them being Bifacial, but had them laying all flat on his driveway. Bifacial's need to be mounted up off the ground to get light reflected back up to the underside surface. I've seen many forums posters wonder how much gain you would get if you installed a highly reflective material under these type panels. Mylar is very cheap and used extensively on most indoor grow rooms.

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Will Prowse testing reflective materials

Also some relevant material in this one:

This thread is getting about as good as the “Who shot JR“ episodes . Glad to see your presence ..Rock on Garth ….!

Party on Wayne.

Will Prowse said:

I'm always present here or checking the channel. Trying to think of a new fun direction to take with the videos. Have done a few hundreds videos now and I feel like I'm repeating myself. I actually filmed some videos this month, but didn't post them because they were not very useful.

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I feel that there are 2 ways to look at solar.

1. Designing a system based off certain needs for a certain purpose.
2. People that want to build budget systems with decent components for a SHTF situation with the pure objective that some power is better then no power.

So what about a vid or two that focus on SHTF based systems ? You might have covered this at some point but I haven’t seen every single one of your videos. Just my .02 for an idea.

MP9C said:

I feel that there are 2 ways to look at solar.

1. Designing a system based off certain needs for a certain purpose.
2. People that want to build budget systems with decent components for a SHTF situation with the pure objective that some power is better then no power.

So what about a vid or two that focus on SHTF based systems ? You might have covered this at some point but I haven’t seen every single one of your videos. Just my .02 for an idea.

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#2 sounds like the milk crate builds, which I think he has done a couple of?

Will Prowse said:

I'm always present here or checking the channel. Trying to think of a new fun direction to take with the videos. Have done a few hundreds videos now and I feel like I'm repeating myself. I actually filmed some videos this month, but didn't post them because they were not very useful.

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How 'bout some kitten and puppy videos?

JMMGarza said:

How 'bout some kitten and puppy videos?

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Can't win for losing on that. If he does both, people that hate one of them will complain. If he only does one of them, same thing. Only people that like both of them will be happy.

Rocknemo said:

No what he did was compare three sets of panels with one of them being Bifacial, but had them laying all flat on his driveway. Bifacial's need to be mounted up off the ground to get light reflected back up to the underside surface. I've seen many forums posters wonder how much gain you would get if you installed a highly reflective material under these type panels. Mylar is very cheap and used extensively on most indoor grow rooms.

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Spent many years teachin folks how to garden and my preference for reflective was titanium white paint (which also reflects heat)

So a comparison with the white paint & mylar would be interesting

In case you decide to do this, here is my research ,,

"
most growers only look at reflective properties ,,,

Mylar: 90% to 95%

Flat White Paint: 85% to 93%

Semi Gloss White Paint: 75% to 80%

Flat Yellow Paint: 70% to 80%

Aluminium Foil: 70% to 75%

Flat Black Paint: less than 10%

with the best flat white paint being Titanium Dioxide

most growers do not consider refraction or diffusion properties but these do matter somewhat

The refractive index of Mylar is 1.5 ~ 1.52

from here,,,

The refractive index for Titanium Dioxide is 2.55 ~ 2.73

from here,,,,

and then there is the thing that no growers consider Emissivity

the definition of Emissivity is ,,,

Emissivity is defined as the ratio of the energy radiated from a material's surface to that radiated from a blackbody (a perfect emitter) at the same temperature and wavelength and under the same viewing conditions.

a basic primer for Emissivity can be found here,,,

The Emissivity of Mylar is .59

The Emissivity of Titanium white paint is .92

from here,,,,
http://www.electro-optical.com/eoi_page.asp?h=Emissivity of Materials

This is why the Leprechaun uses flat white paint

I wonder how it is possible that aluminum and mylar are so different.

Bluedog225 said:

I wonder how it is possible that aluminum and mylar are so different.

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Two completely different materials , plus aluminum refracts more than it reflects

it was interesting research I did years ago

I thought mylar was simply aluminized plastic sheet. No?

Oxide and crystal structure?
Not sure if aluminized Mylar gets both metal surfaces encapsulated, or just one.


Aluminum, gold, various coatings. I assume aluminum least expensive.

From wiki, I think it is coated on one side. This is consistent with it coming off on your hands when handled.

