SOLAR START
To answer a comment from Mahtomedi on my new links ( too many, don’t go commercial on us ), a little background. I have had Amazon links up at my web page for over two years now. All I am doing is putting them in your face every day rather than hoping you will visit them at my web page. But I’ve always relied on them for revenue. Now, I’ll never advertise the big boys. The guys selling the freeze dried foods and sleeping bags and such. I don’t blame others for doing it, everyone deserves a paycheck if they devote serious time to a blog. But it simply isn’t for me since it does mean, to a small degree, you need to kiss butt. You can’t yell from the rooftops what a worthless item is being advertised. I tell you all the time that freeze dried foods are an expensive luxury ( as are MRE’s ). And I also post them in my Amazon link. Why? Because no one is going to pull the ad for it. If that is your thing, go for it, I make a commission. Or buy something else through Amazon. I’ll make a commission off that and everyone is happy. The advertiser doesn’t get all bent out of shape. Because I’m using a third party seller. This is how I have it both ways. Being able to dis on a product while at the same time letting you choose for yourself if you want it. This doesn’t mean I can’t be bought. If someone wants to bribe me, I’ll cave in. The only problem is, I can’t stay bought. I’m like a politician playing both sides. You can try to buy me but in the end I’ll betray your trust and tell my loyal minions the truth about your product. Not that anyone has tried, dammit.
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Now that I’ve justified selling out like the cheap whore I am, more of today’s worthless links shall begin. I read the latest ( for the library ) Harlan Coben this weekend. I like his never ending suspense style, even if his common theme seems to be that suburban Yuppie Scum are people too and have their own problems. Cry me a friggin river in your SUV waiting in line at Starbucks, slut. I also read Pirate Latitudes. More fluff than Coben. But a light read. I stopped reading after Timeline as it was getting a bit too formulistic. Each chapter ending in an unnecessary cliff hanger. But what can I say? It was gloomy and cold and cloudy and I needed a break from doom so I just read escapism fiction all weekend. Next weekend is three days so I should concentrate more on blog stuff. Today, at the request of a minion, simple start for solar. A few years back I bought a butt load of panels from Northern. I believe three ( okay, three isn’t usually a butt load by definition, but it was a major investment on minimum wage ) of the Chinese made 15watt units. They were on sale so that the shipping was included in the $99 each price. When I moved to the Bison Compound I hooked one up. One panel to one controller to two batteries already in the trailer. I only used one light bulb, but it was a car brake light used in RV’s ( 18watt ) and the one panel couldn’t keep up once the fall clouds rolled in. I tried everything else I could think of. An extra battery in the truck. A jumper battery I charged at work ( transported in my bike basket ). Taking the computer to work for a recharge ( I stopped after Creekmores notebook tragedy reminded me how dangerous it was ). At last, I happened into a free panel from a coworker. He had a cabin he couldn’t get to often and the panel was draining his battery. So I got the panel, the crystal type rather than the thin film. 40watts. I also finally bit the bullet and hooked up the second thin film panel, leaving one in reserve/as backup rather than two. I now had seventy watts and it was enough to get through the cloudy days ( as discussed last week ).
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I’ve already had one panel fail me, a Chinese made one. Hint-if you clean the dirt off a panel and it shocks you, it isn’t sending the charge to the panel. But my other two panels have been going over a year. When you buy the cheap panels it is going to be hit and miss. But better four thin film panels where one fails than one crystal panel where all your eggs are in one basket. Plus, the cheap panels allow you to add one panel at a time as finances permit. Better to have one cheap panel come the crash than a wad of paper cash you were saving for a quality panel. In the end, sure, having half thin film and half crystal is great. Crystal produces more juice and lasts longer, thin film produces some juice under low light conditions and is cheaper. But if finances are tight ( if really tight, just go with AA/C type rechargeable batteries and a small solar shoe box size charger ) just buy one thin film at a time. The auto parts stores usually have them for $99 ( recently including the controller ), the mail order firms have them for $75 plus shipping ( equaling about the same price ). Remember your hero- one is none and two is one.
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Solar is easy. The Chinese panels come with all the required wires and doo-dads. Join the right color wires together and you are in business. Yes, it is hideously expensive power at $6.66 a watt ( get it? Chinese evil panels, 15 watts into a hundred bucks ). But for the coming collapse it is going to be the longest lasting and/or least conspicuous.
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