Turquoise Energy News #209
Covering Research & Development Activities & Projects of October 2025
(Posted November 14th 2025)
Lawnhill BC Canada - by Craig Carmichael


[Subscribe: email to  CraigXC at Post dot com ; request subscription]
Main URL TurquoiseEnergy.com  Also at craigcarmichael.substack.com


Month In "Brief" (Project Summaries etc.)
* Zinc Battery Update: Organic Materials Plus Sides - Ni-MH Cordless Drill

In Passing (Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)
* Scattered Thots
- Detailed Project Reports -

Electric Transport - Electric Hubcap Motor Systems - "not much" (batteries) report

Other "Green" & Electric Equipment Projects
* Open Loop Air Heat Pumping (not much progress)
* 36 Volt Electric Heater - Take 2 - 3
* Faraday Cabin Construction - Cutting more styrene foam insulation
* Haida Gwaii Gardening - Winter prep - Self Pickled Cherry Tomatos

Electricity Generation
* New  Grid Tied System
* Old System - The usual Latest Daily/Monthly Solar Production log et cetera - Monthly/Annual Summaries, Estimates, Notes

  October in Brief

I tried a couple of things with the 36 volt heater I made a few months ago

   I seem to have written a report that's mostly "comments from the peanut gallery" on topics other than renewable energy projects. Indeed, lately I seem to be getting "not a lot" done on anything some months. This month my excuse is I wasn't well for a week. (Wait... doesn't that leave 3 other weeks?)
   October 29th was my mother's 100th birthday. Wow! A lot has changed since 1925. [Dorothy Irene Wardlaw / Dorothy Carmichael]

   At the end of October and into November suddenly nothing seemed so important as finishing the east part of the Faraday cabin up at the rafters and removing the scaffolding that had been there since June, mostly with no work being done. I had had enough of shinnying up the stairs sideways to get by it! I had it down and finished on the 9th and finally started editing this report on the 10th.

   Then I decided to try to set up the "Orange PI zero 3" single board computer in the faraday cabin with 36 volts DC power so I could work there - a place with much lower electrosmog. It took all day and still needed an AC power cord because the USB-C cable I cut apart to power it from the DC to DC converter... well, I think I goofed. Somehow the little 16" USB powered video monitor seems to have withstood 36 volts supply instead of 5. "Input out of range - shutting off." it said. How did it even survive and not go up in smoke? I'm grateful that it did! But it liked 4.88V even less and kept resetting itself (and sometimes the computer, depending on cables) as the video came on. I finally figured out that was the problem by turning it above 5.0V late on the 12th. (Probably I could have powered it from the USB hub all along, as originally planned!) I also found that if I stuck the WiFi antenna outside the alume vent screen & metal cabin wall, and put a hub with WiFi at the far end of the house, I could get internet. ("2 bars") That's my excuse for the late newsletter.


I mounted the single board computer and the DC to DC power
adapter in a metal cookie tin. The wifi wire sticks out at the back.
At the front: computer's single USB to 7-socket USB hub, HDMI video
to monitor, separate power cable to video monitor, 36VDC power cable.


 With the grounded metal cover, most of the electrosmog should stay inside.
(But I should keep the WiFi off except when I want to go on line.)


Zinc Battery Update: Organic Materials Plus Sides

   I worked for 16 years to create a zinc battery (Ni-Zn, Cu-Zn...) that should last "forever". I had the zinc side working, long a "holy grail" of battery making. It seemed to me there were several choices for the "+" side.

   Now Sam Evans, "Electric Viking" on youtube, brought a video where Singaporean and Chinese researchers have done as well or better with a "3D Organic Polymer"-Zinc Ion battery. They say they have solved issues that have plagued aqueous zinc-organic batteries. It basicly has the very features I've been espousing for my cells: almost 'forever' life span, low cost and 192 KWH/Kg energy by weight. It's about 1.32 volts at full charge with a mid-charge level of 1.17 volts. Charge efficiency is said to be "almost perfect". And they're pushing for the same target market: home energy and "micro-grid" level energy storage... plus, "wearable" or pocket electronics. The organic positive electrode can apparently move a record 5 electrons per molecule. (Although, the molecules look pretty big.)

   Evans thought, and of course I could only agree, that this battery report was more important than 95% of the battery research reports he has presented.

12 Million Miles - The New Battery Tech That Could Power an EV for 100 years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28tD_TAAPDU



(Note: Most of the video image clips are irrelevant to the content discussed. It's just visual filler. Sam mostly read from the company's info page, which I found later.)


   In more recent years I had been sticking with graphite and metal oxides for the positive sides - anything that would let zinc unleash its potential! At least nickel, nickel-manganese and copper hydroxides seemed workable. It may well be that the organic polymer is a better idea. I've never considered it, as such... (or have I?) Apparently it's been around in recent zinc battery research, but this seems to be the first successful mix of polymers, one that gives the current collector a conductive "3D" geometry. Apparently their cells are acidic with mobile Zn++ ions. I started wondering if a similar polymer, or the same, might be used with alkaline cells?

