But I wasn't going to see the array go up quite yet . . . No matter how much
it felt as if I
couldn't wait,
there were
several wiring
tasks that
needed to be
done first.
This is when I
wished I knew
how to do
video with
sound on my
camera
because Rob
was just great
with a constant patter of positive sayings.
I was flummoxed when Home Depot said they didn't carry anything like a
polyethylene liner. Where would I get one? I was about to give up when I
noticed that my Contractor Trash Bags were made by Poly-America.
Ah ha, I thought, could my trash bags be made of polyethylene?
I called Poly-America and spoke with Erica, in materials, "What are the
trash bags made of?" I asked. There was a pause, then in a questioning tone
Erica replied, "Polyethylene?" as if she wasn't sure I was serious.
I repeated it after her and she confirmed, "Yes, they are made of
polyethylene." So, I lined my battery box with three Contractor Bags, which
is a total of 18 mil.
Next, shortly after the arrival of my GoPower 1000 watt,
pure sine inverter (so I can happily use my 475 watt
HP laser printer) and after Rob had taken a look at
my inverter, he brought over his tools and my four
Evergreen 120 watt panels (made in Germany) which he
had alreadysecured in their poletop mount from Uni-rac.
I was really excited, now.
As far as I could tell, it was really happening.
Full Time Cabin Kit
from Gaiam Real
Goods with Free
Shipping is $4,999
Utility company threats - a health boundary that bit
Solar -- Going Beyond a Health Biting Boundary
I finally got solar power - off grid, at that! This page shows my solar power
being installed here in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I want to describe and show
my solar installation so that anyone who is thinking of getting solar can see
about what to expect if they choose a pole-top mount, the way that I did.
On Good Friday afternoon I found an old, non-electric phone in my dark
walk-in closet, but being Good Friday afternoon, all banks were closed.
By Monday, which was almost a week after I'd been disconnected, I'd
figured out how to make coffee over a candle and with that I could imagine
surviving, even thriving without PNM's threats and cudgeling power. (This
is despite havingheated with electric oil-filled radiators ever since my
furnace stopped working.)
I found that I enjoyed watching the clouds just the way that I did when I
was young, back when I hated television. I found that candles gave a
beautiful light and a little heat if I kept a pot of water over them.
I began to have a sense of well being from knowing that I was taking care of
myself and that I wasn't going to be threatened by PNM again as long as I
didn't reward them for shutting me off and isolating me and leaving me
without heat in freezing weather: it was still in the twenties during the night.
I decided to get solar.
At first I thought I'd have the solar panels hung intermittently along my
garden fence where I know there is sun all year. But I didn't want to lose
my summer plants; besides, it sounded a bit wonky.
Next, I thought I'd
have the solar
panels on my roof.
But then the man
I'd counted on to
remove winter
snow got sick and I
knew there was no
way I could go up a
ladder, onto the ,
roof and remove snow from the panels myself. So I began to wonder about
the rather barren area by my backyard entrance to my garage. I checked it
for
several morning runnng and it was
always in full sun, sun up till sun down.
When Robert Althouse, owner of
SolarwiseUSA, came for a look, he
saw all the sunshine between my pear
tree and garage, checked his compass
and said it was a good spot.
His estimate was within my budget, so
after most of my kit arrived, I called
him and said I was ready to go ahead.
And go ahead we did --
A 5 foot deep hole had to be dug, that's a third of the length of the pole, in
earth that a few feet down was as hard as stone. Even water didn't
penetrate the long dry clay. But finally the hole was complete and the
Sonotube in place so that less concrete could be used with just as sturdy
results.
Next Rob with the help of my helper Sa-ul drilled holes in the heavy steel
pole so that they could put cross-wise pieces of rebar through to secure the
pole in the rebar cage they'd made. The rebar would prevent high winds or
years of wind from breaking the pole loose from the grip of the cement and
spinning it.
Then, thunder, lightening, torrents of rain, and hail the size of marbles hit.
