all true. if he has new batteries then just leave things be. getting a good monitor is nice but if you know battery voltage you can get by fine. most rv's just have a voltage gauge on the wall.
yes to get amps you need a shunt but amps is great for finding out your draw but just learning where you are with a volt meter or simple gauge is fine as that is what most full time campers get by with.
i think most people go nuts trying to maximize their battery use when just knowing about where it is is enough. after all most batteries are 100 bucks and to get the last ten percent out of them is worrying about ten bucks.
usually if worried about having enough storage just add another battery in parallel if using 12 volts.
thanks captain for chiming in with your expertise. and i followed your boat trips.

I'll definitely add a battery monitor. As you said, there are many. Is there any reason this wouldn't be a decent option?



As captain said, the batteries are new. I don't want to obsess over it, but this is definitely a learning experience and I'd like to understand more. I also write about energy for a living and an editor keeps pressing me for a column on this ...

What does the shunt do?

I'd like to be able to see how much the panels are putting out, % full of batteries, and so on. I get that this is a little more organic than I first thought, and I do think my system is working properly--just maybe a bit paranoid after seeing how the 1st battery I used devolved to almost useless.

OTOH, I got the system in June of 2015, so it went 2.5 years and that's with my significantly sub-optimal use.

So far I have not come close to getting down to 50% on the batteries. When it is under load it has gotten to 65%, but I don't really think that number is accurate since the metering seems to bounce around if it is getting any charge or under any load.

Unrelated, here's a batch of the Opinel knives I've been playing with. Got a cease and desist from Etsy the other day, Opinel says I can't use their name in the product description.

That's bizarre about Opinal. Ianal, but I would think and hope that you are entitled to say the manufacturer's name of a knife you altered and are selling at least as long as you don't misrepresent anything.

Is this between you and Opinal or will Etsy enforce this?

Strangely, I think the listing/s they are referring to are sold listings. Seems kinda messed up. I've been ebay'ing most of them anyways, so not a big deal but strange.

Now for something weird - Columbian military surplus machetes:

https://www.sportsmansguide.com/prod...smansGuide.com

Grab bag of 5 for $25.

That's actually really tempting.

good deal but absolutely nothing if you arent in a jungle that you can use them for.

Scroll back - he likes chopping them into something different than what they were.

Sold the GoalZero system for $650 to a couple doing the same thing I am. ... Which meant they didn't really understand 12v systems either, hence buying the GZ. I got a call two days later, she said she took it home, ran her vacuum for 10 minutes and couldn't figure out what happened when it said the battery was empty...

Any design folks reading this thread? I've been working on the next issue of & and am trying to get text to stand out more crisply on a cluttered background...



Image is from Knoxville, btw. One of the huge pluses to being a photographer: having years of high res images to work with. The files take up a lot of space, but I try and keep as many of my shots as possible. I never think about it at the time but over years it builds up into a resource.

High contrast stroke
Drop shadow
Bevel or emboss

Something along those lines should work. Dunno what image hacking program you use, but in Photoshop they're found in the Layer Style options.

Rock on dude, thanks. Those are new to me.

In case anyone is curious what the added drop shadow looks like ...

I launched a Kickstarter for Issue #2 / subscriptions for & Ranch today. What with being arrested last summer, the second issue got set back a few months. OTOH, it certainly provided some material to write about.

One thing I struggled with in making this: I wanted to write about things I saw in jail, but didn't necessarily want to give Yuri a DWI. Just because I was an idiot doesn't mean he has to be ...

Issue #1 was more truth that fiction, but this one skews the other way. One thing I'm enjoying about this is allowing it to evolve. ... In the past, I'd think of a story and then illustrate it. Now, it's becoming more free-flowing--what imagery and ideas do I have, and what story can I build around those?

It's still winter here. It snowed yesterday and may snow a bit this morning, but we're also supposed to hit 80 by Thursday so who knows...

