Category: Blog

Status: Sheltering in place until June 12, we have plenty of food and supplies. I am two days from my wedding anniversary and seven days past being retired.

Plans: Try and get a battery connection installed on mom’s golf cart.

• 07:00 Up, sipp’n my coffee and writing in my blog.
• 08:00 Wasting time on FB.
• 09:00 Called Golf Cart place, all set.
• 10:00 Breaking down boxes and putting them in bags for recycling.
• 11:00 Lunch and FB scanning.
• 12:00 Looking for common mode chokes
• 13:00 Nap time
• 15:00 Organizing
• 16:00 Dinner
• 17:00 Making solar MC-4 connecting cables.
• 18:00 Watching all the president’s men with the wife
• 21:00 Calling it a day.

Narrative: Spent a good part of the day breaking down boxes and cleaning up the corner of our Livingroom.

This evening I made an adapter cable from a solar panel to a standard extension cord. This allows me to us a regular extension cord to connect solar panels in the lawn or on the roof.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Groceries and church.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Ugg, have to think on that.

• 06:00 Up and sipp’n coffee.
• 07:00 Updating our grocery list
• 08:00 Watching over the shopper while reading FB.
• 09:00 Putting away Groceries and going for a walk.
• 11:00 Eat lunch and FB
• 12:00 Updating my blog and checking on Vacuum cleaner.
• 13:00 Nap time.
• 15:00 Up and portable fridge has been drawing a little more power each day? (Linear)
• 16:00 Box consolidation and Dinner
• 18:00 Writing in my blog.
• 19:00 Box consolidation and organizing.
• 21:00 End of the day.

Narrative: Portable refrigerator/freezer has been drawing right at 1KWH/Day for almost two months. Now, for whatever reason, it has gradually increased to 1.1KWH per day. I put the Kill-O-Watt meter back on the unit to verify that the power measured by the electronic outlet is accurate. According to the manufacturer the freezer can draw more power if it is overfilled. The intake air Vent did have some fuzz on it that I cleaned off with some packing tape.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Negotiate installing battery cable on Mom’s golf cart.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Get organized, participate in zoom church service

• 06:00 Sipp’n coffee and writing in my Blog.
• 07:00 Getting organized
• 08:00 Called mom to discuss the sandbox.
• 09:00 Get ready for church
• 11:00 Lunch
• 12:00 Playing with the solar panels
  • Nap time
• 14:00 Watched the end of battle of the bulge with the wife.
• 15:00 Rewired a solar charge controller for 48V
  • Worked on the sandbox design.

Narrative: My mom had a shelter that was originally a sandbox. It was just about perfect for what I am trying to do, except it was in the shade.

The craftsmanship was pretty bad, but this shelter withstood hurricanes and weather for over 30 years. I took several pictures of the structure in hopes of rebuilding it. After playing with the design for several hours I figured out how the size came to be. He started with the roof, it’s in 2′ increments with sheets of particle board.

As you can tell it is two sheets of plywood per side. One sheet is ripped down the middle with a 2’x2′ section cut out of one piece.

The original design had a 2′ rise over 6′ distance which is an awfully large amount of stress on the truss with no vertical support in the center. I want to add 200 Lbs of solar panels and I want the angle to be equal to the latitude of Ocala which is 29 deg.

Given c=6 and ∠α=29°,a = 2.90886b = 5.24772∠β = 61° = 1.06465 radh = 2.54414area = 7.63243perimeter = 14.15658inradius = 1.07829circumradius = 3

Raising the center will greatly reduce the stresses and give us the proper angle for the 600Watts of solar panels.

Need an unshaded area near the house. Trouble is all the trees are huge! The golf cart has 80AH at 48V ~4KW which is a tremendous amount of stored power. 600W of solar panels producing 3KW/Day is also a lot of power. (Enough for a small refrigerator.) But certainly enough to charge their phones and watch some TV.

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Work on the homestead and get ready for church tomorrow.

• 08:00 Up and Sipp’n coffee.
• 09:00 Connected a Solar Charge Controller on the East Panel.
  • 50W from the East facing panel. (Pictured below.)
• 10:00 Making plans to drive to Monroe
• 11:00 Drive to Monroe
• 12:00 Home checking the SCC, 60W from a 100W panel.
  • Need to change connection to West Panel…
  • Nap Time.
• 14:00 Changed solar Charge Controller to West Panel
  • Both panels produced about the same amount of power 50-60W with noon sun.
• 15:00 Wrote draft of communion
• 16:00 Talking to mom

Narrative: Spent a great deal of time putting two 100W solar panels across the ridge of the homestead. I have about 10 panels that are being held in the garage to deploy onto the roof if things really hit the fan. What I hadn’t actually tried was to deploy those panels on the roof. My mom has a brand new roof, so I started with a temporary ridge install of two panels. I found some flashing materiel that I fabricated two straps to cross the ridge shingles. There are better materials, but I didn’t want to risk driving to Lowes. I secured the two panels with cement blocks sitting on a door mat.

I ran into two problems, the first was that the roof over my bedroom was two different pitches! The side towards the garage is so steep you cannot stand on it. (I’ve lived here for 30 years and never noticed they were different.) The second problem is that the blocks allow a large amount of vertical movement of the panel. Hopefully they don’t bounce on the roof before I can secure them a little better. The best idea at present is to lay the bock on a flat/stiff piece metal that is bolted to the panel. (The wind would have to lift the block from the surface to move the panel.)

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Sunday, Zoom Service.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies

Plans: Keep organizing and cleaning.

• 07:00 Rise and Shine
• 08:00 Breakfast and news. (Tropical storm off Florida)
• 09:00 Cleaning, Organizing
• 10:00 Put away groceries
• 12:00 Talk to mom and check the lawns.
• 13:00 Shower and Nap Time
• 15:30 Reading and writing in my blog.

• Mom’s Bug-Out needs:
• 6 Gallons of Water for herself (Not animals.)
• Big bag for clothes and
• Small bag for medicine and diapers.
• Battery charger for phone
• Solar charger for battery charger
• Shelf stable food. (Anchovies?)

Narrative: Ever since I cleaned the condenser coils under the kitchen fridge the power has been a little less. A more dramatic difference seems to be that the power drawn now varies considerably with type of use (loading groceries and consuming ice.)

Tomorrow: Saturday, should be a nice day

Feelings:

• Prayer List:
• God
  • That we remember and share about the love of Christ as we go.
  • That we would love God’s word and apply it to our daily life.
  • That we would desire Christ to be in our lives above all else.
  • That God would show us the idols of our heart.
  • That we would be quick to repent.
  • We compare every thought about ourselves against the love Christ has for us.
  • That we would love others like Christ has loved us.
  • That we would number our days and be grateful for every one of them.
• Personal traits/needs
  • Humility
  • Wisdom, Memory, Organization
  • Turning away from Sin
  • Health
  • Strength/Stamina
  • Talents
• Family members
• Family Group
• Church members
• Church leaders
• Government leadership
• Friends and neighbors
• Pandemic
  • Those who have fallen ill.
  • Those who are vulnerable
  • The young and strong among us unwittingly spreading the disease.
  • Give the Government leadership wisdom and a pervasive voice.
  • Give the Scientists the wisdom and talents to produce a vaccine.
  • Comfort the Front line Health Care workers and keep them safe.
• Social network providers to maintain control over their platforms.
  • Disinformation
  • Spreading of Hate and discourse
  • Rebelling against the Government
  • Promoting taking up arms to display anger/frustration.
• Those who serve us.
  • Health care providers
  • Instacart, DoorDash
• Sharing the Gospel with others.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Cleaning and organizing.

• 07:00 Get up and sip on some coffee.
• 08:00 Resolving yesterday’s issues.
• 09:00 Clearing paperwork piles.
• 10:00 Cleaning Livingroom piles.
• 12:30 Chili’s for lunch
• 13:00 Trying to find 3A PTC, they were terribly cheap!
• 14:00 Nap
• 16:00 Reading the news
• 18:00 Watched the invisible man.