Space blankets are made by vacuum-depositing a very precise amount of pure aluminum vapor onto a very thin, durable film substrate.[8]

That’s why I thought the difference between aluminum and mylar was interesting.

shot428 said:

Two completely different materials , plus aluminum refracts more than it reflects

it was interesting research I did years ago

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Could you explain this? I don’t understand your thoughts on the refractive versus reflective nature of aluminum.
Thanks.

Bluedog225 said:

Could you explain this? I don’t understand your thoughts on the refractive versus reflective nature of aluminum.
Thanks.

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It had to do with wrinkles ie: crumpled foil

I love breakdown videos where you take a popular product and rip it apart as well as bench test. That honestly was the main reason I went with a Chins lifepo bank. I also purchased a separate Weize lifepo battery per your breakdown, and so far, it has been awesome.

Will Prowse said:

My latest 48V system was the most fun I have had in the last year on the channel. And I am trying to think of ways to improve that system. It seems perfect. I am running 13kW daily intermittently daily (two ac's and the ev charger) at high efficiency, and not a single hiccup. The system has been running 24/7 since I built it, and I just hit 2 mega Watt hours. I love it. Especially for the price versus a sol ark or victron. I still have not been able to kill a MPP or any other all in one unit. They just keep on working. I have destroyed inverters in the past too, but these units have not given me issues.

I think modular 12V systems that can fit in a van (think milk crate system on steroids) may help a lot of people. I saw some van life systems last week and people may need more help in that area. Most of the youtube videos covering van systems are super boring and there is zero new information being posted on this topic. Might be fun to think of a new way to build those systems.

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Will, SOOO appreciate all you do and I have gained so much from you over the last few years. We recently bought an small ranch that I had thought I could hook up to the grid for $10k. It turned out to be $35k...to run it the 800' to the tip of my property to which I would then have to run it an additional 900' to my intended build site. Not going to happen. And on top of that I was already going to a grid tied solar system...panels & inverter(s). So...we decided to pull the trigger all the way and go all in on an off-grid system instead. I think we will still come out way ahead financially.

Initially, I was going to order cells and DIY it as a friend recently did. (After waiting 120 days to receive, he has been fighting with BMS issues as well as swelling cell issues already.) For many reasons, we recently decided against doing so...especially after your recent videos on your current system (EG4) among a few others noting the value & cost effectiveness of a more turnkey system like this. (Basically, duplicate your recent EG4 system from SS...but had thought long and hard on the SOK's.) I think it fits what we need while building our home while living in a 5th wheel & a small shop and will eventually expand from 4 LifePower4 racks & 2 inverters to 8-10 racks total & a 3rd inverter...love it's expandability & turnkey'ness.

That said, I have seen several threads dog on these batteries (welded...potential for bad cells) and inverters lately (communication). I would like to see you continue updating us on your system...good bad or ugly here and on YT. Also, I'd like to see you maybe address the concerns about a welded rack in the case of a "bad cell" down the road and how to actually deal with it IF you think it could become an issue vs the DIY ease of maintenance on the SOK's. Thx in advance!

Rocknemo said:

Will, a very interesting video would be to see the results of adding a highly reflective material under a quality Bi-Facial panel like Mylar sheets or something similar. I have not seen anything on this a I know a lot of people would love to see it.

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x2

TOU47 said:

Will, SOOO appreciate all you do and I have gained so much from you over the last few years. We recently bought an small ranch that I had thought I could hook up to the grid for $10k. It turned out to be $35k...to run it the 800' to the tip of my property to which I would then have to run it an additional 900' to my intended build site. Not going to happen. And on top of that I was already going to a grid tied solar system...panels & inverter(s). So...we decided to pull the trigger all the way and go all in on an off-grid system instead. I think we will still come out way ahead financially.

Initially, I was going to order cells and DIY it as a friend recently did. (After waiting 120 days to receive, he has been fighting with BMS issues as well as swelling cell issues already.) For many reasons, we recently decided against doing so...especially after your recent videos on your current system (EG4) among a few others noting the value & cost effectiveness of a more turnkey system like this. (Basically, duplicate your recent EG4 system from SS...but had thought long and hard on the SOK's.) I think it fits what we need while building our home while living in a 5th wheel & a small shop and will eventually expand from 4 LifePower4 racks & 2 inverters to 8-10 racks total & a 3rd inverter...love it's expandability & turnkey'ness.

