Things are going along in a nice green way. The van remains parked in the carport, and the truck in the garage. It has been all Honda with the nice cool, dry weather. I did finally repair the front tire on the e-scooter, and drove it to Panera today where I write this entry. I like to have some coffee, and watch the various people come through here while I write; it is much more interesting than sitting at home.
I have done better with my food lately too. There was some bacon at Ikea yesterday, and half of a chicken from Publix on Sunday night (the other half is for tonight), but other than that no meat. We went to the Siam Garden Restaurant on Friday night, and I had a nice red curry with tofu and veggies. It was yummy, and the tofu absorbed the delicious sauce nicely. Saturday was cheese pizza, and last night was a veggie plate at Cecil's Bar B Q. There are a lot of good vegetarian choices available, and I am trying to take advantage of them.
Power production from my solar and wind system has not been what I would hope it would be. I have been plugging the fridge into the grid at night because of lack of power. The batteries in my system are getting a bit older, and I will be testing each one today to see if there is a problem there. There is also some additional shade from the oak tree in the front yard. I had trimmed it way back about two years ago in an effort to save it, and it is doing very well. The added growth now present shades my solar panels for about 2 hours during the day. I may re-locate the panels to a more sun-drenched part of the roof, but that will be quite the project. The panels produce DC power, and the power must travel through large (6 gauge) wire to reach the batteries. If I move the panels, I will have to move the batteries to keep the wires short.
The big box on the roof which makes hot air seems to be doing fine. The temperature sensor in it often reads over 140 degrees even if there is not too much sun. It has been too warm to run the fan to heat the living room, and the internal temperatures in the box have been over 160 degrees. Maybe I can rig it to heat up my dinner!
 |
| This is where the cool air comes from the back of the box to be heated |
Grid power use for the past few days has been low. Since the meter was read, there have been six days. The number of KWh for those six days totals 7. This number includes two wash loads with one of those loads going into the dryer for about 20 minutes. I am trying to beat the records set last month and last April with a total number of kilowatt-hours under 60. So far, I am well on track to do this. As these records keep getting broken, it gets harder to improve from month to month and year to year. I am considering adding about 400 watts to my solar generating capacity, but this will cost some money. I will need two panels each costing $ 430.00, and I will need a second charge controller which is about $ 200.00. Should my quest for employment be successful, those improvements will be coming soon. Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment