John Weiland

thomas rubino wrote:......
Once you go, Brick, you'll never go back!

I like this!...   Just to confirm, the bulk...or all??...of the improved heating from shorty over the 'iron wheezer' is due to mass heating and not to longer burn time?  Or is a mixture of both effects?  Thanks!

Derek T. wrote "Same, but in Fahrenheit for our metric-challenged friends to the south"....    Thanks!.... even decades spent in a research lab using Celsius, Grams/Liters, and Hectares has not wrestled from my brain the need for the Fahrenheit scale when estimating the face-ripping intensity of a good Alberta clipper. ;-)

Can't get over the fact that Winnipeg is farther straight north from the Fargo area than Minneapolis is to the south of us.....yet, the latter is routinely 10 - 15 degrees (F) warmer than us in winter whereas Winnipeg is nearly the same temperature.  All the same, the coldest temperatures typically, but by no means always, are accompanied by clear skies,---and we are already feeling the difference in sun intensity, even if rather mild just now.  Passive solar still so underutilized in reconstruction and new building efforts in the region.

G Freden wrote:.....

Eggs and kimchi is a match made in heaven, in my opinion.  Bacon is simply gilding the lily.

This passage has now stuck in my head and will be my break-fast inspiration from here on out!..... ;-)

So I just took the plunge on a moderately priced charger from a large online distributor who shall remain unnamed. ;-)   The reviews on it suggested it will do what I want it to do, even if it won't do what the manufacturers advertise it to do.  I can live with that for now.  The immediate impetus....with an addendum below....is the charging of an 100 Ah LiFePO4 (100A BMS) battery.  Without going into the rather unusual background of the issue, a reading lamp in the main living room space needs power and can't get it by other means (old house, limited outlets, unmentioned impediment to extension cord use).  I debated converting the lamp to 12V (can an E26 socket be rewired or relabeled +/- to be used as 12V?.....Do 12V bulbs even come in an E26 configuration?), but wanted to test using an inverter and battery combo and stick with the current plug, cord, and wiring to see how long it could operate under our normal useage before needing to be recharged.  The LED bulb in the socket is 12W and the inverter is 700W running.  No fan noise under these conditions.  The battery is bluetooth so one can monitor state of charge rather easily.  It was actually a bit surprising to me how quickly that little bulb drained juice out of the battery.  Unfortunately, I don't have the total number of hours to bring the battery from 100% down to 30% because of a strange occurrance....

Addendum:  I check the battery status nightly and one day after it showed (bluetooth reading from BMS) a charge level of ~50%, my wife noted to me that she had turned off the inverter due to an 'insufficient charge' error code.  This seemed odd, but sure enough when I connected the phone app, the battery was registering 0%!  As my only LiFePO4 charger at the moment is a fixed 3A charger, I began a recharge and noticed it starting to fill as expected.  The 4 individual cells were equally charging as well.  Needless to say, charging that battery with this small charger will take some time (and monitoring of the temperature of the charger!) but eventually it got back to 100%.  So I'm left confused about the precipitous charge drop from ~50% to 0%.  I will note that even though the light was not on during this time, the inverter was.....normally the inverter is turned off after the light is turned off for the night.

The battery is now charged up again to 100%....single cell voltage at 3.4 across all 4 cells.  Any thoughts on why this may have happened before I begin use again?  The new charger will arrive any day now and can do LiFePO4 charging at 2, 10, and 25A, so hoping to get faster charging out of this unit.  Also, I suspect conversion of the lamp to 12V would allow for longer operation before recharging due to eliminating inverter draw, correct? As always, thanks for insights and comments.

As others weigh in, I'd like to possibly add the question of where the notion came in that breakfast is "the most important meal of the day".

Perhaps like many, a childhood weekend might see typical bacon/eggs/ toast/pancakes type of fare on one or both days.  Weekdays/workdays  were pretty regimented with hot or cold breakfast cereal, frequently with sliced banana, whole grapefruit, and then off to work/school.  Interestingly, both parents tended to adhere to this as well.

But now....

Like several answers above, it would not be unusual for me, both when working and now in retirement, to have a cup of coffee and not have any food until after the noon hour.  It was more common near the end of the career to grab an extra coffee on the way to work and include some sweet pastry or muffin, but at home I tend to not bother.   This is why I ask the question above...if so many of us are skipping "the most important meal of the day", why is it considered that and what might we gain by at least something possibly more ..... 'thoughtful'..?

