Turquoise Energy News #165
covering
February 2022 (Posted March 7th 2022)
Lawnhill BC Canada - by Craig Carmichael
www.TurquoiseEnergy.com
= www.ElectricCaik.com
= www.ElectricHubcap.com
Month
In
"Brief"
(Project Summaries etc.)
- My Solar Power System: 3 Years - Wind/water plant + Plastic
Recycling Development
In
Passing
(Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)
- Shadow Banning and Biased Narratives - Ukraine - Smol
Thots (the Need to evolve Democracy) - ESD
- Detailed
Project Reports
-
Electric
Transport - Electric Hubcap Motor Systems
* The Large, Efficient Centrifugal Clutch - thoughts
Other "Green"
& Electric Equipment Projects
* CNC Table & HHO torch system
* Winter Gardening
* Vertical Axis Wind and Water Plant with plastic recycling development
Electricity Generation
* Vertical Axis Windplant (& Waterplant) & Plastic Recycling
2.0: - Videos: Rotor as a waterplant; Plastic Recycling 2.0: Making
a mold and casting a flat plate - Recessed Panels, Shingle Shapes
* My Solar Power System:
- Three Years with Solar
- Daily/Monthly
Solar Production log et cetera - Monthly Summaries,
Estimates, Notes
My Solar Power System: 3 Years
I've been making electricity and logging data on my solar
collection system for three years now since I got 10 solar panels up on
the house (6) and the cabin (4) roofs, connected either to the grid via
grid ties or to a 36 volt charge controller with batteries.
Haida Gwaii must be one of the worst inhabited places on
Earth for solar energy except - maybe - for places covered with snow
almost half the year. It is far enough north and so cloudy in the
winter when electricity is most needed that there is almost no
collection, and cloudiness even in summer also seriously reduces the
overall annual production.
Solar at the house - 11 panels
with those on pole (below).
(I suppose if I was in a city someone would have stolen the ones
sitting on the lawn by now!
-- except I wouldn't have dared put them there. I really should make a
frame for them.)
And 4 more panels on a separate
circuit at the cabin
Annual
March 2019-Feb. 2020: 2196.15 KWH Solar [used 7927 KWH from
grid]
March 2020-Feb. 2021: 2069.82 KWH Solar [used 11294 KWH from grid]
March 2021-Feb. 2022: 2063.05 KWH Solar [used 10977 KWH from grid]
The daily and monthly figures are in the "detailed report"
section. I note that while the solar system accounts for only 20% of
the electricity I use, it makes more than my car uses and it provides
insurance of essential electricity (lights, fridge & freezer, small
appliance battery charging...) in case of power failures. except in mid
winter.
In spite of adding a few more panels, collection doesn't
seem to have gone up. One might suspect deterioration of the solar
panels and that's probably a bit of it, but I more suspect poor use of
panels and grid ties, cloudier weather, and growth of trees south of
the collectors creating more shadows. The two newest panels on a pole
seem to be almost always in partial shade from something or other. (I
should move them, except that the pole with its cement base needs a big
forklift or backhoe to move.)
The 36 volts goes to a panel in the garage with the other
equipment, accessible via "legacy" Anderson APP 70 amp connectors and
the new T-Plug sockets, to a "T-Plug" triple wall plate in the living
room (mainly lights) and to a high current porcelain "T-Plug" socket I
made and wired under the kitchen sink, which is to plug in an inverter
to run the fridge and freezers (& coffee maker) in the event of a
prolonged power outage. I have only used it a couple of times. The
longest outage [so far] was 25 hours. I tried it with the microwave
oven once, but the inverter voltage with the heavy load was only about
105 volts AC, and the microwave seems very sensitive to voltage. In the
usual time and with about the usual amount of electricity my coffee was
hardly warm instead of hot.
Presently the 36 volt battery in the garage is either the
240 amp-hour one in the Chevy Sprint car (keeps the car charged), or
the third stack of the same cells (120 amp-hours).
Aluminium Aluminum Alium Alume Ali
Sometimes something just bothers me, even if it has been
common for so long. It seemed to me that four or five syllables was
absurdly long for this common, lightweight element and material.
Recently I tried out using "alium.". It looked okay written down, and
it had that "ium" "standard" ending for an element, but spoken it
seemed to me wasn't clear enough what was being talked about without an
introduction, making it too hard to adopt. So I didn't use it in my
videos.
Vexingly "Alum" is already a [poorly named] sulfate compound
containing the metal and so would be confusing. I finally hit on
"Alume" and thought it would at least be better than all those
syllables, with the least amount of "double take" when spoken.
Then at the end of the month I heard Robert Murray Smith
call it "ali" (like "alley") in a video. I can certainly go with that!
Language is always evolving, although often more by subconscious
processes rather than conscious direction. (Look how little Esperanto,
created with conscious intent to be "the universal language", caught
on.)
Wind/Water Plant
I
started the month in good hopes of making a molded polypropylene
enclosure for the flowing water version of the turbine, but I didn't
find as much time to work as I'd have liked, and I made a video of
making the mold as I did it. That slowed things down some. And then the
result wasn't very satisfactory. I had already found 1/8 inch alium was
too thin - in the oven with the pressure and temperature it had warped
considerably as the bottom of the circle mold. But now I found that for
the large rectangle mold to make outside walls from, even 1/4 inch ali
plate warped. The plastic didn't flow into the corners seemingly
however long it was kept hot, and so the piece seemed to need more than
37 pounds of weights on top, yet if I added more it would warp even
more.
I went to Steve, my ali supplier, and showed him. He had
worked in a plastic shop, and he said all their molds were made of
steel because it was about the only thing strong enough. This surprised
me, because somehow I had thought the plastic would adhere to steel and
be impossible to get off. He said it didn't. He also said stainless
steel would be best because it doesn't rust.
So apparently the molds, at least larger molds, should be
made of steel or stainless steel. Probably heavy 1/4 inch plate, or
maybe 1/8 or 3/16 inch with reinforcing ribs. That would be fine if I
had some sizable plates of steel of if I knew where to get any around
here. It changed the whole picture.
A potential advantage to steel is I could weld short sides
onto a plate to make a box instead of making a frame of angle iron.
Then the plastic couldn't ooze out of at the bottom. There might be
some around the edges of the lid at the top, but it would have clean
lower edges to cut down on the trimming.
I have now done two videos about this
topic:
Evolution of a Windplant (Part 1?)
https://youtu.be/S8c06FUBrpg
Evolution of a Windplant/Waterplant (Part 2)
https://youtu.be/gqo130iMuW0
Need More Lumber
The month was running out and I had had a virtually dead
spruce tree cut down and had to deal with it, so energy project work
came to a halt. (I needed some more 12 foot 2" by 4"s for the rest of
the cabin walls, and I needed firewood, so there was milling to do as
well as firewood cutting and splitting and general branch cleanup.) (I
cut the big end of the log into 12 foot slabs, 4 inches thick, with the
big Alaska mill. I got my handheld bandsaw mill back to cut the 2" by
4s" from the slabs!)
Gardening
March is generally the month for starting vegetables, but
thinking of the short growing season here, I got started a bit early.
I put some dirt in the oven to sterilize it and filled
some small pots. I seem to get much better results with sterilized
soil. I started planting a couple every day, and putting them in my
window box greenhouse. Then the weather turned cold again. For once I
think I'm starting too early instead of too late.
One interesting thing I planted was some multiplier onion
seeds my brother Stuart had sent me from Toronto. He said they were
from China. The seeds grew on the seed stock like clumps of little
"onion sets" that one buys in a bag, but they were in fact the seeds
from the stock. The shoots were out in about 3 days!
My brother sent me some interesting onion seeds that were
like clumps of little onion sets on the stalks, and they came up in
about 3 days.
