Kristie's weekly-ish pics

the guys trying to get the steal roof up

Nice photos & great progress.

The photos of Alivia putting a wrench to the batteries in the electric cart really gave me a start, though. HO - LEE- S#!T !!! This is MIGHTY dangerous stuff!!! Safety note for anyone reading this: Big cables on batteries are big so they can carry a lot of current. A good way to help remember this is: "the size of the fire depends on the size of the wire". Those appear to be 2-0 copper cables, which can handle 283 Amps, which is PLENTY to kill a beautiful little girl, or even a big strapping daddy. Really. Dead.

I have had off-grid customers tell me that they'd do all the battery work in order to save money, but also based on the very much mistaken idea that the 12-/24-/48-volt stuff must be easy, since the voltage was so low. I had one young customer that had a 12-volt battery bank, and a 5,000 watt inverter capable of a 8,500 watt surge. As a solar installer, I have to run the numbers and if he draws those batteries down as low as 10.7 volts when that beast surges to run his stupidly inefficient well pump, that's 8500/10.7 = 794 Amps !!! That means his cables need to be 4-0 cables doubled up. I tried to convince him to go to a 24 or 48 volt inverter and get rid of the well pump, but since his dad gave him the inverter.... Anyway, it turns out that the 120 and 240 volt AC power is MUCH safer to work with -- just look at the sizes of the wires! It's the low voltage (high amperage) stuff that can kill you. Remember: big wire => big spark.

SO -- when working with batteries:

* Wear heavy-duty rubber gloves
* Use only insulated tools -- no shiny chrome handles!
* Use a wrench that is too short to bridge the gap between + and - terminals whenever possible
* Safety glasses/goggles recommended. Batteries can explode -- though only rarely -- but if they do, the stuff you'll be sprayed with is really nasty
* Watch what your other hand is doing/touching -- don't be a "meat fuse" !
* Watch for anywhere the terminals could possibly come in contact with metal, and make sure it can not touch.
While we're on watches, don't wear one with a metal band -- or any metal jewelry on your fingers. Gold and platinum are much better conductors than human flesh, and you would not be the first to burn off a ring finger when that wedding band touches the (+) terminal
* No loose or dangling metallic objects (think glasses that won't stay on or are on a chain, bracelets, gold necklace, etc...)

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, folks, but working with batteries can be very dangerous, indeed, and you never want to touch a battery with a shiny metal tool held in a sweaty hand. It appears the photo is from a year ago, so Alivia must have survived the ordeal, but let's be sure to be really, really careful around batteries and big cables.

'Nuther Safety note:

Watch the color coding on those battery cables..... People tend to rely on them for their own personal safety, so you really want them to be correct. Notice in the photo of Alivia leaning over the batteries that the nearest battery has a red-labelled cable coming off BOTH terminals One of them is lying, and if you are relying on the red/black colors to know what to touch (and what NOT to touch), you could experience the meat fuse concept. Get out the black electrical tape, and correct the red color on the (-) terminal -- or reverse the cable if it is wrong on both ends.

Also note that her right hand is fairly close to a red (presumably +) terminal.... this is where you need to be careful. If that hand moves just a wee little bit (like when struggling to reach something or loosen a bolt, etc...), and that shiny wrench touches a (-) terminal SNAP!

Clear skies,

Brad Vietje
Green Works Solar Store
Newbury, VT

Living the good life at the wofati

Rivers babies are already a month old ....how time flies!

some of the earlier work on the begining of the large solar cart

finish of week one of building