The eve of a new Year

The last day of 2013 is a good time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the new one.  It does seem like the years keep moving along at a faster rate, or is that because we always seem to be in a hurry?  

Sunset over the snow dragon and farm fields.

This past year has seen a new wind turbine installed and running, 3x more solar collecting capabilities and so far, siding that hasn't come loose yet.  However, thinking back to last year at this time, I was dreaming of building a dock on the pond so that we wouldn't have to walk through mud to get to the water, landscaping and planning a patio area and finishing the landscaping on the west side of the house which is what one sees as they first drive in.  It's looking pretty plain yet.  None of those things were even begun.  I had expected to replace the storage batteries, but it looks like with the new solar panels, that can be put off awhile longer.  On sunny days, the batteries are getting fully charged which will help maintain them.  One thing that I'm not very good at is equalizing them often enough (very rarely, if that).  

Plans for 2014?  Air conditioning!!  With the increased solar capabilities, there should be enough power to run a small air conditioner on sunny days to at least eliminate the humidity inside.  The house is very energy efficient, with the inside temperature reaching 85 degrees on the third floor during the hottest days last summer.  This high temperature was usually after numerous days of high heat.  An air conditioning unit would make sleeping a bit more bearable.  Oh, the modern conveniences!!

I can still hope to get the patio worked out and maybe even a concrete driveway pad, and the dock.  But in my world, expect the unexpected.  Who knows what will come up.  I also need to work on another heating source.  There will be excess energy in the summer so setting up an electric water heater as a dump load could heat the domestic hot water.  But is there a way to set this up to also heat the floors?  Would an electric water heater be enough with the capacity of the floor tubing?  And the other question, since I don't need the heated floors in the summer, would there be too much heat energy for the limited hot water that I use in the summer?  Since there would be no temperature gauge on the water, instead the dump load device would turn it on and off.  Why are things always so complicated?

Sunrise on a new year!

Wishing you a great 2014.

Christmas 2013

The second annual snowshoe to Christmas dinner.  Does life get much better than that?  This year my 11 year old niece decided to join in on the fun.  It wasn't a sunny day, but the temperature was around 20 degrees with little wind.  It was a pleasant jaunt until the last mile through the open cornfields and it began to snow - really snow, blowing in our faces.  According to Google Earth, the trip was 2.83 miles one way.  Nothing like a little exercise before a big dinner!  

Luckily, we had a ride back.  The snow continued throughout the evening and put down another few inches with the wind blowing some small drifts.  The driveway was cleared yesterday and has proven passable to two wheel drive vehicles now.  How long will this last?

And my Christmas present?      A log splitter.  I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I've seen it demonstrated.  Nothing like manual labor to keep one's fingers and toes warm on a winter's day.

 

First day of winter 2013

The previously mentioned snow "storm" was overrated.  The first real storm of this winter began last night.  5+ inches of snow.  I did my morning routine of brushing off the solar panels.  I was hoping for a little sun today and it did finally show it's face this afternoon.  There were three solid days of thick cloud cover and no wind.  The batteries made it through the first day and night of clouds.  But by the evening of the second day I had to run the generator to charge them back up and again the following evening.

The driveway is filled with snow so my vehicles won't be leaving today.  The wind was supposed to pick up (more power) but it doesn't appear to have done so.  :(. Although, all of this snow and no wind would better my chances of getting the drive cleared and me free to go as I desire.  However, wind would supply me with more power...always the dilemma.  But, the temperature is supposed to drop and so the man with the blade and tractor is in no hurry to come out and play in the snow with its layer of ice underneath.  The bright side, and it is bright, the colder temperatures usually mean sun.  And there was sun.

More good news, the wood pile seems to be doing ok.  If I figure one row a month, there are two rows left which should be January and February.   Yes, I know there are a few more weeks in December, but there are still some logs yet to be cut and split that I didn't get to last year.

A New Life

Life with power how amazing you are!  I have been able to run the dishwasher, clothes washer on sunny days during the week, and watch tv at night with the outdoor stove on and power to spare!  This must be how most people live...  I can even watch some tv at night on cloudy days.  Amazing!

First though, I needed heat.  I called the stove guy and he said the motor of the pump on the wood boiler has probably gone bad and it needs to be replaced.  I reminded him that I had a couple spare pumps since I replaced two with a larger pump.  Then I remembered that I also had a spare rotor, for which pump I had no idea, but it was worth a try.  Replacing the rotor worked and now I have a working pump which will equal a warm house.  

I waited as long as I could, but when the inside house temperature was hovering around 58 degrees, I thought it was time to turn on the furnace.  The official start date this year was November 6, 2013.  My goal is always to make it until December 1st, but not this year. 