The fellows were intrepid. They set the heavy steel pole into the Sonotube
in the hole but they still needed the rebar cage inside the Sonotube. Rob
said he'd go up the ladder and drop the cage over the top of the pole. The
top was so high, it looked impossible to me. (I wish I had a picture, but the
rain was so intense I was afraid I'd ruin my camera, besides, I was busy
praying.)
Rob was high up the ladder with the rebar cage over his head, about to drop
it into place, when a huge flash of lightening and crash of thunder came at
the same time. It was as if he was placing the star on a Christmas tree and it
lit up spotlight-bright with a drum roll, almost like a miracle. (I'm glad I had
a lightening rod put in on the other side of my house when I thought I'd
have the solar panel array on my roof. I don't know, but maybe that's
where the lightening went. I'm sure glad it didn't strike Rob, the pole or any
of the fellows.)
Next they filled the Sonotube with concrete which was also a feat since it
was so muddy and the mud was so slippery. The wheelbarrow, loaded with
concrete, kept wanting to slide off the wood planks so that one of the
fellows had to push the wheelbarrow while another kept it on track, and
then they'd dump it. (While hail was pelting down.) It was major intense.
I so wish I had a picture of the final wheelbarrow full. It had about twice as
much concrete as all the other loads, so Cruz couldn't move it by himself.
Sa-ul immediately came to help him and so did Rob, and there they were,
the three of them running that wheelbarrow with huge smiles on their faces,
as they conquered the elements with their joint force. It was just a beautiful
image. That's the image I most wish I had because it was so beautiful.
A few days later when things
dried out a bit, Rob and Alex
came and trenched to the
house. It's amazing to realize
they put the grey conduit pipe
in, worked on it and covered
it up before they hung the pv
array. But, they did.
Meanwhile, I was painting the battery box and hoping Sa-ul would be able
to complete my solar electrical closet in time. (I need not have worried.)
I wanted the battery box (which would double
as a window seat), the electrical closet and my
file cabinets to be the same color as Kraftmaid
cabinets that are done in Buttercream.
But I'm not awesome at choosing colors so I
asked a friend, Glennon, who used to help do
the Spiegel catalog if she could tell what Behr
paint chip was most like Kraftmaid
Buttercream. She could and that's the color I
painted the box, file cabinets and closet.
Less fun was the
way HomePower's
battery box article
(kindly sent to me
by Eric at Gaiam in
Hopeland, CA) said
to line the battery
box with poly-
ethylene in case of
"catastrophic
failure."
When the conduit was in place, and the trench covered over, then . . .
at last, the panels were in motion.
David, Alex, Rob and Brian got ready to "walk" the panels up ladders to the
top of the pole. (Which looked impossible because the top of the pole was
way above everyone's head.)
It took time to
get the ladders
just where they
wanted them...
And then they
did it.
They walked it
up and set it in
place.
Next they had to
lift the array to
fix the cap on the
pole. (Up until
then I'd been
wondering if
wind going over
the open pole
would whistle. . .
and if it did, I
wondered if holes
could be drilled in
the pole so that
the wind would
sound like a
flute.)
With all the
ladders still in
place, Rob began
taking readings
on his compass
so that the array
could be set to
get the most solar
all year long,
summer and
winter.
He took readings
up close to the
pole and others
further away in
case the pole was
affecting the
compass needle.
Luckily, clever Sa-ul had finished the electrical closet in time (his days are
taken up working for Frank Daley, the electrician who put in my lightening
rod) by finding a readymade cabinet on sale at Lowe's.
Sa-ul cut the
cabinet to fit
and had it in
place by the
time Rob and
Alex were
ready to draw
the wires
through the
conduit using a
steel "fish line."
It was pretty
neat.
Up until Brian was wiring the batteries I didn't know that they arrived fully
charged. (I'd been worried about how many days charging would take before
using my system.)
While he worked Brian
gave me talks on direct
current and how it's
dangerously different
from alternating current,
the kind we get from
the grid or our inverters.
