Turquoise Energy
News
Report #198
Covering
Research & Development Activities of November 2024
(Posted December 4th 2024)
Lawnhill BC Canada - by Craig Carmichael
New: Now at craigcarmichael.substack.com
***
[Subscribe: email to CraigXC at Post dot com ; request
subscription]
Website: TurquoiseEnergy.com
Extra Special
Feature: Galileo Launch 35th Anniversary:
What NASA Missed on
Ganymede
Month In "Brief"
(Project Summaries etc.)
* Ganymede! - Faraday Cage Cabin: Insulation, Interior walls - End
of
Unapproved Solar Grid Tie System - New Grid Tied Solar System
Subsidy -
Connecting the Other Solar Panels to the Cabin - Easy Fixing Rusty
Vehicles? - Rewinding Motor to 36V for Sprint Car
In Passing
(Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)
* Referendums are Not Always the Right Way
* Scattered Thots: - More on Potassium (or Sodium) BROMIDE for
Essential Tremors - Grounded Conductive Fibers for Blocking AC
Fields/Tinnitus - Hair Today...
- Detailed
Project Reports -
Electric Transport - Electric Hubcap Motor
Systems
* Induction Motor Conversion to 36 Volts for Chevy Sprint
Other "Green" &
Electric
Equipment Projects
* Low EMF Cabin Construction
Electricity Storage:
Batteries
* "+" Electrode 2-axis Compacting Ideas (ideas are cheap)
Electricity
Generation
* My Solar Power System: - The Usual (and this month UNusual)
Latest
Daily/Monthly Solar
Production log et cetera - Monthly/Annual Summaries,
Estimates,
Notes
November
in
Brief
On the 17th I was warned
there
was a storm
coming - a "bomb cyclone" with exceptional winds.
It turned cold and the next morning I awoke to this. It stayed
cold
(around freezing, with frosts) for a couple of weeks or so.
There was some wind and storm but it seemed the "bomb cyclone"
had
spent its main force before it got this far north.
Ganymede!
I spent much if not most of my "project time" working
on
the special Ganymede article. Around 2005 I wrote an on-line
"book"
called Living Ganymede but it had a lot of mistakes and
I've
learned a few new things since. I felt my research work on this
world
from 1996-2008 to be unfinished, and if a renewable energy report
isn't
the ideal home for such an article, publishing it in here is
simplest
for me.
Very alien life existing on Ganymede probably doesn't
have
much impact on our daily lives on this world, but people keep
looking
everywhere for Earthlike life, while being so un-curious about
what
they find that they overlook actual, non-Earthlike life on other
worlds
in our solar system.
Faraday Cage Cabin: Insulation, Interior walls
Installing 36V DC outlets,
insulation & OSB
for wallboards in the southwest section
I found some 3 inch foam
rubber
free at the
thrift shop and stuffed it in the south wall as insulation.
Then I also started using
polyethylene packing
foam as insulation, here by the garage door.
In spite of being just R3 per inch, it should stop air movement
better
than fiberglass.
Rather finicky fitting small pieces in, but I think I've saved a
bag of
fiberglass - so far.
There was just
enough OSB
for what I
wanted - the south and west walls, below the tops of the
windows.
(I expect to cover the OSB with wallpaper - good suggestion,
Tom!)
End of Unapproved Solar Grid Tie System
On the 18th, after 5-1/2 years, I got a letter from
BC
Hydro telling me to
disconnect my grid tie from the mains as it had never been
inspected
and approved. This was actually three systems with eight grid tie
microinverters that had sort of grown a bit at a
time.
I unplugged them, and the 18th at 4 PM was
the last of the solar-to-grid for all my hodge-podge collections.
I
discarded the grid ties, since I'm sure I would never be able to
get
them approved as-is or no matter what wiring or improvements I
undertook because they have European "CE" approval but not CSA or
UL
for North America. Inspectors are reputed to be very sticky about
these
things.
Half
my solar panels were now charging the two 36 volt battery systems.
If I
could wire them all, I'll have more power for battery heat at
night,
but
it's going to take quite a lot of cable when many of the panels
are so
far from where they are now wanted. Doubling the number of panels
for
the cabin would be very helpful. There are only 4 there, but it
gets a
lot of shade in winter. It would probably be better to run a very
long
cable from the carport and employ the 3 carport [sunniest
location!]
and 2 pole panels (now unconnected) rather than add panels at the
cabin.
On the 20th I rewired the ten "house" solar panels
(including the broken one) to feed the battery charge controller.
House Solar Wiring Board
with
Grid Tie
Inverters removed.
The wiring has just gotten simpler but weirder with more
changes. Maybe
the solar panel wires can go into a box?... Wait,
wasn't that the idea of the first box? But it's too crowded with
"not
much" and has those awkward "Blue Sea Systems" breakers.
New Grid-Tied Solar System Subsidy
At the energy symposium in September I learned of BC
Hydro's
offer of 75% grant for putting in an approved solar system tied to
the
grid. They offer that for diesel supplied power grids like Haida
Gwaii
because the cost of fuel is more than the (BC wide) retail price
of the
power. Of course I want to take advantage of that. There's just
one
approved installer on Haida Gwaii, and my messages haven't been
returned yet. (I suspect she's away.)
Also qualifying for 75% subsidy are grid-tied battery
systems, which the power company can operate remotely to help
smooth
power at peak times (ie, suppertime). I don't plan to install that
option myself. I have my independent 36 volt DC systems. (I should
probably get another 36 VDC to 120 VAC inverter for emergencies,
tho.)
Connecting the Other Solar Panels to the Cabin
On the 27th I ran a long, long cable of AWG
#14-3(+#14
bare ground = 4 wires)
house wire from the carport to the cabin, doubling the conductors
to
make it a "#11-2" cable. I just spooled it out across the lawn. No
point
having five solar panels not connected to anything. And spools of
wire
sitting around doing nothing. Since the charge
controller needs 50+volts, I connected two solar panels in
parallel and
one in series on the carport roof. That's the disadvantage of
having
put up an odd number of panels. I used the existing "too-thin"
(#16)
cable from the two panels on a pole to the carport and connected
everything at the carport - the farthest point for the longest
cable
runs, but the easiest to do. But the two panels on the pole are
now in
series instead of parallel, so the current is halved.
I'm sure substantial power is being lost in these
long,
too-thin cables, but when the sun shone the cabin batteries kept
charging later in the
afternoon when the cabin solar panels were deep in tree shadows.
It occurs to me the panels need more
disconnects/breakers
and the 70V DC solar panels cable running along the lawn along
with the
120V AC extension cord is getting even pretty haywire. I think I
should
run an underground PVC pipe from the house to the cabin for all
cables.
Maybe telephone wire and ethernet too? If I use the rototiller
with
just two blades to break up the turf on each side for a trench and
then
the trench digger, I
think it shouldn't be too hard to bury a pipe. (And maybe find the
water pipe
at the same time?)
Easy Fixing Rusty Vehicles(?)
