Harry and I are sometimes like little children. We think that when the UPS guy comes to the house, its full of Presents. We never really take into consideration that we have PURCHASED these items, we only get excited about their delivery to our doorstep! So yesterday the UPS guy brought us another goody! He actually brought it right into our garage without our knowing but thats not the point of my story. This time he brought us a SUN OVEN!!!
We knew the solar oven was coming because we bought it, but we were very excited about it being here regardless. While I was at work today, Harry [...]
The UPS Dude Brought the Sun!
2009 wish list!
So many exciting things are starting to happen and I cannot wait! We did NOT get up to the cabin as hoped this weekend. Sometimes life gets in the way I’ll tell ya! Anyway I did promise to give you a glimpse into the spring though with what our plans for 2009 are. We have so many hopes and wishes for this year!One of the more exciting things is that we will be planting a ‘trial’ garden up there. Dave is working (in his head rmember) on a way to automatically irrigate the garden and “critter proof” it as best as he can.
We are also planning on adding onto the [...]
Dave’s Solar Update:
Some quick additions to the earlier solar post.
In the following pics, you can see our temporary charge controller. This was a fun experiment when we first started learning about solar power and the components that go along with it. The setup we have has been providing steady light from a 13w CFL and a small fan with power during the night.
7amp charge controller that is rated for 7 15W panels, purchased from northern tool. Currently we only run 2 panels for a total of 30W. Convenient that it was small enough to bolt into a standard [...]
Dave’s Solar Posty :)
Here is the small scale solar test setup. These are each 15W panels that run to a 7amp charge controller and take care of our VERY small lighting needs at this time. We alternate between two 105amp hour 12V deep cycles. Each has a small inverter attached (one is 175W and the other 350W). In the last year, these have worked out very well for us and can easily run either a CFL or small fan during our weekend trips. If I recall correctly the panels were about 79 bucks when we got them last year and they were to be used as our small scale test however they [...]
Energy Consumption – From Dave
A thought from the editor in chief of SW… we have really tried to stop being such energy hogs and although not all of our appliances are energy star, some of them are relatively new (3 -4 years old) and financially we cannot replace them at this time. We are leaving this afternoon so I hope to have new photos and an update for you by Monday!
OK, back to your regularly scheduled program…
Some quick thoughts about the Renewable power system and where we would like to be.
One of the items I neglected to mention in the previous post was a very helpful tool in gathering the necessary numbers (in [...]
Post by Dave
Well. I got hubbster to put together some solar information about what we are looking for, what we have discovered etc. Here goes:
The solar wish list and moving to the Big Leagues:
Up until this point, we have made do with candles, the occasional oil lamp, propane lamps (common to camping) and a small scale battery/inverter combo. The Battery combo that we had been using (seen under the table on the left) for a single CFL or a very small table fan has served us quite well and had reduced our need for the propane/oil lamps. We have two 12V deep cycles that we purchased (with trade in of old [...]