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 moving
pictures with sound
on my camera
because Rob was
just great with a
constant patter of
positive sayings.
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 already
secured 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 despite the dark in
my 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 having
heated 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 Cabin 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.
Much less fun was the
way HomePower's
battery box article (sent
to me by Eric at Gaiam
in Hopland, CA) said to
line the battery box with
polyethylene in case of
"catastrophic failure."
I was flummoxed when
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.
I could not see
how it was going to
be possible. 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 ready-
made cabinet on
sale at Lowe's.
He 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.
Surprisingly, up until Brian was wiring the batteries I didn't know that they had
arrived fully charged. I'd been worrying about how I was going to have to wait
days while they charged
before using my system.
While he worked Brian
gave me several 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 had wanted an Outback Inverter,
but they were so much more
expensive and I had such a limited
budget that I went with the
GoPower -- and it's working fine.
I only wish I'd gotten a 1500 watt
one, or even 2000. I have the
solar energy to do loads of 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
bottom of the pole, and 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 solar 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. They say 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.
If you're wondering about the wood board
it's there because I couldn't afford one of the
preassembled set ups. So what Rob did was
put things on this board in his work rooms,
then he brought it over and attached it inside
my solar electric cabinet. Pretty neat!
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
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
|
Okay, so today I was supposed to
write down all the readings...
Yesterday I'd left out the amps for
the batteries. As I was writing them
down I noticed that there was
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 more than half
of my bottom panel was in the
shade from my garage. OMG!!!!!
Yesterday a man on the 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.
18.
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 the
batteries, and shipping was free. I deliberated
between getting it and getting each component
to my choice, but in the end the price made the
Cabin Kit unbeatable.
The only thing it didn't come with was the
inverter. That's because many people use
direct current, and, the Cabin Kit comes with a
direct current electrical box if you want to go
that route, like for an actual cabin.
(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.)
Let me tell you why I got solar. 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.
You can enjoy alternative technology --
Here are many easy ways to get FREE electricity
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.
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