Real Off Grid Energy and Life!

Off Grid refrigerator – updated

marshall (online) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:06:24 +0000

A while back we wrote about the performance of our refrigerator and presented the power details. However, one item was probably missing in the data. That is, how much power does that thing take when its summer?

I pulled out our trusty Kill-o-watt power monitor and set up the test a couple days ago, and began recording . Unfortunately, we are not in the middle of a hot spell which would raise the ambient temperature in in the kitchen to 80F or more. For this test I’d say the average temperature remained between 70-72F. This is better described as a middle temperature data point, but more information will always help others decide if this is right for them.

Here are the test conditions:

Frigidaire 18 cubic foot freezer/refrigerator (ice maker not used)
[ Label inside reads Electrolux model FRT18IL6JW1 ]
Measurement time of 39.5 hours. Timer has unit off 7hrs at night.
Power measured was 640 Watt Hours total. 115-130W when compressor running, 44W light when door open.
Test conditions: “Normal” family of 4, 2 adults, 2 teens. Kitchen temperature mostly 70-72F its a cool summer spell.
Primary power is the output from our Modified Sine Wave Inverter, a Trace DR2412.

The total power was 1470 WH, and that averages out to 893 WH per day. Compare that to 640 WH from the winter measurment and there seems to be a big difference. Still this number is far better that the 3120 WH per day with 100% duty cycle.

There are probably human factors involved here. I didn’t puppy guard the refrigerator door to “monitor” its use this time. That may have resulted in the door being open more. In fact, Jackie made a delicious pie yesterday using the leftover apples and fruit in the fridge. She was trying to clean out the fridge for next week when we’re gone mostly to the county fair with the kids 4H projects. Yep, that’s it. We’ll be back again on this one to get a better data point for comparison.

The lesson from this number is clear, don’t leave that fridge door open, you’re spilling power all over the floor!

Off Grid refrigerator – updated is a post from: Real off grid Living

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wood heat [4]: chainsaws

marshall (online) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:00:00 +0000

In the previous installment we went through tips on determining how much wood? This time we’ll talk about how all chainsaws are not the same.

When it comes to cutting firewood, the old way is not the best. Its hard on your back and arms using any kind of hand saw. Chainsaws are a wonderful tool for those who choose or must heat their home with wood. All chainsaws are not equal as we’ve found through experience over the years. It seems that we wasted, or overworked ourselves the first 5 or so years with my ignorance in this topic.

In our early experience, it took a long time to cut Fir and Spruce logs that were more than 6″ in diameter. This was probably due to two factors; the chain sharpness and the chainsaw type. Yes, I did know that the chain needed sharpening once and a while, it’s just that I never really mastered this skill. Looking back I’m sure that my attempts at sharpening did little to help.

We once had a former logger help with some drywall work. Joseph saw me pull out the trusty McCullough consumer chainsaw for sharpening. He offered to show me how while he sharpened the chain. The results were amazing! That saw went through wood better than when it was new. I was ever so careful to never hit dirt or anything that would wear that “edge” off the chain. Here is where I learned the real value of having a sharp tool to minimize the motor and my work when cutting wood.

consumer saws

The first few years we used 16″ and later 20″ consumer type saws. First was the McCullough and later a Poluan. No terrible complaints here, because I didn’t know any better. I suffered through slow cutting from consumer grade saws that spin my dull chain at slower speeds. (I thought this was what wood cutting was all about)

Professional saws

One day a friend from church Don, said that I might be interested in an older Stihl machine he saw in town in the pawn shop window. Don said he knew these machines well and offered to go in and negoiate on my behalf for a good deal. Sure, why not, time for a new one anyway. Little did I know Don used to run a small motor repair shop. We got this older Stihl 028 AV Super with electronic ignition.

Older but still great!

I’m far from a professional logger, but this little baby was the real deal when Don tuned it up and gave it to me. This would slice through 12-15″ fir logs like sliced bread. It was a totally different wood cutting experience. Apparently the chain speed rotating around the bar is about 2.5 times faster with the professional class machine. This chain speed and a sharpened chain work together to take this part of the wood cutting chore to a whole new level that I didn’t know about.

keep it sharp

There is a real art to getting the angles right when sharpening your chainsaw chain. I’ve gotten better at it over the years, but still lack decent results. I found it easy to keep two chains. I get them both machine sharpened to start out. Keep you saw from hitting dirt or anything other than wood if you want a sharp blade. At about $8 to sharpen each chain, I find that mastering the wood is more important than the chain.