The body of my experimental red Sprint car seems in
pretty
good shape... all except that the rocker panels under the doors
are
badly rusted out, even to the point that wires are exposed
underneath
the car in the spaces that should be enclosed. It probably won't
deteriorate further in the garage, but I had been considering what
to
do about it, should I ever get to actually putting it on the
road. There wasn't enough material there in many places to
fiberglass
over. My previous idea had been to weld on stainless steel to
replace
the rusted surfaces, but that certainly sounded like a challenging
job.
Then youtube suggested a video where someone had a
brilliant plan! The author filled the big gaps all around his
rusty
pickup truck bed with cans of expanding foam. Then he carefully
cut and
sanded it all to the right shapes. This made a "solid" surface to
put
"bondo" or fiberglass or whatever over top of. When that was
finished,
he painted it and it looked very nice!
On the Sprint rocker panels it's mostly not compound
curves, so assuming I do ever get to it, I'll probably use
polypropylene-epoxy as the surface material, PP being lighter,
stronger
and mostly nicer to work with than fiberglass. That would probably
be
after having success getting it running on the street... which
would be
after I convert the 230V, 40A, 7.5 HP, 3600 RPM induction motor to
36V, and install it in the car with the Curtis VFD
controller,
which project I already seem totally unable to find time for.
Rewinding Motor to 36V for Sprint Car
Okay,
I decided to make time for it! I got as far as blowing out the
sawdust, ripping out the old wires from the motor and removing a
bearing from the shaft to get access to the fan behind it. [More
in detailed report]
Now it needs a good cleaning.
I had to make a jig to pull
the
friction-fit
bearing off the motor shaft.
In
Passing
(Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)
Referendums
are
Not
Always
the
Right
Way
Choice ranking voting keeps being turned down in most referendums
when
it is very occasionally offered here and there. It is a much
better way
to vote. It provides the same results as having runoff elections
until
one person has 50% of the vote, without all the extra effort
needed for
the runoffs. It prevents the one "most different" candidate (or
choice)
from having an advantage over multiple similar candidates
(choices) who
"split
the vote", which promotes polarization and may stop voters from
considering their favorite choice just because they truly or
falsely
think it has no chance. Then, it having no chance becomes a self
fulfilling expectation.
I think that if the public had had to vote on being
able
to vote in the first place, they'd have turned it down because
they
would think it was something sneaky the government was trying to
push
on them - after all, they had never had to vote before. It's fear
of
the unknown. But these same
people would now be aghast to lose their right to vote, and just
as
surely they would gladly mark their second choice on their ballot
if
given the opportunity that they have so thoughtlessly denied
themselves. It seems that referendums are a sure way to ensure
that
sensible ideas for political evolution are never implemented.
Isn't the purpose of representative government to
have
people who have studied a subject make decisions for the good of
all,
instead of leaving them to the unprepared general public, most of
whom
who have never had the topic cross their radar screens before?
That's
not to say that referendums, or citizen "initiatives" don't have
their
place. It's just that that place doesn't seem to be in making
decisions
that deserve special study and consideration that the public as a
whole
can't give it.
The BC Citizens' Assembly of ~2002-2004 made a
long
study of all known voting and legislative representation systems
and
came up with choice ranking, along with "multi-member
constituencies".
These were offered as a single "all or nothing" package and
adoption
was narrowly "defeated" in a referendum (58% "for" out of 60%
required
to pass it!), wasting the year of work the special assembly of 100
people had put into it. If it
had been implemented, it would have opened the door to
experimentation for further improvements. Instead, most of us are
stuck
with the same primitive, unfair
and ossified voting system as voting was first conceived in the
days of
kings centuries ago.
Scattered
Thots
* More on Potassium (or SODIUM)
BROMIDE for Essential Tremors
I rather belatedly looked up bromine and potassium
bromide
on Wikipedia. Far from having "no biological function", and while
large
amounts of bromide salts are indeed toxic, bromine is an essential
trace mineral in the formation of collagen and "is beneficial for
human
eosinophils". Furthermore, potassium bromide has been used as a
sedative and as an anticonvulsant, eg, for epilepsy. (BTW sodium
bromide is pretty much the same.) Natural intake of
bromide in foods is around 2 to 8 mg daily. Daily dosages of .5 to
1
gram can lead to "bromism" with various deleterious effects on the
nervous system and body - one of them being "tremors"! (Historical
medical dosages of 3 to 5 grams a day apparently caused severe
problems.) Bromide's "half life" in the body is on the order of 10
to
12 days, so the cure is simply to stop or greatly reduce such high
usage.
The usage levels I've been trying myself and
suggesting
for tremors, 1/2 a
gram or somewhat more per week (but not all at once, eg, 70 to 100
mg
per
day, or 150-200 mg every second day, etc) seem to be about right -
enough of a "sedative(?)" effect to reduce essential tremors but
not enough to cause untoward reactions.
* Grounded Conductive Fibers for Blocking AC Fields/Tinnitus
Mid month, cold winter weather drove me from sleeping
in
the cabin into the house.
With my bed in the house almost surrounded by chicken wire
(including,
especially, underneath) to the point there's under 100mV of AC
field
being induced into my body when lying in it, and pulling the
conductive
fibers pillowcase over my head (with my nose sticking out - and
it's
grounded with an alligator clip leed), as far as I can tell my
tinnitus
feels almost the same
as sleeping in the faraday cage cabin with virtually no AC field
around.
Surprisingly effective! It's only when I get up and am in "the
usual"
high fields again that I sense it
starting to get worse again, even within minutes. ...noticing only
because
I'm becoming attuned and am listening for it.
* Hair Today...
One night when I went to bed I closed my eyes and had
a
new brief flash vision of being bald. What? I thought I got rid of
that
menace when I found out about scalp mites (Demodex Folliculorum)
and
later heard that leaving shampoo in your scalp for five full
minutes
would kill them all.
I was still doing that a couple of times a week. What
had
changed? Is my immune system that weak? Hmm... thinking it didn't
matter any more, I had stopped using a hair brush and gone back to
a
comb. Plus, I had started immeditely putting on my conductive
fibers
("anti tinnitus") beanie when I got up, often without either
combing or
brushing, and leaving it on forgetting that I hadn't.
Maybe it's still about the mites? They are everywhere
and can live over two days on couches, bedding, hats, hair
brushes...
And I would be picking them up again immediately after every
shower
when I put my conductive fibers anti-tinnitus beanie back on!
Perhaps
hair brushing wipes a lot of them off the scalp and out of the
hair so
they don't come back so fast? (The alternative might be shampooing
daily - ug!)
I should also get a couple more conductive tuques so
I
don't have just the one to always wear.
ESD
(Eccentric Silliness Department)
* "Living Off the Land" has become very common. Many now live as
far as
10, 20 or 30 stories off the land. (Ug!)
* The songs said, "If you can't remember the words, then hummus."
* Why does "les" have two esses? Doesn't that make "less" more?
And why
does "mor" hav an "e"? Yet it still needs another letter to make
it
"morre" than "less".
* Look! A giant, fearsome sea insect on the beach!
Oh wait -- just a tree root!
Galileo
35th
Anniversary:
What NASA Missed on
Ganymede
by Craig Carmichael, November 2024
Last month (October 18th
1989), after being delayed for several years, was the 35th
anniversary
of Launch of the Galileo spacecraft to the Jupiter system. I use
the
occasion a month late to
review Ganymede, a major world orbiting Jupiter and the next
world down from Mars in size.