Two pictures of seedlings in the
window
greenhouse.
Giant onion seeds that grow like
clumps of
onion bulbs right on the stock.
Behind are some regular onion seeds planted at the same time, just
poking up.
The carrots I planted in a big
bucket in
(?)January seem to be growing well.
They were inside under an LED light for the first month. (The 3 posts
held the light up.)
(The felled tree with a couple of cut slabs can be seen out the window.)
Big Centrifugal Clutch
I started
thinking again about this project. In 2016 it hadn't had quite enough
torque using the Electric Hubcap motor with a chain drive and 3 to 1
reduction. I had to set it aside back then. The blowing of the motor
controller and the move to Haida Gwaii got in the way. (Can it have
been 6 years?!?)
This time the idea would be similar: put it into the Chevy
Sprint between the motor and the low-losses 5 to 1 reduction planetary
gear drive train. Put in the missing set of 5 springs on the other 5
'shoes'. I should think it would put out enough torque to push the car
with all that.
As it is, the car doesn't accelerate from a stop very
fast, and it won't climb steeper hills. With the clutch, the top speed
won't increase, but it should have the torque to do those essential
things and be able to drive in normal situations with only 5 to 1
reduction.
I dug it out and looked at it, and thought about how to
fit it in under the hood. It seemed doable. Sometime, when I have
time...
In
Passing
(Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)
Shadow
Banning
and
Biased
Narratives
In doing a web search, I discovered that Google couldn't find anything
related to "Turquoise Energy" or "Turquoise Energy News",
notwithstanding that they have been posted monthly since 2008.
Startpage, which uses google's search engine annonymously, also cannot
find me.
Duck-duck-go can find the issues posted on my old site,
sears.com/recorder/craig , but has not found any at my new site,
TurquoiseEnergy.neocities.org , where every issue has been posted. So
there may be two problems.
I'm not sure what's up with neocities, but surely to be
"unfindable" at sears.com when they used to turn up commonly in
searches on relevant subjects, means google must be deliberately
blocking
search results either from saers.com or my portion of it. It's probably
something(s) political I said in "In Passing" that someone disagreed
with.
Further supporting this idea, I have discovered if I put
my web address in a
comment under a youtube video, my comment is deleted by youtube. In
fact, there are a number of web site names that cause google to delete
a comment. It looks
to my browser when I post it as if it had been posted, but I finally
wised up when I would edit a comment, and then every time I changed
something it would come back "error" -- because the comment to be
edited had been deleted.
Perhaps this is also the reason why there seemed to be a
strange absence of certain things I thought people would mention in
comments under my comments in various videos. Things about the solar
system and green energy and batteries where I pointed people to things
I have written.
How many more ways is "big tech" clandestinely "shadow
banning" and censoring free and open communication between people? It
is outrageous. Democracy, social and technological progress are not
built on suppression of free speech.
Ukraine
Any write on this complex issue is bound to be from the
limited perspective of one writer and perhaps I am mistaken in some
opinions and perhaps there are mistakes. And of course "In war the
first casualty is truth."
The war in the Ukraine did not start in 2022 with the
Russian
attack. The fighting started in 2014 with the USA assisted (if not
instigated) "regime
change" in Kiev - itself an unjustified covert war - and has never
ceased. This
revolt
was abetted by disaffected or paid (USA spent 5 billion $ total on
this!) Ukrainians and apparently
some
well placed and accurate [American?] snipers, who shot anyone and
everyone
who looked like they were trying to speak up to give direction or voice
to the
crowd in the volatile situation in Maidan square.
Of special background significance in all this, in 1953,
Soviet leader Nikita
Kruschev (himself a Ukrainian) transferred
three largely Russian speaking regions from "Russia" to "Ukraine"
within the Soviet Union: Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk. At the time it
was a seemingly arbitrary move for geographic and administrative
reasons, but it acquired great significance when the Soviet Union broke
up. With the fall of the democraticly elected government in Kiev, the
three Russian speaking regions broke away.
Over 90% of Crimeans voted to rejoin Russia, and Russia
with its main western naval base there of course
gladly accepted. (The USA badly wanted for them to lose that base!) In
the Donbas (Donetsk and Lugansk) Russia was
reluctant to take them in, or give them diplomatic recognition, when
they too asked in 2014. Personally I
think that was a mistake, not to do it while all was in turmoil and
fluid. They quickly became a festering sore between East and West.
The people there tried to defend their
frontiers against Ukraine, but in spite of Ukraine signing the Minsk
peace
accord with them, the shelling and piecemeal invasions never stopped.
In eight
years around 14,000 people of the region have been killed including
thousands of children, and 2/3 of the territory containing nearly half
the population was captured by Ukraine. Russia has had to take in tens
of thousands of refugees, which looked set soon to potentially swell to
hundreds of thousands.
The two entities doubtless had clandestine Russian support
to hold
out so long, but it wasn't enough to stop Ukrainian violence against
them. Their
diplomatic recognition may thus be seen as Russia having finally had
enough of the ongoing troubles and the influx of refugees. (Too bad the
West didn't recognize them first and tell Ukraine to lay off, and let
peace prevail! But that would have taken foresight. And did or does USA
really
want peace?)
From a video, Here is a
list of
countries the USA has "intervened" in over the years,
with many successful "regime changes". Not to mention their several
invasions and
occupations of distant lands this century. Ukraine should be on the
list IMHO.
In addition NATO led by the USA has pushed
eastward for 30
years, repeatedly breaking its 1991 agreement with Russia not to do so,
and lately with only Ukraine between NATO and Russia, has continually
refused to dialogue about Russia's serious security concerns
-- mostly concerning the USA's covert program in Ukraine. The USA
certainly didn't like it when nuclear missiles were going to be placed
next door in Cuba. It appears to
me that they have pushed and pushed Ukraine to attack Donetsk and
Lugansk, and pushed and pushed Russia into a corner with no
good options.
Some insightful comments by Indian Major General G.D.
Bakshi
(retired) - in a RepublicWorld news program on Youtube on February
28th, are worth repeating:
"The west wants to prolong the conflict as long as possible. To what
end?" "It will collapse the world economy."
"It is immoral for the West to cheerlead. The West will fight Russia to
the last Ukrainian."
"It is extremely unfair to put civilians with rifles against tanks. It
is only Russian restraint that there hasn't been a bloodbath."
"Ukraine says only the women and children can leave the threatened
cities. The men 16 to 60 must stay to fight the Russians."
"We were surprised... no artillery, no multi-barrel rocket launchers,
no mass air strikes... they're just doing pinpoint strikes to avoid
collateral damage."
"I salute the bravery [of the Ukrainian people], but for the leadership
it is very immoral to press on with such an unequal fight in which
there will only be destruction."
"The Russians have stated their aim is destruction of Ukraine's
military potential. That will happen if they bring them to battle. They
are taking the bait."
"Do you think it is difficult for Russia to decapitate the Ukrainian
leadership? Today any time you open a mobile you[r location] can be
pinpointed. You think the Russians can't send a guided air attack to
take out Chilly Zelensky any time? Maybe they'll leave him in charge
afterward with half of Ukraine burnt, to face the ire of the Ukrainian
people?"
Personally I think Russia needed to support the Donbas
republics. The alternative at this point would be to be prepared to
take in a million refugees.
Ukraine's continuing violence there has now begat more
violence.
But did Russia need to invade Ukraine proper to try and
kick
America's stoogies out and presumably put Russian stoogies in? If they
didn't want
nuclear missiles aimed at them from right next door by hostile
forces... then that's what it looks like.
Unfortunately the economic disruptions attendant on the
West's
punitive measures appear set to accelerate and further guarantee the
collapse of the financial system, food and energy supplies of the whole
civilized world including of the nations imposing them.