He drove home how
alternating current
comes in waves, so if
you touch a wire and
get a shock you can pull
away while there's a dip
in the wave.
But with direct current,
no waves... so DO
NOT drop anything
metal where it could
touch both the negative
and positive.
So that's it. There's my solar
(pv) array happily above my
pear tree and catching solar
energy from sun up till sun
down. It's awesome.
You can just barely see the
Outback Combiner Box on the
pole.
I wanted an Outback Inverter
but they cost so much more and
I had such a limited budget that
I went with GoPower -- and it's
working fine.
I only wish I'd gotten a 1500
watt one. I have the solar energy
to do the wash and vacuum,
only I don't have inverter
capability. (Because I really
didn't have any more money.)
I love the stones around the
base of the pole. I hope the
borage and other flowers thrive.
Neat! Neat!!!
The Deluxe Full
Time Cabin Kit is on
pages 78-79 of the
on-line catalog.
Except for my 15 watt grow light for my seedlings, so I have balance at
night, I don't leave lights on anymore. That saves over a kilowatt a day!
I totally love that I can charge my little led
solar light under my grow light, run by
solar. Too cool, or what? . . . sort of a
perpetual motion solar machine.
At night when I use my led
light, I attach it (it comes
with velcro) to my old
halogen lamp, and it's great!
I keep my green Freeplay Indigo lantern by my bed. It's dynamite! I use it a
lot and wish I'd had it when PNM shut me off, rather than the lithium
flashlight that I had thought was so clever.
It was great, for 5 days. But then I learned that batteries were $6. $10 at
Radio Shack, and my enthusiasm faded. Luckily one of the women who
delivers meals to me sent a policeman over one of the coldest nights, and he
gave me more batteries when I remarked that I had a flashlight just like his.
: )
At first I looked inside my electrical
closet a lot. I still love to see how
many amps I'm getting. You can see
that my panels were giving me 7.5
amps when I took this picture. The
other day it was raining and I was still
getting an amp. When it was hot
outside I got around 6.6 - heat reduces
the energy from photo voltaic cells.
So, even though during the winter
there will be less sun hours I'll get
more amps per hour.
Under the grey box you can see my
lightning protector. I bought it extra
because we have a lot of lightning
here, close to my house.
The wood board is there because I
couldn't afford a preassembled set up.
Rob put things on the board in his
shop then brought it over and attached
PNM had threatened me every single month while I was in bed
with tetanus with no way to pay. PNM isn't supposed to shut
you off if you have a medical certificate, but still PNM
threatened and the stress always made me worse -- probably
because tetanus is a central nervous system disease.
Nonetheless, if I could have called my bank, or called anyone
to help me, I would have capitulated and paid and let PNM
continue having power over me. But without electric my phone
didn't work. (The man who turned my power off laughed
when I told him.)
The only problem
with the Kit was a
little electrical Y
shaped connector that
kept slipping off when
Brian was putting
things together. He
tried for over an hour
to get everything on
one post, but that
connector would
always slip off. Next
day he went to an
auto supply store and
got one a full circle
one. So that part cost
me a couple hundred
dollars in electrician
time. Overall, though,
it was great.
My lawn chair in the picture makes me smile. It looks as if I often sit and
admire my solar panels on their pole. Really, I sat there to watch the
installation and take a lot of the pictures.
Here21
it inside my solar electric cabinet. Pretty neat!
The green light on the black box tells me I have 100% of my solar power
left. I totally love that! It has always said that, though, because I have to use
10% of what's stored in my batteries before it drops a level. I bought this
battery monitor extra because if you use too much energy from your
batteries it reduces their life. But "too much" is more than 25%, showing as
80% on the meter, so I'm way safe.
That's one thing that's really cool about the Full Time Cabin Kit I got: it
came with four 183 amp hour gel batteries, which are big-capacity, no
maintenance batteries with little fuming. I don't have to add water, and
there's no smell from them.