Lesson

So the lesson I’ve learned about chainsaws is this: Don’t scrimp and get a professional class machine like a Stihl or Huskavarna over the consumer oriented McCullough or Poluan. It will pay off in time and money in the long run. Also, keep your chainsaw properly sharpened! A dull chain on a Stihl is like using my old McCullogh machine. Keep it out of the dirt too.

[safety note: Read all instructions carefully and if possible get some experienced help to learn the safe way to handle these powerful and potentially dangerous machines.}

What is your favorite chainsaw? What makes it a good fit you your use? Do you agree with my assessment? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments below!

wood heat [4]: chainsaws is a post from: Real off grid Living

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off grid life without a genverter?

marshall (online) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:17:52 +0000

With a site named genverters.com you’d think that this topic wouldn’t be covered very much. Really we promote starting with a genverter system and building it into your dream solar / wind power off grid solution. However, with our 11th year off the grid a series of events have me nearly living the alternative – generator only power! UUgh!

The two week absence from updating this site came about from two highly unusual lightning storms. These storms produced lightning that destroyed a busy mountaintop Internet site for our business. More strikes occurred there three days later causing additional damage. Unbelievably, the second storm hit our home/office. The destruction here for virtually all networked equipment is very unwelcome and inconvenient! (There will be followup on this topic, because with failure comes lessons worth learning.)

Vulnerable timing

This major life and business disruption had wonderful timing. I was busy shopping for a new battery bank and MPPT charger this month. Meanwhile the re-configured battery bank must have had a couple of cells go belly up. Our deep cycle battery bank barely stays at 12 Volts before plunging to 10 volts where it will operate for awhile. The inverters have an annoying and constant low voltage warning beep at 10V and the inverter shuts off around 9.5V.

No time for shopping, I’ve been busy spending business money replacing damaged equipment. Our power cost has skyrocketed with 8 to 14 hours a day of generator time! If I ever wanted to try a generator-only simulation this would be it. I have to confess that even in this extreme situation we have 4 or more hours at a time of peace and quiet from the dead deep cycle batteries

Generator only dis-advantages

Let me count the ways I don’t like this situation. (Remember this comes from folks who have been using a solar/genverter system for years.)

Constant Noise! The noise comes from the generator running early in the morning. Jackie hates it because I up a couple hours earlier than her. Even if we make it through the night without inverter beeping, I can’ make my espresso in the morning on battery power. Have to start the generator for coffee, just like a generator-only off grid person!!
The generator we’re using is not very loud mind you, but this is a place that is normally so quiet that we can hear the low rumble of a car approaching from a third of a mile away, and this is when we are in the house! Now add the constant drone of virtually any generator and you understand our love for the noise.
Long Hours. We do have a home office now, and must have power one way or another.
Generator wear. I purchased a small 3.5KW Chinese gas generator last month to cover the transition time this summer/fall. The hundreds of hours will consume this $350 unit in 4 or 5 months at this rate. The starter rope has been replaced twice in the last 8 weeks!
.
Cost of operation. Consider the cost of consuming a cheep generator in addition to the fuel. We are forever coming home with one or two 5 gallon cans of gas. I’d estimate we go through $35 of gas each week.

yup, thats me the dumb guy standing around ripping up dollar bills and listening to the ‘music’ of the generator! If you didn’t notice, I just love the Generator-Only lifestyle! I really enjoy efficiency of this power when the family watches a movie or dvd using a hundred watts of the 3500 from the generator!!

Genverter dis-advantages

Nooo! Don’t tell me there are disadvantages to a genverter. Say it ain’t so! Well yes, I’m going to spill the beans here. There is a genuine disadvantage to operating a genverter: you have to monitor the charging and shut off the generator once and a while!

With the Generator-only system it is simple. Start the generator, and run it until the $$ runs out. If you need more power, add $$, rinse and repeat! Oops, I forgot, you will need to make occasional trips to convert $$ into fuel!

This rant is brought to you courtesy of Marshall, one tired, grumpy off grid camper who still wouldn’t trade it in for the urban world.