   Wait... what was that stuff I was doing when I first started the project in 2008, when I felt I was being led to do certain things but before I really started understanding what I was doing? That was doing some strange synthesis things with organic ingredients. Going back, from TE News #1... ya, I really was pretty clueless. Even the right ingredients and techniques, mixed up "randomly", are not going to make a battery. But I was learning!
   In the box of oldest battery project stuff, I found a plastic honey pot of the baked bean/monel/lanthanum substance first mentioned in TE News #6, with a post-it note on top saying what it was. The lid had disintegrated into several pieces but luckily the post-it had stayed and kept most dust out and the tub was still whole and hadn't leaked out the contents. If it was to work, surely it would have to conduct electricity. I got out the multimeter. By gosh, it did! It was megohms, but it was just baked clumps, not even compacted. Compacting should reduce the resistance by orders of magnitude. Frying beans with monel and lanthanum hydroxide until it catches fire just isn't the same thing as "sintering", which was my original understanding of the objective from reading previous battery research. Once I knew more about electrochemistry and other battery research, making such a thing as this powder - and expecting it to be conductive - would have seemed ridiculous and I probably wouldn't have done it! Instead I followed the inner guidance that was proffered. It then remained for me to start understanding what I had done. Instead I eventually forgot about it.
   Perhaps it chelates the metal ions into the organic mix, the thiamine mononitrate base? I poured the clumps and powder, suddenly of interest again, into a PETE jar. (Quick while the old container is still in one piece!) Of course all this is different than the polymer for a "zinc ion battery" [Zn++] in acidic electrolyte, which seems right since I've been doing "mildly alkaline" chemistry with non-migrating "zincate" ions [Zn(OH)4-] all along. Zinc's voltage is higher in alkaline solution than in acid (-1.24V vs. -0.8V), although the overall cell voltage also depends on the plus side. Recently when everything went well I was getting around 1.3 V with Cu-Zn fully charged, dropping to maybe 1.1 or 1.0 V when it was largely discharged.
    Maybe time for some more experiments this winter?


Ni-MH Cordless Drill

   I have about four cordless drills that take Ni-Cd or Ni-MH batteries. Ni-MH batteries ran the drills over twice as long as Ni-Cd on a job, and lasted about ten years. They eventually lost capacity, and I can't seem to order more sub-C cells, once the "universal" cordless power tool size. (I tried once. The store sent some ancient stock that held no charge whatsoever - utterly ruined from sitting on a shelf for years without ever being recharged.) Good Ni-MH sub-C cells ran the drills longer than the basic (18650?) lithium cells in newer drills. With the 18 volt one, Tom screwing together a metal roof said he'd never used a drill that would just run all day without a recharge before.

   I asked myself why I kept them, having long since bought one new one with a lithium battery and being unable to replace their batteries. But it would be nice to have a spare drill or two. Then I thought to do what I had done on the very first drill I had when the Ni-Cd's went bad: remake the battery pack with 8 Ni-MH AA cells. They aren't made for such high drain as a power tool, and they are only 2/3 the amp-hours of "sub-C" cells.

   At first I thought to use up my oldest AA cells, but it hardly worked. I connected two 0.27 ohm resistors (0.56 ohms) to alligator clip leeds and clipped them to my voltmeter probes. With this 2 amp load these old cells (which are ten or more years old) dropped to .2, .4 or .6 volts. They still run a clock or a flashlight okay, but not the drill. Newer cells stayed above 1.1 volts. Having gone this far, I replaced the cells in the pack with the better ones.
   I used an old Ni-Cd sub-C cell as a spacer to push the contacts up into the "neck" to connect with the drill.


   It starts up sluggishly and one would think it would have no torque to speak of, but it worked fine when I went to do some construction with it, drilling pilot holes and putting in 1.5 inch screws, and it worked as long as I needed it for. It just screwed slower when it got tough. (It probably would have stalled on 3 inch screws into lumber.) I first used it "for real" when the Li-ion drill (too frequently) died during the job in the cabin, so I didn't immediately have to run back to the house and change batteries.
   This was a 9.6 volt drill with 8 cells. Later to beef it up a bit I added a ninth AA cell, bringing it to a nominal 10.8 volts. It didn't blow up, and had just a bit more pep. I charge it with a lab power supply set to 1.40 * 9 = 12.6 volts. One of the things that kept killing both Ni-Cd and Ni-MH power tools was the patheticly cheapskate battery chargers the companies supplied with the drills. They went up to stupid voltages, like maybe 1.5+ volts per cell, and typicly they never shut off -- they just kept frying the dry cells forever, heating them up until the little water in them gradually vented out. They were built to fail prematurely! Lithium cells wouldn't last very long with such treatment, either. In fact I think the only thing that finally induced companies to supply good chargers that shut off when done was that lithium cells can readily catch fire or explode if charged too hard, and they didn't want to be sued for people's burned down houses and deaths by fire. Apparently that's a much stronger incentive than doing it right just because it's right and will provide a product that lasts much longer!

   Anyway, now I have two working cordless drills so I can drill pilot holes and then put in screws without swapping bits back and forth. Possibly I may do one of the 18 volt ones (15 Ni-MH dry cells) some time, which should have more pep.

In Passing
(Miscellaneous topics, editorial comments & opinionated rants)

  
Scattered Thots


* Here's something I think is significant for Earth's future. But what is a "conservative" versus a "progressive"? To stereotype in the present US context, "progressives" seem to be the antagonistic ones, always "fighting against" something... "social justice warriors". They don't get along well with people whose views are different than theirs. Women as well as men put career ahead of having families. "Conservatives" are those more in tune with family values, traditions and institutions fostering societal cohesion and continuity.
   Families used to come unbidden, wanted or not. "Everybody" had families, usually large. Since the beginning of birth control pills and other effective contraceptives in the 1960s, more and more those who don't want families don't have them, and the size of families has become smaller. And with ever worsening economic conditions, the many who aren't sure of their long term ability to provide for a family don't have one either. They put it off and put it off, hoping for better times. Now, here it is in statistics!


   Economics will sometime improve as the population shrinks, as it inevitably will owing to the low birthrates of recent decades even if there are no calamities that accelerate the process. It looks to me like many of the people who will improve the races (all races) are having families, while many of those who won't are unselecting themselves for the next generation(s). This seems to bode well for the future of the planet.