I studied Jupiter's four moons extensively from the
time
of the first Galileo spacecraft images and data until about 2008.
The
most exciting findings of the whole mission were entirely glossed
over.
Space scientists cared little to get closest-up images with real
detail, and sent a camera that couldn't even take color pictures
at
whatever finer resolutions it could attain. Even allowing for such
perhaps inevitable imaging limitations of the 1980's designs, they
seem
blind and
uninterested to carefully examine and try to interpret the image
data
they have if they don't immediately recognize what they're looking
at,
or to correlate the images with other known findings. Surprising
spectrographic data was dismissed as being of little consequence,
and
unusual diurnal temperature findings from the 1980's seemed to
have been entirely forgotten. No attempts seem to have been made
to
synthesize a "big picture" that fits all the known facts.
Here are a few of the especially interesting things we know about
airless Ganymede:
1. It has its own magnetic field similar to Earth's. This causes
similar auroras and protects the surface from Jupiter's deadly
radiation belt and from interstellar ionized particles (cosmic
"rays")
traveling near the speed of light. Jupiter's radiation is so
strong it
even finally wrecked Galileo's imaging system from just occasional
flybys through the intense zone. That 'cosmic rays' are inimical
to
higher animal life forms was shown by the later long-term health
problems of the several lunar astronauts who each spent just one
week
(or so) outside Earth's protective Van Allen belts. They reported
seeing frequent bright flashes of light even with their eyes
closed.
Later some got eye cataracts and heart diseases rather young.
Random streaks seen in many spacecraft images show the miniature
random explosive energy released when one of these particles
strikes
the
photosensor array.
The auroras were taken by
the
Hubble Space
Telescope and apparently superimposed on a spacecraft flyby
image of
Ganymede.
While air pressure on Ganymede is zero, there's enough oxygen in
its
"exosphere" to ionize and light the auroras.
On Earth auroral streamer heights extend to about 400 miles,
where our
atmosphere is similarly tenuous.
Of interest? Note the seeming correspondence of the more colored
areas
to the lower latitudes of the auroras.
The 'arctic' regions seem more gray.
2. It has interesting and unique geography, in between that of
outer
airless moons where little internal tidal geology has apparently
taken
place since the early meteoric accretion era (eg: Iapetus,
Callisto,
Earth's moon), and inner ones that are so tidally churned that the
heavier elements have all sunk deep into the interior leaving a
hard
surface of essentially water ice (eg: Europa, Rhea, Tethys... and
Io
where the water has all boiled off entirely). One can see patches
of
unmoved "old terrain" and upchurned "new terrain" - but both
probably
very ancient. On the "islands" or "continents" where the churning
has
not submerged the original surface of meteoric accretion, heavier
elements remain at the surface and have left more fertile soils.
Upchurned areas are brighter with higher ice content.
3. The surface was described by diurnal temperature studies during
the
1980s as having a thin fluffy layer covering a thick solid layer,
with
an addendum later that sunlight must penetrate the fluffy layer
for the
data to fit. (Evidently eclipses where worlds suddenly enter or
exit
from Jupiter's shadow provided much temperature rise and fall
data.)
AFAIK no theory has been proposed to explain what
this
layer might be. With no atmosphere,
temperatures fluctuate wildly from day to night. IIRC, daytime
temperatures on Ganymede are around 130°K - not even half of
Earth's
temperature - but they drop to "absurdly cold" at night. If Earth
had
no atmosphere, our life would be impossible without artificial
heating
at night. The fluffy layer on Ganymede moderates the temperature
swings
to some degree as was seen in the studies.
4. In addition to the expected simpler hydrated minerals, the
spectrum
of the surface contains complex hydrocarbons, sulfur, and carbon
dioxide in an unusual "stretched" energized state. These appear to
be
the same as those later described by the Cassini spacecraft on the
leading hemisphere of Iapetus, Saturn's outermost significant
moon,
where the organics were clarified by Cassini's more recent
instruments
as being "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons". It also described
this
hemisphere as being very fluffy. Unfortunately the Cassini never
came
within ~1000 Km of Iapetus and in its entire mission only once
passed
anywhere near it, so there are no close views.
5. Not from mainstream science... The Urantia Book paper
49, The
Inhabited
Worlds,
says there is "a world of non-breathers", "in close proximity" to
our
world. It explains that a non-breathers' world would be an airless
or
almost airless world where all the other conditions for some form
of
human life are met. It also says life on such worlds is "radicly
different" from that of atmospheric worlds. This can well be
believed!
This definitely piqued my interest and I confess it's the reason I
followed the Galileo mission so closely.
A process of elimination as
findings were published eventually left Ganymede as the one
possible
world. The surprise discovery of Ganymede's magnetic field was key
to
choosing between Ganymede and Callisto.
The book says life is only initiated (apparently as
primitive phytoplankton but not always in oceans) on worlds
suitable to
eventually evolve some sort of human race. However, although
Ganymede
may be the
only world suitable for inhabitation by some form of human
and
higher animal life, meteor strikes and perhaps other means have
apparently carried soil with spores and seeds into space where the
weeds, er, vegetation and probably lower animal life forms have
apparently spread through the outer solar system to other airless
worlds wherever there's
appropriate climate, good soil and no deadly radiation -
especially
(but not exclusively) to the leading hemispheres of Callisto and
Iapetus. (And to judge by appearance, to the asteroid Ceres.)
Iapetus, showing the dark,
'very
fluffy'
leading hemisphere.
The trailing hemisphere is continually irradiated by Saturn's
ionizing radiation field, swept around with Saturn's rotation.
(And toward the poles there's less sunlight to grow vegetation.)
-----
In 2013
a high
altitude balloon searching for "panspermia" captured a strange,
very
tiny "metallic" seed from space, which apparently tried to sprout
in
the collection medium [image right - see TE News #85].
Then, the hard silicate shell remains of diatoms have
been
photographed in various carbonaceous chondrite meteorite samples,
such
studies starting with the Orgeuil meteorite of 1864, which also
appeared to contain clay soil, something like peat, and a
microorganism
(which was sketched) apparently unlike any on Earth. Tho there may
well
be contamination from Earth organims in some carbonaceous meteoric
samples, researchers involved say some of them could not have come
from
Earth.
That airless world life on Ganymede would
occasionally be
kicked up by
meteoric actions and spread around the solar system with some
chunk
occasionally landing on Earth fits right in. Existence of life on
Ganymede makes the seemingly "inexplicable" meteoric life findings
fit
nicely into a larger picture of our solar system.
-----
Carl Sagan once said something to the effect that
"Extraordinary claims should be backed by extraordinary evidence."
We
know little of life other than Earth life, and we are naturally
prejudiced toward believing that Earth is the ideal environment
for
life. But is that not an extension of the old "Earth is the center
of
the universe" assumption, now proven false? Such a claim should
need
extraordinary evidence. But our only evidence is that there is
life
here, and that the life here couldn't thrive except on the Earth.
We
have little evidence about other forms of life that might exist in
other environments, for or against. (...except for the Galileo,
Cassini
and Huygens evidence that has been dismissed or neglected.)
