Author name: Neal Collier

The homes of my grandparents were special places when I was a kid. Bro and I went by the former Collier house on a recent trip to Lake City, Florida. It was a sad sight. The big camphor tree, where Dad had his tree house is now just a stump. The yard is grown up. […]

Did you ever read, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?” I can’t remember if I ever did, but I know I had the book. If there is a tree there, I’m sure the dogs appreciate it. There probably isn’t much solar power on the neighborhood level in Brooklyn, so all is good. There are lots of

It has been in the 80s here for a week. When the nights were still dipping down low enough at night the house would stay cool enough. Not now. It is time to fire up the a/c. The solar-powered a/c. I have written about combining solar and a/c before.  Go back in the blogs to

You might thought I have forgotten poor ol’ Will. No, I have been busy and I think Will is now leaning toward grid tie. He has such a big load and the whole purpose of going solar was to save money when he retires. Grid tie can be a whole bunch cheaper than going off

Going through this morning’s online solar newsletters, I saw some new products that are on the way. This is not at all unusual, but a couple of these things made an impression. In solar modules, Trina is using bigger cells, but slicing them up and arranging them so you can get 500 watts from a

You know the old saying about one bad apple causing the whole basket full of them to go bad. The same thing applies to batteries. I am there, now, and so is Mark. Like me, Mark seems intrigued by the Simpliphi lithium batteries, but is also interested in getting a little more life out of

Stan called and he was happy. His old 12v system, pictured above, is really getting tired. It consists of nearly 50 mismatched modules and two windmills in parallel on a single overworked charge controller!  His new 24v system is running, but only half-installed and there have been issues. After our little troubleshooting session the other

Here is an interesting battery for Will. Yes, it HAS been a while since the last post. This time of year just seems to keep me busy. Last update on Will’s system we essentially concluded he is going to need a huge battery. Batteries should not be a system afterthought. They are probably the most

Will needs a big solar power system for his big house. We figure he has the perfect slab of roof for installing enough solar modules. Now, since he wants an off-grid system, we are going to think about a battery. A really BIG battery. No, I have not forgotten about Will and his new solar

John called the other day for some solar chit chat. He asked if I was still using my solar air conditioning and I replied that I was. It was holding up well in the blistering heat. He said, “You should write a blog about it.” Well, gee John, don’t you read this stuff? There are

If you are in the storm zone, we wish you all the best. If you have a backup power system that survived or can cobble something up, let us know what worked. If your system failed, let us know about that, too, so we can learn from it. I spoke with John Sunday night. The

I was working on a new series of posts on the basics, but something has come up…a hurricane.  The projected trajectory has it going over Puerto Rico, where they’ve still got a lot of PTSD from the last one, then pass by John’s balcony in Miami and maybe come ashore somewhere between West Palm and Jacksonville. 

So you’ve been thinking about solar power or battery backup and wondering, “Can I do it myself?”  Well, let’s stop for a moment if you really meant, “May I do it myself?”  Those are two different things and I’ll talk about both, separately, but I wanted to point out both considerations.  Without any more information,

John and I have been talking about using solar power to survive in relative comfort after a storm.  In my efforts to mostly eliminate my old 24v solar power system I realized I was putting together what would make a good example for survival power.  Why did I not eliminate the 24v system completely?  My

Archæologists have discovered that it is not just modern mankind that buries its dead with their feet to the east, it has been going on for a long time and in a lot of cultures.  They have also noticed that all of the bones in a particular ancient burial ground are buried in more of

The purpose of this post is mostly to stimulate thought and open up some possibilities for you.  Many folks would find these ideas impractical or even impossible if you live in an apartment or have a strict homeowners association.  Wild stuff, but maybe there’s a mad scientist among you who could make it work.  If

What is a microinverter and why in the world would you want one?  The first answer is easy.  Whereas a regular grid-tie inverter takes the power from a bunch of panels and injects it into the powerline,  a single microinverter bolts onto the back of each panel.  The solar panel’s MC4 connectors plug into one

In my last post I talked about some seemingly off the wall, but doable, energy storage contrivances.  As for the compressed air storage, apparently some pretty clever people have already thought about this.  Follow this link to a pretty thorough  discussion of the subject. https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/05/ditch-the-batteries-off-the-grid-compressed-air-energy-storage.html. There are some pretty neat pages at Low Tech Magazine

I wanted to show you a couple of examples of some really nice solar work I have seen lately. I’ve known Courtney for 60 years.  Back then Courtney was a guy name and, in his case, it still is.  Courtney has gone nuts for solar in the last few years and he is at it

I never thought I’d be happy about a tropical depression starting to spin up in the Gulf, but it has been really, miserably and mind-numbingly hot around here and the rains have helped in that department.  We’ve topped 100 degrees for days, usually hitting 103-105 after lunch.  It has been so hot that I have

RTFM!!! That stands for Read The Fine Manual. There are variants on that acronym, depending on your vocabulary. That’s what we used to say when a customer wanted to know how to work something he bought from us, but was unwilling to read the instructions. This happens a lot with solar stuff, too. You may

We surely do get spoiled by some of our modern comforts, don’t we? When I was a kid, we didn’t have air conditioning at the first 3 houses in which I lived, nor at school. Our first car with a/c was a ’65 Pontiac. Although I don’t crank the thermostat down low, I still like

Bring a big truck when you visit and work safe when you get home.I write this stuff for fun and to be helpful. I’m not an employee of Sun Electronics, I’m a customer. In my role as customer, I set out the other afternoon for my third visit to Sun’s Miami headquarters and my first

In my last post I mentioned that I had gotten carried away at Sun Electronics’ Miami warehouse and had filled my trailer and truck to the point that I decided to leave some batteries behind. I shredded one tire at one A.M. and only had one spare, so maybe that was good that I didn’t

How hard is solar power? Some folks are a little intimidated because they don’t know anything about it. John has asked me to put together a booklet for do-it-yourselfers and I think that is a good idea. It just requires a little more focus than writing down whatever pops into my head. Today, though, I

The state has a pretty dismal record on solar promotion and subsidies. I didn’t even know there was a program until I read about it in a California magazine! The first couple of years, it appeared that most of the program’s budget was spent on office furniture and administration, leaving only a few slots for

Once you get your first taste of solar power, you want more. You can always find ways to use it. Want 30% more? Back in the 70s and 80s, when solar modules cost a lot more in dollars and dollars were worth a lot more, equipment choices were far more limited and people were always

Just a letter to John that somehow got posted here! I’m glad to hear you are back in the water. Sounds great. Somehow I didn’t get to the water all year. Now it is too cold to stay out on the boat overnight.I like pelicans, too, from a distance. It is funny how they almost