"The meek [even tempered, balanced] shall inherit the Earth." - Jesus

---

* From the same article on Zerohedge.com (I didn't note the link or title) It seems polluting and CO2 emissions are dropping pretty fast -- hurray! One could argue that it's "net zero policies" driving the reduction. OTOH, one could argue that it's LED light bulbs, electric cars, solar power, and so on, and that the politicians are in a silly panic to force something already happening to happen a little faster. (...and then perchance, to take credit for it?) Solar power is a major portion of new energy production, and it's totally scaleable.
   For an example of results of authoritarian political actions I think of light bulbs. Politicians made 100 watt and above incandescent bulbs illegal in some jurisdictions just at the time LED bulbs came out using maybe 15% as much power, and people were stopping buying incandescent bulbs anyway. That was about 2012. Shall we attribute the reductions following that time (visible especially in the France graph) to the politicians? LED lighting surely played a much bigger role than banning 100+ watt bulbs!


* Banning higher wattage incandescent bulbs also reveals the ignorance of present day politicians, generally none of whom know anything much technical. A 100 watt bulb typicly has about the same lumens as two 60 watt bulbs while using 20% less electricity, and a less "orange" color. Likewise, a 200 watt bulb is typicly well over twice as bright as a 100 with a still whiter spectrum. (The manufacturers intentionally designed them that way many decades ago and apparently never re-thought them as electric rates rose and prices for bulbs dropped.) So (assuming LED bulbs weren't already arriving at that time) banning larger wattage bulbs could sometimes force people to put in more light fixtures and burn more electricity to attain the desired or required amount of light. Seemingly, in our huge legislatures of hundreds of people, no one knew to speak out and help make a better informed decision on the matter, and no consideration was given for possible unintended consequences.
   I refer the reader back to Unrepresented Constituencies [TE News #201] where we would elect our representatives based on our own occupational field and philosophic interests rather than "by area" to represent everyone in general and no one in particular. Then we would have legislatures with elected people knowledgeable in many fields.

* Potentially we might also have a "predictions" department associated with each legislature, which would examine and forecast the likely consequences of pending legislation - good and bad, intended and unintended - before it was voted on, and report to the legislature before it took a decision. (There's a youtube channel about "unintended consequences". ["...with the best of intentions -- What could possibly go wrong?"])

---

* A question that must occur to many of us once in a while... There are a few videos on the subject. This seems like a good one.

 "If Every Country Is in Debt… Who’s the Creditor?" - Financial Historian
 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UI39q-M0Q

---

* Against which minority group is there the most prejudice?:

- Blacks ("albedo challenged" peoples?)
- Jews
- Muslims
- Whites
- Russia and anyone who speaks Russian

---

* One day I heard that a fellow inmate, his cell mate, had taken a broom handle and stabbed Robert Pickton with it, killing him. On top of the 50 or so bodies of young women unearthed at Pickton's pig farm what was it...? 30 ? years ago, Pickton had murdered another inmate in jail, and boasted he was going to do it again. The man who killed him said he had done it on behalf of everyone. He will probably be further punished for the murder, but in truth he had finally done what Canadian society should have done, but was too gutless to do, 30 years ago. Instead we have all been paying for Pickton's food and warehousing all this time - for someone we would never want loose on our streets again no matter what. The 50 women and the inmate he killed are all still dead. But now he'll claim no more victims. A long belated Good Riddance to Robert Pickton! Whether he chooses eternal life or oblivion when confronted with the universe repercussions of his life, is not our responsibility. Nor can we help any of the many victims who he so early deprived of their Earth lives.

---

* It's recently been claimed that Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela has been sending money to "domestic terrorist" groups in the USA to try to help destabilize the country. Despicable! - using the USA's own destabilization and "regime change" tactics against the USA!
   The USA has been using such weapons for decades against Venezuela -- economic sanctions, funding and arming violent opposition groups, an attempted coup, refusing to sell them parts to keep their oil industry running, and blocking their exports at sea. They claim Maduro is a drug-running dictator who has to go. It sounds likely that Venezuelan elections are rigged. But that's a feeble excuse - Washington has no problem supporting dictators it likes. In fact it prefers them to democracies where someone they don't like may be elected any time.
   Venezuela presently has the most oil reserves of any nation. It has been said that Maduro has written to Trump offering some generous terms for Venezuelan oil with American corporate participation, but evidently they weren't generous enough to open a bargaining discussion.
   Americans blame Venezuela's "socialism", but Washington's measures have obviously contributed heavily to Venezuela's economic collapse and ruin and the poverty, misery and death of the Venezuelan people. Perhaps drugs are the export of last resort? But so far the sanctions have failed to bring about change of government. Now they flirt with direct invasion with mighty warships off the Venezuelan coast and military aircraft stationed in Puerto Rico.
   What's it really about? They speak of drugs coming from Venezuela to the USA by boat. (It would appear to be true. What fisherman puts dual 100+ HP outboards on the back of a boat obviously designed for speed and goes fishing far offshore?) But being only in the early stages of switching to solar energy - and dragging their feet - the USA needs major new sources of oil for its economy, and it doesn't want to pay anything like fair market value for it.

Just my take.