This situation is similar to when Galileo Galilei
first
discovered
the worlds orbiting Jupiter. No one had ever observed worlds
orbiting
other worlds, so it was an implicit assumption or "claim"
that such a thing couldn't exist. To prove him wrong, the "learned
professors" of the day refused to look through the telescope and
instead attacked Galileo and the credibility of the observations.
Wherever someone notices something new that refutes untested
assumptions - implied "claims" - about our world, similar
hostility is
observed, for example with Charles Darwin's new theory of
evolution and
Alfred Wegener's observations leading to the theory of continental
drift.
The usual unscientific scientific method (see TE News #192,
In Passing) is in play, "assuming" (implicitly claiming) we
have
an answer to a question:
Having found no life on Mars, there's an implicit
(but
untested) assumption,
"everyone knows" there can't be life thriving on the other worlds
that
exist in our solar system (unless it be a few microbes eking out
some
existence underground somewhere). Any proposition that any other
world
is covered with life is "pseudoscience" and will get you kicked
off
"scientific" astronomical discussion lists.
I challenge scientists to duplicate or even
approximate
the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other minerals such as
the
"stretched" CO2 identified on Ganymede and Iapetus without the
presence
of life. Such complex molecules are always associated with life
AFAIK.
Coming up with a mix containing a small percentage of random,
disordered "tholins" by zapping simple (non-cyclic) hydrocarbons
with
electricity seems insufficient to explain what has been seen. It
is not
evidence that an abundance of such complex molecules would have
formed
spontaneously from dead matter, now or in the solar system's
chaotic
past.
The theory that they are "just tholins" that "existed
in
the
original planetary nebula" during the formation of the solar
system is
"falsified" or
at least "unproven" as well as highly unlikely. It is much more
likely
that they are built up by life.
Then, vegetation would well explain the thin fluffy
layer,
which sunlight must penetrate, discovered to be on the surface.
I've
seen no attempts to explain it at all so far and have been unable
to
come up with a plausible alternative theory myself. Any claim that
it isn't
vegetation needs a theory to match the findings as well or better.
Otherwise it is a falsified alternative.
While the Galileo didn't have a color camera, and
while
its high gain antenna didn't open and this drasticly reduced the
amount
of data obtained, we do have some very intriguing images. One is
an
overlapping series of 400x400 pixel shots. They are some of the
closest
ones, with resolutions on the order of 40-50 meters per pixel. (A
herd
of elephants might show up as a dot or two.) I show three of the
most
interesting below, near 55° north.
One can observe from the features that the images
overlap
(slightly, diagonally), as did this whole amazing series of
oblique
images covering a long line of Northern latitudes from 65° to 55°
N,
where the spacecraft itself was about 30°N of the equator.
The bright rings with sharp projections would appear
to be
ice extrusions. Hard water ice is a major component of the soil.
Ice is
a form of rock at these low temperatures. I expect it works
essentially
like this:
- A meteor strikes. The heat energy of the impact melts and
vaporizes rock, especially the water ice.
- So one is left with a pool of dirty water contained in a crater
basin. In the vacuum the surface quickly freezes over; heavier
material
starts to sink.
- Water expands as it freezes, so instead of the pool simply
gradually
freezing over, as the top ice thickens water is forced out through
whatever cracks and holes it
can find or make. Of course, it quickly freezes as it comes out,
but
more water pushes it along and the feature lengthens. The effect
is
formations of long, thin ice spires or long spikes pointing up or
any
which direction, or broken-off cylinders as with "toothpaste"
squeezed
from a tube. Such features are visible in various "typical" forms
on
all the airless worlds of the Jupiter and Saturn systems,
especially
around crater rims and sometimes inside large flat crater bottoms.
That this was not understood, st least at the time of
the
Galileo mission, is apparent from speculations about their nature
by
Galileo scientist Torrence Johnston in February 2000 Scientific
American. Such
features also puzzled me for some years until I figured out the
above.
Last I heard scientists were still searching for "cryovolcanos",
mountains made of upwelled water ice, but with no mention of these
"mini
cryovolcano" features everywhere one looks. (A wild theory for
them
being 'sublimation of the dark material, leaving the bright icy
spires', with no real explanation for similar sublimation on
worlds
with very different temperatures or for the forms of the icy
protuberances, also followed the "Linear Incremental Induction"
path to
become "peer doctrine" over 10 or 15 years, despite Johnston, who
first
suggested it grasping at straws, saying it didn't seem like a
satisfactory explanation.)
On Ganymede
specificly we also find fissures that opened up and extruded long
lines
of icy spikes as seen in the image below. This obviously happened
repeatedly, probably owing to tidal interactions with Jupiter's
other
moons, in various places and at the largest scales. (Are these
from
remote planetary history or do they occasionally still happen?)
A region of extruded icy
ridges
with spiny ice
extrusions protruding from them. Might this indicate gradually
spreading crust, where suddenly a narrow
fissure opens and watery "magma" wells up from underground, one
fissure
at a time?
Ice extrusion formations are also visible around crater rims.
At a large scale:
Spreading terrain similar to spreading ocean ridges on Earth.
This might well cause such narrow fissures to repeatedly open.
The gravity on
Ganymede is about one seventh of Earth's, which should allow trees
to
grow ("all else being equal") to almost 1000 meters tall. If we
imagine
the dark shapes to be vegetation of various sorts, many tall trees
might be around 750 meters. I wouldn't swear that's what they are,
but
there are certainly some very peculiar features rising above the
base
terrain in these images that almost defy explanation and deserve
minute
scrutiny and analysis.
Some small crater basins with icy rims almost look
like a
"bouquet of flowers", which could be because of especially fertile
soil
within the crater. Perhaps many minerals were brought to the
surface by
the heat and disturbance of the impact. What is real, what is on
top of
what or in front of what, and what is illusion and shadow in the
monochrome images I'll have to leave up to the viewer's
perceptions.
[late note: see stereo imaging addendum below] This set of three
images
looking northward obliquely toward 55° north
latitude is around 40-50 meters per pixel horizontal, 70 vertical.
(Each image was just 400x400 pixels. Here
I
have doubled the size and somewhat increased the contrast and
brightness to improve viewability.)
(A Note: According to the metrics as I read them, the light should
be
from slightly to the right and also from well to the south
(bottom). To
me the shadows seem to run the wrong way... This is
well in the north... I thought they should point toward the back,
northward, not southwestward. The faces facing the camera should
be brightest. Yet the shadows seem to be consistent through the
whole
sequence of images. It must work out somehow! It seems to be
earlier in
the day as east facing slopes seem brighter. Perhaps "Sun at -10°"
may
have refered to absolute planetary longitude rather than "10° east
of
the image
location"? What am I missing? Data is at pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov
for anyone who wants to explore image metrics in detail.)
The non-flat "3D" aspects of
the
surface are
apparent...
...and, changing temperature
measurements have
shown that Ganymede's surface has a 'thin' fluffy layer,
which varies by area...
...and the spectrographic
signature reveals
complex polycyclic organics as well as hydrated minerals
These show the "wild" and
"fluffy" nature of
Ganymede's surface compared to "plain, dead" worlds.