So far the wood pile appears to be holding its own.  I still have a few blocks of cherry to split from last year yet.  I have spent a weekend on clearing out a fenceline.  My dad's neighbor wants to bulldoze the trees in the fenceline, however this is where I've been getting my wood for the last couple of years.  I only had a couple of weekends to get the trees cut down (definitely not my specialty), clean up the logs and get them out of there.  I did call in help to cut the trees down, but otherwise most of the work I did on my own, and I was so glad when Monday morning rolled around and I could go back to my real job because my body needed a break!  Anyway, I haven't counted the trees I pulled out, over 20, but I do have about three left on the ground that I couldn't get out of there.  Now, I come to find out that the job probably won't get done until spring!  It would have been more enjoyable to do that work more leisurely than trying to accomplish it all in a few short days.  I have the rest of the winter to cut up those logs and move them to my woodpile for next years wood.

With the heat on, much more power, the winter seems easy to conquer...but there's always something.  Tonite we are receiving our first legitimate traffic slowing snow storm.  The panic begins...will I be able to make it out of my driveway in the morning?  Unfortunately, the man with the blade is not sure he can even get in his tractor.  He fractured a vertebrae a few weeks ago and is in a backbrace and on pain killers.  He never offered his truck (the old one of course), so I will have to wait until morning to see what Mother Nature has surprised me 

One step forward part 2

I finally found another off grid installer with experience (nope, not on the internet, but through an authorized dealer from Outback Power company).   I wanted him to come out and take a look at the system and explain how things work, what I really should be doing and why I don't have enough power on cloudy days - even though I hardly use any.  

He did stop by on August 1, 2013 to look over the system.  He felt the 900 watt turbine and 1kw solar array weren't large enough to power my house and so more solar was the answer. Before I knew it, I was installing 12- 250 watt solar panels adding to the 8-125 watt array.  

There was a lot of prep work, as we were constructing the pole and mount on our own.  The install date was November 2, 2013.   The new array looks gigantic compared to the original array.  Things went fairly well, except the listing of things that have to be fixed or replaced on the original system to meet code.  The initial installer didn't seem to follow any sort of code.  My list of to do's is never ending!

The new mega solar array!

The next day, November 3 was a beautiful sunny day.  The batteries were fully charged - FULLY- by 11am.  That's crazy.  The original system would never fully charge the batteries, even on a sunny day during the summer.  

But this brings its own set of "issues".  I am really good at not using power - especially at night.  Little power?  No problem!  I just go to bed and read by flashlight at 7pm.  Now, I will have an excess of power during the day - when I really don't need it because I am not home.  So it's got me thinking...  Can I run the dishwasher on a timer so it will begin its cycle around noon?  Same with the washing machine?  No more waiting weeks for a sunny weekend day to do laundry and no more washing dishes by hand!   Maybe I can even watch TV at night?

The complete system.

You might be saying to yourself, hey, this is all good, finally things have changed.  But alas, they haven't.  I decided that with this extra power, I can finally start the furnace - the outdoor wood boiler that heats the domestic hot water as well as the water in the heated floors.  It was a balmy 57 degrees on November 3 (inside the house!).  So, I started a fire and waited for the water to heat up.  Finally at 6pm the water temperature was at 170 degrees, but the tubes that carry the water from the stove into the utility room, weren't even warm.  I went outside to check the stove, it was still on.  I felt the pump and nearly burned my hand.  The pump was on, but it didn't seem to be moving any water.  Turn the stove off. Call the stove guy.  There's my two steps back! 

One step forward and two steps back

Work has been done!  
First off...the wind turbine.  The new turbine and controller were delivered in August.  BUT, (why is there always a but?)  The installer hadn't even ordered the pipe for the new pole.   Apparently the installer was just trying to appease me by delivering the system components.  You are probably beginning to wonder where I find these contractors?  The internet, of course.    This led to my boyfriend taking on the project of buying and constructing the pole, wiring in the new system and putting the windmill back up.  

Everything was ready, and the date was set for August 31 to "raise the windmill".  It was a tad bit breezy for the raising, but we took it slow, all things went according to plan and the new turbine was back in the air.  After congratulating ourselves we took a moment to ponder why it didn't seem to be spinning very much even though it seemed quite breezy.  We decided to sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.

We spent the evening perusing the literature and double checking the install to make sure everything was done correctly.  After much scratching of heads, we realized that the blades were on backwards!  The windmill would have to be lowered, blades switched and raised again.   Murphy's Law strikes again.  My philosophy is if you do something once, it is easier to forget than if you do it two or three more times.  We were getting really good at raising a windmill!  

How did it go up?  We used a pickup attached to the guy wires that lowers the gin pole as it pulls the windmill up.