---

* Meanwhile, politicians in the crumbling European Union continue to agitate for war against Russia (4th largest oil reserves & lots of natural gas), to be blamed (of course) on Russia. This to hide their own failures to maintain prosperity in their domains. If the EU can actually mobilize enough of their "fed up" populations to start a war, seeing what's happening in Ukraine now (even with powerful US and EU support), Europe would surely be soundly trounced.
   Russia would stop the present war, which began as a civil war of secession following the US led Ukrainian coup of 2014. The elected government was routed "to uphold democracy" because the USA didn't like its direction. Russia won't give up the territories they have conquered or assisted the Donbass peoples in holding or liberating, which are mostly populated with Russian peoples who voted overwhelmingly to join Russia when given a chance to vote in 2022 (or 2023?). It would now be a betrayal for Russia to vacate and leave them to the mercies of the Ukrainian neo-nazis who had been persecuting them since 2014. But Ukraine, or at least Zelensky, refuses to end the war until all these same hated Russian peoples are returned to its jurisdiction. (even Crimea where there are practicly no Ukrainians.) In this circumstance the war will continue until Ukrainian leadership changes its mind or is defeated. or by some bizarre happenstance Russia is defeated.
   Russia likewise has no intention of invading "woke" Europe, now so flooded with often violent immigrants... unless Europe (not for the first time) makes itself into an implacable foe like Ukraine. Ukraine had all the immense territories allotted to it over the years by the tsars and the communists until the 2014 coup (far more territory than the real "Ukraine"). Everything it has lost since then it has lost by refusal to be reasonable, by blind hatred and prejudice. The slow progress of this "modern" war wasn't foreseen, but continuing Ukrainian losses were foreseeable, and none of it was necessary.
   The EU was doing quite well until 2022 when it went along with American sanctions "against Russia". It has poured its economic life blood into supporting Ukraine to its own detriment. (In fact, in most every decision and policy, EU leadership seems "hell bent" on destroying European civilization.) The war has built Russia into the world's premiere armed power, with its factories churning out war materials in bulk. Why would Europe want to put itself in Ukraine's position of starting a war that most people don't want, and that similarly can surely only bring loss after loss - lives, land, infrastructure - for as long as they care to continue waging it?

* Again, why can't every oblast (province/state) decide by voting with what national entity it would like to associate - or form? Of what sense is war? To be fair this could include oblasts bordering around Ukraine in Belarus, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Poland, a few of which were shuffled arbitrarily about in the Soviet era. "Novorussia" (DPR, LPR, Zaporojjia, Harkov...) might elect to form a new state rather than be part of Russia (or Ukraine) if offered the choice and not threatened with Ukrainian invasion.

* "Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God." They seem to be in short supply in Ukrainian and European leadership right now.

---

* I recently heard that eating cocoa causes the bone marrow to release stem cells into the bloodstream. Some of them may drift around to somewhere where they may lodge, differentiate into a needed cell, and help repair some cellular damage. Eating that dark chocolate is then a stem cell medical treatment, something much sought after by medical researchers! Perhaps we should have guessed that we crave chocolate for an actual, valid reason! ...Now, what about licorice? Well, time to pour myself another coffee.

ESD
(Eccentric Silliness Department)

* Blessed are the pacemakers, for they shall strengthen the faint of heart.

* Defence: to remove a fence. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Defense: to erect a fence.

* The donker donked the donkee. The donkee brayed loudly in annoyance at being the object of such an absurd "pun".

* Florest: A land of giant flowers. (There are no woodpeckers there, but the size of some of the caterpillars has to be believed to be seen!)

   "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

A "Not Much" Report


   After renewing two lead-acid batteries for the outboard/unipolar/Caik motor tests, I found a suitable wooden box and decided to get out 8 (24V) of the new 325 amp-hour lithium - iron phosphate cells instead. I also spent a day digging out my boat trailer from some old rotting palettes and tall grass and weeds - even an alder sapling. I haven't used it in some years. (It was parked beside my shipping container. In trying to stop condensation I had put the palettes on the roof and then a plastic tarp over it all. After a couple of years the tarp ripped to pieces and I had dropped the palettes off the side, next to the trailer. intending to deal with them later. not this much later! Being unable to move the trailer or mow the grass, the palettes were gradually covered. They rotted and the sapling grew up right by the trailer. Not inside it -- but I've seen abandoned cars with trees growing up through them!)

   The 325 amp-hour cells weighed 11 pounds each. Eight in one box was about 90 pounds. That would be too much to lift in and out of the boat. (or at all!) But it seemed I could cut the box in half and make two new ends, so 45 pounds in each of two 12 volt boxes, at the expense of connecting a fat wire between them on the boat. I did it. Much more manageable!

(Hmm, I seem to have abandoned the project for the winter. Next summer?)




Other "Green" & Electric Equipment Projects

Open Loop Air Heat Pumping (OLAHP)
[28th] Where was I again? Oh ya, last spring saying this project has too valuable a potential to let it slip away again. Now here it is the end of October!

   First: What was I going to do about having thoughtlessly drilled an allen wrench access hole in the exact wrong place - right at the top (seemed logical if one gave it no thought!) -- right where the wall and the piston meet and the air gap needs to be zero? This is what has most been bothering me. Heat glue would probably melt during operation. I thought of filling it in with little flakes of UHMW. But how to melt them into place, without distorting the UHMW cylinder itself? Then I thought of getting a small brass tube and drilling out a solid UHMW plug of just the right diameter.
   As I cut the tube I thought of trying to melt it through instead of filing "teeth" into the tube and drilling. I went back with a piece of UHMW, a heat gun, the tube and forceps to hold the hot tube. I tried for about 30 seconds, then looked and found I had made only a half circle mark on the surface, just enough to keep the tube from slipping away as I turned it.

   Then I thought of putting the whole piece of plastic in the kitchen oven. After all, it was still so stiff in its "melted" state that it didn't even seem to sag. I put it in the oven on 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. It went from white to transparent. It was still so stiff I needed assistance to punch the brass tube through. I used the hydraulic press.


   The piece was pretty ugly and I tried again, but I guess it had cooled more and although it still went through, there was no piece inside the tube at all. It had just squished around it.


   So I took the first piece and pushed it in. One end broke off. The rest fit okay. I cut a few bits off the "mushroomed" end and it fit in.