Does this describe your off grid power situation? Wouldn’t you like some peace and quiet? Save some fuel, maybe even help the earth somewhat? Thats the purpose of this site, to show you how. Sign up for the email list. Stick around awhile, learn a little, ask questions and leave your comments below now!!

off grid life without a genverter? is a post from: Real off grid Living

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lightning is beautiful and bad!

marshall (online) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:17:54 +0000

Have you ever seen some of thos spectacular lightning bolt pictures in books? Ever just watched a powerful lighning storm a night. I it is awe inspiring at a distance as a spectator, and terrifying if its too close. If you live in a lighting prone area, its best to study up and know about proper grounding and basic protections you can add to your off grid building projects.

Yesterday afternoon, July 31st will be burned in my memory as I prepare for a large, high pressure technical task. Lightning struck the top of the hill with my Internet service tower. Not just any of the 14 or so locations, but one of the big three. According to a nearby resident lightning struck the top of the hill, and some of their appliances now don’t work.

This is the kind of situation that tests your backup plans to the maximum. As it turns out we all live by faith. Faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, that the lights and Internet will work, and in my case – that lightning WON’T strike my towers! Well 7 plus years, and now its crunch time.

No matter how well I protect these sites with proper grounding, there is simply no way to put a small computer board on a tower and completely protect it from a nearby or direct lightning event! The short electromagnetic pulse from a 100,000 volt strike is so large, that electronic devices just don’t survive well.

How are your backup plans going? Backups for data, for power, for anything important you rely on? Have you tested, or have these backups been tested recently? Tell us about your thoughts in the comment section below!

lightning is beautiful and bad! is a post from: Real off grid Living

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Tribute to the lost worms

marshall (online) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:34:09 +0000

In another post we shared our not so successful composting attempt in 1,000 worms can’t be wrong. Now as a tribute to our fallen little workers, I thought it would be appropriate to review what compost is, and one of the faster ways to create it for your garden and plants.

Compost, why?

Basically, compost is just organic waste material which breaks down due to the decomposition process. It gets converted to a dark mixture, which is almost crumbly. Vegetable and fruit plants love organic compost; it’s a great food for them. Compost is very healthy for your organic gardening.

In fact, most gardeners call it black gold. Making compost at your home is a great idea. You can get very good organic fertilizer out of it. Composting will help you save money by processing wastes into organic fertilizer. Aside from saving money, you are also doing a favor for the environment.

To make compost you will need the following: kitchen wastes, corncobs, hay or straw, eggshells (finely crushed), remains of tea leaves, fruits peelings & vegetable peelings, chopped branches and leaves, grass clippings from your lawn, and cut up paper. These organic wastes are perfect components to make a very nutritious organic fertilizer.

Accelerate the process with a compost tumbler

If you try to use a plain old compost pile like I did, It will take the better part of a season to generate a good quantity of “black gold” for your garden. It appears that the smaller, and more active process of using a compost tumbler can produce a nice well mixed load in a couple weeks.

Buying a ready made compost tumbler can be costly affair; you may want to make your own compost tumbler. The best thing about this is that making a compost tumbler is not as hard as it seems and can be easily built using knick knacks that you have around your house. Here are a few steps on how to build a compost tumbler:

horizontal variety

Gather all the materials, tools and equipments that you will need. These materials include the following: a plastic drum (anything between 25 and 50 gallons should do), a PVC or galvanized steel pipe that will be used as an axle, wooden planks to build a saw buck that will be used to support the compost barrel, a drill, bolts, nails, saw, hinges, washers, and basic hand tools like a hammer, measuring tape etc.

Step 1: The first thing that you will do is drill two holes. One will be at the top and one at the bottom of the compost barrel through which to insert the pipe that will be used as an axle. You can also drill the hole in the center of the body of the barrel (horizontal sides instead of vertical).

Step 2: Then, build a frame (also known as the compost turner) that will be used to rotate the compost barrel. The frame can either be x-shaped or vertical.

Step 3: Once the frame is in place, use the pipes to balance the compost tumbler on the wooden frame. The compost tumbler should be able to rotate freely once mounted on the frame. You have to make sure this will turn, otherwise adjustments should be made.

Step 4: Drill several evenly spaced one inch holes throughout the body of the compost tumbler. This will aid aeration, which is vital if decomposition to take place.

Step 5: Create a door through which waste materials can be inserted into the tumbler. You can do this by cutting a square piece of material from one surface of the barrel and attaching this back to the barrel with the help of hinges.