Narrative: We have a lot of low power things that run 24/7 and I thought i’d use my two 100W solar panels on the roof to power something during the day. The routers on my desk draw roughly 300W so I thought I’d run the solar panels in parallel with a good 28V power supply to power them.

After I connected all the pieces together and ran it for a day I realized that the losses of the power supply and the Inverter wasted all of the solar energy I was trying to harness. I needed something < 175W that can be powered entirely by solar during the day with a power supply backup for clouds etc.. During the night, a relay would switch the over to the Utility company to eliminate the losses of the double conversion. Our 43″ TV is currently being powered by this setup.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Friday, my last pay day.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Working a McGyver project on mom’s golf cart along with cleaning up loose ends in the homestead and church tonight.

• 08:00 Got up and sipp’n a cup of coffee while building a shopping list.
• 09:00 Help shopper and help putting away groceries
• 10:00 Planning…
• 11:00 Social planning
• 12:00 Cleaning,
• 13:00 Vacuuming
• 14:00 NAP
• 15:00 Chasing messages.
• 19:30 Church

Narrative: I was “Volunteered” to transport a friend to the hospital next week and it totally caught me off guard. We’ve been so careful to stay “sheltered” since we’re over 65 and now we throw that to the wind not only to transport but to expose ourselves to everyone he was in contact with in the hospital on the trip home.

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Figure out how to best help mom.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Put away groceries and take a walk.

• 07:00 Get up, have coffee, read the paper.
• Changed out portable battery connectors from Red/Blk to Pnk/Blu.
• Change UPS connector from Pur/Blk to Pur/Blu.
• Labeled all ten portable 20AH Deep cycle battery packs.
• Installed Red/Blk connectors on new DC power meters.
• Checked bathroom sink drain.
• Dishcharge test on two portable batteries (2 Yrs Old)
• 10:00 Walked around the block
• Attempted to run Inverter on Club Car charging port, OBC disconnected it.
• Left a message with Golf Car service center to get an SB-50 pigtail installed.

Narrative: All that tests that I’ve done with the 48V Inverter have gone very well. Other than just being HUGE, it’s very efficient and continues to run without fault.

In the homestead I have three prominent voltages, maybe four. When I built the 56V battery bank and accidently connected it to the 28V bus destroying a 12V regulator, I knew that I needed to color code the voltage on the wires. The first is a regulated 12V (Red/Black), then I also have a battery voltage of 14.2 (Pink/Blue). There’s 24VDC Orange/Black also unregulated battery voltage 28V (Orange/Blue). For the 56V unregulated voltage for the UPS I’m using (Purple/Blue), I don’t have a regulated 48 volts anywhere (Purple/Black). Two solar panels in series is Yellow/Black. AC voltages are Grey/Grey.

If you were wondering how I came up with that color code it was a long road. When I decided to run a DC line to every room in 2012 I was thinking low power with solar backup. (CPAP and emergency lighting.) I bought two 500′ rolls of Red/Black wire and ran them across the attic to every room from the garage. At that time I only figured on using 12V, so the connectors on the homestead were red/black just like the wires. The NEC by the way says that Black is a “HOT’ wire above ground and that I should have used a “White” wire instead. The plan is to run a white wire in addition to the Red/Black ones to satisfy the requirement. (+12 Red, Return White, -12 Black ) which supports all the requirements of the homestead with those three colors. (I don’t foresee running 56V across the house.)

The CPAP didn’t like the voltage drop at 6A @ 12V so I needed to push 24V for that purpose which used the same Red/Black wires. Very little in the homestead cared whether it was 12V or 24V so it didn’t matter the wires stayed the same color. When I added the solar panels I really needed to separate the 42V from the DC distribution and the color code was started with Yellow/Black. I had to buy a significant amount of connectors to interconnect the batteries and power distribution. Pink/Blue arose out of having 14.2V portable battery banks that needed a separate charging circuit. The homestead had a pair of power supplies that used the 14.2V (Pink/Blue) and regulated it down to 12V (Red/Black) It also has a pair of power supplies that regulate the 28.2V (Orange/Blue) down to 24V (Orange/Black) When I bought the 1500VA 56V UPS units I needed a third color which became purple/blue. (Blue being battery at this point and black being a regulated return.)