Just to bring you up to speed, everything appeared to be fine for at least a month and then the lcd screen on the charge controller went blank and the windmill wasn't really turning.  Of course there was no warranty literature in the box.  I emailed the company in India and a dealer in Colorado.  (Apparently my new system had been ordered not solely by the Iowa dealer, but through another dealer in Colorado.)  The controller has been reset, but we are still in the process of running some tests to see if the controller is bad.  The company has assured me that they  will take care of this and the dealer in Colorado has been more than helpful.

Progress or lack there of...

Some people have asked when I am going to write something again.   Well, I've been waiting for something to write about.  Nothing has happened.  The windmill is still on the ground...My siding is still flapping in the wind - I really don't know how I will manage to be on a ladder on a sloping metal roof.  Maybe I have been avoiding that one.  But on the other hand, the windmill is progressing, somewhat...

Besides the fact that the original installer only made the comment that the thing on the ground was ugly, he did nothing to alleviate my issue.  Thanks!  I have found someone else who seems to know what he is doing and is convinced he can fix it.    Sounds simple enough, right?  Except when you add into the equation that the company that produced my Whisper 100 went under and sold their rights to a company in India.  So now it looks like we will be trying to order parts from India.  Oh wait, the Indian company only bought rights for the Whisper 200 and 500, not the 100.  A guy wants to buy the rights to the 100 and move the business to Iowa to begin producing this model, but he needs investors...  That didn't go through, so the order has been sent to India.  

Do you see what I mean about Murphy's law?  I am doomed in this life.

So, I guess progress has been made, but two months later and no visible progress.  

As for the siding, I did find extra pieces in the garage, but now to cut the angles and install.   Hmmmm, I'll think about it for another day, or two, or maybe three or more...  It's too hot now anyway, 90 degrees on a dark brown roof?  Crazy!

Murphy's Law

We had a lot of wind late this winter and I have been having issues with my siding coming loose at the angled roof - so, yes, the highest part.  Using various tool handles, I've been able to push it back in place until the next wind storm.  For the last three years I tell myself I should really nail, screw, or glue those loose corners into place, but I haven't.  And so one day I come home to this...

I'm upset because it's a minor inconvenience.  I have some siding left, but not an entire sheet that would replace this.  So not only do I have to buy a box of siding, but this particular piece is out of my reach unless I use a ladder on an already pitched roof.  I'm not too thrilled at this prospect.  

But like I mentioned, not a huge deal and I will figure it out one of these days, oh yeah, summer break!  And so life continues on.  I think things are going pretty well, since spring has been delayed I've been able to get more wood out of the fence rows.  I was feeling pretty good - this is the current wood pile.  I never have this much wood in May!  My wood pile doesn't usually look this full until August or September when I start cutting for the winter.  

Murphy's law:  If anything can go wrong, it will. Well, this is what I came home to...  This bites!

Not exactly sure what happened but my former wind turbine is now an arch.  You know it's not good when the installer says that is ugly and he needs to think about how to go about undoing it.  The worst part of this is, the installer probably will only offer some advice, if that.  It wouldn't be a big deal if I could call someone to repair it. The real issue is that I will have to fix it myself.  It involves a gin pole, couplings and guy wires and I will have to determine if the wind generator itself is damaged.  A cinch, right?
Sometimes I think that if I didn't have bad luck I would have no luck at all.  But this is a severe inconvenience not devastating, and it can be mended.  I must have some good luck.  I am healthy and so are my family and friends... That must be the Capricorn in me, just keep plodding along, up and down mountains.  Another project for summer break! 

Spring, when will you arrive?

Old Man Winter will you please pack your bags and head south?  I have spring things to do and it is way too cold and snowy to do them.  But the main reason, I am running out of dry wood for heat.  Since I don’t have a back-up heat source, I need the outside temperature to warm up.

But I did notice this huge log, I mean huge in girth log that I’m not sure when it was cut, so it must be dry wood, though at the moment it is frozen in place.  The girth is much larger than my saw blade.  I can only think of two options:  A) call someone who has a larger saw to cut this baby up, or B) try it myself.  

Well of course I was going to try it myself.  I wasn’t sure how it would work, but given the sunny afternoon but too cold and windy to prune, I gave myself a tank of gas to see what I could accomplish.  Let me restate that I really wasn’t sure how to tackle this, another item that should have been learned sometime – how to effectively use a chainsaw.

I didn't quite get a "before" shot, but this is pretty close.

Did I mention that it is a good sized piece of wood?  I finally figured out that using a combination of chainsaw, wedges and splitting maul, things progressed rather quickly.  

 

And this is all that remains for another day.

Not bad for a couple of hours of work.  This wood should last me another week.  Will the temperature finally warm up by then?

 

At least it has been sunny the last few days and extremely windy.  Loads of power!!