It is getting to be that time of year, when a lot of people think about getting a generator in case there is a hurricane. Even if you have solar, it is a good idea to have a generator for times of extra load or for equalizing batteries. There’s also no guarantee all your modules […]

Traditionally, we’ve been told to point our solar arrays to the south.  There were guidelines on the angle from horizontal, too.  Pretty much all of this is open for question, now. You may have noted my recent posts on the arc the sun travels and my experiments with a vertical array.  There’s more to it. 

AMPACITY. That’s our word for the day. If you think it sounds like a mashup of “ampere” and “capacity”, then give yourself a gold star. That’s exactly what it is. So, what’s it all about? If you are moving electricity around with wires, then you need to understand that you need to choose the wire

I have not forgotten you. I’ve been upgrading my own system, while hot rodding one of my solar powered electric farm vehicles, getting Turbo Beast stuck on archæology expeditions, cleaning up hurricane debris and goofing off when possible. I have another kilowatt of solar connected and 1500 watts more waiting for a mounting rack. The

(I wrote this in December and somehow it did not get posted until April!) This morning it was about 50 degrees. Tomorrow morning we are expecting 28. The constant temperature swings make it difficult to dress. Layering is the key. Temperature changes affect your solar power system, too, particularly in battery charging. Is there any

And 2000 pound monsters. I got this comment from Stephen. I’ll let you take a look at it and then I’ll comment, OK? “Well I’m a new-b, & an old fart, I wanted to start this process a long time ago, but for the dollars…I’m interested in learning more of the availability of these 2000lb.

It is only natural to want to improve or hot rod your system. Know the limits, though. Despite all the political controversy, Facebook remains a useful tool, especially the “groups” if you are into a special interest. I don’t have a FB account, but I hijacked my wife’s account to join a group of folks

Sometimes bigger really is better. It is raining, today. What to do? I’m in the middle of a huge upgrade of my solar power system, but most of the work will be outside and I don’t care to get wet. Wet, as in a hot tub is ok. Being cold and wet does not appeal

Buying prefabricated mobile solar power plants at auction and quickly spiriting them away.

Some people build their own solar power systems. Some people pick up the phone and then write a check for theirs. It’s ok, either way, but I advise that you at least have a basic understanding of how things work. If you have to ask why, I can give you a recent example from my

When it is raining buckets and the wind is howling, it is very comforting to have the lights stay on when the power lines go down.

You may have noticed that it is political season. What have the politicians personally done for solar? Jimmy Carter put solar-thermal panels on the White House roof. They came down the next time the house was reroofed, though they were still working. One is in the Smithsonian and another is in a science museum in

Oh, will they ever come up with the perfect battery? Super capacity? Super cheap? I’ve met one guy who has learned to adjust his pace to make it from Pensacola to Miami in a Tesla. Maybe adopting a more relaxed pace would be good for most folks! Solar Jorge, down in the Keys, likes the

If a terminal is broken or melted on a battery, you may be able to save it with a simple fix.

Why not cover a carport with $7 solar panels?

We take a look at post-hurricane emergency power after Hurricane Sally.

I recently had to burrow into the entrails of my new 21 year old truck’s transmission. It is sort of a rite of passage with the old Dodges. Specifications for putting the various pieces back together are very specific. I remember what my little brother did to his Plymouth’s transmission 45 years ago and I

Every now and then you need to tidy up a bit. I’m bad about that sort of thing. I needed to take a truckload of batteries up to the recycler in Atlanta, but the Chevy just won’t carry enough. Then I inherited, sort of, a Ram 2500, which can carry an additional ton without any

It makes me mad to see that people die after the storm. You buy a generator to keep the lights and fridge on, but the thing can kill you. Here are some thoughts. First of all, have a battery backup system in place.  This can be a building block for a future solar power system

When adding an upgrade to your solar power system, consider what other components may need to be upgraded as well.

A widow has asked me to dismantle her 4 year old 10kw PV system. It isn’t that she didn’t like solar power, but she has to sell the house now and mortgage inspectors are brutally thorough and her husband had overlooked the business of permits when he installed the system. In the process of going

I have been observing the performance differences of my west wall array and my conventional south arrays. Arrays still pick up a lot of power under cloudy conditions, but the south arrays are doing better. I think I know why. The current situation is that the west wall will do pretty well with direct afternoon

Have you seen the $7 solar modules on the Sun Electronics web site? They are 70 watts, so that’s only a dime apiece for a whole watt! Can they be any good??? I admit it, I am a tightwad and bargain hunter. I didn’t need 50 more solar modules, but I saw where John was

There are good deals. There are bad deals. There are scoundrels who will try to tell you their bad deal is good. If you don’t want to deal with all the razzle dazzle in solar power systems, do it yourself and you will know exactly what you have.

The rule is that solar panels have to face the south. Some of us break the rules.

A Cultural Resources Management (CRM) firm recently had a question about an old water-powered mill in our county. You don’t think much about water power in a state as flat as Florida, be we had lots of them. US 29, through Escambia County, could have been named “Industrial Boulevard” there were so many. The firm

Fuses offer cheap circuit protection, but there are some precautions you may need to take. The H-Bridge locked up on my inverter recently. It blew a fuse. It blew it with a lot of self assurance, too. There was no dilly-dallying. Never mind what an H-Bridge is, but in this case it can handle 1200

They keep changing the rules on grid tie. Avoid dual meters, special fees and changing deals by mixing your power with that from the power company, without backfeeding to the grid. Many years ago, a fellow came up with a gadget he called a synchronous inverter. Today we call it a grid tie inverter, and

In it was a handout touting the cooperative’s dedication to service to its members. The coop power had been out for over 3 hours at that time, owing to a car vs. pole incident. A neighbor had power because I could hear the generator buzzing. I had power, too, but nobody could hear it. Back

They are now making solar modules with power output in excess of 500 watts! Wow, that’s what I need for the Solar Yacht, instead of the 330s I have now. The thing is, you just can’t buy them, yet. The superest, duperest biggest and bestest go to the solar farms. Don’t worry, by the time

I chased one and it wasn’t what I thought it would be. A big part of living off grid or keeping the power bill down if you are on grid is efficiency. Try as you may to get everybody in the household to turn off unused lights or to not leave the fridge door open,

Sooner or later, you gotta do it, whether it is the clock, the smoke detector in the hall, the car or your solar power system. Oh? You have grid tie and don’t have to change the battery? We’ll talk about that, too. The batteries that I had on the main bank were in great shape,

I wrote the material below quite a while back and it somehow fell through the cracks.  I have since gone through a couple of variants of a Zero Export Grid Tie system, including a new one this past weekend…and the power company’s meter hasn’t budged since!  Read this to get up to speed and there