I'm still a little sad about selling the ski boat but I know in my heart, it was time. I know a guy (and saw another online) that are in their late 60's to early 70's that still barefoot ski. When I was young, I didn't have access to a boat fast enough to barefoot behind. When I finally had a boat that would go fast enough, I still didn't do it. I was either chicken or too smart. Anyway, it's a beautiful thing but at this point, something I'll probably never do.Glad to see you're enjoying your new pontoon, Ron.
Yes, we were monitoring those storms and luckily, we were spared.We had some nasty storms on Thursday.
Z, we had solar in our California house. We got it from SolarCity, which became Tesla. One of the selling points for me was, I noticed that one of the board members was Elon Musk, who I respect. The salesman was amazed I knew who Elon was because in 2014, Elon wasn't as well known as he is now.Took the power out. Power company didn't send anyone out to work on it until Saturday. They restored power to everyone except us. Every single house in the area had power except mine.
I'm now planning to switch to solar so we don't have to be stuck with this asinine power company anymore.
There are dual occupancy hammocks, for the cool, cool, cool of the evening.Thanks for that info, Ron.
Since a lot of income for Louisiana comes from oil, they don't want to encourage alternative energy sources.
I know this is expensive as hell, but they have monthly payment options: https://sungoldpower.com/products/o...attery-32-x-440-watts-solar-panels-sgr-20k30e
That's the system we were looking at. It has six batteries, two 10k inverters, thirtytwo solar panels, cables, and stuff to mount solar panels. Panels can be upgraded at later points if necessary. It also comes with a rack to hold the batteries. Some of the panels (maybe a dozen) can fit on the south side of the roof. I can also set some near the ground if they are well-anchored and I set up a perimeter so the cows can't get close enough to bump them with their horns. The inverters are hybrids so they can draw power from the grid. I'd still need to get bus bars and something on which to do the ground mount panels, but in the long run it could save us from the nasty power surges that fried appliances and from being stuck without power when my crappy power company loses power (or someone forgets to flip a switch).
My friend is highly motivated to help us set it up because he wants to make sure we are OK and we have invited him to sleep over here if his power is out in town. We just have to clean up that front room and put a new mattress on the bed and maybe put up some new curtains or something so he and his wife can have a little privacy.
Then they cover all the open space, which are nature's heat-sink, then complain about global warming, or whatever is the latest woke term.I'll be the first to let you know....don;t do it! People are ripping them off left and right these days in California. What happens in California affects every other state tomorrow. The power companies will buy your electricity for $,15 a KW, and sell this same power back to you for $.45 a KW. They are also charging solar owners an additional $100 per month for solar. Remember, the solar guys and the roofing guys have teamed up, so it is one big umbrella company. If your roof is only 2 years old, they will force you to purchase a new roof before adding solar. Once NEM3 began, solar has dropped like hotcakes in California. Save $30,000-$40,000 and just get a big ol' generator and tie it to your panel.
Those rack mounted Lithium batteries are pretty safe for indoor storage. They put them inside motorhomes now. I think just putting a piece of plastic over the top of the rack to protect them from possible leaks would be sufficient.Spicoli, the places I would consider putting the batteries would be closed off so the little fuzzy terrorists could not get inside. One option was a small utility closet in the house but I think it is too small. Plus I've heard of fuses burning out and people's houses burning down. Option two would be to fix up the metal shed outside (that actually has doors that can close and keep cats out) so that the roof doesn't leak and insulate it a bit. Option 3 would be to get a plastic garden shed that can be slapped together and maybe put up some sheetrock or cement board between the batteries, inverter, and the plastic.
Generacs are nice but I can't afford one. That's why I have a Champion 8750. I hear my neighbors generator automatically start up while I'm walking up to my shop area to fire mine up manually. Oh well...I tell myself that I'm saving a ton of money and getting exercise too.I would also want to have a fuel-powered backup generator in case of failure of either system. Looking at a Generac that has its own enclosure to keep critters and nature out.
That pump sounds like a pain!Right now I'm researching options to fix up the well system. Jet pump stopped working. I'm hoping its just loose wires on the pressure switch. I do have a spare unopened pressure switch if that needs to be replaced. Earlier I bumped something in the pump house and the jet pump made a buzzing sound but I couldn't get it to do it again.
Sounds like you have a long ToDo list . . .kinda like mine!Looks like a wire nut fell off the ground wire for the wiring of the other pump, but that pump is working. Ultimately, I'd like to put the wires in conduit, replace some of the non-working outlets with GFCI, get the cover on the float switch since it is just exposed, put flex seal on the roof of the shed to stop leaks, and add a disconnect box so that we can turn the power to the pumps off without having to shut off the breaker inside. Really need to shut the power off and remove all of the extraneous cables that aren't going to anything or that are dead and clean out trash from there.
Oh, I completely missed the Lithium battery part... Those can go up in flames real quick like. All those phones exploding are Lithiums. I would skip storing those anywhere near the house.Spicoli, the places I would consider putting the batteries would be closed off so the little fuzzy terrorists could not get inside. One option was a small utility closet in the house but I think it is too small. Plus I've heard of fuses burning out and people's houses burning down. Option two would be to fix up the metal shed outside (that actually has doors that can close and keep cats out) so that the roof doesn't leak and insulate it a bit. Option 3 would be to get a plastic garden shed that can be slapped together and maybe put up some sheetrock or cement board between the batteries, inverter, and the plastic.
I would also want to have a fuel-powered backup generator in case of failure of either system. Looking at a Generac that has its own enclosure to keep critters and nature out.
Oh wow! That stinks! Soft start is just a different start capacitor I’ve heard advertised.I was thinking storing them in the metal utility shed (that used to house the generator that was chewed by mice) was a good place-- especially since there are cables running to it to hook up to the power switch on the meter pole that switches between grid power and generator power. We want to learn a lot more about the systems before investing in stuff though.
Still need to get an easy/soft starter for the AC so it doesn't pull too many amps when it first comes on.
Sadly, the jet pump is toast. It lasted about a decade IIRC so not too bad. It was all rusty looking. I have a list of stuff I'm going to get when I take my friend to Alexandria today. HIs work has him returning a TV they didn't want and he needed a truck to transport it. He's going to install the new pump when it comes in, install the new pressure tank, streamline the plumbing a little, and fix up some electrical. He recommended getting a sub panel breaker box out there so we can turn the pumps off individually. ETA on new pump is May 30 so having no water that long is going to suck. But we've been without water for longer before. Wish I'd been prepared for it though. last time we went without water for more than a week we had several 5 gallon buckets filled with water ahead of time so we could flush toilets. I'm going to get more bottled water-- the big kind-- so we can refill water for kitties. Fortunately I have filtered water in pitchers for hand-washing.
One of my customers spends 2wks, annually, in TEMECULA & MURRETIA, brings back 6 cases of white and rosa's.Driving up to the California Wine Country for the weekend. Time to stock up on some good wine!
I'm hanging in there. It's been a difficult couple of weeks. Long story short, my daughter found out she was pregnant, had her first ultrasound heartbeat was too low, next ultrasound this past Monday (2 weeks apart) and there had been no growth in 2 weeks, baby was actually smaller and there was no heartbeat.Has anyone heard from @shan2themax ? She okay?
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