   Not quite satisfied with the fit I put in a couple of UHMW flakes and bent a piece of alume to the general curve, heated it up, and melted the flakes into the join area. They filled a tiny gap and it seemed pretty good.


   What happened after that? Hopefully I'll get more done in November!



36 Volt Electric Heater - Take 2


   I had put together a resistance heater from resistance wire wrapped between screws on a piece of plywood. I had been using it in my bedroom at night. and or in the day if there was power to burn and it was cold out. But I always thought that having screws transferring heat from the wire to the plywood was a poor idea, and that it would be better with porcelain insulators and no electrical or heat connections to the screws. I could attach the alligator clips anywhere for any wattage, but instead I had simply used all the wire and never got it too hot, which limited the heater to 250 watts.

[25th] I got out some grey clay ["Laguna B-mix, cone 5"] and shaped such insulators along with some spacer washers, and let them dry.


[26th] I dried them further on top of the woodstove, then fired them for three hours in my mini-kiln. That's about "cone 5". Apparently the tile I set them on was only good for ceramic firing. It melted into the kiln bricks and to the pieces. To get it out with a chisel it took chunks out of the kiln floor, which was specially shaped kiln block. I broke a couple of the insulators chiselling them off, but I had made a couple extra.

[27th] I unwrapped the heating wires and assembled it the new way. At a place where a join was needed, the wires were two inches to short to reach each other. I moved the end screw down two inches, gaining four inches of wire so that there was an overlap instead and I could twist them together.

   The result was disappointing. The wires were too close together and when they got hot and expanded, a couple of them touched. As the wires were doubled everywhere, I turned it off and twisted most of them together to strengthen the arrangement. The alligator clip leeds I had powered it with now had to be connected straight to the heater wires instead of to the screws. They got much hotter and one fell off its wire. Solder would have melted!


   Somewhere during the new assembly I realized that when I had twisted the wires together at the screws in the original build to keep them a bit farther apart, the current would pass through the twist instead of going around the screw. The bit of wire around each screw didn't get hot, and so the screws weren't as hot as expected! If I gave the wires a couple of twists to get the heat a little farther away, the screws would hardly get warm! The porcelain insulators to keep heat from running down the screws to the plywood would be superfluous!

   Except for being nearly finished at that point, why was I doing this then? Using the screws would be actually superior as well as easier to make, eliminating the pottery. Just like I had it in the first place, with an extra twist at each screw. I took it apart and put it back together that way. (Hmm... the screws where the clips connect will still get hot!)

   Tho I do use it, it's still just a basic "cool, it works!" prototype. My only other innovation was to clamp the supply cable to the wall at the top of the heater. If the heater, which I simply lean against the wall in a quiet corner, ever fell on its face it could start a fire. With the cable clamped, first the cable would stop the heater from falling, and if it did anyway, the alligator clips would have to unplug.

   All a bit hokey. A production "36 V infrastructure parts & equipment" heater would want a thorough redesign. I'm seeing why the heater wires are usually wound into coils. A grill on the front of the would certainly be an asset. 36 volts is safe electricly, but the wires, while not hot enough to glow, will definitely burn if touched. Power switches for ON-OFF and watts selection would be a must. A thermostat would be handy, as would a low voltage cutout to ensure it couldn't drain the battery if it's running off one.
   A 500 watt heater running for just 24 hours would drain 12 KWH, which is bigger than my 10 KWH battery and more than the solar supplies in a day except on the sunniest of summer days. (And who needs a heater then?)


"Faraday Cabin" Construction

Ceiling

   Again I didn't get a whole lot done for most of October. I cut, painted and installed the ceiling trim boards along the four foot sides of the paneling. Except one. Seems I had cut, but didn't paint, any extras, and somehow I trimmed one too short. That one I can get to after the scaffolding is removed, so good enough for now.
   To do a lowered ceiling in the East half when the West half is vaulted ceiling, I needed to put up a "gable end" wall at the center. The ceiling panels and the 8 foot (east-west) trim pieces stuck past the critical point a few inches, and I wasn't sure what to do. I put up the 4 foot (north-south) end trim about where I thought it should go anyway, and that made the way clear: I could cut the ceiling panels along the edge of the trim with a knife, and then trim the offending E-W trim boards even with all that. I had ordered an "oscillating multi-tool" from China which would have been great - and safe - to cut the ends of the boards, but it hadn't come yet so I used the circular skill saw as carefully as I could. I don't like holding a saw that can kick right over my head to do a fine cut, but I couldn't think of anything else that was practical.

[The multi-tool arrived a week later. "Battery not included" but it takes the same battery as my "DeWalt" drill, and I expect I won't be using it very often. It soon came in handy for cutting a square hole for a light switch (= electrical box) in the 1/4 inch plywood I'm using for wallboard.]


   After that I started in on framing the triangular space between the 6 by 6 beams, roof angle and lower support. Then I cut 1/4 inch plywood paneling to fit.


[November 2nd] The interior "gables" needed insulation and I got started on that, including at the end of the bedroom. With no roof insulation yet, doing that bit of wall just might make it just a touch easier to heat the bedroom, too. [Seemed to help.] I also tacked up some 2x8 foam panels between the studs on the other bedroom interior wall. That too should help until the whole structure is insulated. (One thickness of 1/2 inch gyproc isn't noted as being wonderful insulation!)


[Nov. 3rd] I did more "gable end insulating" and felt I was ready to put the plywood up. Again I used scraps of styrene foam (2+ inches thick - R10+), plus a couple of polyurethane(?) foam pieces from a freezer (R6 per inch: R12+).

  (I neglected to take a picture from the other side before I put the wallboard up.)