The ice extrusions seem to contribute to the fluffiness.
At lower latitudes and in
the
dark terrain
Ganymede just gets fluffier - seemingly a strange canopy
of very mixed forest but also mixed everywhere with meteor
craters and
towering ice extrusions.
This fascinating clip from PIA02571 looks about straight down at
about
15° south latitude, 337° longitude.
Resolution is 28 meters per pixel, the closest obtained by the
Galileo
in the dark terrain. Trees can grow to
giant sizes in such light gravity, so it should not be
surprising to
see individual treetops a few pixels across.
Sun angle wasn't given but from crater shadows appears to be to
the west/left (afternoon) and of
course it's from 15° to the north, as the Jupiter system has
about
zero axial tilt and hence no seasons.
News releases always say "the data will keep
scientists
busy for years to come." but it never seems to get a proper going
over
or analysis. Perhaps no one has looked at most of these images in
about
20 years, and no one ever made sense of them. An ESA space probe
to be
launched in a few years is
planned to orbit Ganymede as the final leg of its mission. If this
is
successful, I expect it will be DYNAMITE! (I TRUST they will take
a
real color
camera!)
Finally, here's a late breaking "addendum" just as I
finish this
article! By placing overlapping segments of two of the sequence of
images together and "crossing your eyes" (or using stereo image
magnifying glasses) - as if staring into the distance but focusing
close up - the two images can be merged visually to really bring
out
the 3D elevations of the surface features. Here is my first try:
^
^
|____________________|
It looked a bit funny, sort of "inside out" but showed more "3D"
than
either single flat image.
The "black lines" at the right took on an "above the ground"
look.
"Inside out" probably means left and right images are
"reversed"...
not that the views were planned as stereo sets to begin with.
I reversed the two images and moved the view over a bit:
Now it made better sense and
yielded a
surprising result in the "patchwork" of "black lines"!
I thought they were just strange lines on the ground before -
now I can't "un-see" a grove of super tall trees (2000m?!?) -
"lollipops" with long dark trunks and light "fluff-ball" tops!
(& look on the NE rim of the crater!)
...and these trees help explain some other features I previously
didn't
understand.
Someone could spend hours and weeks making and exploring stereo
images
derived from this set (6135r to 6188r).
I hope people are able to view and make sense of this
stereo image with these towering trees, tiny stereo area and
low-rez as
it is. (It
will need adjustments since it will appear at different sizes on
different screens - and nobody has stereo image magnifier glasses
these
days.) If they can see it, this stereo image of these towering
trees,
tiny and low-rez as it is, will probably convince people better
than
all the not-understood flat images that Ganymede is covered with
vegetation. I think my job is done!
"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.
Electric
Transport
Induction
Motor
Conversion
to
36
Volts
for
Chevy
Sprint
In hemming and hawing about whether to do the Baldor
7.5
HP induction motor conversion to 36 volts or go all out and make
the
improved "Unipolar Electric Hubcap" motor and controller, the
first of
these would obviously be much the shorter project; the latter the
more
"Ultra-Efficient" and valuable. But really they didn't have to be
mutually exclusive. I could
do the Baldor to power the Sprint, while reserving the "Hubcap"
motor
project to power the Toyota Echo at some future time.
The Sprint runs on the acreage, but the present
forklift
motor doesn't have the power, torque or RPM to get it onto the
street,
let alone the highway. (And my 'squashed copper pipes' high
currents
forward-reverse switch can hardly be considered reliable.) The
motor's
low RPM won't get it up to much more than 30-35 KmPH even with the
planetary gear reduction being only 5 to 1. Even outfitted with an
infinitely variable transmission to give it the RPM & speed,
it
would be slowing down embarrassingly on every upgrade section. The
burned out
Baldor motor that I bought in 2006 and rewound to 230 V
single phase with a start-run switch could be rewound back to
three-phase, 36 volts by putting the six coils of each phase in
parallel instead of in series. So 230V/6=38.33V. That's plenty
close
enough. Rated current (7.5HP/5400W) would go from about 25 amps at
230V
to
150 amps from the 36V battery. I also plan to run it well above
rated
RPM with a 7 to 1 planetary gear for a trnsmission. Power equals
torque
times speed, so if the torque is maintained at 6300/3600 RPM or
105 Hz,
it should
have over 12 HP at 90 KmPH on the highway - and draw about 250
amps
climbing hills.
People on an EV conversion discussion list back when
I
first mentioned this idea told me "That can't work - it just
doesn't
work that way. If you
want higher power and higher RPM, you have to have higher
voltage." But
six motor coils in parallel will have exactly the same current
flowing
in each coil, and the same voltage across each one, as the same
six
coils in series, but at 1/6 the battery voltage and six times the
battery current. There are a lot of people who can't seem to wrap
their
heads around that... and maybe that's why I'm doing a 36 volt car,
to
demonstrate that an EV can be made that will operate at a safe
voltage
instead of a lethal one. Sure you need heavy wires, but they're
running
a few feet, not from a power pole and then across a factory
building!
As another aside... knowing from taking it apart how
many
winds each coil had as a 230V, 3 phase motor, I was amazed to find
that
no one anywhere seemed to have the slightest idea how to rewind it
for
single phase, 230V operation. I did some calculations, decided
that the
starting phase would be 6 coils the same as the 12 coil main
windings,
and used 9 turns per coil and 10 on the last one to make it 55
total
"per phase". I can't guarantee it was totally optimum, but it
worked
well. I ran it at high powers in my 2006 16 inch swivel-blade
sawmill.
I used it heavily cutting & selling hardwood lumber from trees
cut
down around Victoria, until about 2014. (Chief criticism by the
pro, Al
Emery, of my first motor rewinding job was "pretty good but the
overhangs are rather long." Also remarked was that I had just
brought
out the magnet wires to the wiring box rather than connecting them
to
stranded wire inside the motor, "well, it's often done on smaller
motors".)
The 36V forklift motor is about 100 amps/3500 watts,
so
the
Baldor should (I expect) have substantially more torque and
(certainly)
substantially more power. It had the equivalent of #12 AWG winding
wires (four #18 per wind [originally] = two #15 [as I rewound it]
= one
#12). I'm rewinding it with a single line #11 AWG magnet wire -
notably
heavier than #12, so the copper losses (& heat) should be
lower.
Contributing to that, I recall the fan blowing a lot of air
through the
motor. So it should have excellent cooling.
I'm anticipating that it will go up substantially
higher
than 7.5 HP at higher speeds. (On the sawmill it would blow the 30
amp
dryer circuit breaker if I pushed it too hard - that's over 9 HP.)
On
top of all that, I'm going to use a 7 to 1 planetary gear to the
wheel
instead of the 5 to 1 presently in it. That itself multiplies the
torque by 40%. It also multiplies the motor speed by 40%. At just
60
KmPH the motor will be turning 4200 RPM - already above its 3450
RPM
rating and probably well above 7.5 HP potential. So it wouldn't be
much
of a highway car but should be a great town car and pretty zippy
for
its power. But I suspect we can push the RPM substantially... 90
KmPH
would be 70*90=6300
RPM. Would I dare take it up to such a speed? That's three times
the
centrifugal force! 105 Hz instead of 60 Hz. I can limit the motor
controller to whatever
value I choose but it doesn't mean nothing will break if I set it
too
high! OTOH, it's not a big diameter rotor and it seems very solid.
