David Sherman

"Have half the bank power the inverter and half power the 12v stuff"

In a word, no. It's tempting to just tap 12V off of a 24V system, but if you do that, it will unbalance the batteries. Even if you put similar loads on the "high" and "low" halves of the 24V system, the loads will never be identical and the batteries will still get unbalanced.  When I bought the county's old brush truck some years ago, they told me that it kept eating batteries. It was a 24V military truck (M211/M135 GMC deuce) but they had added a 12V radio to it, and just connected it to the "low" battery. When you do that, the "high" battery constantly over-charges. Unfortunately the truck had bigger issues (the hydramatic transmission was blown), so I never have been able to use it.

The only time you can get away with hooking a 12V load directly to half of a 24V battery string is if you hook identical loads to both halves and have them both on at exactly the same time. About the only thing that qualities is light bulbs. mo

For everything else, you're better off getting a DC/DC switching (buck) converter. They used to be expensive and hard to find but now they're very cheap from China. Also, if you're running a 24V system, look at what's available in military surplus. There are lots of 24V motors and generators available for military equipment. Some are connected to pumps, blowers, fans, and other useful things.

Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, and since I think everyone has by now figured out that panels in series add voltage and in parallel add current, what I will point out is that yes, higher voltage is always better for lower current and therefore smaller wires, BUT every charge controller has an absolute maximum input voltage limit. Exceed that, and you'll damage the charge controller (MPPT or regular). And to decide what maximum voltage the controller will see, worst-case, use the open-circuit output voltage numbers off the solar panels, not the voltage measured in normal operation when they're being loaded down somewhat. For example, if the Voc ("Voltage, open-circuit") on a panel is 22V, and you have 4 in series, your charge controller must be able to withstand an 88V input without damage.

Lisa, I don't know why, but I didn't get any email from you. Try again?

Hi Lisa Clarke. D.D. says she knows you and thinks you're great, so I'd love to correspond with you even though you're not in this area and we probably can't meet up in person. It's always interesting to hear how uncommon people are living and what they do. I'm not sure how the message system works here, so if you could please shoot me a regular email that would be dandy.

You're a sweetheart, DD. Thank you. As Mr. Obvious probably said, "If things were different, things would be different". It means a lot that you really are my friend always. I didn't notice any hook or reel, but that's a whole other subject. I really should get on the road and make that 7 hr drive before you move even further away.

Okay, ages ago I wrote a long and poetic piece about life, the Universe, land, love and connection and put it on Green Singles. I developed several good pen-pals and even had a couple of actual human visits. If you're a woman who enjoys long writing and uncommon words, I can send it to you or maybe it's still up on their website under "thuja plicata".

But seeing as how Paul Wheaton is right over the hill from me, I'm going to make this a "cut-to-the-chase" highly localized ad, hoping to find a good local woman, or at least one who is presently unrooted but would like to sink her roots into the soil somewhere.

In that old ad, I said I was a "man-land package". The past decade has proven that that is more true than I was even willing to admit. I'm not going anywhere. I have 160 acres of forested land in North Idaho, with 3 creeks, 1 cedar that survived the 1910 fire, and some basic attempts at the usual off-grid garden/cabin/water/solar stuff. Mostly I live in town at this point, where I have old buildings because I like old stuff. Spent 15 years doing the local planning, zoning and historic preservation commission, still involved with one historical mining museum group, will always prefer the old stuff over the new. All my best stuff seems to be handed down, mostly from dead men I once knew. I'm not Ted Kyzinsky when it comes to tech. Tech is handy. Tech is why I don't have to earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, like in the bible. I'm an electronics engineer by trade, in fact. But I prefer old tools, old materials, and old trucks. Probably old people too, in most cases. Still have a land-line phone so you can't text me, but I get email and FB messages at home and at the office.

I do voice phone when I'm in town (no electronic communication on my land). I do email very well. I don't do text messaging except very basic messages on Facebook. I've never really grocked the "INFP" thing, so I can't answer that question, but I haven't argued with people who tell me I'm probably on the "autism spectrum". I've definitely embraced my inner nerd. That said, really meaningful relationships are THE most important thing in life at this point. I have most of the "stuff". I live in a good place. I'm healthy (but I'm also not Jack LaLane).

Ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, though, I've cherished deep connections, even if it's just an hour-long conversation with a stranger (but better if it's more than that) more than any movie, show, toy, or canned recreational experience. If we can have a really good talk, that the absolute best thing out of the day, or maybe even the year. That's where this "personals ad" gets backwards from my previous ones. I'm looking for someone local. "Local" in North Idaho means within a few hours drive time. I realize this isn't Seattle or Portland where people can do lunch with a different person each day. My town is small enough that everybody already knows everybody here. That has its good points and its bad points, of course. I will put my real email and real phone in here, if Paul's system will allow it. I'm not highly paranoid about hackers and scammers. Phone is 208.752.1840 (land line, no texts). Email (for now) is public@slatecreekengineering.com. That's the email I use so I can change it if it starts collecting too much spam. If you get a reply from me, it will be from my personal address. I don't really have a big company, but I do have my own domain name from years ago.

