Merry Christmas and/or whatever may be your holiday of choice. Festivus, anyone?
So, with holidays winding down, as New Year’s not so new, what next?
I am always thinking about what is next to write about. Some of it is easy and some not so much. Some of this stuff takes time and money to investigate because I don’t want to promote anything I have not tried and proven for myself.
I’ve been talking to Jay, the new web guy. Webmasters at Sun Electronics are a bit like drummers in the bands of the 70s, but I think we have a keeper, here. Jay actually lives off the grid(!), so we will tell his story and get ideas for you folks that already have solar or think you want to go off grid.
If you already have grid-tie solar and are getting a raw deal from the TPC (The Power Company), I am trying to come up with a package to fix that. It is doable, but can it be done without breaking the bank?
There are my own issues and projects with solar. Today I have all the switches flipped to solar. Sometimes I don’t. The solar water pump has limbered up and looks like a winner. The water-powered pump must feel threatened, as it is working just fine. There will be some refinements for automated operation with the real test coming this summer.
My batteries are around 8 years old. Lithium Iron Phosphate seems to be the way to go for replacement, but can I migrate in stages as each of the 6 banks fail over time? Or will I have to bite the bullet and spend big bucks on the entire system?
And I have spoken with with John about cracked Solar panels. What do you do with them? He has thousands of them sitting in a field in California and it is costing him a fortune in storage fees. Can they be used? It happens that I have a little experience with broken panels, so I have 3 panels I can use to test the viability of long term use of broken panels, plus what can be done to repair them, if they even need to be repaired.
There will be more on Lithium batteries. The price is coming down dramatically. But, beware! There are scoundrels out there.
—Neal