I pray the whole affair won't last long (unlike American
invasions in the Middle East and Afghanistan... and the Saudi genocide
still raging in Yemen... and other ongoing genocides), bloodshed will
be minimal,
food, goods and travel can start flowing again, and a better peace and
harmony than that lost in 2014 will prevail throughout the region and
the world.
Smol
Thots
* Last month I found two species of toad that bear live young. This
month I realized I missed at least two genera of the Rain Frog family
(Breviceptidae) that also live on land and bear live young, Breviceps
and Probreviceps.
That strengthens the case that that was also the most
likely mode of procreation of the Lystrasauridae family of the late
Permian and early Triassic period. This is the family from which I
suspect the reptiles evolved, some millions of years into the Triassic.
* They say that it's now the: "MICIMATT",
the "Military-Industrial-Congressional-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank"
complex
* According to someone studying the issue, in Canada after the surge in
death rates among the most elderly in spring 2020, there was a
corresponding reduction in the rate in later months, and "excess
deaths" overall was level for the year as a whole, indicating that
Covid mostly had merely accelerated the deaths of mostly elderly people
already dying of one
thing or another ("co-morbidities") by a very few months.
* Huge peaceful protests by truckers, soon joined by farmers,
retired police, military veterans and Canadians of many stripes from
all corners of the land. The Trudeau government passed dictates to
try and force most Canadians to take injections of a highly
experimental
vaccine formula whose benefit to risk ratio is seen by a substantial
percentage of the population to be less
than one, as well as lower than some effective preexisting oral
medications.
It will hurt Canada-USA trade, and after being hailed as "heros" for
keeping working through the uncertain time when it was unknown how bad
the disease would get, many had finally just had enough of travel
restrictions
in their work and being told what to do, even with their own bodies --
and many other Canadians are not far behind them.
On youtube on the 10th I heard our prime minister himself
say that Canadians have the right to protest and have our voices heard.
These are fine principles and words. How loudly must how many millions
yell, and for how long, before they are in fact heard by him? This is
not the sort of Canadian government we used to know.
Half the provinces however, did hear and eased or
eliminated their restrictions and "mandates", so the demonstration was
not fruitless. And it has inspired similar movements in USA and
Australia. Last I saw trucks were rendezvousing outside of Washington
DC.
* The mass media have gone out of their way to trivialize and demonize
this peaceful mass movement, which is surely by far the largest
political mobilization ever seen in Canadian history. Trudeau himself
explained why, on camera no less. Basicly he said the government gets
good
treatment from the press because they paid CBC 600 million dollars to
give them good
press. So CBC can tell us lies for big profit, or be harassed,
demonized and
go broke. One suspects journalists of integrity have long since left,
leaving those who can read a script full of lies and
misinformation on camera with a smile for good pay. This is not the CBC
we used to know.
If you want to get a reasonably accurate picture of what's
going on in the world, go on line. For example Youtube, Rumble,
Zerohedge as well as many and various international news sites and
sites of individual journalists. There are
different views and honest opinions on many and varied issues, often by
experts and specialists and those involved in the affairs in question.
And there
are usually comments underneath allowing readers to say what they think
of the presentation, which can on occasion be as eye opening as the
work itself.
Contrast that with all the mass media outlets mostly owned
by the same very few individuals, all with one voice and telling you
exactly the same story often word for word the same on all networks,
implying that what they say is the only truth and all you need to know,
and often giving no sources, allowing no comments, and telling the
story with stock footage we're supposed to believe is from the actual
event. Of course there are shysters on line too, and one must always
use one's own discernment whatever the source.
* According to one report (The Richardson Post, February 17th 2022),
Trudeau himself profits immensely from the vaccine. (This
is readily believable with the several previous reportings of corrupt
dealings by Trudeau.) It explains how long
the planning has gone on and how deep the roots have grown. Trudeau has
ordered 400 million doses of vaccines, at profit to himself.
That's TEN injections for each Canadian! This might help explain why he
won't correct the disastrous course of the ship of state. Has
he sold his soul for money? Is Trudeau guilty of betrayal of
public trust? Are similar pathetic motivations in play in Europe,
Australia and New Zealand?
* The senate vetoed or was about to veto extension of the Emergencies
Act (formerly known as the War Measures Act). Suddenly Trudeau says the
emergency is over and he's canceling the state of emergency. Big of
him! No mention of the senate.
* Why have so many nations taken such similar dictatorial measures? Why
are so many of the most eminent doctors and scientists worldwide
indiscriminately and ruthlessly being silenced from the internet by
"big tech"? (Why can Turquoise Energy News no longer be found in a
Google powered web search?) Are all our western
governments and major companies taking their orders from some "higher
authority" instead of
being themselves the highest authority? It certainly feels that way.
Martin Armstrong and others have named and explained that
"authority": Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. Evidently Mr.
"You will own nothing and be happy" Schwab has even boasted about his
protegés being at the heads of several major governments,
including "half the Canadian cabinet". It is said they all ran a
simulation of what would happen if there was a pandemic shortly prior
to Covid. Perhaps Klaus, the WEF and the whole Davos crowd should bear
some investigative scrutiny on behalf of the rest of us?
* Sweden and various other countries apparently didn't get the message.
They never locked down or made mandates and have had no more Covid than
anyone else, and in fact Sweden has now declared the pandemic to be
over. In Western Europe: Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland and
Portugal have erased most restrictions. And England. Japan has dropped
"mandates" as
has Israel. (How is it I often hear of such things on my rare visits to
French or Spanish language news sites? We English "don't need to know?"
Great multi-language translator: Deepl.com )
---
* In a democracy Ultimate Authority rests with the citizens. Surely
there are more simple, more effective ways for people to assert their
authority than to protest en masse that those they chose to represent
themselves are not doing what is wanted?
We must move to positive means and social mechanisms for
citizen planning and control. Citizens must have established channels
through which to choose directions far beyond electing a new
representative every few years, and those elected must know through
those channels and respond
to what their citizens have chosen. They should be the leaders that
coordinate to give effect to what has been chosen, not arbitrary rulers
who decide by themselves what directions are to be taken. That was
(perhaps) good enough 200 years ago when citizens had but few
interactions with their governments, not today.
* This brings us back to the need to evolve a "third stage democracy"
where small local groups of citizens can get together, study an issue
carefully, and make recommendations. Where these groups are formed in
many localities, their findings can be sorted on line and the best
combined recommendations and plans forwarded to the applicable
government. These, having come essentially as the best consensus of the
whole of the more
thoughtful groups of citizens who are most familiar and concerned with
each subject, will carry more weight than lobbyists and corporate
interests.
The name given to such groups is unimportant. They can be
a "Local Social Sustainability Design Team" as originally proposed
(IMHO a confusing and poorly descriptive name), or
a "Public Committee" as I recently suggested, or a "Societal
Direction Group", or any of a number of other possible appellations.
Individual names are likely to include the subject under consideration,
such as maybe "Victoria Traffic Planning Public Committee" or "Northern
BC Dairy Directions Society" and so on and so on.
* There are of course other steps that need to be taken to ensure the
integrity of the whole political process, which is being subverted by
today's power hungry, profiteering oligarchy who want nothing changed
in the fossilized systems that they know how to game to provide
themselves with immense power, wealth and
control over others. Such power vacuums that they find and fill must be
eliminated by the creation of mechanisms that allow for the public to
make the important decisions, and where representative government
coordinates the whole and enacts the people's will without leading
eventually to an entrenched oligarchy.