If I'd been able to afford a larger inverter I could run lots of things. But with
my brain damage, maybe it's best I go slow and learn. : ) (I don't want to
give the wrong idea, when you get solar you can't leave your telly on all the
time, or run a regular fridge or electric stove or electric heaters.)
Eric in the California Real Goods store was great because he helped me
understand I could run the Frigidaire washing machine I wanted if I did it
while the sun was shining and then let the batteries build up their stores
again afterwards. The same with vacuuming and using an electric kettle. But
see, I didn't get a big enough inverter. That's why I have a surplus of
electric power. In fact, on sunny days the charge controller has to protect
the batteries from over charging. The charge controller comes with the kit.
If you are thinking of getting solar, read the Gaiam Real Goods catalog. I
have links to it above, or request a free one. It has masses of great
information in it. If you decide to order a Cabin Kit, please would you order
through this page?
Cutting solar
panels' high price
Industry luminaries
will meet this week
at the annual Solar
Power 2007 to
celebrate booming
business. But high
costs remain a
barrier to wider
adoption.
By Martin LaMonica
Staff Writer, CNET
News.com
Published:
September 25, 2007,
4:00 AM PDT
Oh, Oh... I don't
think the battery
monitor was put in
right. It shows over
90% of my battery
energy left but my
inverter is beeping.
When my little
inverters did that with
the portable solar I
had first, it meant the
battery was low.
Darn. This appears to
mean I have no idea
how much energy I
have. 11/21/07
(See bottom of page
for more revelations.)
OMG!! My battery monitor isn't working!
MPPT
Amps: pv Amps: batteries Volts: batteries
11-24-07
7:00 a.m. - no sun 0 223
8:10 - a glow of sun w/snow .1-.3 230-231
9:15 5.3 263
9:30 5.8 274
9:45 6 274
10:15 6.6 273
10:30 7.7 273
inverter, computer, modem 7.5-7.0 270-269
11:45
inverter, computer, modem 7.7 269
inverter, computer 7.7-8.0 269
12:40
inverter, computer, modem 7.6 267
12:55
inverter, computer, modem 7.4 266
2:00
inverter 5.8 264
2:05 5.5 265
3:00 1.3 253
|
Today I was supposed to write
down all the readings: yesterday I
left out the amps for the batteries.
As I was writing I noticed brilliant
sunshine outside but my MPPT
controller was showing only a
fraction of an amp coming from
my panels, so I looked out the
window and saw that the bottom
of my panel was in the shade from
my garage. OMG!!!!!
Yesterday a man on a solar forum
wrote that I needed to learn that I
had to lower my load. He implied
that I was foolish to think solar
was cheap and easy. I had thought
neither.
His remarks took away my
internal heat. I got angry and said
my problem was trusting the "GD"
monitor.
The battery monitor shows 100%
as if I haven't used 10% of my
battery capacity. The green light is
where the label says, "100%".
Clearly when I look at that, which
I did regularly, I could reasonably
expect to be able to run a Crock
Pot, and when I ran a Crock Pot
and the reading remained the
I've taken a picture of the battery wiring because the engineer on the solar
forum was talking about the kinds of numbers I should be seeing on my
MPPT, and they aren't what I have. He questioned whether I was wired for
24 or 48, and sadly due to my brain injury I can't remember.
I'm beginning to have serious doubts about my installation...
I also find it ironic that Robert Althouse told me the installation would cost
$1,200; but then he wanted twice that, $2,400. So I didn't have the
additional amount, and I've been so worried about when I will have the
additional money. Right now I don't even have the money for a wood stove,
in fact I have less than $100 and my November mortgage payment hasn't
been made.
Most ironic, is that it turns out that Robert Althouse is married to the sister
of Gerry Peters, who is or was the money behind Santa Fe Properties, as I
always heard it explained. This being the case, I wrote to Rob the following
email:
same, I could reasonably expect to be able to run another. Right?
So am I wrong to question whether or not this was properly installed?