[Nov. 4th] I cut a few more plywood pieces to fit so that I could paint everything at once. [Nov. 5th] I painted all the pieces of plywood including the last section of wall above the scaffolding.
   Then I painted and put up more wallboard above the stairs - the last high up part that wasn't finished. Why would I leave that one part undone? I used a new can of white paint which wasn't at all a match for the last pail. That's what I get for shopping at the refuse station and the recycling centre. (They're glad not to have to ship it off island. Oodles of great free paint, often full pails!)

Finally on November 9th I took down the scaffolding from the stairs end and the next day the rest of it. Then the unpainted places covered by the scaffolding appeared. The first bucket still had a few drabs I'd saved in it and I cleaned it right out painting these bare spots with a brush. There's one place I didn't feather it in well and I wish there'd been enuf to finish a couple more areas, but I was pleased to at least do those spots and call it "done".




Electrosmog/Tinnitus

   On a side note with sleeping in the cabin November 1st and then working out there most of the next day, by afternoon my tinnitus was notably much reduced. I looked forward to it perhaps almost disappearing (for the first time in 35 years) by the next morning. But in the afternoon I had plugged in a DC to DC power adapter for the hot wire cutter. It was under the scaffolding maybe a dozen feet from my bed. 100 KHz electrosmog! Instead of reduction that night, at 2:30 AM I woke up with my tinnitus screaming. One. lousy. effing. power adapter! I had to do stuff in the yard and in the house; I had to drive into town (under the power lines). The ringing was never as quiet again, at least in early November.

   A youtube video explained that one should put a small capacitor across diodes to damp electrical noise, which especially occurs during reverse recovery time as the diode starts to conduct. I'd never heard of this before and I bet those making AC to DC and DC to DC converters haven't either. He had made a meter with a probe that he could put near offending components that turned the electrical noise into audio noise. There was a big difference with the capacitor. I should have made a note of the channel! As well as new stuff he had some ancient electronics - a tube amp, a dual beam oscilloscope like I had drooled over in 1973 at Malaspina College... "Something...electronics"? Maybe I should try to find it again ...and build the meter?

Haida Gwaii Gardening - Prep for winter


   My large "Carpathian" English walnut recovered and grew leaves after I put a huge plastic bag over it to keep it warmer. In October I finally took the bag off. It looked pretty good but lost the leaves in 2 or 3 weeks. It's autumn anyway. I'll put the bag back on in the spring and hope it lasts another summer.
   The little Black walnut was still bare, all summer. I've kept watering it along with the Carpathian. I'll put its bag back on in the spring, too, but my hopes aren't very high.


   The corn I grew ran out by October. All that work for a dozen(?) small cobs of corn! Is it worth it? Maybe I'll start it earlier in the spring in individual pots and get it bigger before I put it out in the box, like the ones I got from Dragonfly Garden, which grew well. Ditto for squash, which was a total wipeout this year except for a couple of zucchinis, and a cucumber from a plant someone was giving away. Planted late, it didn't grow very large. A mouse chewed on its second cucumber not long before it got to where I would have picked it.

   The trees I planted from seed had grown well over the summer. Just one of the black locusts suddenly lost half its leaves very early. I looked and found a two inch long grey-brown caterpillar the same as the one that had finished off every remaining leaf on my first walnut tree!
   The three birch trees lost their yellow leaves first, each one losing all of them in one day. (Not the same day for all three.)


   To try and kill weeds, I decided to put black plastic over patches of ground. I've heard it works well because the black warms the soil and causes the seeds to germinate, but then the plants die because they con't get any light. First I spread out three black plastic bags cut in half and it seemed good. Then the chickens came in and started scratching up everything. In a few days the plastic was all clumped up.


   On the 25th I planted five four foot rows of garlic for next year. (mainly 'red', a row and a half of 'elephant') In addition to everything else I put down a thick mulch of eel grass from the beach to insulate the ground from frost and to smother starting-up weeds. Then, as I had started letting the chickens into the south wall garden in the late afternoons (there being little left for them to wreck), I threw a piece of fence wire over the plot to keep them from digging it all up. They can dig, and poop, all they like where nothing is planted.
   Soon after this I had the thought that, because of the fabulous success of my garden garlic patches (when so many other crops are so disappointing), I'm probably planting and eating too much of it. In times gone by never used to eat much or any - a sprinkle of dried garlic flakes occasionally was just fine and a bottle lasted for ages. Of course you don't smell garlic in yourself. But if others do, being too polite to mention it, they'll just draw away. Maybe I'll trade garlic for something else. Or give some away. I've just planted for next year, but I think I'll cut it back to a row or two after this. Maybe I can grow some better onions in a bigger patch instead and not run out of them half way through the winter?

   My potatos, which I've said "grow like weeds around here", were swallowed by weeds this year. The chickweed was almighty. It covered everything. And the grass. And in the rare places where the ground was bare the chickens scratched a few from the surface and ate them. They seem to have developed a taste for them. I've got so few I'll have to use the majority for seed for next year.

   Speaking of which, the five year old Auricanas were still producing eggs quite well through the summer. At the end of September they stopped abruptly and I've had none of their green shelled eggs since. The younger hens, laying brown or pink eggs, were still laying into November. But now they're all moulting, so they probably won't be laying much more until early spring.

   Here are a couple of gratuitous pics of my main garden near the end of October.

South half.
The chickweed, the chickweed! Awrg!


The northwest part.
Hazelnuts on the left, a row of peas removed, water barrel, the raspberry jungle on the right.
The 'everbearing' raspberries are still producing into November. I think this is the only variety I'd
plant if there's a "next time". And one row is probably enough for me. Who needs oodles and
oodles of berries in July and August and then none? I don't can so I freeze them --and then
never get around to using them.