Again, such a public process of decision making allows the
many minds of those most concerned with any and every subject to seek
the best solutions to
society's many problems and needs, instead of leaving everything to a
few politicians who are not intimately concerned with, affected by nor
interested in, most of them. The many heads of those most concerned can
choose better social directions than a few representatives who in their
absence are likely to listen to whatever for-profit company is putting
its own agenda in their ears.
Here is an evolving "Book" on line about creating 3rd stage
democracies
paper- Stage 3 Democracies -- A Design-Build Project ‚ 53.08 by Daniel
Raphael
https://bigmacspeaks.life/paper-stage3-democracies-designbuild-project-5308/
(And his many other works of progressive thought:)
https://bigmacspeaks.life/list-documents-by-daniel-raphael/
ESD
(Eccentric Silliness Department)
* Just 28 days? Notwithstanding that that is the actual period of the
moon's orbit, what happened to the rest of the moonth?
* I thought there were no Koalas except in Australia. But Koala Lumpur
is in Malaysia. Apparently the little beasties managed to cross the
straits somewhere.
* Trucker convoys demonstrating against heavy-handed government edicts
in several countries now... How can trucks make a convoy? I thought a
convoy was ships? Shouldn't they be caravans? (or is that only camels?)
* The Precambrian Period was before there was multicelluar animal life
on Earth. The Precambian period was before my sister in law told me
about Cambia, a powder medication for the worst migraines that even
Sumotriptan doesn't cure.
"in depth reports" for
each project are below. I hope they may be useful to anyone who wants
to get into a similar project, to glean ideas for how something
might be done, as well as things that might have been tried, or just
thought
of and not tried... and even of how not to do something - why
it didn't
work or proved impractical. Sometimes they set out inventive thoughts
almost as they occur - and are the actual organization and elaboration
in writing of those thoughts. They are thus partly a diary and are not
extensively proof-read for literary perfection, consistency,
completeness and elimination of duplications before
publication. I hope they may add to the body of wisdom for other
researchers and developers to help them find more productive paths and
avoid potential pitfalls and dead ends.
The
Large,
Efficient
Centrifugal Clutch
I started thinking about
this idea/project again. I wondered if it had really needed the
planetary gear to magnify the effects at lower RPMs, or if it just
needed the set of springs where they were never installed on the shoes
on one side. More likely to move a vehicle it would need to be
bigger for more torque -- a bigger diameter and or wider with more
shoes
to engage in the drum. It had had a 3 to 1
chain reduction following the clutch and didn't really work in 2016. If
the
uninstalled springs on half the shoes had increased the torque it might
have worked sufficiently but probably would still have been marginal.
I'm going to guess that 3 to 1 just wasn't quite enough reduction.
I went back and reviewed TE News #98, March 2016 where my
previous notes were. Considering all the effort I had put into making
and trying it, the write-up wasn't very enlightening. I had noted that
it was rather noisy. I trust that could be reduced to "not irritating"
for a production model.
This time there's a highly efficient 5 to 1 planetary
gearset straight to the CV shaft. The centrifugal clutch would probably
only
need to provide half as much torque to work with this configuration.
With the clutch before the
reducing gearset, the car wouldn't go any faster than now, but if it
worked well
it would surely accelerate faster and climb the hills it doesn't have
the torque for presently with this small motor and drive ratio. That
would be a considerable improvement in practical usability!
What had brought all the 2016 experiments to a halt was
the shorting out of the motor's power wires and consequent burning out
of the Kelly motor controller I had installed for my Electric hubcap
motor.
(Keep the wires apart and or keep them well immobilized! Don't trust
insulation alone to separate wires subject to vibrating against each
other or against another metal part!) The motor and controller had
worked really well up to that point other than the motor getting hot
quite quickly at high currents. After that the move to Haida Gwaii got
in the way of resumption.
I'd order another Kelly controller, except I have this
"new" plan for the bigger, unipolar "Electric Hubcap" motor perhaps
with
permanent magnet assist, and it will need a special motor controller...
Someday?
A concern with
the
clutch (my construction) is I never liked the side plate of the drum
being clipped onto
the drum with a few bolts. That never struck me as mechanicly
robust, but it seemed to be the best I could come up with. Now I know
someone who welds ali, and my neighbor has a lathe that would hold
the whole clutch. I could make an ali disk and have it welded onto the
drum,
then true the center mounting on the lathe.
In addition, it seems the HHO torch with propane can
solder/weld/braze ali. The HHO provides sufficient heat with a
neutral flame, and adding the propane makes the flame oxygen deficient
("reducing") so the ali won't oxidize. And this month I saw a video
wherein the HHO gas was bubbled through methyl hydrate (after being
bubbled through water as a flashback arrestor), and it picked up enough
CH3OH vapor to make it a reducing flame without propane. That sounded
really promising too. So maybe I could do my own ali welding (or is
that brazing or soldering)?
But maybe I should see how well the clutch works and make
improvements if it does, or at least if it looks promising.
I went into the shop and found the centrifugal clutch. I
was afraid parts of it would be scattered everywhere, but it was all
together except the center hubs, which would have to be custom per
installation. I found a 7/8" center SD taper lock hub to attach the
drum to a 22mm shaft into the planetary gear. It shouldn't be too hard
to attach the inner drive disk to the motor.
What I at
first thought would be valuable is some way to put in a bearing or
bronze bushing to center the drive disk inside the outer drum. I went
out to the shop and found a bearing that might do the job. The 7/8"
motor shaft extension could extend through the drive plate to the 7/8"
inside of this bearing. With the bearing thus centered on the motor
shaft, I could turn a piece to attach to the drum, to hold the outside
of the bearing centered in the drum. That should do it.
Looking under the hood
again, there seems to be enough
room, but a double plate will be needed, an enclosure about 5 inches
between plates that are solidly connected around the outside to each
other and to the car, with the present planetary gear on the left one
as is, the motor moved over to attach to the right one, and the
centrifugal clutch in between the plates.
Unlike the less innovative fixed reduction drive to the
right wheel, adding the big centrifugal clutch would be rather
innovative - a more unique and worthy project to lavish time and energy
on.
A custom plate arrangement, remounting a rear support,
remounting the motor, a little piece turned on the lathe to center the
bearing... lots of fiddly custom fabrication here! If I start on this
(or might I say return to it after 5 years?), I'm likely to lose my
focus on the wind/water plants!
[19th] Hmm... The gearset is attached to the plate and the drum is
attached to the gearset shaft. The drive rotor is attached to the motor
shaft and the motor will be attached to the same assembly. So if the
plates
are properly aligned, there should be no need for a bearing inside the
clutch to align the two parts.
Then, the motor aligns to a center hole and attaches to
just 2 bolts on opposite sides of center. So the second plate doesn't
need to be a big round plate, just a wide bar coupled to the main plate
at each end, long enough to fit the clutch drum in the middle
(>10"). (The main plate is already larger than 10" and has a choice
of bolt
holes to use around the periphery.)
Well, this is getting somewhat simpler now... somewhat. I
just might go for it.
Other "Green" & Electric Equipment Projects
CNC Table &
Oxyhydrogen (HHO) Torch
One fine day perhaps around
mid month I decided to put the HHO generator, torch and power supply
together. I set the pieces out
and fitted one hose, but then I couldn't find the torch I had bought.
Where had I put it in all my clutter? First I thought it was in a black
plastic case but couldn't find that, so I went back to my orders on
AliExpress and found that it was actually a light colored wooden box. I
couldn't find that either. By the end of the month, I still hadn't
found it.
Where, logicly, would I have put it? Beats me! It must be
around in plain sight somewhere. I wouldn't have tried to hide it! What
a silly thing to have block work on a project for weeks!