Step 6: This step is optional. If the drum is already dark then you do not have to color it with a darker shade. You can only do this if the drum’s color is light. Dark colors, especially black, are the best because they will absorb heat which will help maintain a high temperature in the compost.

Here are a couple pictures of another, vertical tumbler made from a trash barrel. The lid is bolted on before tumbling!

Vertical tumbler variety, note wood blocks attached to sides to strengthen pivot point.

make sure lid bolts are snug

This was just a basic explanation of the various steps involved in building a compost tumbler. Now you’re ready to make your compost for your organic gardening!

For the “green thumbed” folks out there, how do you make your best compost? Do you think adding a dozen earthworms might help this process too? Would this work at all in the winter? Chime in and tell us what you think in the comments below!

Tribute to the lost worms is a post from: Real off grid Living

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Low power LED lighting

marshall (online) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:20:50 +0000

[Welcome to Arild as our first guest post! If you are interested in adding your original content on genverters.com, just email and I'll get you the details - M]

Along with Solar power; LED have been getting a lot of media attention lately.

The good points about LED are: very low current consumption compared to any other light source with a few exceptions we will deal with later.

The old complaint of color quality have largely been solved. Early white LED were admittedly not so great compared to a halogen light or fluorescent. They tended to be dimmer .

Recent developments in camping lights, flashlights, and even hand cranked battery-less flashlights offer off-grid users plenty of choices.

One downside to using these as permanent lights in an off-grid solar home would be the need to run DC wiring. Although LED does use less current, practical consideration and mechanical fitness suggest a wire size no smaller than 16 Ga be used. Since this is not a normal household wire size you end up going with more expensive automotive, RV or marine wiring products. This tends to increase installation costs.

There are a number of applications where LED make perfect sense. Outdoor safety / security lights that have a solar panel for recharging and a pair of high intensity LED with a motion detector added. Make a great installation for an out building not normally wired. LED stair lights draw so little you can safely let them run overnight without killing your battery.

If your have a recently built solar house chances are good the system is run from an inverter and conventional home wiring is used throughout the building. This makes it easier to get inspector approval and thus make any mortgage holder happy. Conventional house wiring is a known factor to many people besides residential electricians and equipment is available in most local hardware stores .

My suggestions for using LED throughout a solar house is to distribute the power from an inverter by way if the 120V wring which lowers line losses for a given wattage then use a step down transformer at point of use to provide 12V to the LED lighting. This is the preferred approach for almost all systems including the new home LED lights now being sold in electrical supply companies.

In the past month I have seen six different suppliers with LED lights on display in their showroom or sales counter.

If you have an older home and are converting to solar and want LED for power saving the same applies.

In a nutshell the solar panels charge a battery bank. An inverter pulls power from this battery bank and converts it to 120V AC .

The biggest issue is how to deal with the conventional split phase arrangement but this is beyond the scope of LED Lighting. Wait for a future article.

Ever wish you could use all those nifty camping LED lights but power it from the battery bank in your solar home?

Battery powered portable LED lights use 2 or 4 alkaline AA cells. Each cell is 1.5V so these devices use 3 or 6 volts which is not compatible with the 12V or greater voltages in your solar house.

AS I rummaged through a collection of power cubes at a garage sale the solution dawned on me. Most cell phones, IPods and what have you have chargers designed to deliver 4.5 -5 volts or sometimes 6 V Some of the newer ones I have seen deliver 3.6V Perfect for powering these portable LED lights.

If your solar home is already distributing 120V AC to parts of the house its easy to install one of these cell phone chargers and wire the LED light to the charger output wires. Just pay attention to polarity.

If you need an inverter a 300 watt inverter is around $30 or less. That is plenty to power a whole bunch of LED lights.

——————–

About The Author, Arild Jensen

Built wind generator controls back in 1978 and have been interested in
alternative power ever since. Met a wife 10 years ago who grew up on an
off-grid homestead . We are now living in a high latitude ( 53’ 30” North)
area where some people still live off grid to this day. Spent last ten
years designing electrical system for off grid applications.

Want to explore alternative fuels for generators and also micro hydro
power development. There are in fact several alternatives to oil even in
high latitudes where solar is not always effective during the six months of
cold winter.

——————

Do you use LED lighting in your home? Do you have suggestions on how to make it work well? Tell us in the comments below!

