Jack Adam

I have done it with and without worms with out issues.  I have also seen it done both ways in books and in person.

I have never done testing between the 2 ways, but I do have an opinion on this that others might not agree on.

***Edit.  Adding as I missed some stuff.
You want a fungal dominated compost.  IMO you will want a lot of browns and some manure to jump start it.  You will also need to keep the pile moist and have great air flow.

My raised beds.
4 layers of cinderblocks.
The bottom cinderblock is below the surface. You end up with a stable 24" high 8" wide place to sit.
The inside was filled with logs, hay, and lots compost.
I have not had heat issues from the light gray block.
Path ways are set up to be able to drive a golf cart and a sub compact tractor between them.
Hydrant from the well is located in the center.  Less than 50' of hose to reach everything.

David Baillie wrote: I totally hear you. I do find the general quality of posters here is higher then the norm and the admins take a more active role then you usually find.

I understand, but had a bad run in years ago.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Jack;
Thanks for the reply.
Interesting you have no BMS.  Being from a vehicle I assume this is a higher-voltage battery?
I had not given any thought to building my own lithium bank and not installing a BMS.

What kind of maintenance/upkeep do you need to perform?

Please do your own research as I'm going off of memory.
Each pack is about 7.6 volts and around 40 amp hours.  You have to do a lot of math on the voltages and looking at what inviters or what ever you are going to use will be able to handle.  7 packs in series works for most 48 volt systems I think.

I have 2 sets of batteries (on different breakers) and every other month I pull the buss bars off and test the voltages on each cell.  If it is needed I will pull the pack apart and rebuild it paralleling different packs together.  I also have a few spare packs if needed for replacements.  I only had 2 pull each pack apart twice once I started to use them.  I feel this should be done any time you have batteries in parallel, but most people do not until you kill a group of cells or batteries.

I was able to get 2 full Nissan Leaf battery packs for under $3,200 total at the time.  At the time the information on using the batteries for solar was lacking I might have around 60 hours of work and fooling around to get the one up and running.  Took about 20 hours to get the other batter pack up and running.  I think I have around $700 in a box of bolts, threaded rods, nuts, drill bits, copper bars, and 2 custom batter holders.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi David;
I very much wanted to try lithium batteries.
I was willing to take extra steps to do so.
With what I learned about the lithium BMS unit, for now, I'll stick with lead acid.
Maybe batteries will have improved when my AGMs wear out again.

The best battery for you is biased off your system and how it is used at the end of the day.  I never used AGM's for my power system, but use them for starting batteries.  

I did not go with a BMS on my system, but I'm also on used batteries.  It is no longer set and forget like I'm told you can do with BMS systems, but to me it's not that much more work.

Unless something changes I think a lot of people will be going to used batteries for off grid and hybrid systems in the next few years.

David Baillie wrote:

Jack Adam wrote:I went with Nissan Leaf batteries.  I have hydro and solar.

With out knowing the details about your system It's hard to say a lot.

Hi Jack,
Did you ever post about your system? What controller are you using? I have a thread here: https://permies.com/t/206893/Solar-Projects-good-bad-cutting
Where I would love to see the system or a link to it if you've already posted...
Cheers,. David Baillie

I'm using an older Outback controller on my hydro.

I tend to not over share on the internet due to issues I have run into in the past from over sharing on a chat forum years ago.

I went with Nissan Leaf batteries.  I have hydro and solar.

With out knowing the details about your system It's hard to say a lot.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Jack Adam wrote:I did a quick search for them at the 2 big box stores where I live and looked at a mix of vented / unvented and NG / propane gas logs looking at the specifications pages and did not see anything about a power connection.  When looking at the inserts most were just the box that the logs went into.  The fan and log set were a different product.  Are we looking at the same stuff?

Ah! Yes, they are different items entirely. I have not seen fire logs before. Mine is a high efficiency engineered insert with its own heat exchanger, and a combined exhaust chimney and external air intake installed in the old chimney flue. Essentially it's a furnace with a sealed glass door and fake ceramic logs so you can see the fire. Installed cost was about $5,000 CAD.

I have seen those a few times, but they are not popular where I'm at in the USA.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Jack Adam wrote:Most NG and propane wall heaters and fire place logs will work with out power.

I think it depends on the design. Many fireplace inserts now use electric igniters and flame sensors that rely on electricity to the control board. Old ones, or the model that I deliberately installed, have a pilot light and thermocouple that doesn't require external power.

I did not know they were making them like that now.  Who would think it would be smart to put a 120 volt power box in a fireplace?

After looking at the wall hung units there was a mix of units that called for power, but unsure if it was just for the fan in the unit.  I did not know these had fans now.

I did a quick search for them at the 2 big box stores where I live and looked at a mix of vented / unvented and NG / propane gas logs looking at the specifications pages and did not see anything about a power connection.  When looking at the inserts most were just the box that the logs went into.  The fan and log set were a different product.  Are we looking at the same stuff?

I have a Low Head Stream Engine (LH1000).  I get anywhere from 700 to 1,000 watts at 800 to 1000 gallons a minute with 26" of drop at 60 volts.  It did take some work to set up, but all hydro has a high start up cost IMO if done right.  We also have solar.

Our larger loads are set wired up to the grid with a lot of the convent items in life.  The important things are set as an "off grid power system" in our house, pottery, and shop.  At the time grid tie would of not been worth it to us.  When the power goes out part of the time we do not notice right away.