I don't think so. Because either it was wrongly installed or the thing is
worthless and worse, since it caused me to discharge way more from
my batteries than I should have or than I would have if it had given
me proper information. According to the information on the forum,
when batteries show 243, they are deeply and dangerously (in terms
of battery well being) discharged.
I wonder what these loose wires
are? The thin grey wire coming
from the MPPT is taped; but the
big red wire is hanging loose, isn't
taped, and is connected to the
battery monitor that isn't working.
Then, the manual says that the
fuse is to be no more than 9
inches from the batteries. This is
way further from the batteries
than 9 inches and sadly it also
looks tacky and wrong.
September 22, 2007
Hi Rob,
I think about you and the money I still owe you every day. Right now I
don't have my October mortgage payment in full, nor the money for a small
wood stove, or even an additional extension cord.
I have redone several of my web pages hoping that people begin to order
from them. I used to put little effort into selling from them because I post on
a lot of health forums about B12, so that people can learn about how vital it
is, and how easy it is to have many symptoms of low B12 and not really
understand that is the problem. On those forums it's unacceptable to have a
"commercial" site.
You might like to look at the way I've redone my solar page:
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.com/Solar.html
One thing that comes to mind, and I don't know how you will feel about this
idea, is that once I have my Revised Brief completed and filed, I need to
begin a Complaint against Wally Sargent for selling me a condo that he
developed and allowed to be built over an old privy pit. I have only a few
months left before the fraud statute of limitations runs out.
I have an expert witness, re the hydrogen sulfide, that I learned of and
contacted through one of the health forums.
But, here's my thought, since your wife is the sister of Gerry Peters, and
I've always heard that it was Peters' money invested in Santa Fe Properties,
maybe your wife could look at my page explaining some of the problem,
and if she is sympathetic maybe she could talk to her sister about it, and she
could talk to her husband, and he could mention to Wally that it might be
good to make an settlement offer. If Sargent did that, then I could pay
you... and get my wood stove and be on a more healthy footing again. I
don't know how that sounds to you, or your wife, or her sister, or Gerry
Peters, or down the line, Wally Sargent.
Here's the page with pictures of my condo:
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.com/Recent-Condo-Pictures.html
Let me know how it sounds to you and your wife, and the others if it goes
that far.
11/25/07 - An engineer at a solar forum I went to (to ask about my battery
monitor and why it showed full power when in fact the charge in my
batteries was drastically low) had me regularly write down the readings from
my MPPT. Here they are for yesterday...
Robert Althouse never responded. (I guess I'm going into the frame of mind
where anger calls forth the whole proper name.)
Solar Installation Review: Things that were less than ideal with the Robert
Althouse, SolarwiseUSA installation of my solar system:
With this chart I
can check my
battery charge by
looking at the
MPPT readings.
100% 254
90% 250
80% 248
70% 246
60% 244
50% 241
40% 238
30% 235
20% 231
10% 226
0% 210
11/25/07 later -- It's amazing how completing small tasks has made me feel
so much better. Someone named Solar Guppy told me how to reset the
MPPT (which I actually forgot about until a moment ago when I went
through the thread again) and how to turn off the light on the battery
monitor, which I was eager to do because it was making me so angry. It
was a little scary to be touching the wires, but it worked, and that felt
SOOO good. Quite honestly, after that I didn't feel so swamped and bogged
down any more. And, he thinks I can adjust the switch inside so that it
works. That's smile making to think about... I can hardly wait to do it ... I
feel I'd better wait for tomorrow and better light. Anyway,
HAPPINESS!!!!!!!
Right now, I'm going to check the manual so that tomorrow the manual will
be a bit more familiar to me. (I'm putting the link here because it took me
ages to find it again in the forum.)
1/16/08 - I didn't do the battery monitor thing because I felt that with as
little battery capacity as I had left, I didn't want to use any energy to run the
monitor that I had trusted, to the ruination of my batteries... or so I thought.