Low power LED lighting is a post from: Real off grid Living

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safety, overreactions, and the bonus staple [1]

marshall (online) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Doh! hate when that happens

Off grid, or at work, its always important to be conscious of your safety in whatever activity you do. You must watch out for the rationalizations and shortcuts, because eventually you will get bitten! What happened to me this week is a prime example of how a short two hour task can turn into a six hour ordeal.

I was working in the field preparing to setup a new customer’s Internet service. I did the usual pre-install walk around with the customer to determine their needs, and to select the best location for the outdoor equipment and where to run Ethernet cables. This one should be easy I thought, I only have to mount equipment on the edge of their deck and run the cable under it and through one wall.

First I had to mount a bracket on the edge of the deck. Then run a cable and add ends to it. Finally, mount the outdoor equipment and move inside to finish up the computer work with my favorite Netbook.

A similar deck

I’d have to get out my telescoping ladder since it was about eight and a half feet over the concrete around the pool.

telescoping ladder

A quick note, about my ladder. I’ve had it nearly 3 years and it was a great choice for this kind of work. The ladder could be extended 14 feet, yet would collapse into something about 2.5 feet tall. The trade off I made was to spend more on this ladder and not spend anything on a roof rack for the rig. The ladder worked well, but had lost some of the internal plastic parts over the years. This meant that it would collapse to 3.5 feet, and often times you’d have to work with it a little because the left side of the third rung would not lock. When extended, I’d have to compensate how it would lean against walls because it had a left leaning curve to it. [About here is where the reader will get a whiff of 'rationalization' odor! ]

This ladder had to be handled just right, but I thought it was safe. Never mind that I would never let an employee use such a ladder. I “knew” how to work around this ladder’s unique limitations. The hazard was getting its footing just right to compensate for the left leaning.

Back to the install. Everything went well with the mounting bracket, but when I had to reposition the ladder a few times to staple down the cable …

===== Boom! Crash! Darn! =====

I stepped onto that third step instead of skipping it. The rung gave way and I quickly ended up on my rump with my legs through the ladder. AsI caught myself on the way down, I bumped my head in a grazing fashion across one of the drywall covered poles supporting the deck. Oops! looked like I had a little blood from my head scrape. I sat there for a good minute to make sure everything was OK.

Watch out for that third step!

Stood up, not dizzy or light headed, all seems good, except for the blood. I held a little pressure on it and it seemed that everything would be ok in a few minutes. That was until the woman getting new service came out. Umm let me think of a polite way to describe this… she freaked out. Why? Because blood ran down my neck and under my shirt in the front making a startling sight. [darn, there goes another work shirt.]

excited reactions

“Call 911! Call 911!, we need to get you an ambulance!”, she yelled. Are you dizzy? Sit down, let me get some ice while the ambulance comes. I tried to reassure her that this was minor and the blood had stopped. She wasn’t buying it. My next attempt to calm her was to tell that the ambulance will cost $850 just for them to start the motor. “Ohh, Here, let me drive you to the hospital.” she said.

Ok, time for the last ditch try. “Let me call my wife, she can be here shortly, and she is a Vet – Tech who has lots of experience stitching up animals!” , I said. So I called Jackie and began to explain the “situation” when the customer firmly grabbed the phone to talk. (I think she was expecting me to pass out any second.) Of course now Jackie would get an inflated view from my overreacting customer, Mary!

[In Mary's defense I must add a note here. She had recently had he son knocked unconcious snowboarding who had many stiches to patch up. ]

It took about 30 anxious minutes until Jackie arrived. Meanwhile, I walked around with ice on my head looking to see if there was a ladder in their garage that I could use to finish the install. This whole thing was just a stupid delay that I wanted to move past and get the job done. During the wait, Mary had called her husband about the situation. She also called her son who had completed his EMT training. She did an informal evaluation of me based on his questions ( still thinking I might drop any second ? ).

Jackie to the rescue

Jacqueline

Jackie arrived with the kids. Finally, some sanity to the situation. After introductions, Jackie was

relieved to see me in one piece. I asked if they had a ladder. Unfortunately Mary’s husband had their ladder at the shop, so there was no way for me to complete the install that day. There was some concern that we have two vehicles and that I shouldn’t drive. Fortunately, I only needed to be a passenger, since my son has learners permit for driving.