Lots
of car motors go considerably faster. I could certainly test it
out,
say up to 7000 RPM with the wheel propped up and if it takes that
okay,
reduce it to max 6300. 90 is fast enough for around here.
I dismantled
the sawmill a couple of years ago. I don't see a use for it when
my
handheld bandsaw mill [TE News issues from December 2017 through
all
2018 and a few after that] has been nicely cutting the lumber I
want
since 2018. I went to my storage and found the 40 pound spool of
#11
magnet wire, purchased at great expense from Emery Electric motor
shop
when I still lived in Victoria. Then I disconnected the motor from
its
sawmill wiring boxes & cables and dragged it upstairs to...
Hmm...
Really the only place warm enough in this freezing weather to work
on
this was the livingroom. On the 25th everything went on the coffee
table - perhaps just as well the solid oak table needs sanding and
refinishing anyway.
First I looked at the planetary gearset. The input shaft was only
22mm,
while the motor was 1-1/8 inch diameter - about 28mm. But I
noticed the
input was actually reduced with a coppery ring insert. I got a
hook and
pulled that out. Now it seemed to be about 25mm - much better!
I'm still going to have to grind down the end section
of
the motor shaft a lot to shrink it to 25mm. I'll grind it with an
angle
grinder with the motor running (once it is), then a file, to
ensure it
stays centered and circular.
It bothers me very much that there's no key to
prevent
slippage in any of these planetary gears. Just a small bolt that's
hard
to torque in enough to narrow the slit and clamp it to the shaft.
It's
a problem I keep having with the truck.
In a five hour session I
disassembled the motor, blew out much
sawdust with compressed air (outside), and (the hard part) snipped
and
pulled all the old wires out. Some of the slots weren't so hard
and
wires even came out in bunches, but the ones near the bottom were
difficult. I used visegrips levered against the case with force
sometimes to where I was afraid of breaking off the wire or
ripping the
paper in the slot. The job wasn't one I thought I could wear
gloves
for, and I tried to mainly pull with a small pair of pliers, but
by the
time I was done my fingers were ragged and scratched.
(I surmise that after the motor was dipped in motor
varnish at Emery Electric motor shop it was hung verticly to drip.
But
when it was placed horizontal in the varnish baking oven (225°C
IIRC),
some varnish pooled in the bottom slots before it hardened.)
I very much wanted to
preserve the slot papers and slot
cover papers (already varnished into place) so I could thread the
new
wires into already ready slots, and I didn't want to wait weeks or
months (especially with the Canada Post employees' strike) for
ordering
new ones. When finished they seemed to be in fair shape, unlike
when I
first
bought the motor burned out and had to replace everything inside -
with
materials, advice and much thanks to Al Emery.
I
had reversed the internal fan because it sucked air in
from the blade end - sucking in the sawdust. I had to make a
bearing
puller in 2007 to get the bearing off to get at the fan. I don't
recall
where that went, so I had to make a new one.
I reversed the fan after having smoldering sawdust
burned
out a coil or two. I threaded in new wires but I had regular
trouble
with it burning out coils ever after because the replacements
weren't
properly varnished into place and the wires would vibrate and
eventually lose their thin insulation and short. I tried spraying
them
with red or blue urethane paint, and it probably helped but wasn't
a
cure.
Then I screwed and
screwed
and screwed the nuts with wrenches to get the bearing off. I
couldn't
understand why the 3/4 inch thick
bearing wasn't long since loose. I finally noticed that the
section of
shaft where it
friction fit on was two inches long.
But at last it was off. I cleaned it in paint thinner
-
mostly to get sawdust out of it.
Other
"Green"
&
Electric
Equipment
Projects
Low
EMF
Cabin
Construction
November was mostly
about inside wall insulation & sheeting on the south and west
walls, intending to get the south-west area ready to put a floor
on and
to frame the washroom in the corner (where the small window is).
First
I filled the lower parts of the walls with fiberglass insulation,
then
I put in a couple of electrical boxes for 36 volt DC outlets,
running
#12 AWG wire to the area of the electrical board and leaving
(hopefully) more than enough to connect them later. One is on the
west
wall to be over the washroom counter, the other is in the middle
of the
south wall, under the big window, for general use.
For the lower parts of these walls I used the (?)13mm
OSB
obtained from the refuse station.
Installing 36V DC outlets,
insulation & OSB
for wallboards in the southwest section
I found some 3 inch foam
rubber
free at the
thrift shop and stuffed it in the south wall as insulation.
Then I also started using
polyethylene packing
foam as insulation, here by the garage door.
In spite of being just R3 per inch, it should stop air movement
better
than fiberglass.
Rather finicky fitting small pieces in, but I think I've saved a
bag of
fiberglass - so far.
By the 25th things were a
bit
more finished -
the pile of sand dug out;
even a couple of sheets of birch finishing up to the ceiling in
one
place.
South wall looking East
Electricity Storage
Copper Oxyhydroxide
or Nickel Oxyhydroxide
or Nickel-Manganese Oxides
& Zincate Cells
Battery "Plus" two-axis Electrode Compaction
My osmium powder (ordered in June) finally arrived on
the
13th, after sending a message to Millipore-Sigma asking where it
was.
The reply was that it would be shipped December 1st, but it came
sooner. At last! (Would I have got it if I hadn't finally asked?)
With the cabin construction on the go, and in spite
of the
great progress over the last year, I have been relieved to drop
the
battery project for a few months over the summer while the weather
was
nice. Not having osmium powder was a convenient excuse.
I have a new plan for compacting the powders for a
positive electrode of whatever chemistry. (Nickel hydroxide,
nickel-manganese oxides, or copper hydroxide) I want to use my
50x50mm
square compactor. First I'll fill it with powder and press a
square
down to 3mm height. No more, no less. I'll have to find the exact
amount of powder that will do that.
I'll cut out a 3mm thick hollow under one whole side
of
the surround piece and insert a 3mm thick piece of steel. Once the
square is compacted, this piece gets pushed in from the side,
shrinking
the square into a rectangle less than 50mm wide. Since this
probably
won't roll into a curved "pipe" shape, I'll (hopefully) cut it
into
strips (rather than little bits) to wrap around a carbon rod.
My other thought was to heat the perforated outer PVC
tube, hoping the plastic itself will further shrink around the
electrode inside.
Between these steps I hope I can methodicly (even if
not
quickly) make "plus" electrodes that perform well and last a long
time
if not "forever".
The way to smoothly eat off 3mm from part of the
bottom of
the steel surround would be to mill it.
I spent the 17th in frustration trying to get my
milling
machine to run. It was intermittent for years, but it hasn't come
on at
all in a year or two. I've had no jobs for it until now. On line I
eventually found someone who had had a similar problem, and a
schematic
for an XML2235 DC motor control board. My board was an XML1135.
Both
were similar, very common on low cost lathes and milling machines,
and
it seemed, a very common source of trouble.