Yesterday the screen on my MPPT went blank. The FLOAT light didn't
come on during the portion of the day when I usually heat water to warm
my living room for my avocado (which I am still hoping makes it.) And if it
hadn't been for someone buying some Methylcobalamin which made me
feel useful as well as happy because of my commission, I would have been
extremely stressed. Instead, thanks to the person, whoever it was, I slept
relatively well and got up bright and early to see if the batteries were
charging.
Frank Lewon, from BZ Products which produces both my battery monitor
and my MPPT500 had said that if the batteries were charging and the
screen was blank, that he'd immediately send me a new MPPT and
monitoring cable. (As it turns out, the wire that's hanging down from the
bottom of my MPPT is the monitoring cable, which Mark who got things
working for me today said wasn't necessary since my batteries were
probably the same temperature as the room... which seems logical.)
1. On the day of the pole being set up, and the lightening, Robert
was many hours late. If he'd been on time, the lightening would have
been totally avoided.
2. The front of my house and garage got spattered with a lot of
cement on the day of the pole, and it was not cleaned off by Robert
Althouse or his workers, who were only interested in cleaning the
cement mixer. So, I now have to have someone re-stucco those areas.
3. The cement had set up far more than I think it was supposed to
because Robert Althouse had not managed his time very well and had to
do things he'd forgotten about.
4. The laborer Robert Althouse hired sat around for hours when
Robert Althouse failed to bring him the tools he needed to dig the hole
for the pole.
5. Robert Althouse relied on my worker who was doing my battery
box, to help install the pole, without whom it probably would have been
impossible.
6. The wiring for the panels was done on ladders at night with
hardly any light. They could have been done in the workshop prior to
putting them up. I'm sure that would have been more efficient.
7. The labels on the panels were not removed in the workshop, so
that had to be done on ladders as well.
8. Bryan, the electrician, spent an hour criticizing how Robert had
wired the MTTP and shut off box at the workshop and had them
attached to a piece of wood. Bryan said,"It doesn't do anyone any
favor." And Bryan said it was wired wrong. But the wiring was never
changed so I believed that most likely Bryan was wrong, rather than the
wiring.
9. Bryan took three hours to wire the battery monitor, a lot of
which
time was used in grumbling.
10. Bryan used the wrong kind of fuse for the battery monitor.
12. Bryan put the battery monitor too far from the batteries
according to the manual.
13. Bryan left bare wires hanging after installing the battery
monitor.
14. Bryan left a wire from the wrong sized fuse unattached, so the
fuse was doing nothing.
15. Bryan failed to set the battery monitor as shown in the manual,
so it never read properly, leading to the ruination of my batteries.
16. The installation wasn't completed for quite a long time after it
was started, but that turns out to be good because if it had been
completed when Robert Althouse said, I would have been able to trade
stocks and get the rest of the money he wanted. Whew, at least I didn't
pay him for all the wasted time and wrongly installed stuff that has done
damage to my batteries (most likely) and put me in the dark in the cold
weather.
17. Basically, Robert Althouse did your typical Santa Fe job... and
I don't think he exhibited wisdom.
OMG -- I wrote my
email wrong! She's
not Gerald Peter's
sister, she's his wife's
sister.
(I make SO many
mistakes - sometimes
it's overwhelming.
And like here, I often
don't see them.)
For those unfamiliar
with Santa Fe, back
in the 60s when I first
came here St. John's
College had just
opened and was
dedicated to the
study of the Great
Books. When it came
time for the first
graduation ceremony
many in the class
wanted to boycott it.
The only person I
knew from the class
was related to some
Hollywood comedian,
whose name escapes
me. There were
rumors that the fund
raising office had
notes up on the walls
about who was old
and sick and should
be hit up for an
endowment. Being
from Wisconsin we
were stunned at how
crass that was. In any
case, Gerald Peters
went to St. Johns and
may have been in that
first graduating class,
I forget. I didn't really
hear of him until he
began buying up
downtown Santa Fe.