I'm not rich. I can't offer anybody European vacations, fancy cars, or a thoroughbred horse. I don't even have a place for a horse (yes, it's 160 acres, but most of it is as steep as a cow's face and deep in snow for half the year). I can promise honesty, and I'm really trying not to be so brutal about it. I have all the usual handyman and nerd skills in terms of carpentry, road building, electronic circuit design and repair, machine shop work, cabinetmaking, building mechanical systems (including solar), and a 19th-century amateur's skill at chemistry. Almost everything interests me except spectator sports and pop culture. I couldn't care less about the scandalous or inspiring lives of any celebrity. I meddle in politics and I certainly have opinions, but I'm not going to get Shanghaied into running for mayor again, even though the older I get the more I think that local politics are more important than national politics. If somebody wants to argue about Trump with me (for or against) they better have some really interesting ideas because that is not any sort of passion of mine. I can honestly say I've never hated anybody and I don't aim to develop that skill. I suppose this is the place to say, since I'm listing the negatives, that I don't have a criminal record, never been in a fist-fight, don't owe child support, don't watch TV (unless you count YouTube or downloaded movies), and have no interest in recreational drugs other than really good apple cider (never store-bought), which is a rare treat. I'm a very boring date to anyone who wants to smoke a bowl and watch TV together. I also haven't cut my hair since I was 24, and it hasn't fallen out on its own either. It can be handy when it's cold and windy in the winter. I suppose these days it's necessary to say I'm straight. I really do like most gay folks, because (stereotypically) they tend to be artists and/or well-read, but the old-school reality is I like women better in "that way".

I'm deliberately not listing what I'm "looking for" in a partner except that they have to be within a manageable physical distance or be genuinely willing to move to such. As far as all the checkboxes that the dating sites have (do people really care about all that or is it just easy to code into an algorithm?) I find that in real life I've always been surprised that who I hit off with doesn't really look much like any fantasy description I'd put into the dating site. Even if I found myself some "arm candy", I don't get invited to the kind of parties where I could show her off.  I will say that contra dancing would be a big plus, though. That's my main organized social activity. Missoula and Moscow both have good dances. Others in the area are fair to middling. That also gives you some idea how far I'm willing to drive for a bit of social life.

I think that's probably enough text for now. It would be fun to get an email or call from someone, and if we don't hate each other, visit in person at some point.

Hi, all. Paul thought I might post something here in case anyone has questions about Helen's cabin system. Sorry, I don't have any more "Quiet-tone filters" (the most common question I got from the video). I tried to disassemble it to see what was in it but it was all potted in tar.

Someone mentioned 135W panels being too expensive. Indeed they are nowadays. When we built the cabin system, they were the best price point commodity panels at the time. Now the larger panels in the ~250W range are the best value.

My goal was to keep it simple and affordable, not to power a typical American suburban home with all the same electrical convenience you get from being plugged into Grand Coulee.

Key features are:

1) Do as much with 12V DC as possible. Yes, higher DC voltages make more efficient use of wiring, but there is so much stuff you can get off the shelf that runs on 12V that that alone outweighs the possible need for more copper.  You can get 12V LED "corn" bulbs that screw into regular light bulb sockets, so you can use whatever nice-looking light fixtures and lamps you want. You might have to order them straight from China, though. You can get mini versions of most kitchen appliances that run on 12V (truck stops are a good place to buy them). The cheap, easy-to-replace inverters are all 12V. Car adapters for all your electronic gizmos are 12V. You can use a 12V car stereo in your cabin or convert a boom box to 12V, as I did for Helen. You can also get good 12V refrigerators and freezers, although the better ones also come in 24V models. When you run all this stuff on 12V, you can leave the inverter(s) off most of the time, which saves energy and eliminates fan noise. I mounted cigarette lighter sockets in deep outlet boxes and made my own cover plates by punching standard blank cover plates with a Greenlee punch. A person could also use a step drill, especially in a plastic plate. Although there is no real standard for 12V outlets yet, and the code allows 240VAC outlets to be used for 12VDC in a building where there are no 240VAC outlets actually hooked up to AC, I prefer sticking with the most standardized thing out there, and that's the old cigarette lighter outlet. By having those outlets, if your friend comes over and wants to charge their cell phone, they can just plug their car adapter in and they're good to go.

2) Set the panels steeper than the latitude-based calculations say you should. The latitude calculation is for maximum year-round energy production, which matters if you're selling into the grid. But if you're off-grid, what you really need is to maximize your production when the sun is low in the sky and the days are short.  In the summer there will be plenty anyway. Steeper also means more likely to shed snow.  Sun trackers aren't worth the complication these days, given the decreasing price of panels.

3) Use an MPPT charge controller. They not only get 30% more power out of your panels, on average, but more importantly they make the difference between charging a little bit and not charging at all on cloudy days. The cheap no-name ones you can buy direct from China off of Ebay for $100 or so seem to be okay, although of course documentation is poor.

4) If you're really strapped for cash, use whatever batteries you can find cheap or free to get started. 12V batteries connected in parallel don't have to match, although a shorted one will drag the whole set down. Flooded batteries are more forgiving than sealed batteries, as well as being cheaper. They will withstand more abuse, like over-charging, because you can "doctor" them, and add water as needed. A pair of 6V Trojan batteries is great, but an RV/Marine battery from Walmart is a lot cheaper and is a good way to start. Beyond that, old batteries in variable condition scrounged for free out of junk cars, so long as they aren't shorted, are a whole lot better than nothing, and the price is right.

5) $1000 should get you a system that's adequate for a small cabin.