Later I thought of another way: make a new outside
walls
piece 3mm tall with one moving/compacting wall of the same height
and
have a fixed "roof" over it, to be bolted onto the same base with
the
once-squashed electrode already on it. This could arguably be
better,
and doesn't need any milling.
However, meanwhile I had decided that after doing a
long
session of battery chemistry experiments and developments starting
a
year ago, it must be time to do some other neglected project, and
decided to work on converting the 230V Baldor "7.5 HP" 3600 RPM
induction motor to 36 volts instead.
[26th] I went out to the shop to get a tool. For some reason I
tried
the milling machine. I turned the unmounted circuit board so I
could
see the front. The "overload" LED was out! So I switched it on. It
ran!
I twisted the board some more and the overload light came on and
the
machine stopped. If I twisted the board to the right place, it
went out
again. So! In spite of the seeming solidity of the connections,
one of
the wires was making intermittent contact. I couldn't see why. I
had
already unscrewed all the wires when I took the PCB for
inspection, and
then reconnected them. That had made no change. It was unlikely
the
stranded wire itself had a break in it. There didn't seem
to be
a cold solder joint at the connection screw. But when I took the
wire
off and screwed it back on, the machine worked, seemingly
reliably.
Everything looked fine. I touched up the solder joint on the PCB
anyway. Intermittent problems that just vanish are the worst! At
least
if it quits again I know where to look.
[30th] In searching for a scrap of steel I found an earlier
compactor
similar to the 50x50mm one, but about 25x60mm. That would be a
somewhat
better shape - the 25mm width might be narrowed more evenly.
(Probably
pressing a 12mm width down to 7 or 8 would be even better.)
I'm still going to work on the motor & car
instead!
Electricity
Generation
My Solar Power System(s)
The Usual Daily/Monthly/Yearly
Log
of Solar Power Generated [and grid power consumed]
(All times are in PST: clock ~48 minutes ahead of local
sun
time, never 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: Chevy Sprint
electric
car, inverters in power outages or other 36V loads), while the
grid
tied readings are cumulative.)
Daily Figures
Notes: House Main meter (6 digits) accumulates. DC meter
now
accumulates until [before] it loses precision (9.999 WH => 0010
KWH), then is reset. House East and Cabin meters (4 digits) are
reset
to 0 when they get near 99.99 (which goes to "100.0") - owing to
loss
of second decimal precision.
Km = Nissan Leaf electric car drove distance, then car was
charged.
New Order of Daily Solar Readings (Beginning May 2022):
New notation (from Sept. 2024): Same solar panels running grid
ties +
DC battery system are grouped with "+" sign instead of just comma
separators. Nothing actually changes.
Date House+House, House, Cabin+Cabin => Total KWH Solar
[Notable
power Uses (EV); Grid power meter@time] Sky/weather
Main AC + DC, (carport),
AC + DC
October
31st 2233.97+4.44, 85.99, 46.35+8.53 => 3.10
[17893@19:00]
Nov
1st 2236.56+5.50, 88.78, 46.72+ .57 => 7.38
[17936@22:30]
2nd 2237.46+5.82, 89.81, 46.74+1.82 => 3.52 [105Km;
17964@?]
3rd 2237.82+6.02, 90.14, 46.76+3.79 => 2.88
[17996@21:00]
4th 2241.75+6.74, 93.31, 46.78+4.97 => 9.02
[18015@19:00]
5th 2241.93+6.86, 93.46, 46.80+5.01
=> .51 [18042@23:30] Dark clouds, rain,
storm.
6th 2242.45+7.17, 94.01, 46.81+5.17 => 1.55
[18069@22:00] Morrain
7th 2243.16+7.49, .61, 46.83+5.50
=>
1.98 [18074@18:30]
8th 2244.68+8.60, 2.87, 46.85+5.90 => 5.31
[55Km;
19101@17:30]
9th 2245.64+10 , 5.45, 47.91+6.22 =>
5.32
[55Km; 18133@20:30; 50Km]
10th 2247.43+ .20, 6.90, 48.62+7.16 => 5.09
[18160@20:00]
11th 2248.24+1.35, 7.70, 48.94+7.90 => 3.82 [35Km;
19196@21:30]
12th 2249.49+1.80, 8.92, 49.60+1.07 => 3.11
[19212@19:00]
13th 2249.79+2.28, 9.74, 49.62+1.24 => 1.79 [55Km;
29252@21:00]
14th 2251.02+3.37, 11.75, 49.63+2.55 => 4.56 [18269@20:00]
15th 2251.20+3.63, 12.26, 49.65+4.35 => 2.75 [18296@'25:00']
16th 2251.77+4.09, 12.87, 49.67+4.49 => 1.80 [40Km;
18318@20:00]
17th 2252.06+4.91, 13.94, 49.68+4.84 => 2.54 [18339@17:30]
18th 2253.60+5.56, 15.88, 49.70+5.30 => 4.61 [55Km;
18370@17:30] End of grid
tied energy generation
from these
systems @16:00 today owing to request by BC Hydro. (because the
systems
were never inspected and approved.) The plug-in grid tie
microinverters
to be disposed of. I'm still waiting for Spark Energy to reply
about my
request to install a system to be inspected and approved, having
20 new
solar panels with microinverters, wired to an electrical panel.
NOW, THERE'S JUST TWO BATTERY SYSTEMS: I have a lot of rewiring to do to
get all my Solar panels charging the batteries instead of just
half of
them! The panels in the carport work best in winter but are
distant
from the battery charge controllers.
KWH
[KWH]
House, Cabin=> Solar [Mains
meter]
19th 5.85, 7.63 => 2.62 [18404@21:00]
20th 6.34, 9.42 => 2.28 [55Km; 18435@21:00]
21st 6.63, 2.60 => 2.89 [18458@23:00] I
wired all ten "house" solar panels (counting the broken one) to
feed
the PowMr charge controller. (The series strings probably aren't
perfectly balanced 0V - 35V - 70V... especially when different
tree
shadows fall on different panel areas.) That doesn't mean there
was any
sun to speak of anyway: charging watts were in the x10 range
rather
than x100
or over 1000. Cabin too. Running a 150W heater 24 hours in the
cabin
bedroom ran the battery down. By the reading time today (~17:00)
the DC
power supply was starting ot take over. Next: run a very long
cable to
connect the carport panels to the cabin.
22d 8.03, 5.83*=>3.02 [18477@21:30] *Derated by 50% owing
to
power supply supplying part of 'solar' load - battery getting low.
(Comes of measuring only the output to load instead of actual
battery
charging. I need to get and install a 100 amp DC power monitor.)
Sunny
day, some recharge.
23rd 8.24, 6.03 => .41 [105Km; 18540@'24:30']
24th 9.23, 6.50 => 1.46 [18571@18:30]
25th 1.63, 6.86 => 1.99 [18600@16:30] Sunshine
26th 3.00, 7.07 => 1.58 [18641@20:00] Sunshine - Batteries are
topped up. I ran a cable to
connect the solar
panels on the carport and
the pole to the cabin. The cables are very long, and the carport
panels
are split 1:2 on the 0-35V:35-70V halves, so really not much
better
than two panels. It still adds something to the cabin charging,
including after the cabin panels have gone into tree shadows.