Electricity
Storage
(Batteries)
[No Reports]
Electricity
Generation
Vertical Axis Wind and Water Plant
with plastic recycling development
After the first couple of days of February I couldn't seem
to find time for project work for almost a week. One day I did take a
blade down to Lawn Creek and then the ocean. In the creek one could see
where the water built up at the front at various angles of rotation and
feel the forces acting on the blade. I might well hope for 100 watts
from the smallest of units in a shallow creek at a fast spot.
On the beach I turned it horizontal. I conceived that
something like a "scoop" at just the right height could be used to
catch water as (or before) the waves broke, and turn a water wheel. It
worked well when a wave came along, but that seemed disappointingly
seldom, many seconds passing by between waves. Still, I couldn't go out
far for fear of filling my boots with frigid water. Larger scoops out a
little deeper might catch a good bit of power. I decided that flowing
water was a better bet for getting a good amount of energy without a
large structure.
More plastic molding
[8th] I loaded
the circle mold with 555g PP and put it in the oven for
75 minutes. Instead of opening the door immediately, I left it closed
of 15 more minutes. Even if the peak temperature overall (260°C)
was attained at the time I unplugged the oven, the plastic could still
be flowing for a while. Sure enough, when I did open the door the
temperature of the mold was still well over 200°C, and more plastic
had reached and plugged up more of the cracks around the rim. After
another 15 with the door open I unscrewed the depth & pilot hole
screws.
Later it had cooled and I opened it. I had hoped to get
even thickness all the way around by not having too much PP in the
mold. Instead the melt and flow seemed good, but 555 grams didn't quite
seem to fill everywhere. Back to 600+ for the next try! ...and with the
15 extra minutes to continue flowing after turning the oven off!
[9th] I added rope bits to make 627g and tried again hoping for a
complete fill. This time when 75 minutes was up, the temperature reader
showed the outside of the mold as being 234-240°. I unplugged the
oven but left the door closed, and to my surprise after 15 more
minutes, the mold measured around 253-258°. It had continued to
heat up even with the oven turned off!
I was working after dark, and the stove was turned away
from the porch light. The hot oven seemed to stink much more than I
remembered. When I went to take the mold out I again needed the
flashlight - it was magnetic and for lack of anywhere else had I stuck
it to the roof of the oven when I was loading the mold and putting the
weights on it. Oops! I hadn't taken it out! I got another flashlight
and looked in. The first one was a gooey, stinking blob draped over the
edge of the mold. The largest weight had some sort of thick liquid
bubbling away on top of it. Melting plastic. I undid the depth screws,
put the weights back into
the oven (I keep them there) and closed it, and left the mold outside
overnight.
[10th] The next morning I
opened it and found everything had gone
wrong. It was much thicker at one end than the other, there were voids
galore, and instead of shrinking a little it had cracked in multiple
places. It seemed the overflow around the edge of the lid disk was
enough to grip the plastic and prevent the edges from shrinking toward
the center. Yikes!
This can only work as a real production method if the
results are reasonably good and consistent. I had once again neglected
to spray on the silicone lube. I know it makes a difference to the ease
of removing the part. Would it make the difference?
These vexations aside and
assuming things will improve, I
wondered if I could put a blade and a circle into the oven at the same
time? The circle mold isn't very tall and the blade mold might just fit
on another rack above it. 75 minutes at 2240 watts is quite a bit of
juice to burn, and it takes the better part of 2 hours per piece.
Getting 2 pieces done in not so much more time and no more power would
be good.
Next I started thinking about the frame pieces. A "water
power unit" didn't have to be anything like as big as a wind wall. I
could see making it as a 22" by 22" square, 17" thick, with 17" by 22"
pieces. That's the largest size I can cast in the oven. For anything
bigger I need to make that larger oven. I have the long, low steel box,
but I'd like to not add that project to the "must do next" list for now.
I cut down the
circle so it fit easily into the mold and
added the cut or broken off pieces. I cleaned up and sprayed the inside
of the mold. I thought that if it got so hot after the heat was turned
off I'd shorten the burn to 70 minutes. But when the time ended the
temperature probe said it was already 286-288°C! Given that I
decided to leave it for just 6 more minutes instead of 15. It was
already down to 245°. I opened the door and looked, and I could see
it was still thicker on one side than the other. WHY? I threw another 9
pound weight on top of those already on the high side, then waited just
10 more minutes before removing the weights and pulling it out onto the
open door to remove the screws... and discovering that this time I had
forgotten to do them up. (How could I put
the weights on and not notice that? ...first time for everything!) No
need
to search for explanations of it being lop sided this time!
So instead I did them up. The plastic was still very soft
and they went in easily. None of them hit bottom anyway! By now I had
weights just on the high side and it seemed to be equalizing.
Apparently they're getting plenty hot - they just need lots of time -
maybe 20 minutes - for the plastic to ooze over to where it needs to
go. I unscrewed the scews again as it was hardening, and I cut the
still soft surplus that had come out around the lip so there would be
no big chunks above the lid to prevent the edges from shrinking away
toward the middle. Some of it glued together again, but it was enough.
One crack had filled up, but the two halves had still not fused well.
The rest was good except still lop-sided, and there were still a few
smaller voids. It might need a counterweight on the light end, but I
would use it - on a prototype or sample.
Later I went out to the shop and started putting the first
water rotor together. It was to have been the wind rotor, but I cut the
blades down to 4.5" tall. It should spin in a shallow creek.
I put a pipe flange with a pipe sticking out to act as a
top shaft. I had to put the flange on the inside so the pipe would
stick through the hole and center it. To have the flat face of the
flange against the top of the "spool" I had to thread the pipe into the
"wrong" side of the flange. It only went in about one turn. I tightened
it as best I could. I made the rotor to turn counterclockwise so that
it would tend to tighten the shaft rather than unscrew it.
It seemed that just sticking the unit in a creek wasn't
going to make much electricity. The water had to be concentrated into a
narrow channel so it had both speed and volume. I went down to the
culverts where the creek passed under the highway. There were two about
4 feet in diameter. At the entrance to the culvert the water really
sucked in and the rotor turned. But not as much as I expected. Then I
went across to the exit. The water picked up speed through the sloped
culverts and sprayed out in a torrent at about 3+ meters per second.
(The other larger pipe seemed a little faster (4m/s?) and had more
flow. The water there was too deep to get close to it.) There was the
power! The rotor turned strongly at the bottom end of the smaller one,
but not very smoothly as each blade alternately blocked and channeled
the water. I figure it will be better when the stationary steering vane
of the housing is in place.
The biggest thing this showed was the the unit would have
to be not only quite sturdy, but solidly mounted in place to handle the
strong forces acting on it.
One day at Jungle creek I noted a fairly deep, narrow area
on the beach that seemed to be flowing about 3-4 meters per second over
a couple of meters. The rotor should have turned well there. But high
tide would cover that spot, and it has to have rained recently for the
creek to have that much water.
Plastic Recycling 2.0 Video
At this point, I should mention that I started shooting a
video as I worked to explain the plastic recycling process for all and
sundry on youtube. The entrance barrier to recycling plastic this way
is far lower than the typical techniques of PreciousPlastic.com ,
especially in not having to buy/build a plastic shredder before
starting anything else. Even the gravity squash, oven heated molds are
much simpler, albeit they are the most difficult part and it's worth
spending time to make a mold well, since every part will bear the
mold's "stamp".