He had apparently
gone into partnership
with another broker
and had done deals
without telling her,
apparently an early
indication of Peters's
secretive nature. It
was later that Peters
apparently joined
forces with Wally
Sargent, who
developed and sold
me my condo ... with
the toxins resulting
from the privy pit
underneath.
"Gerald Peters, an
art and real-estate
investor, wants to
build a lap pool and
enclosure adjacent to
his home at 831 El
Caminito, off
Camino del Monte
Sol on Santa Fe's
historical east side."
New Mexican 2005
My Deluxe Full Time Cabin Kit from
Gaiam Real Goods came with everything,
even batteries, and shipping was free. I
deliberated between it and ordering each
component to my choice, but in the end
the price made the Cabin Kit unbeatable.
Only the inverter wasn't included -- that's
because the kit comes with a direct current
electrical box if you want to go that route,
like for an actual cabin, instead of AC.
(Inverters from some other companies,
other than Gaiam Real Goods, sounded
good, but they weren't pure sine, so they'd
ruin my laser printer over time because the
current isn't as smooth as pure sine.
Anyone with sensitive electronic equipment
should look for a pure sine inverter. Pure
sine is what comes out of a wall socket if
you are connected to the grid.)
I wanted solar in 2005 after I sold my rental, before I knew my condo had
been foreclosed and sold without a hearing: Major stress that was, after
paying on it for over 17 years! Plus, I excavated the privy pit so the interior
air would be safe. (I hope I get it back via the Appeals Court.)
So, when PNM turned off my power with no warning on 4/4/2007, and
would not give me a day to transfer money to pay, it set things in motion.
Nanowire battery
lasts 10 times longer
Dec. 21, 2007
Researchers at
Stanford University
say they've found a
way to use silicon
nanowires to create a
new rechargeable
lithium-ion battery
that produces 10
times the amount of
electricity of existing
lithium-ion batteries.
A laptop that now
runs on battery for
two hours could
operate for 20 hours,
the university said
Friday in a release.
Engineering professor
Yi Cui said the
lithium is stored in a
forest of tiny silicon
nanowires, each with
a diameter one-
thousandth the
thickness of a sheet
of paper. The nano-
wires inflate four
times their normal
size as they soak up
lithium.
Expanded capacity
could make Li-ion
batteries attractive to
electric car makers.
Cui suggested use to
store electricity from
rooftop solar panels.
Source.
Nanowire battery
lasts 10 times longer
Dec. 21, 2007
Researchers at
Stanford University
say they've found a
way to use silicon
nanowires to create a
new rechargeable
lithium-ion battery
that produces 10
times the amount of
electricity of existing
lithium-ion batteries.
A laptop that now
runs on battery for
two hours could
operate for 20 hours,
the university said
Friday in a release.
Engineering professor
Yi Cui said the
lithium is stored in a
forest of tiny silicon
nanowires, each with
a diameter one-
thousandth the
thickness of a sheet
of paper. The nano-
wires inflate four
times their normal
size as they soak up
lithium.
Expanded capacity
could make Li-ion
batteries attractive to
electric car makers.
Cui suggested use to
store electricity from
rooftop solar panels.
New York Times
December 18, 2007
SAN JOSE, Calif. —
Nanosolar, a heavily
financed Silicon
Valley start-up whose
backers include
Google’s co-
founders, plans to
announce Tuesday
that it has begun
selling its innovative
solar panels, which
are made using a
technique that is
being held out as the
future of solar power
manufacturing. The
company, which has
raised $150 million
and built a 200,000-
square-foot factory
here, is developing a
new manufacturing
process that “prints”
photovoltaic material
on aluminum
backing, a process
the company says
will reduce the
manufacturing cost of
the basic photovoltaic
module by more than
80 percent.
Nanosolar, which
recently hired a top
manufacturing
executive from I.B.
M., said that it had
orders for its first 18
months of
manufacturing
capacity. The
photovoltaic panels
will be made in
Silicon Valley and in
a second plant in
Germany.