27th 3.99, 7.35 => 1.27 [18677@21:30]
28th 5.03, 7.94 => 1.63 [60Km; 18721@20:00]
29th 5.38, 8.30 => .71 [18757@17:00] gloomy!
30th 5.94, 8.30 => .54 [55Km; 18794@2030]
December
1st 6.45, 8.88 => 1.09 [18829@20:00]
2d 7.13, 9.04 => .84 [18851@17:00] (Battery
in
cabin is now much better charged)
3rd 7.44, .93 => 1.24 [55Km; 18880@17:00]
4th 7.72, 1.48 => .83 [18915@21:00]
Chart of daily KWH from solar panels. (Compare November 2024 with October 2024 &
with
November 2023.)
Days of
__ KWH
|
November
2024 (18 C's)
|
October 2024
(18 C's)
|
November 2023
(18 Collectors)
|
0.xx
|
4
|
|
5
|
1.xx
|
9
|
1
|
3
|
2.xx
|
6
|
3
|
11
|
3.xx
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
4.xx
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
5.xx
|
3
|
4
|
1
|
6.xx
|
|
3
|
1
|
7.xx
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
8.xx
|
|
3
|
|
9.xx
|
1
|
|
|
10.xx
|
|
2
|
|
11.xx
|
|
3
|
|
12.xx
|
|
1
|
|
13.xx
|
|
|
|
14.xx
|
|
|
|
Total KWH
for month
|
84.69
|
198.43
|
89.06
|
Km Driven
on Electricity
|
778.8 Km
~110 KWH
|
925.8 Km
~120 KWH
|
811 Km
(120KWH)
|
Things Noted - November 2024
* As winter deepens, it strikes me anew how most of the panels are
in
the shade So much of the time. Even on a sunny day, watt-hours are
quite low.
* When the grid ties were removed and all solar panels were
reconnected
to charge batteries, and with running 100-250 watts of electric
heat at
night, the batteries still never got charged right up, and I had
to run
less heat than was needed, using grid power for the rest. Total
solar
was just a bit less than November 2023, just directed differently,
especially after the 18th. At the house there was often only
enough
power to keep the lights on, and in the living room I did keep
them on
for much of each gloomy day. (When one goes out in the morning and
sees
only "17 watts" or whatever coming from over 2000 watts of solar
panels, that's gloomy!)
Monthly Summaries: Solar Generated KWH [& Power
used
from grid KWH]
As these tables are getting long, I'm not repeating the log of
monthly
reports. The reports for the first FIVE full years (March 2019 to
February 2024) may be found in TE
News
#189,
February
2024.
2024
Month: HouseAC + DC +Carport+Cabin[+DC] (from Aug 2024)
Jan KWH: 31.37 + 3.14 + 16.85 + 16.82 = 68.18
[grid
power used:
909; car (very rough estimates): 160*]
Feb KWH: 96.52 + 2.36 + 49.67 + 52.98 = 201.53 [grid: 791;
car:
130]
FIVE full Years of solar!
Mar KWH 150.09+ 1.63 + 93.59 + 92.50 = 337.81
[grid:
717; car:
140]
Apr KWH 181.89+35.55 +123.50+142.74 = 483.68
[grid: 575; car: 140]
May KWH 129.23+67.38 +109.6 +126.32 = 432.53
[grid: 405; car: 145]
Jun KWH 152.54+51.02+118.99+141.17 = 463.72
[grid: 420; car: 190]
July KWH 174.22+30.53+111.19+128.62 = 444.56
[grid: 386; car: 165]
Aug KWH 221.99+ 2.63 +142.49+151.67+ 5.78 = 524.56 [grid:
358;
car:
180]
SeptKWH 120.98+ 2.49 + 83.50 + 19.10+ 39.95 = 266.02 [grid: 662
(yowr!); car: 155*]
Oct KWH 78.48+ 7.29 + 64.39 + 7.52 + 40.75 =
198.43
[grid: 711; car: 120*]
Nov KWH 19.63+12.19+ 23.90 + 3.35 + 25.62
=
84.69 [grid: 900 (ACK!);car: 110*]
* Car consumption comes from solar and or grid: it does not add to
other figures. (Just from grid as of Nov. 18th.)
Annual Totals
1. March 2019-Feb. 2020: 2196.15 KWH Solar [used 7927
KWH
from grid; EV use: -] 10, 11, 12 solar panels
2. March 2020-Feb. 2021: 2069.82 KWH Solar [used 11294 KWH from
grid;
EV use: - (More electric heat - BR, Trailer & Perry's RV)] 12
solar
panels
3. March 2021-Feb. 2022: 2063.05 KWH Solar [used 10977 KWH from
grid;
EV use ~~1485 KWH] 12 solar panels, 14 near end of year.
4a. March 2022-August 2022: in (the best) 6 months, about 2725 KWH
solar - more than in any previous entire year!
4. March2022-Feb. 2023: 3793.37 KWH Solar [used 12038 KWH from
grid; EV
use: ~1583 KWH] 14, 15, 18 solar panels
5. March 2023-Feb. 2024: 3891.35 KWH Solar [used 7914 KWH from
power
grid; EV use: ~1515 KWH] 18 solar panels
Money Saved or Earned - @ 12¢ [All BC residential elec.
rate] ;
@ 50¢ [2018 cost of diesel fuel to BC Hydro] ; @ 1$ per KWH
[actual
total cost to BC Hydro in 2022 according to an employee]; or maybe
it's
62 ¢/KWH
[according to BC Hydro at Renewable Energy Symposium Sept. 2024]:
1. 263.42$ ; 1097.58$ ; 2196.15$
2. 248.38$ ; 1034.91$ ; 2069.82$
3. 247.57$ ; 1031.53$ ; 2063.05$
4. 455.20$ ; 1896.69$ ; 3793.37$
5. 466.96$ ; 1945.68$ ; 3891.35$
It can be seen that the benefit to the society as a
whole
on Haida Gwaii from solar power installations is much greater than
the
cost savings to the individual user of electricity, thanks to the
heavy
subsidization of our power owing to the BC government policy of
having
the same power rate across the entire province regardless of the
cost
of production. And it can be insurance: With some extra equipment
and a
battery, sufficient solar can deliver essential power in
electrical
outages however long. (Feb 28th 2023: And it's probably well over
1$/KWH by now the way inflation of diesel fuel and other costs is
running.)
It might also be noted that I never went into this in
a
big way. Instead of installing a whole palette load of 32 solar
panels,
I have 18, and my grid ties aren't the best, and I would be hard
put to
give an accurate total of my installation costs. All in all the
grid
tied part probably cost me (with all my own 'free' labor) around
7000$.
At the actual "total savings to all" figures, they have paid for
themselves twice over in five years. The 36V DC system largely
cost a
couple of thousand dollars for batteries. The solar panels were
up. The
charge controller, circuit breakers, DC combo meters [V, A, W,
WH], 36V
compatible LED lights and wiring cost were a few hundred dollars
at
most. (I did have to make my own T-Plug cables & 3D printed
wall
plates.) The battery cost has come down substantially in recent
years
and will come down a lot more if I can get cheap, "forever cycle"
batteries working.
http://www.TurquoiseEnergy.com
Haida Gwaii, BC Canada