That said, I have seen several threads dog on these batteries (welded...potential for bad cells) and inverters lately (communication). I would like to see you continue updating us on your system...good bad or ugly here and on YT. Also, I'd like to see you maybe address the concerns about a welded rack in the case of a "bad cell" down the road and how to actually deal with it IF you think it could become an issue vs the DIY ease of maintenance on the SOK's. Thx in advance!

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Yeah, running right now and 24/7 since I built it. Not a single hiccup to report. I'm not going to attempt communication and having a bad cell will require filing a warranty claim. I don't see an issue unless these companies shut down. Welded or screw terminal work great. Even if an sok had a bad cell, you would get a new battery. So it really doesn't matter what you choose in that regard.

I think they are great. It is not even diy at this point because everything is now built. Just hook up some cables and they work. Now if you want communication, good luck. I'll wait till these companies figure it out, then I'll make a video. Everyone's trying to make everything compatible right now and that takes time.

Will Prowse said:

I'm always present here or checking the channel. Trying to think of a new fun direction to take with the videos. Have done a few hundreds videos now and I feel like I'm repeating myself. I actually filmed some videos this month, but didn't post them because they were not very useful.

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That's great to know!

I'd love to talk Will. Sending you a message now.

Going back to the van based system stuff..

I'm a silly person who was a car person first, which led to an accumulation of electrical knowledge, which led to a comfort level with going from fully on-grid to fully off-grid in a span of about 3 days back in May now running 10kw of panel and inverter.. but it all started at cars.

So since I have a whole bunch of cars sitting around which all had ~5w solar battery maintainers on them already, I always figured I might as well arrange them around a long '12v bus' and have my house solar system maintain them, with the possibility of backfeeding into the house under poor solar conditions or at night. I also have a small Class B RV ~23' which i've made the sort of 'hub' of the 12v system, with a modified sine wave 5kw inverter (harbor freight, same sold online under various names), its onboard generator/12v charger, etc.

So far the only lifepo4 batteries I own are in that RV, about ~4kwh now. They supply the majority of my overnight power use in the house, 2-3kwh, after my small lead-acid house batteries drain to a certain point. Before I had enough lithium to make it through the night, it was running down the lithium first and then pulling from the huge messy lead acid 12v 'bus' which is a mix of starter batteries, 'hybrid' marine batteries, and a small number of AGM all paralleled with some 'common denominator' voltage protections. I kinda figured the large number of batteries in parallel meaning each battery usually not flowing more than 5a through the bus made my 'highly imperfect' wiring arrangement and connections mostly ok. That 12v system has been a very educational testbed, but it has mostly worked out and as far as i know i haven't killed a single lead-acid yet (only been a few months). I'm just about to start adding solar to the roof of the RV. Also I converted my golf cart to 48v so i could parallel it directly with my house pack to charge, and now it does wheelies so that's cool.

Anyway, my point in all this is maybe you should explore the possibility of a van-based system being useful not just when in that van/vehicle. Certainly some people live in vans/rvs full time, but they are honestly a tiny tiny minority. For the rest of us who end up parking vehicles next to dwellings if not outright plugging the vehicle into the dwelling (rv 'shore power' hookup for example), it is not much of a leap to have the vehicle solar/inverter system providing some service to the dwelling at those times, whether it's through the existing circuits (which can be tied up in legalities as discussed elsewhere in this thread) or by adding separate ones with no grid interconnection whatsoever. Simplest form might be as a UPS for computer/internet/refrigerator etc, but it could grow from there. I basically run my house off a vehicle based system for the majority of the night. I did it that way because if i build that capacity into the RV, i can take it with me when i travel. If i built it into the house i'd still have an RV that forced me to constantly choose between a tether/leash (shore power) or a noisy generator!

One other thing I think would be fun if a little trite, is make a 'list' video of electrical terms a newbie might run across while reading about solar/inverter systems et al, that don't apply or do not matter to a completely off-grid system. I have run across all kinds of imposing unfamiliar terms that always felt threatening to my plans when i didn't know what they meant, only to research into them and eventually realize they had NO BEARING whatsoever on a system that did not interface with the grid!