It seemed like I’d never get out of that situation, and finally I relaxed while Eric drove home. He turned onto the dirt road and immediately pulled over and parked. I said what’s up? He meekly said, “I’m only doing what mom told me to do.” “What? Lets just go home, its only 4 miles up the road and I’m tired.”, I said. Just then Jackie pulled up with the other vehicle and motioned for me to get in.

[ Stay tuned for part two, where Marshall gets to P-A-Y for his ladder safety rationalizations!]

Feel free to add your comments below!

safety, overreactions, and the bonus staple [1] is a post from: Real off grid Living

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solar charge controller selected

marshall (online) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:04:14 +0000

Purchasing the right solar charge controller is an important decision for your power system. The right choice will be flexible and grow as you add solar panels and other components. As I mentioned in a previous post about MPPT charging, this is the most flexible choice.

I’ve looked over two popular MPPT charge controllers from Outback and Xantrex. Next month I think I’ll select the Xantrex XW MPPT 60 amp controller. Yes it costs more, but it will produce slightly more power from the exact same solar panel array. Here are my reasons for the MPPT style choice, and for the Xantrex unit:

Flexible input voltage. This gives me a chance to re-wire my panels into a higher voltage configuration. Now instead of 12V, we can have 20-60Vdc and have even less power loss through the wiring from the array. (more power reason 1: less power lost in wires)
Efficient power conversion with the Maximum Power Point Transfer technology. The Xantrex unit does not disconnect the array to run its MPPT sweep, so it can respond quickly to passing clouds.
Ability to use newer panels. We won’t have to throw away extra power from newer large panels because the array voltage is too low.
Flexible future battery bank voltage. I’ll still wire up the battery bank for 12V because I’m not changing the inverters yet. However, when I do we can reconfigure the battery bank to a higher voltage like 24 – 48 volts and still charge the batteries with the new charger

One thing that you may notice when you read the Xantrex XW MPPT charge controller manual is that this baby has plenty of features. So many that the initial read can be intimidating. Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll go through the highlights of setting it up.

As I looked it over, the unit has a “boost” mode for charging. Thats really good news for off grid use with lead acid deep cycle batteries. It does a mini equalization charge each time it goes into the lighter absorption mode charging. This 1 hour “pulse” as it were helps prevent sulfation of the batteries in off grid use.

What do you think? Will the MPPT charger deliver on what I’m hoping? Share your thoughts and experience below in the comments!

solar charge controller selected is a post from: Real off grid Living

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what works: tall grass, brush, and no tractor

marshall (online) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Fire 12 miles away

The extra wet spring has given way to hot dry and windy weather around here. Last week a major fire that consumed 20,000 acres or more started last week, and now is the time to get serious about clearing the brush and grass around the ranch!

Tractor Dreams…

The easiest solution for clearing a few acres would be some kind of tractor pulling a brush hog or something. When we purchased the property, we just had enough money for it and some solar power. The third big item would be a tractor. Tractors are very useful when you have 10, 20, or more acres. There is always a chore that this machine can help with. A hydraulic bucket on front and some extra implements would fit the bill. If you find a good deal, it’ll take $5,000 for something useful. If you can start on your new property with a working used tractor, I highly recommend it!

Ok,, back to cutting the “grass” or fire break for the season. Renting a tractor and equipment would be three or four hundred dollars to get the job done. Not going to happen when saving for new battery bank.

Rock Mowers

In past years I managed purchase old used, beat up lawn mowers for $10-$20 from a repair shop. They kind of worked, but wouldn’t get very close to buildings and obstructions. I’d wear heavy clothes, and make sure no one was around because often times rocks and other objects would be lunched 20 feet away! Just didn’t feel comfortable or very safe with this strategy. A down side of this method was the unintended collection of junk mowers that I eventually paid a second time for, that was at the dump.

Weed Wackers

In this phase that lasted 2 or 3 years, I purchased cheap string trimmers. We tried several different kinds of cord and various blade attachments. These units, like Homelite and others, were $60-$90 and never lasted more than 15 months. Basically, these machines were for “home” use, and I would use them two times for a total of about 15 or 16 hours run time. They just didn’t hold up. (neither did I!)

Stihl Motor end

Real Machine, Stihl

Finally, about 4 years ago, I purchased a high quality trimmer made by Stihl. I had really a good experience with my real Stihl chainsaw, after a string of bads saws, so I knew this was the brand. Yes, ouch, it was expensive compared to others. It was about $425.