Self Pickled Cherry Tomatos
Tomatos cut in half, set on dryer rack                                                  
   I got tons of cherry tomatos. I gave some away, the chickens ate some, I ate some, but there were still lots. I decided to dry some. I had bought a food dryer last year. (Home Hardware ...150$?) I cut them in half, and instead of drying them to a crisp, I dried them for 8 hours. That left them a bit moist. The aim here was that as the water content drops, the acidity in the tomatos becomes so high that they are "self pickled" rather than dried. They should last for as long as I want them, and still should be much more nutritious and "tomato like" than dried food.
After 8 hours drying                                                   


I put three batches of these "pickled" tomatos into one jar of less than a pint. They certainly shrank a lot to all fit into it. The jar is over half full of liquid. (So much for "dried"!) After several weeks at room temperature there is no sign of mold, which quickly destroys the untreated fruits.
   So I tried a few on a cheese, beach lambs quarters and pickled tomato sandwich. Notwithstanding the tomatos' acidity, it was great! I'm sure they'll be delicious on burgers, pizza and so on. Good "preserves" once the fresh ones are gone.

(The "lambs quarters" grow in summer on the sandy ocean beach just above the regular high tide lines, where winter storms have washed away other vegetation. The leaves look like lambs quarters leaves and people call them "lambs quarters", but I don't expect they're related.)

Electricity Generation

New Grid-Tied Solar Power System

[Oct. ?] I found an email from the electrical contractor from early August - almost two months old, requesting a couple of pieces of information including the BC Hydro approval number - in the "spam" folder of my email. This is doubtless the reason I haven't had any approvals to turn the breaker on yet. Yuk! Well, I should have been inquiring sooner, I suppose. (There was also a personal email from someone in the "spam". Apparently I must check it occasionally.)

   But the contractor relied that he had already got the info and as far as he knew everything was done from their end. He said he could look into it if I wanted. There's not much more sun now until spring.

   I finally e-mailed to BC Hydro on November 9th.



My (Old) Solar Power System(s)

(My solar panels recent images - TE News #200)


The Usual Daily/Monthly/Yearly Log of Solar Power Generated [and grid power consumed]

Notes:
* All times are in PST: clock ~48 minutes ahead of local sun time, never PDT which is an hour and 48 minutes ahead.
* Unapproved AC/Grid Tied systems have been removed.
* House panels include four old ones on the roof (upper - total rating ~ 1000W), two 305W on the roof, three 305W on the south wall below the roof, and one broken panel mounted verticly on the porch railing (seems to still work but a lot of shade there).
* Cabin DC includes the three carport panels and the two on a pole in the yard as well as the four on the cabin roof itself. All nine are 305W.
* The wall, pole and porch panels are easily wiped off from the ground if it snows.
* Km = Nissan Leaf electric car drove distance, then car was charged. Car KWH does not add to or subtract from any other readings.

Recent fotos of solar panels, TE News #200:

House System Panels: House roof, wall (9 solar panels) - Porch (1 broken one - usually shady)
Cabin System Panels: Carport (3 - sunniest place on the whole property) - Pole (2 - shadiest place) -Faraday Cabin (4 - badly shaded in winter)

New Order of Daily Solar Readings (Beginning November 2024):

Date HouseDC, CabinDC => Total KWH Solar [Notable power Uses (EV); Grid power meter@time] Sky/weather, notes...

September
30th 929.37, 686.45 => 2.14 [35Km; 31977@21:00]

October
  1st  missed (oops!) ...> 7.23
  2nd 940.09, 690.19 => 7.23 (14.46) [32016@23:30]
  3rd 942.24, 690.63 => 2.61 [32025@20:00]
  4th missed...............> 3.92 [105Km]
  5th 948.47, 692.24 => 3.92 (7.84) [32099@18:30]
  6th 950.20, 693.19 => 2.68 [32123@22:00]
  7th 963.90, 694.06 => 4.57 [32139@20:30]
  8th missed             => 2.29
  9th 965.53, 697.01 => 2.29 (4.58) [32201@18:30]
10th 970.05, 698.21 => 5.72 [32231@23:00]
11th 973.98, 698.60 => 4.32 [32250@??]
12th 979.46, 699.35 => 6.23 [32269@??]

13th 983.81, 699.69 => 4.71 [32285@20:00]
14th 986.09, 700.05 => 2.64 [32305@18:30]
15th 989.71, 700.40 => 3.98 [32322@22:00]
16th 993.22, 700.78 => 3.89 [32333@20:00]
17th 996.00, 702.94 => 4.94 [32372@?]
18th 998.22, 704.92 => 4.20 [32405@20:30]
19th 1000.81, 707.42 => 5.09 [324441@23:30]
20th 1003.96, 709.50 => 5.23 [32530@19:00]
21st 1004.63, 710.92 => 2.09 [55Km; 32506@21:00]
22d  1007.24, 712.27 => 3.96 [32530@19:00] -- Was not well
23d  1009.81, 713.95 => 4.25 [32550@18:30]
24th --- missed ---       => 2.10 [---]
25th 1012.22, 715.74 => 2.10 (4.20) [32581@18:30]
26th 1016.84, 719.69 => 8.57 [32645@19:30]
27th 1019.49, 722.35 => 5.31 [32682@23:00]
28th 1019.82, 723.05 => 1.03 [32720@23:00] -- Well again
29th 1020.86, 724.60 => 2.74 [55Km; 32754@20:30]  ---  |||  My Mother's 100th Birthday! |||
30th 1021.61, 725.61 => 1.76 [23779@18:30]
31st 1022.59, 727.31 => 2.68 [85Km; 32815@18:00]

