Nuno Donato

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Nuno,
It is good to start with a small area (although having an overall plan for the property as a whole is also useful)
You say that despite it being adjacent to the street you don't go there very often, so it is more a zone 3 area perhaps? If the camera is facing North, then this is a South facing slope in a mediterranean climate, so I assume it is rather hot and dry in summer, a bit cooler and moister in winter. What is the soil like at the moment?
I'm very keen on function stacking - what properties do you want from the area?
You've implied - food, visuals from the road/neighbour (both in and out?), wildlife attracting/feeding/habitat, any other functions you want this area to achieve? You say that the children have been there (getting stung by the yucca!) so maybe child friendly planting or play areas? Keeping the dog out of food plantings is advisable too.

This area gets sun from the major part of the day, except in winter. Sun sets in NW, so in the hot summer days it does get quite a lot of sun and heat.

The dog likes to say hello to people passing by on the sidewalk, so that's why it likes to remove bushes that prevent it from having a better look at who's on the other side

I like edibles everywhere, but yeah, this area in particular is less used because it's on the opposite side of the house entry doors. So that's why I was thinking more in terms of herbs. And because the olive tree is already there, I had this idea of a "Mediterranean garden".

Anne Miller wrote:That decorative plant looks like a yucca to me:

So, what parts of the yucca are edible? Flower petals, raw or cooked though raw they usually give me a stomach ache, at best throat ache.  Try your raw blossoms carefully. Try one — ONE — petal, not only blossom, one petal and wait 20 minutes. See if you throat feels dry or bitter. If so these flowers should be cooked, I recommend boiling. The young fruits raw or cooked, but they are very bitter raw, read another throat/stomach ache. They are far better roasted until tender. Scrape out the inside and separate from the seeds. The pulp, sweetened, can be use for pies or boil dry to a paste, dry in oven as a sheet. Edible as is or mix with other food. The seeds can be roasted (375F) until dry, grind roughly, boil as a vegetable until tender. Young short flower stalks long before they blossom are also edible. Cut into sections, boil 30 minutes in plenty of water, peel. You can also peel first.

And more:

https://www.eattheweeds.com/yucca-yuca-which-is-edible-2/#:~:text=So%2C%20what%20parts%20of%20the,what%20makes%20the%20yucca%20bitter

What do you like to eat?  That is what would be best for that small space ...

yes, I think it is, but I don't like it. Also, the leaves are very pointy and hard and really hurt (my kids have been "stung" twice when getting close to it)

Hi all

I'm currently revamping the entire outdoor area around my house, and decided to start with the smaller one, so this doesn't feel too overwhelming!



It's a triangular-shaped area, which faces the street. Currently, it has a small olive tree, a decorative plant that I want removed (marked with the red cross), and some hedge bushes which my dog totally wrecked.
This is facing NW (the camera is pointing towards N), so it gets a lot of sun, especially in summer. Because of this, and also because its a place we don't use that often, I was planning more of a low-maintenance kind of thing, focusing on perennials
Maybe asparagus near the side edge, taking the bushes out and replacing them with a lavender edge, and then plant a few aromatic herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, etc.
I was also planning to dig a broad vase and use it to hold water, like a very small pond, for birds and to attract dragonflies.

I also thought of planting strawberries on the edge that faces the driveway, as they will be at an ideal height to pick easily.

Other alternatives for the neighbor-facing edge could also be blueberries or grapes.

Thoughts and recommendations?
I'm in Portugal btw, so this is a Mediterranean climate.

Hi folks

I thought some of you might be interested in this :)

https://www.nunodonato.com/2021/11/20/using-a-telegram-bot-to-help-me-manage-a-solar-off-grid-setup/

since I got down from 9 to 8 panels, I wonder if its worth to reconfigure my setup
from: (3x300) + (3x+300) + (3x300)
to: (2x300) + (2x300) + (2x300) + (2x300)

I need to get new cables for that and re-do some wiring... is it worth it?

Eric Hanson wrote:Does this confirm the problem is the string and not the panel?

Well, for me the problem is the panel, once I took it out, the rest seems to be working

Update!
With only the bad string connected, I took out one of the panels and I think I got lucky right on the first one! I tried to connect the string with 2 panels to the inverter and it began charging! So i guess I found out the culprit.

Is it worth to open the panel's "box" and look into some possible issues I can fix? Or is it good to replace? (its only 2 years old :( )

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. This is a 48V system with 48V batteries.

Since my multimeter clamp is AC only I'm out of luck testing that.
But I did run my own cables to the MC4, so I'm going to check those out first.

Eric Hanson wrote:Is there a way to unplug the panel and test for overall wattage?  Maybe run some lights directly from the panel to get an idea if it is producing full amperage?  My thinking is that it could be producing adequate voltage but tiny amperage and thus low wattage.  Maybe this would work?

These are 48V panels... I dont think I have anything that I can plug to it directly... :/

Eric Hanson wrote:Do you have an electrical multimeter?  As in voltmeter and especially amp meter?  In this case a clamp on meter would be ideal.  

What I am hypothesizing is that one panel is producing sufficient voltage but for some reason insufficient amps.  A clamp on amp meter could answer this hypothesis quickly.

Just a thought,

Eric

I have a clamp meter but it says AC all the time and I cant seem to make it switch to DC. Any other way to test the amps?