What is a “real” machine?? Let me offer a good example with a motorcycle detour:

When I was 20 I purchased a brand new 250 cc enduro motorcycle and drove it 2000 miles from San Diego to Columbus, Ohio. Yes, it made it, I had to take a break once and awhile for the machine, and I did rebuild it before returning. Was that a real machine? No, it did not perform well as long as the operator could. It would heat up, slow down, and need a “tender touch”.

Compare that to a similar experience a year or two later. I went from San Diego to upstate New York. This time, I rode a 550 cc enduro motorcycle. This time the trip was and extra 500 miles. That machine would go and go and go. I was the limiting factor! No rebuild or anything. I just rode it all the way back too. This was a “real machine”.

Hours of action, it doesn't get tired like me!

What does this have to do with the Stihl weed wacker? You may have guessed it. This little two stroke unit sounds deeper than the other machines. It has more torque at the low end, and somehow feels like a four stroke motor. But its not! It runs and runs and runs. King Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun”. And so the following cliche is also true:

You get what you pay for.

I use the heaviest nylon cord it will use, and use the throttle lock to keep it nearly wide open for hours at a time. This is normally, and unfortunately when it is 80-90 degrees out and we are under the gun to get the brush and grass cleared. This is the fourth year, and other than a little grease in the fitting near the cutting end, I’ve done nothing but run myself down with this chore. I guess it is less of a chore, if you aren’t worrying about how to fix your equipment all the time!

This year my 15 year old son started with it. He loves to get paid and thinks this is fun! (wink, wink). Somewhere on the horizon I really would like a decent tractor, but unless it falls into my lap I don’t think it will be too soon.

What are your favorite tools and techniques for clearing brush and tall grass? Are you collecting equipment for your off grid move? Tell us your favorite tractor stories below!!

what works: tall grass, brush, and no tractor is a post from: Real off grid Living

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What is a shunt?

marshall (online) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:05:00 +0000

What is a shunt, and why would you need or want them in your genverter or off grid power system? Technically, you can make, store and use power from you off grid system without a shunt. Doing so would be like putting on a blindfold and having your friend in the passenger seat give directions as you drive across New York city. Yes, possible, No, not recommended!

A shunt is a resistor

In the electronics world, it is normally called a current shunt. Shunt resistors come in all shapes and sizes, so we’ll just cover the ones used in a remote power system. This is a special calibrated low value resistor does not heat up or change its value, even when large currents are flowing through it. This device is made from one or more parallel strips of metal fastened between two bras blocks with terminals.

what it does

500 Amp Shunt

The shunt is at the heart of your battery bank monitoring system. With the right monitor (like a Trimetric monitor from Bogart Engineering) hooked up to this resistor, you can collect data on how many amp-hours of current go into, or come out of the battery bank. It is the key sensor that will help you get years of service from your battery bank, if you heed its warnings.

where it fits in

Normally it is the last item in series before the main connection to the negative terminal of the battery bank. To connect up your battery monitor, a four wire cable is normally used.

One wire goes to the positive terminal of the battery bank to power up the battery monitor system, and provide battery bank voltage measurements.
Another wire connects to the shunt on the side away from the battery bank. This is the sensing voltage plus side.
Normally a black wire goes to the the negative terminal of the battery bank. It supplies the small power required by the monitor.
Lastly, there is a wire connected to the shunt terminal nearest the battery bank. It is for the sensing voltage minus side.
Negative side wiring with battery monitor

When this is all together, one might be tempted to ask about why we need two connections to effectively the negative battery terminal. What is the difference between the “minus sensing” wire and the “negative side power” wire??

To gather accurate low voltage readings across the shunt, the “minus sensing” wire is used. There is virtually no current running through this wire (millionths of an amp). The meter power wire does have current flowing through it, a thousand times more. (thousandths of an amp). The voltage at both ends of the negative power wire are not the same, and would affect the measurement. Using the “minus sense” wire has the same voltage at each end, so it is used to make the measurement.

Accuracy in measuring the shunt voltage is critical, as small errors would throw off the system current draw or charge by several amps!

Do you have a shunt in, or planned for your system?

What battery monitor systems do you like?

Join in and tell us what you think, or have found. Comment below!

What is a shunt? is a post from: Real off grid Living

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