I also resized the book, from 6x9 to 5.5 x 8.5, to lower mailing costs. And I'm lowering the # I order from the printer ... After the Issue #1 error, which resulted in me having 2,000 copies, I'm looking at 500 this time. I dislike smaller orders because it drives the per-book cost up, but on the other hand if it ever caught (metaphorical) fire I could order more in relatively short order...

My goal here is to build a subscriber base. If I ever reached 500 I'd be ecstatic, but at the same time that feels like an achievable number.

Kickstarter.

Yeah, it's 90+ here in the southwest. I'm running my a/c.

I saw a yootube about a couple that had a tiny house in Australia I think? They were completely off-grid. Their "tiny" house was pretty good sized though, and with 6 panels and fancy high-dollar batteries, I think they said they made 1.5kw/hr, which was more than enough. They also made their own methane for cooking with a compost heap, had a cistern for rainwater, and a composting toilet. Indoors.

Off grid with Doug and Stacey may be something you like on YT. They have no solar, composting toilet, 11 acres and produce a lot of their own food. USA based.

Making their own methane for cooking? Wow. ... that seems intense.

In for the rest of the series.

Ha! Found it. Yay for Firefox history.

Biogas digester that's not real expensive if you didn't want to build your own:
https://homebiogas.com/shop/buy-the-homebiogas-system/

You could probably feed it grass clippings from your property. Or even better, let your neighbors' cows graze your property. Then the grass will be converted into small, easy to carry pies, and the cow does all the work.

Holy overkill.

And damn, that battery setup. Those aren't deep cycle RV batteries in there.

Dude, thank you.

So, bit of a rambling thought here ...

I write about electricity and utilities for a living, and the policies behind all that. In that context, "cost" is everything. Regulators approve plans to supply electricity on a mix of factors, but in the end it comes down to price. And generally, that means approving projects that have, in theory, the least-cost for consumers.

While some balance of that that maybe be necessary in utility regulation, I think it's not the best idea for broader decision making. But it has also infected so much of thinking ....

In energy policy, that idea *very roughly* plays out like this: renewable energy doesn't work because it doesn't compete financially. You could absolutely build an all-renewables system to power entire cities but it would be $$ (they exist now but these cities are also connected to broader grids to enable this). Comparatively, toss in a coal plant and you can get rid of the expensive batteries that help supply green power at night.

(Obviously, there's some distance between coal and batteries, with quite a few viable technologies in between.)

In energy policy and public policy, I get it, the need for balance. You don't wanna go around doubling peoples' monthly bills every time the next Elon Musk pops up.

And there is balance--a huge issue in energy policy right now is how to balance free markets against local energy policies that would distort those signals. If New Jersey decides it's going to direct taxpayer dollars to large scale solar subsidies, power marketers in Pennsylvania will likely complain (or some rough approximation of this dynamic; it more likely happens with nuclear, oddly).

Lately, I just can't stop thinking that least-cost is a really ****ty way to make societal decisions. But it's easy and infectious thinking. The couple in that video open up their battery bank and my first thought it, "WHOA they spent too much."

(There is a whole other argument, finance aside, that what it takes to get two people off-grid requires more carbon emissions than for them to live on-grid, but that's different) ...

Long pointless ramble short: It strikes me that this idea of cost-based decision making is a very poor way to determine societal goods and goals. Rather, it's an easily manipulate-able distraction.

Maybe I just reinvented the socialism v capitalism thing, I dunno. ... But as "we" get more sophisticated, maybe judging everything on how it costs will be seen as an increasingly unsophisticated method of making choices.

This Saturday, May 5, is Free Comic Book Day. ... I'm thinking of going down into Ithaca and giving away a bunch of #1s, with a card in the back explaining how to subscribe/find other issues ... I imagine I could get a few shops to give away copies as well. ...

Totally noob question: how the hell do I post on reddit?

Looking back at earlier suggestions in this thread, someone mentioned posting on reddit about the comic. I'd like to try that, but ... are threads there either links/photos or text, not both? Rather than spam just a link I'd like to contribute, but the posting system is foreign to me.

I do have an account, and read occasional threads there. But am ignorant as to some of the Hows and Etiquette.