A tangentially-related question on the thread contents.

Most of what is posted above refers to LiFePO4 batteries being charged with solar.  I'm curious about an efficient wall-plug charger that might do as many different amperages, volts, and battery chemistries as possible, *within reason*.  I understand that having something to charge flashlight batteries -and- industrial forklift batteries is likely asking too much.  But I'm finding that, partially due to a learning curve, I have lead-acid batteries ranging from 12V car/tractor to golf cart 6V deep cycle (36V as a series connected pack, but has own charger...and soon upgrading to higher V) to some newer 10Ah to 100 Ah LiFePO4 batteries, each needing charging independently.  I'm thinking rather than having so many different chargers around, there may be some rather reliable unit out there, switchable (manually or automatically) between lead acid and lithum that may range from 6-12V (maybe higher?), and can be adjusted for 2 - 20 A, again possibly manually, but also via algorithm profile automatically for best life of battery.  It's not that I haven't come across some chargers that appear to do this, but if there is a brand or source of plug-in (120VAC) charger that those with years of experience have found to be robust and have useful parameters for diverse charging needs and could post those here, I would be grateful.  Thoughts welcome as well....Thanks!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

r ranson wrote:

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:LOL, r ranson! Prairie folks find it highly amusing when there's a "snowpocalypse" on the Wet Coast!

We laugh at how flatlanders drive around corrners here.  It's extremely obvious.

It's hard to explain just how hilly, twisty the roads are here.  Add people who haven't driven in snow before and bald tires,... meh, they are only 10 year old tires, still got a good 8 years left....yep.  snowpocalypse is the word for it.

Although,  it's mostly newly migrated flatlanders that get in the most accidents because for some reason, they imagined the other car is going to behave predictably in snow.  

Fair point! I've driven rental cars on twisty remote hightways on Vancouver Island. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was driving or flying a stunt plane. Icy snow on those roads would be pretty freaky.

Couple of generations of flatlander in my blood, but I'm beginning to realize this driving habit can be 'un-learned' in possibly a single generation.  Spent several years in my 20s from southern Washington to central Oregon, mostly hugging the Cascade range.  As noted, I was the one with the long line of impatient drives behind me as I tried to peer around each twisty corner before convincing myself I might try giving it a little gas. Then had a first cousin visit from the north Bay Area and just about lost my lunch as he careened around the loops with skill and gusto.  I never felt in danger of losing my life, just my most recent meal.  I learned to speed up more on the straight-aways, just to let those behind know I wasn't on a Sunday drive...  My advantage, however, is being able to drive across Nebraska (the Saskatchewan of the South) completely fascinated by never having to touch the steering wheel with my hands.  Just wedge knees under the wheel and let the ponys run.... lol

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Nina;
Liz has decided we are getting a small cordless humidifier for the bedroom.
No wet towels or laundry are allowed to be hung on Shorty...
The boss has spoken.  

Beautiful build, Thomas, but I'm now confused by the photo.  With the nice flat surface, why not seek out a new decorative 'steamer' for that surface?  You could be honoring the 'Dragon' or your local grizzlies with either of the two shown below....  Or?

It's funny because I've been wondering the same thing over the past few years.  Over these years, I've heard many stories of the same ....."Why can't I and my family live on $150,000.00 per year....there is something wrong!"   To be sure, context is everything in this issue.  Health concerns for the author or family member could push finances to a critical limit even if one were making $500.000 per year.  And then there is the "How do you fix it?" issue of those born into a community that was livable in 1970, but then catches on fire in terms of desirable property location.....and the cost of owning there years later becomes prohibitive.  But even given the items that were once considered luxuries and now are considered 'essentials' for living, I do find myself wondering just what the typical household considers a 'necessity' for a good standard of living.   Certainly, some of these will change over time, but I'm curious as to how the question "Can we afford it?" is addressed when certain purchases are made.  Again, I do feel this to be a very complex and contextual issue for discussion, but one I find poorly addressed in the general media on livability stories in recent years.  As a corollary, if anyone has seen a good article that addresses this issue, I would be most interested in reading it.

May not be what you are after, ..... but maybe??  JOC, probably mid to late 60s, maybe even early 70s.  Wife's copy....tattered, stained, stressed....used and abused.  ;-)   But still with us, even without the covers and TOC....and copyright date.  Attached is the recipe from that book that uses vinegar.  Good luck!