[14th] I wanted to make a rectangular mold to make the pieces for the
frame of the box or wall, 16.5" by 22". I'd have liked to make them a
little larger (maybe about 19" by 24") but that was the biggest that
would fit in the oven. Rather than have to make the new larger oven, I
decided to go with "barely big enough". I got two pieces of 1/4" ali
from Steve, since experience had shown thinner pieces are prone to
warping, and a 10 foot piece of 2" by 2" ali angle. I wasn't sure
what I was going to do for the edges (this is not a place where one can
run down to "Metal Supermarket" and pick up what you want), but after
he cut the top and bottom pieces Steve asked me what I was going to do
for edges and I said "Ideally..." and it turned out he had some! Lots
of it, in fact. If I should want to make the oven and the larger
enclosure for the "Wind Wall" I can probably get another piece or two
from him. (Cost was 170$ for the 3 pieces -- at an older price for the
metal and not very much for Steve's cutting.)
I spent about 3 hours trying to make the two pieces just
the same size with square, straight edges. The results weren't as good
as one might wish - the sizes weren't close enough and the corners
weren't very square in spite of all my trimming with a fine blade on
the skill saw and an angle grinder. I thought to clamp them together
with C-clamps and get the edges the same on both at once to at least
get them the same size, but I had had it with bending over them and
grinding for the day.
I also had the thought that the CNC table with the HHO gas
torch would have done a near perfect job with much less effort on my
part. With the CNC table finally running, maybe I should have spent the
3 hours working on putting together the HHO torch?
[17th] I had forgotten a tool for sculpting, smoothing and
straightening the edges of the ali plates: the bench belt sander!
Sure enough, a 36 grit sanding belt took down the slightly larger plate
to the size of the other and made the edges smoother without being
painfully laborious.
I had also wondered how to cut the corners of the side
pieces - match ends at 45° or make some pattern to put screws
straight into? I eventually had the thought to make them "dovetail"
like good wooden drawers. (Just one "dovetail" per corner.) One screw
should then hold each corner pretty securely with little leakage of
melted plastic.
[18th] I cut the ali "angle iron" into lengths and cut the angles
and dovetails, then sanded and filed each end of each piece until the
frame fit together. I slipped the bottom piece into the frame and it
all fit perfectly except there was a bit more gap between the bottom
and the ends than I liked, almost 1/16th of an inch. That's what I get
for cutting the pieces a mm extra "just in case". Once the dovetail
joins are made, they can't be adjusted in that direction.
Angle frame and bottom
plate of rectangle mold
[21st] I had been wondering how to keep
the box together solid in the
oven, and thinking of screws through the angle irons into the bottom,
or maybe with some joiner pieces. Then I thought to use springs around
the whole outside. I found a couple in my spring drawer, and used a
couple of coat hangers as wires between them.
[23rd] I put 1100g of ropes in the mold, the mold in the oven, ~37
pounds of weights on top (all four big ones), and heated it for 70
minutes. The temperature was only 200°C so I left it another 15
minutes. About 225°. But I could see some PP coming out at the left
edge (those big cracks!), so I turned the oven off. After another 15
(210°) there was now also some at the opposite edge, but it looked
like there would be void corners. I left it another 15. (195°) I
still didn't see any coming out at the corners. By now it was cooling,
but it still seemed gooey to the screwdriver and hope springs eternal!
Another 15 minutes (180°): total 115 minutes, 45 after the heat was
shut off. One corner at least was filled. The fact that it took so long
suggests that I should be using more weight. It's a big surface area.
Anyway the 1100 grams was just a first estimate. There
might not be enough plastic for a solid fill however long it was
melted. I would have to look at the piece to see.
I am wondering if the fact that this mold takes up most of
the area across the oven in all directions keeps the heat underneath
from getting above the mold? Maybe it's mostly heating it from below.
Insufficient plastic indeed proved to be the reason for
the void corners. After I trimmed around the edges it was a good piece
if one wanted to cut a smaller rectangel from it (or needed an odd
shape), but it was thin over a broad area and had lots of little
bubbles that hadn't been forced out. Maybe about 1400 grams next time?
But this piece took around 3 hours and I had had enough for the day.
In filming for the video I seem to have neglected to take
still pictures of most of this work.
Recessed Panels, Shingle Shapes
It occurred to me that flat panels don't have to be the
same thickness throughout. Like many doors they could be thick around
the edges for strength and thinner in the middle. The simple way to do
that might be to lay a plate of ali inside the bottom of the mold to
occupy much of the space in the center, leaving maybe a 1 inch lip full
height around the outside edges. Such a plate would have sufficiently
tapered [and polished] edges that it would pop out easily as the
cooling plastic shrinks. And the sloped edge hollow would look nice.
(It is assumed that the weights are removed from the mold and any
screws sticking through the plastic are unscrewed while it cools.)
Alternatively, or to have an indent in each face, a
similar plate could be screwed onto the center of the lid. Then one
might have a 3/4" thick frame around a 1/4" thick face. That would make
robust but lightweight frame panels, using less plastic. The larger the
panel, the more it would be worth doing.
Another idea is that by using machine screws of different
lengths (or not screwing them all the way in) on could make tapered
pieces, thin wedges. The only use for this that comes to mind is for
roofing or wall shingles.
Big rectangle sheets: Troubles
getting an even fill, getting the corners to fill, and with warping.
Left: 1100g - not enough plastic.
Right was 1400 - piece is thicker, just didn't fill to corners and
warped badly cooling out of the mold.
[24th] Since 1100 grams hadn't filled the mold, I tried again with 1400
grams. I plugged in the oven and set the timer for 75 minutes. The top
of the mold only measured a little over 200°C, but I thought that
if I left it in the oven it would spread out. Wrong. It was still extra
thick in the middle and didn't reach the corners. With Videoing,
75(heat)+30(no heat)+15(door open)= 120 minutes plus a walk on the
beach while it was cooling making it over 2-1/2 hours, I had had enough
for the day. Sigh! I put it back in the oven and set it all up.
Next time I'll be sure the temperature measures at least
225° before I shut the oven off. Another 10 minutes surely would
have done it. However long it takes.
[25th] I tried again. This time I ran the oven 85 minutes and the
temperature reached 220-225°. But it still didn't fill the corners.
In addition, the center was bulged up a bit so the plastic was thicker
there. Furthermore, I hadn't screwed the screws back in after the first
try, yet the piece wasn't thin anywhere. And more than I like had oozed
out the end cracks. The thicker center plus the plastic oozed out
explained why there wasn't more material to fill the corners. And yet,
one expects everything should have been filled, which tends to suggest
that 37 pounds on top wasn't enough weight.
I decided I needed to rethink larger molds. If even 1/4"
thick ali would warp, the bottom would probably sag if there was more
weight on top. I started to think that what it needed was steel plates
instead. And probably 1/4" thick even at that.
Steel Molds
[26th] I went to talk to Steve, my source of ali, again. I said that
even 1/4 inch plate ali had warped in the oven when it was a big piece,
and that maybe I should put in a steel plate on the bottom for strength
and a thin piece of ali on top so the plastic wouldn't stick. He had
worked at a plastic shop before and he said all their molds were made
of steel because it was strong enough - and that plastics are oily
enough that they don't stick to steel. Somehow I had simply assumed
they would. Epoxy won't stick to ali, but it will stick to steel as it
cures. PP isn't epoxy and it melts/freezes, not cures.
This changes things! Apparently I should be making all my
oven molds out of steel, not ali. And steel being weldable, perhaps I
should make boxes with the sides welded to the bottom to prevent oozing
through the cracks and possible drips, instead of make angle iron
frames. Now, where was I going to get steel plate and strips? I had a
few bits of plate from the woodstove I took apart in about 2014. Those
wouldn't go far - and they were supposed to be for Electric Hubcap
motor rotors. And I had a fair bit of bed frame angle iron, but it
wasn't very tall as an edge wall. It seemed unlikely there'd be scraps
of plate big enough for larger molds at the refuse station.
Anyway, there was the situation at the end of the month. The new mold
wasn't turning out satisfactory parts for the enclosures and I needed
to work something else out.