November
  1st 1023.74, 728.89 => [32845@20:00]
  2d  1026.14, 730.80 => [32876@18:00]
  3rd 1028.63, 732.87 => [32912@17:30]
  4th 1029.22, 733.37 => [55Km; 32953@17:30]
  5th 1030.02, 734.77 => [45Km; 33001@'24:30']
  6th 1031.70, 736.08 => [33030@20:30]
  7th 1034.62, 737.77 => [33074@'24:00']
  8th 1034.79, 738.22 => [105Km; 33115@20:00]
  9th 1036.89, 739.99 => [33153@'24:00']
10th 1038.19, 741.35 => [33193@17:00]
11th 1041.04, 743.45 => [50Km; 33235@19:00]
12th 1043.32, 745.17 => [55Km; 33278@20:30]
13th 1045.43, 746.59 => [33316@17:30]


Chart of daily KWH from solar panels.   (Compare October 2025 with July 2025 & August 2024.)
Days of
__ KWH
 October
2025
 September 2025
 October 2024
(18 C's - Grid
Ties & DC)
0.xx


1.xx
 2
 1
 1
2.xx
 10
 5
 3
3.xx
 5
 4
 3
4.xx
 5
 3
 3
5.xx
 5
 2
 4
6.xx
 1
 6
 3
7.xx
 2
 3
 5
8.xx
 1
 2
 3
9.xx
1
10.xx
2
 2
11.xx

3
12.xx
1
 1
13.xx


Total KWH
for month
 134.08
 179.02 198.43
Km Driven
on Electricity
 400.9 Km
@8.0 Km/KWh
50 KWh
 (Lost owing to 12V
battery replacement)
 925Km
~120KWH

Things Noted - October 2025

* In the cooler autumn weather I started using solar electric heat in my (house) bedroom. After my usual two Saturday car trips and using the 3.8 KW station after the first, I charged the Leaf again Sunday from the solar, but there wasn't enough energy in the house battery, then Monday. I got distracted Monday (weiner roast with friends!) and left the charge on until the car was full - but the house battery was quite low. Then it got cloudy. I was unable to use the system for heat Monday and Tuesday nights. With the shortening days and clouds there isn't enough power from nine solar panels for both. When I finish insulating the cabin these tasks can be better split between them. (An OLAHP heating system in the cabin and using 1/2 the energy in the lightweight Sprint car with the ultraefficient unipolar Electric Hubcap motor and direct planetary gear to wheel drive would be tremendously helpful! Dream on!)

* And while the nominal battery voltage is "36 volts", for home uses with under 750 watts loads it's rarely below 38 volts. If I put the new 325 amp-hour cells in the cabin, it'll be: (290 AH + 325 AH) * 38 V = 23370 watt-hours. That's about as much as the Nissan Leaf, so if I charged it at the cabin from full batteries, I wouldn't have to worry about draining them too far.

* On the morning of the 28th I looked and saw there was only 60 watts being made at the cabin. I thought five of the panels (on one cable) must have come disconnected leaving only the four on the cabin roof. Then I went to the house and it was only 50 watts! In the afternoon when I looked again the cabin was up to just 80 watts. The day was just that dull!

* The Leaf seems to use substantially more energy to recharge than the "kilometers per kilowatt-hour" + "kilometers driven" readings on the dash indicate. I can only measure it when charging via solar power. There's the inefficiency of the inverter when on solar power to consider, but even so I don't think charging lithium ion batteries is as efficient as is claimed.


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 SIX full years (March 2019 to February 2025) may be found in TE News #201, February 2025. Note that in November 2024 I had to disconnect the "unapproved" solar power systems from the power grid, and I have been running them as two "off grid" 300 amp-hour, 36 volt, battery systems since.

2024
Month: HouseAC + DC +Carport+Cabin[+DC] (from Aug 2024)
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*] Changed solar system to "off grid only" on 18th.
Now solar is charging batteries only. Two 36 V DC systems: house, cabin, each 10 KWH, each 9 solar panels once wired.
Dec KWH  20.37 + 16.76 = 37.13 [grid: 1866 (using electric heat - awg!); car: 120*]

2025
Jan KWH   35.02 + 26.30 = 61.32 [grid: 2136 (electric heat OW!); car: 120*]
Feb KWH   55.43 + 39.00 = 94.43 [grid: 1937; car: 100*]
SIX full Years of solar!
Mar KWH 115.13 + 87.41 = 202.54 [grid: 1860; car: 155* KWH]
Apr KWH  126.25 + 120.36 = 246.61 [grid: 1246; car: 100*]
May KWH 147.08 + 186.24 = 333.32 [grid: 1354; car: 150*]
Jun 145.58 + 170.97 = 316.55 [grid: 959; car: 130*]
July 156.48+ 86.78 = 243.26 [grid: 653; car 130]
Aug 118.56 + 48.50 = 167.06 [grid: 616; car 150]
Sept 115.15+ 63.87 = 179.02 [grid: 576; car: trip meter reading lost with 12V battery replacement]
Oct    93.22 + 40.86 = 134.08 [grid: 868; car: 50]


* Car consumption comes from solar and or grid: it does not add to other figures. (Just from grid from Nov. 18th. 2024 except some direct solar charging summer 2025)


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
6. March 2024-Feb. 2025: 3428.88 KWH Solar [used 12773 KWH from grid; EV used: ~1685 KWH]

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$
6. 411.47$ ; 1714.44$ ; 3428.88$

   I had to disconnect the system from the grid in November 2024. These two now independent installations (house, cabin) will continue to run their 36 volt DC systems and I'll see how I can most effectively utilize the available solar energy with the limited available storage.



http://www.TurquoiseEnergy.com
Haida Gwaii, BC Canada