Making every watt count

In the bad old days of terribly expensive solar electric power, there were some tricks to keep power usage down. Now that solar electric is a fraction of the cost, most of those don't make much sense anymore. There is one trick that still has merit in a number of specific instances.

Here's the thing about solar electric systems. The panels generate DC power. Everything in your house runs on AC power. An inverter is used to convert that DC power, stored in batteries, into AC power that all your electrical stuff uses. Good sized quality inverters used to be terribly expensive. Even today, while there are cheap ones on the market, the better ones will cost some real coin. For most people, they are necessary.

Another disadvantage of inverters is that they are not 100% efficient. At best they run around 90%, but under some load conditions they can be much lower, around 50%. When you are counting every expensive solar watt, throwing half of them away was a terrible deal.

Most small solar panels run at the proper voltage to charge 12 volt batteries. That's pretty handy, as there are lots of things that run at 12 volts. When panels and inverters were expensive, many people set up their places to run totally on 12 volt. There are lots of things built to run on 12 volt, everything from radios to coffee makers. People even went to the trouble of buying 12 volt deep well submersible water pumps.

People who have small solar systems might want to consider taking a page out of the early days of solar. For example, my small sailboat doesn't have a lot of room to mount solar panels and store batteries. My van has only a 105 watts of power. The longer I can stretch those watts, the longer I can stay out.

You probably already have things like 12 volt adapters to charge your cell phone and tablets. My marine radio has a 12 volt charging option. I use 12 volt fans to keep cool. My small computer has a 12 volt charging option. Recently I even ordered a DC adapter for my C-pap machine. Not having to run the inverter saves energy. In fact, I can use a cheap 400 watt inverter for the remaining things rather than a more expensive larger inverter. Running directly on 12 volt, there is one less piece of machinery that can fail. An added bonus is not having to listen to the buzz of an inverter working.

Sometimes the old tricks find life in new applications.

-Sixbears

Pick and Shovel Workout

Tuesday night is my waterline burial deadline. That's when the temperature is supposed to drop to around twenty degrees Fahrenheit. That's too cold for an unburied waterline. After Monday's efforts I'm down to the last eight feet or so. I was debating on whether or not to push on and finish it. Then heavy rain moved in.

Since I was already feeling pretty beat it seemed like a good time to stop. Eight feet of digging doesn't seem like much, but it's tough going. There are roots that need to be axed, and rocks levered out of the way, so it's far enough. After a good night's sleep I should be able to finish the job in a couple hours.

Before my leg injury, the job would have done by now. Being laid up allowed me to get out of shape. It's these little projects that are slowly getting me back into condition. I've never been one to stick to an exercise program. They always seem like a huge waste of time and energy to me. Instead, I move heavy things, split wood, shovel, climb up and down hills, and generally get stuff done.

Then there's the stuff I do for fun, paddling, sailing, bicycling, fishing, hunting, swimming and other activities. Because it's fun, I'll do it for hours. Once I tried a rowing machine. Within minutes I was bored to tears. However, put me in a real rowboat and I'll row all day. It's different when you can feel the wind and the currents while watching the world go by. Put a trolling line in the water and it's even more interesting.

Digging a trench is a pain, but beats working out in the gym.

-Sixbears

To Sail or Not to Sail

My lovely wife and I love to sail. Before the hurricanes that hit the Gulf and most of Florida, we planned on heading south after Thanksgiving. The idea was to tow the Oday 19 sailboat down and do a mix of sailing and camping.

Then the storms hit. We moved our departure date until after New Years. The idea behind the delay was to allow time for clean up and repairs. We've also taken a few areas completely off our travel radar. All in all, not a major change.

Right now I've been trying to find out exactly how bad things are in southern Florida. Marathon in the Keys is moving right along to getting back to business. Key West wasn't hit all that hard to begin with, but a lot of live aboards lost their boats. Many of them were pretty beat up to begin with and anchored in a marginal area. However, they were people's homes.

It came as a surprise to discover that almost all the marinas in the Miami area are still closed. Because of that I'm going to have to do some research to see who's open and who's not. While we don't like to spend much time in marinas, they are good places to get out of bad weather. Some I'm going to call on the phone to get the real story.

Boat traffic still isn't very heavy yet in Florida waters, so not a lot of information is making it to the sailing nets and boards. There are scattered reports of sunken wrecks, debris hazards, and missing markers. Some of those markers have been bent over, submerged, and have become dangerous in their own right. Navigational marker replacement was already heavily backlogged before the storms.

We are going to wait another month or so before making the final decision. If the boating situation still looks sketchy, we'll leave the sailboat at home. For some strange reason my lovely wife isn't too keen on losing another boat.

Worse come to worse, it will be a season of just camping. Enough campgrounds have reopened. There's room to bring the kayak along, so we'll get at least some time on the water.