My
Solar
Power
System
The 31st was sunny, and it occurred to me that the cabin
solar now had 1220W of panels driving a 700W grid tie. There was just
470W being made in the still low winter sun, but soon the inverter
would be limiting the power output, if it wasn't already. I took the
old 1000W inverter back out and re-installed it, and put two panels
(610W) on each. I know the Y-Solar "1000W" inverters work best with the
lightest load, but it occurs to me I could add another panel for 1525W
at the cabin and still be under the rating for both inverters. I don't
suppose the dual installation made much difference to the day's
production, much less to
the month's. (Now if only there wasn't a travel trailer and an RV with
1100W of electric heaters plugged in down there, using far more than is
ever made by the sun in winter!)
If I do get around to installing more panels, I'd like to
mount them more upright to get more fall-winter-spring production,
instead of just the easy mounting: bolting them flat on the 15°
slope roof. And I'd most like to try putting some on the roof at the
north end of the east garage, where I think there's the least tree
shade of anywhere available. Perhaps a wooden frame to hold them,
bolted to the rafters?
Daily/Monthly/Yearly Log of Solar
Power Generated [and grid power consumed]
(All times are in PST: clock 48 minutes ahead of sun, not PDT which
is an hour and 48 minutes ahead. (DC) battery system power output
readings are reset to zero
daily (often just for LED lights, occasionally used with other loads:
Electric car, inverters in power outages or other 36V loads), while the
grid tied readings are cumulative.)
Solar: House, Trailer, (.DC@house) => total KWH [grid power
meter reading(s)@time] Sky conditions
Km = electric car drove distance, then car was charged.
January
31st 2476.23, 0021.86, .00 => 6.04 [92589@18:00] SUNNY! all day.
(& cold.) Frost melted only where sun hit it.
February
01st 2477.73, 0022.23, .00 => 1.87 [92626@19:30, 55Km] No sunny.
Cold, frost.
02d 2479.95, 0022.83, .23 => 3.05 [92680@18:00] cloudy but
warmer - +9°
03rd 2480.42, 0022.89, .03 => 0.56 [92729@21:30; 55Km] Rain. Fog.
04th 2482.85, 0024.06, .00 => 3.60 [92770@21:30]
05th 2484.15, 0024.81, .27 => 2.32 [92807@17:00; 55Km] Cloudy,
06th 2485.71, 0025.66, .00 => 2.41 [92849@117:00] & cloudy
07th 2487.86, 0026.99, .27 => 3.75 [92885@17:30] A bit of sun.
08th 2489.01, 0027.80, .27 => 2.23 [92928@21:00] A bit.
09th 2490.58, 0028.92, .24 => 2.93 [92959@17:30; 55Km] ~+10°
10th 2493.09, 0030.37, .13 => 4.09 [93008@18:00]
11th 2497.63, 0031.93, .00 => 5.10 [90Km; 93046@17:00] Frost AM.
5°. Sunny!
12th 2498.40, 0032.16, .17 => 1.17 [60Km; 93098@17:30] Nothing like
sunny. 7°
13th 2498.90, 0032.26, .13 => 0.73 [93139@17:00] Clouds, fog.
14th 2503.55, 0035.29, .00 => 7.68 [93173@19:00] Totally Sunny all
day!
15th 2504.82, 0035.79, .00 => 1.77 [50Km; 93224@18:00]
16th 2508.36, 0037.73, .00 => 5.48 [55Km; 93265@18:30] Mostly sunny
again! hit ~+9°
17th 2509.95, 0038.63, .10 => 2.59 [93293@18:00]
18th 2511.24, 0039.46, .29 => 2.41 [85Km; 93337@19:00] Another
dreary day. With some rain in eve.
19th 2513.86, 0041.10, .13 => 4.39 [100Km; 93367@18:30]
20th 2518.13, 0042.43, .02 => 5.62 [93410@25:30] Some bright sun
around noon gave over 1600W at house at least for a few moments (new
record!). Meanwhile the AC connection to the new 700W inverter at the
cabin seemed to have a bad connection which I discovered and fixed just
before it got cloudy. At its own "weatherproof" AC screw-on connector -
I put some dielectric grease in.
21st 2521.96, 0044.71, .47 => 6.58 [55Km; 93441@18:00] Some birght
sun in early PM. In some power transition plugging into the Sprint car,
the fing PowMr reset itself to its factory specs (to lead-acids) and
was trying to overcharge the car. Then since it was trying to charge it
to over 40V (14.4V * 3 = 43.2V [YOW!] if it managed it), if it got
confused again it would think it was a 48 volt system instead of 36 and
REALLY try and fry everything - the batteries and potentially my house.
They're great charge controllers when they're working right.
22d 2526.05, 0046.58, .00 => 5.96 [55Km; 93479@18:00]
23rd 2527.83, 0047.11, .00 => 2.47 [93523@18:00]
24th 2532.15, 0048.90, .00 => 6.11 [93557@18:00] +6.5°.
All but 2500 watts when sun came out around noon! It's not even summer!
(but light clouds, mist & fog much of the day).
25th 2533.96, 0049.43, .00 => 2.34 [?] Power out late eve.
26th 2534.87, 0049.78, .25 => 1.51 [93618@7:00AM; 55Km; 93636@17:30]
Rain,howing wind (since yest.eve.) very dark.
27th 2538.48, 0051.60, .32 => 5.75 [65Km; 93669@18:30]
28th 2542.86, 0053.95, .00 => 6.73 [93707@16:30]
March
01st 2546.42, 0056.17, .27 => 6.05 [55Km; 93735@18:00]
02nd2550.90, 0058.57, .00 => 6.88 [93759@20:00] -- wanted to put out
newsletter here
03rd 2554.75, 0060.72, .00 => 6.00 [93784@18:30]
04th 2559.40, 0063.67, .08 => 7.68 [93809@19:00]
05th 2561.21, 0064.70, .20 => 3.04 [55Km; 93848@19:00] The bad days
in March are like the good days in December.
06th 2566.67, 0068.32, .07 => 9.15 [65Km; 93881@18:00]
07th 2568.99, 0068.97, .13 => 3.10 [93917@18:30] -- finally got to
it here! What happened?
Daily KWH from solar panels. (Compare February 2022
with February 2021 & with February 2021.)
Days of
__ KWH
|
January 2022 (15 solar
panels: but just 5 clear
of snow until 9th)
|
February 2022
(15 sol.panels - 2
mostly in shade)
|
February 2021
(12 solar panels)
|
0.xx
|
11
|
2
|
2
|
1.xx
|
8
|
4
|
6
|
2.xx
|
5
|
8
|
8
|
3.xx
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
4.xx
|
4
|
2
|
4
|
5.xx
|
|
5
|
3
|
6.xx
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
7.xx
|
|
1
|
|
8.xx
|
|
|
|
9.xx
|
|
|
|
10.xx
|
|
|
|
11.xx
|
|
|
|
12.xx
|
|
|
|
13.xx
|
|
|
|
14.xx
|
|
|
|
15.xx
|
|
|
|
16.xx
|
|
|
|
17.xx
|
|
|
|
18.xx
|
|
|
|
Total KWH
|
57.94
|
102.14
|
80.40
|
Km Driven
on Electricity
|
591 Km (~100 KWH?)
(rear brakes dragging!)
|
893.8 Km
(~130 KWH?)
