Over the past year or so, our batteries for the solar power system have been deteriorating. This winter, I replaced just one of the eight 6 volt lead-acid batteries, in the hopes that it would improve operation until I could apply a fix in the spring. It worked for a while, but then other batteries in the string began losing their capacity to the point of the system going down nearly every day for a few hours before the sun rises each morning. I decided to bite the bullet and install a whole new string of batteries. On researching, it appeared that it would make sense to replace the old lead-acid battery technology with newer Lithium Iron Phosphate technology. Not only are the new batteries considerably more compact and lightweight for a given capacity, they should also last much longer and require little maintenance. I decided the replace the eight batteries comprising the 48 volt, 200 amp hour lead acid string with two Lithium Iron battery packs of 100 amp hours each. This matche
LittleHouse Siding by admin on May.20, 2008, under Siding Siding Install 17 May 2008. We brought up 16 sheets of Hardi-Board siding to cover half the house. We had a little adventure with losing half of two pieces on I-40 coming up. Fortunately, nobody was near us when that happened. Hardi-Board is a cement fiber board that does not rot in the rain or sun, the way most sheet goods do. It is also highly fire-resistant. It cost about twice as much as T1-11 siding, but we think the reduced maintenance will be worth the extra cost. Here is the south side installed (including replacement of the two panels at the door). The seams will be filled in before we paint, and it should look as good as any house in town. South Siding Siding Install 17 May 2008. South side awaiting trim and paint. Front Siding Siding Install 18 May 2008. Here is a view of the door, after replacing the two pieces of siding that were cut too big. There is a drip edge fashioned from f
Sometime in mid to late August, our ViaSat Satellite Internet service went down at the Ranch. The service had been sufficing for us for many years, although the data limits and touchy adjustments were sometimes a pain. Phone calls placed on this service (through the wifi connection on our phones) experienced terrible delays, to where we had to pause after each phrase and wait for the other person to talk. It was almost like the MARS Radio System that I used to call home from Okinawa when I was in the service, where we had to say, "Over", when it was the other person's turn to talk. We decided to update our system to newer technology. We still don't have anywhere near good service from the cellular companies. The nearest point we can pick up any signal at all is out in the middle of the meadow, where we can sometimes get 1-bar of service (about -120dbm signal as measured with my phone), very weak. Our new system is the Starlink Satellite service. Because this use
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