-Sixbears

Back to the Beginning

My lovely wife and and I have been traveling in the winter for a very long time. She was working as a hospital lab tech back then. They could not give her the months off that we needed every winter, so she'd quit her job. They always said they could not promise they'd hire back in the spring. We didn't worry about it and they always did.

We had bought a second hand Dodge Neon for one of my daughters to use when she went to school in Florida. After she graduated she wanted to buy a new car, so we were stuck with the Neon. It would not have been our choice for car camping, but it's the car we had.

I made some modifications. It already had a good Thule roof rack for our canoe. I added a small hitch so I could hang a cargo rack off the back. On the rack set a custom plywood box that contained most of our camping gear. It also carried a 12 volt deep discharge battery to run a 12 volt cooler and other electrical needs. The battery was charged off the car's alternator using a battery isolator.

That winter we did a lot of tent camping. One tent was huge with an attached screened in sitting area. The other was a small 4 season tent that we often used when just staying someplace for one night.

Dodge Neons are not known for being great cars, but ours never let us down. We traveled all over the Southeast that winter. We fell in love with the gypsy lifestyle.

By the second year we simplified a bit. Our load got trimmed back some. The cargo rack stayed home. I stuffed some of our gear into dry bags and tied them under the canoe on the roof. It worked just fine.

Now we have our comfortable converted ambulance/motorhome. However, we still occasionally load our gear in my lovely wife's little Nissan Versa hatchback and go tent camping. After all these years we still like tents.

-Sixbears

Anybody Remember A-Frame Houses?

Whatever happened to A-frame buildings? There are still a few around, mostly as camps in the woods. I don't think I've seen a new one in a long time.

They are pretty simple. They really do look like a giant “A.” You have two pitched roofs that go all the way to the ground and the ends are closed off. That's it.

There are some advantages to the design. They are fairly inexpensive to build. Construction is easy. A small crew can put one together in a short period of time. They are great in places that get a lot of snow. The design is strong and snow slides right off the steep pitched roofs. If you have a cabin way out in the woods, that's a good feature.

Like anything else, they have disadvantages. Heat tends to rise and get trapped in the upper level, making a second floor super hot. Adding additional rooms on one is a pain and when you are done it's really not an A-frame anymore. My guess is that banks and those who issue building permits aren't very fond of them either.

I'm thinking knowing how to build one could come in real handy in an emergency. Being able to build a solid and simple shelter with limited resources is a good skill to have.

One of the guys I used to work with built a few of them as camps. During the winter of '68-'69 we got record setting snowfall. A lot of buildings collapsed under the snow load. Since the woods roads were impassable, people could not get to their camps to shovel off the roofs. A lot of camps were lost that winter. The guy with the A-frame buildings didn't have a care in the world and his buildings are still standing today.

-Sixbears

More fun and games

So I'm doing a bit of laundry early in the morning and the “no water” alarm goes off on the washing machine. I run down the basement. The water pressure gauge shows almost zero pressure, but the pump is running full blast. I kill the breaker so the pump doesn't burn out, grab my tools and head down the well.

I always double clamp black plastic pipe connections. One good clamp should be enough, but I never trust them. Except, of course, when the second clamp breaks and I don't have a spare on me. Just this one time I should be able to get away with one, right? Wrong. The connection came loose, causing the pump to run nonstop, making a small whirlpool in the well. Now it's double clamped.

The pump churned up the water enough that it kicked silt up from the bottom. As soon as the pump came back on-line, it plugged the water filter. Should have let it settle, but my washing machine kicked back on soon as it had water again. Don't you just love those new computer driven washers? Good thing I keep spare filters handy.

Since it was raining, my lovely wife and I thought it would be a good day to run errands in town. That went pretty well, except it was almost impossible to find a replacement pick handle. Everyone could sell me a whole new pick, but finding just a handle was nearly impossible. Finally, the kid from one of the hardware stores was able to dig one up for me. Now I'll be able to finish the last little bit of water line trench.

During the height of the storm we discovered a small roof leak. Years ago I had a small section of the roof get damaged and now the repair let go. Apparently I wasn't the only only with a leak. Every store was out of the good patch material. I wasn't going to use the cheap stuff again, as that's what just failed.

Just another day taking care of the homestead.

-Sixbears

Intermittent Internet

My Internet service keeps disappearing. That makes it hard to post on a regular schedule. Fortunately, the grid has held steady.

Some areas got hit really hard by the storm. Friends just a few miles from me were told it would be at least 17 days before they get their power back. Roads and bridges have been washed out.

In spite of the storms, I almost have my new water supply line completely buried. My grub hoe broke before we could finish the last bit of trenching. My buddy is going to weld it up for me.

I was able to make all the connections so that's set. I'd better post this now while I've still got a connection.

-Sixbears