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep repairing / improving on the house.

• 05:00 Writing in my blog.
• 06:00 Connected new cable on Inverter, run test.
• 07:00 Looking for a 28V power supply.
• 08:00 Called mom, groceries are being shopped.
• 09:00 Shower and Nap time
• 11:00 Up
• 12:00 Walked around the block
• 13:00 Planning time
• 14:00 Organizing, inverter still running, Club Car cable is out for delivery.
• 15:00 Nap #2
• 16:00 Repairing TV
• 17:00 Dinner, Soup and crackers
• 18:00 Watched a movie.

Narrative: Long emotional day today.

Ran the new Inverter ALL day on battery occasionally loading it to 300W, it never got warm and I didn’t hear the fans kick in either.

Outside lights that were on a timer are now on an Internet connected Outlet that has a schedule for Dusk to Dawn. Been working great but I am at the limit of the 2A power supply. (need to upgrade to 3A PS.)

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Celebrate Mother’s day and the Lord’s Communion.

• 07:00 Eat breakfast and celebrate Mother’s day.
• 08:00 Prepare for church today.
• 09:00 Shower and Call mom
• 10:00 Church
• 11:00 Build box for Inverter
• 12:00 Nap
• 13:00 News and FB in my Pajamas
• 14:00 Walked the house with a camera
  • 5 Tires for Ford Focus
  • rake
  • Aluminum bar for solar panel
• 15:00 Building 48V cable.
• 16:00 Dinner

Narrative: I’ve built a lot of projects over the years and there’s always something in the project that makes it difficult. For example, I wanted to have a backup power source for a refrigerator, that should be simple enough right? As it turns out (10 years later), it has a lot of variables and significant requirements.

The surge from the compressor starting was probably the largest hurdle to overcome. Inverters are pretty efficient within ranges of power. Less than 200W 12V is preferred, less than 1000W 24V (40Amps) and over 1KW 48 Volts. Keeping the four batteries evenly charged was also an issue which I solved with an equalizer. After weeks of searching I realized that the 32V Automobile fuses I’ve been using for years is not rated for the 56V on a 48V battery bank. In fact most fuses outside the Automotive type are not rated for a DC voltage at all. (3AG/3AB glass fuses) I ended up buying a high voltage fuse holder and ceramic cartridge fuses for the center bridge between the four batteries dividing the 48V battery bank into two 24V batteries. If a failure occurs across the bank, the ceramic fuse (Fast Acting 14A) will open the circuit. If a short happens within the bank then the 20A ATOF 32V automotive fuses will open the circuit.

Another problem that presented itself was trying to evenly charge 24 lead acid battery cells in series. Further, adjustable 48V power supplies over 150W that can reach 56V also are uncommon. I ended up with two 24V bench power supplies that are connected to charge 12 cells each of the 48V battery bank.

Its important that if a fuse opens that the 56V doesn’t appear across the 24V power supply! (Fire!) So each 24V power supply is across two batteries and the fast acting high voltage fuses are BETWEEN the two power supplies!

The last piece of engineering is running this refrigerator from a generator. Yes we could run the generator for 24Hrs a day, but the low power requirement of a fridge doesn’t justify running the engine all the time. A better solution is to run the fridge from a battery and charge the battery with Solar or a generator. My fridge needs about 2200WH/Day which is too little and too much. I have two 35AH 48V battery banks for the fridge, that’s 3360WH of storage for the homestead. The ideal charge current is 1/10C or 7 Amps which would take almost 12 hours to charge them up. 80% can be reached at 6 hours or less. If we size the generator to the load (100% load is most efficient) 7 Amps @ 56V is 400W and the generator should be able to run 7 hours at that power. My five 860VA generators can support 400W for about 5 hours on .4 gallons of gasoline.

Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To