...
Nanosolar’s founder
and chief executive,
Martin Roscheisen,
claims to be the first
solar panel
manufacturer to be
able to profitably sell
solar panels for less
than $1 a watt. That
is the price at which
solar energy becomes
less expensive than
coal.
“With a $1-per-watt
panel,” he said, “it is
possible to build $2-
per-watt systems.”
According to the
Energy Department,
building a new coal
plant costs about
$2.1 a watt, plus the
cost of fuel and
emissions, he said.
Sadly, Brian hooked
things up wrong so
that the battery
monitor I bought
never worked --
as a result my
batteries are ruined.
See pg. bottom.
Now I think about how I paid him more than
he said it would cost and his bill was double
what he'd said. I believe that if he'd been on
time and taken more care it could have come in
at the price he said, and NOT cost me my
batteries which are over a thousand.
So, I'm stoked about Frank and BZ, and I'm delighted to learn from Mark
of Positive Energy, who acted experienced, that I have about 80% of the
capacity of my batteries left, and I wasn't using enough energy each day if
my FLOAT was coming on at 9 a.m., which it was.
Mark said I can use up to 50% of my batteries without ruining them. He
said that's what they tell their customers. (So, I lost 20% of my capacity
when I used all the Crock Pots when the battery monitor said that I hadn't
used 10% yet. But that's a lot better than only having 20% left, which it
what I thought.)
I just took a picture of my battery monitor showing me where I'm at with
my energy... I am so excited. This is what I had always expected it to do. If
it had done this from the beginning my batteries would be in better shape
and would have lasted me at least the seven years, if not the ten that I was
told I could possibly expect if I were careful. Still, I'm WAY happy.
Now, if I can just get the money to pay my mortgage, life will be quite rosy.
(As an aside, Rob from Solar Wise never responded to my emails and calls.
But that's just as well since I was pretty disillusioned after the battery
monitor didn't work.) Oh... I should say that the reason the MPPT screen
went blank is that a wire was not fastened correctly. Apparently lots of
wires weren't fastened correctly, but one in particular caused the MPPT to
stop working. And, Mark also replaced the fuse on the battery monitor so
it's more the right kind.
I really am STOKED! It's made me feel all warm. And it's 21 degrees
outside... so this is a powerful heat source. Happiness, I mean.
January 18, 2008 - I was just re-experiencing the above on my Avocado
page where I wrote, BZ Products, the MPPT manufacturer, was great.
Frank Lewon replied to my email right away, saying that if the batteries
were still charging, he'd replace my MPPT immediately. Which was so nice
to hear, no quibbling.
So I had to wait a day till the sun was at the point where I usually get
FLOAT energy, which is the amount that is more than my batteries can
hold. When that time of day rolled around and the sun was high, there was
no blinking of my inverter lights to tell me there was a lot of energy.
When I emailed Frank what I observed, he suggested that it could be the
fuse. The fuse had been installed in a really wonky way... so that seemed
like a possibility.
I called around and finally found Mark whose office is not far from here.
He agreed to come over and take a look.
Whew, what a great thing that was, since he corrected a few things, so now
I have fewer worries about my system, my battery monitor works (and I
LOVE it) and I don't have to use as little energy as I was using. (Guys at a
forum had said I shouldn't use energy once the batteries were at 75%
charge. So that left me in the dark without telly at night, and also required
getting off the computer around 11p.m.)
He said my system was well designed, as it came from Gaiam, in that the
batteries were about right to go with my panels. I have four 120 panels, and
four 183 amp hour batteries, that got damaged when I used them down to
the inverter beeping when I was relying on the monitor which was
improperly installed.
I think Mark took pity on me when I was walking up and down my hallway
to stay warm, and he could see all my candles, because he didn't charge me
as much as I was afraid it was going to be. So I linked to Positive Energy's
site, which someone just emailed me to say was a good thing for the site's
Google rank. Mark is with Positive Energy.