|
|
Monthly Summaries: Solar Generated KWH [& Power used from
grid KWH]
2019
March 1-31: 116.19 + ------ + 105.93 = 222.12 KWH - solar [786 KWH
used from
grid]
April - 1-30: 136.87 + ------ + 121.97 = 258.84 KWH [608 KWH]
May - 1-31: 156.23 + ------ + 147.47 = 303.70 KWH [543 KWH] (11th
solar panel connected on lawn on 26th)
June - 1-30: 146.63 + 15.65 + 115.26 = 277.54 KWH [374 KWH] (36V, 250W
Hot Water Heater installed on 7th)
July - 1-31: 134.06 + 19.06 + 120.86 = 273.98 KWH [342 KWH]
August 1-31:127.47 + 11.44+91.82+(8/10)*96.29 = 307.76 KWH [334 KWH]
(12th solar panel connected on lawn Aug. 1)
Sept.- 1-30: 110.72 + 15.30 + 84.91 = 210.93 KWH [408 KWH]
(solar includes 2/10 of 96.29)
Oct. - 1-31: 55.67 + 13.03 + 51.82 = 120.52 KWH, solar
[635 KWH used from grid]
Nov. - 1-30: 36.51 + 6.31 + 26.29 = 69.11
KWH, solar [653 KWH used from grid]
Dec. - 1-23: 18.98 + .84* + 11.70 =
31.52
KWH, solar + wind [711 KWH + 414 (while away) = 1125 from grid]
2020
Jan. - 6-31: 17.52 + ------* + 10.61 = 28.13 KWH,
solar+
wind [1111 KWH from grid]
Feb. - 1-29: 56.83 + ------* + 35.17 = 92.00 KWH,
solar + wind [963 KWH from grid]
* The solar DC system was running the kitchen hot water
tank. Now it's only running a couple of
lights - not (usually) worth reporting. So there's just the 2 grid tie
systems:
house and "roof over travel trailer".
One year of solar!
March - 1-31: 111.31 + 87.05 = 198.37 KWH solar total
[934 KWH from grid]
April - 1-30: 156.09 + 115.12 = 271.21 [784 KWH
from grid]
May - 1-31: 181.97 + 131.21 = 313.18 KWH
Solar [723 KWH from grid]
June - 1-30: 164.04 + 119.81 = 283.82 KWH Solar [455 KWH
from grid]
July - 1-31: 190.13 + 110.05 = 300.18 KWH Solar [340
KWH from grid]
August- 1-31: 121.81 + 83.62 = 205.43 KWH Solar [385KWH
from Grid]
Sept. - 1-30: 110.68 + 65.09 = 175.77 KWH Solar [564
KWH used from grid]
Oct. - 1-31: 67.28 + 42.55 = 109.83
KWH Solar [1360 KWH from grid -- Renters!]
Nov. - 1-30: 35.70 + 20.79 = 56.49
KWH of Solar [1301 KWH from grid]
Dec. - 1-31: 19.78 + 11.31 = 31.09
KWH Solar [1078 KWH used from grid]
2021
Jan. - 1-31: 25.47 + 18.58 = 44.05
KWH Solar [1185 KWH used from grid]
Feb. - 1-28: 47.18 + 33.22 = 80.40
KWH Solar [1121 KWH used from grid]
Two years of solar!
March - 1-31: 81.73 + 55.22 + 2.2 (DC) = 139.15 KWH
Solar
[1039 KWH grid]
April - 1-30: 161.83 + 112.35 + .44(DC) = 274.62 KWH
Solar
[680 KWH from grid]
May - 1-31: 156.25 + 97.22 + 1.29(DC) = 254.76
KWH
Solar [678 KWH from grid]
June - 1-30: 197.84 + 112.07 + 2.21(DC) = 312.12 KWH Solar
[& 448 KWH from grid]
July - 1-31: 204.35 + 121.21 + 4.06(DC) = 329.62 KWH
Solar [426 KWH from grid; 150(?) KWH used by Nissan Leaf]
August- 1-31: 176.19 + 102.91 + 5.37(DC) = 284.47 KWH Solar [477 KWH
from grid; 165 KWH (est) used by car]
Sept. - 1-30: 94.35 + 51.34 + 3.30(DC) =
152.29 KWH Solar [590 KWH from grid; 155 KWH (est) used by car]
Oct. - 1-31: 77.52 + 41.85 +
4.10(DC) = 123.47 KWH Solar [1066 KWH from grid; 150 KWH (est) used by
car]
Nov. - 1-31: 34.69 + 18.92 + 3.82 = 57.43
KWH Solar [1474 KWH from grid (ouch!); 140 (est) used by car]
Dec. - 1-31: 24.00 + 5.22 + 3.76 = 32.98 [1589 KWH from grid (ouch
again! Must be the -10°'s); 120 KWH used by car]
2022
Jan. - 1-31: 32.83 + 20.54 + 4.57 - 57.94 KWH Solar [2556 from
grid] Double ouch! Trailer 400W heater, Perry's RV 500W heater, bedroom
heat, car using extra power (100 KWH - less driving)... and so little
sun!
Feb. - 1-28: 66.63 + 32.09 + 3.42(DC) = 102.14 KWH Solar [1118
KWH from grid; 130 (est) used by car]
Three years of solar!
Things Noted - February 2022
* The two new(est) solar panels on the pole seem to always be at least
in
part shadow. Almost useless!
* The switches allowing some of the panels to switch between the grid
ties and the DC system seems to have increased the average take. All 13
panels as well as the 2 new ones that seem to be never in full sun can
go to the grid ties instead of 1 or 2 being wasted on the DC when the
batteries are in their usual fully charged state.
* When the winter sun is low, that also means it must cut through a far
thicker slice of Earth's atmosphere before it reaches the ground. If
there are clouds, it is usually very dark. Even in Victoria at 48°N
the streetlights may come on during the day in December. Haida Gwaii at
53°N is worse.
* [24th] The sun came out for a bit around noon. I looked at the meters
and between the house and the cabin, power was all but 2500 watts! It's
not even summer! I remember never quite hitting 2000W in summer. Having
more grid ties to spread the load, plus a couple of extra panels, plus
switches to move panels from DC system to AC, all make a difference.
Hmm... 720W at the cabin and 1750W going into one plug/breaker in the
garage.
Annual
March 2019-Feb. 2020: 2196.15 KWH Solar [used 7927 KWH from
grid]
March 2020-Feb. 2021: 2069.82 KWH Solar [used 11294 KWH from grid]
March 2021-Feb. 2022: 2063.05 KWH Solar [used 10977 KWH from grid]
Three Years with Solar
The annual contribution from a dozen or 15 solar panels
may not seem very much compared to the amount of electricity used
overall mostly from the grid, but with the northern latitude and
typically cloudy winter days, this has to almost the worst [inhabited]
place in the world for solar energy, and the amount used is high
because I have some electric heat on - in the travel trailer so it
doesn't go mouldy and now Perry's RV to keep (or help keep) him warm,
as well as in my bedroom at night. With two people around, usage was
bound to rise over being by myself. But the insurance purpose of
keeping
essentials (other than heat) running if the power grid goes down for an
extended period should be met except in the dead of winter (when of
course it's most needed). And at least it's making more energy than the
Nissan Leaf electric car uses.
In spite of adding solar panels, switches between AC and
DC, and another grid tie inverter, production per year hasn't changed
much. One
thought would be that the solar panels are deteriorating over time. But
it seems more likely that the trees around here have grown taller over
the last 3 years. Another idea is that summer 2019 was less cloudy and
there was probably more sun to be had. There have been a couple of
extra cloudy years here. Also, the improvements were made this autumn
and winter and they haven't had a summer to really shine yet.
Up until 2022 1400 watts was about the highest midday
solar collection reading at the house, in the summer. In 2022 about
1750 watts was observed in midday sun in February. By summer it may
start blowing the breaker and I'll have to split it into two wall
sockets on different circuits.
(Two year writeup was 'late': TE News #156. There was no 1 year
writeup.)
https://www.TurquoiseEnergy.com
Haida Gwaii, BC Canada