by cheerupbasil

Solar feedback

Just to give an update from getting the two panels in series on the roof, the panels are workin fine! Unfortunately i think my battery is quite tanked after being low for so long… and i also still think i need a better regulator..

And why did it take me two years to sort this out?
And why don’t i have more panels or put the panels on the greenhouse?

ANYWAY at least when it is sunny i can sit here and blog… it is unseasonably pleasant right now, i even have the doors open!?

by cheerupbasil

Saluting the hoover

Now i have more sun and more electrocity, it is only right to slaute a hidden hero, naemly the 12volt hoover. since pretty much the beginning it has been keeping the place clean. Somewhat cleaner anyhoo.

Lately the house has seemed dusty so it’s another reason to hoover every day. The thing needs cleaning a lot, the charging is a bit tempramental but hey it works. And that’s the main thing 🙂

by cheerupbasil

New Moon

Strangely this new moon, as with the last one, i feel like it’s a full moon.

As well as the new moon push to start things off afresh, I have the fullmoon urge to wash clothes. I’m also having trouble sleeping, feeling pretty confused mentally and wanting to stay away from people, all things i feel more usually on the full moon.

What is going on? In any case I’m staying hydrated!

by cheerupbasil

Parallel lives

I bought a second panel a long time ago, back in 2017. And I’ve just now realised after chatting to M on the fone that i had a plan to increase my solar input in winter which i never really acted on, instead for a while considering the generator option before in time discarding that..

Funny how this could happen, how things just get stalled. It seems that i hit some sort of mental or technical block which i couldn’t get past. Without someone to talk it through with, the plan simply froze and didn’t progress. In order to get back to the plan and to put the two panels on one battery i will have to rewire the system, hooking the panels up in parallel (as well as putting both panel next to each other on the roof) and somehow that seems very difficult, well nigh impossible, enough at any rate for me to stop thinking about it for over a year.

Couple that thought freeze with the very very slow progress of getting a MPPT controller, and i have to admit i am really stuck in this.

First step in recovery is to realise i am stuck, i suppose.

Second step would be to get all the stuff together i need to actually do this:
-buy controller
-get connectors for cables
-motivate myself to get up on the roof and do this shit

Third step would be to do it:
-Draw schematic
-Take second panel down and put it on roof.
-Connect the two panels in parallel
-Rewire the system
-Turn it on again.

If i do all this i should have more electricity again 🙂

by cheerupbasil

Candle empire

I have been collecting trash wax from the ends of candles and so on in a saucepan for a while.

In a flash of genius i then set the pot on the stove, melted the wax and inserted a wick, makign a megacandle.

In a second flash of genius i resurrected a cracked mug into a handy portable candle!

I’m very pleased about this. A friend thinks the mug will crack when the wax burns down… only one way to find out!

by cheerupbasil

Solar regulator

So at the moment i have two separate setups for solar, each basically the same in that a 100watt panel is connected to a shitty chinese made regulator which claims to be PWM and probably isnt since the battery charge floats up but never stays full. This means when i have sun (not muchb in winter) i can only really charge stuff when the sun is on, which is obvioiusly not ideal.

The solution seems quite clear but since im at the edge of my technical knowledge and find it really hard to progress since i cannot find much infos germane to my own specific situation, it goes very slowly. But yeah, i should buy a new regulator that actually is PWM for 50-100 potatoes and then hook up the two panels into one setup and then maybe MAYBE M A Y B E actually have some fuckign chance to have winter electricity. Living the dream etc

For my limited needs, the best comparison is shed fantatics and/or van dreamers. This is a very nice i just stumbled across. They are using a 20A MPPT cpntroller… i thought it’s better to use a slightly higher ampage but actually my friend told me 20A would be ok. I also thought MPPT was overkill for such a small setup but hye at this poiunt i need to fucking buy something instead of prevaricating…

So let’s check some lists:

  1. Best portable solar generators
  2. Solar panel america
  3. Mozaw
  4. Survival renewable energy
  5. Nerdy Techy
  6. Solar Home
by cheerupbasil

Fairphone

My samsung fone has finally ground to a halt. Annoyingly at first i thought it was just the battery that was bust but actually the fone itself was unable to draw 5volts.. in the end it was losing battery percentage whilst on mains charge!! So that saga lasted a few frustrating weeks.

It took me a while to work this out, but then i decided to get a fairphone.

The fairphone is a modular fone, meaning that all the bits can (in theory) be easily disassembled and replaced. Also the “fair” idea includes trying to ethically source things like the gold in the fones. I had seen the fairphone before but balked at the 500 euro price. But this time around i felt bad for buying a new fone (and a bit worried to buy a second hand one since i use my fone quite hard) and i was able to buy a fairphone for 350 euro. The price has dropped as part of a promotion AND you can easily sort out a 40 euro discount. This price i was prepared to pay.

I’ll put some thoughts down below as a review.
Right now, DAY2, am i happy with the fone? more or less YES
DAY5 – battery length is not great, still feels a bit dinky, touchscreen behaves like huawei not samsung, but otherwise it is all groovy. it works!

Continue reading →

by cheerupbasil

More on brikettes

Yeah these pinikays are pretty good actually. They burn for ages and do kick out a lot of heat.

Even if i actually do miss chopping wood, it’s great to have a constant heat source, so that the house is always cosy.

Cleaning the ash without making a big mess is hard from the the Jotul. The kitchen stove has a grate of course.

The two stove system is also going pretty well. I could definitely sauna the kitchen if i had the mind to.