John Weiland

Continued helpful information here.  Various seasonal and social circunstances have diverted me from the next phase of my project....that of setting up a pump system to replace my gas-powered Honda for garden irrigation.  The pump that I chose finally arrived along with a Kil-O-Watt meter for examining electrical load from the pump, first monitored when plugged into 120VAC house power and ultimately when driven by a 12VDC/inverter combination.   The first fly in the ointment upon some preliminary testing of the pump was the fact that it does not prime in the same manner as the Honda gas  pump does.  With the gas pump, water is poured into the substantial impeller reservoir (semi-trash pump) and the suction produced when the pump is turned on is sufficient to pull water up the empty intake hose into the pump body.  The new pump, 1/2 hp and considerably smaller than the gas unit, apparently requires an intake hose filed with water as part of the priming requirement for starting and operation.  Enter the need for a 'foot valve', something I never had to deal with in the use of sump and other small dewaering pumps.  Attached to the end of the intake hose, this prevents water from draining back down the intake hose when the pump is not operating...ostensibly maintaining a column of waer in the hose and maintaining 'prime' of the pump until the next time it is needed.  This new configuration will be tested in the next few days, but "heat-n-bug" season is upon us as well and can make work of this type proceed quite slowly.  Updates to follow a they emerge.....

Photo below not mine, but this is the type of building I hope to build to address that problem with my own equipment.  The harsh winters necessitate the tractors themselves to be inside, but the attachments easily can stay in such an unheated and open shed.  The spot I've chosen, still in stale-mated discussions wih spouse [  :-)  ]  is embedded within trees and some many need to be removed.  Such a location would be a must:  A wide-front loafing shed like this is like a parachute just waiting for a strong wind, a phenomenon present here in abundance.  But the wide opening also is highly desired for access to the implements by the rear of the tractor(s).  In my case, probably will settle for gravel rock surface instead of concrete, but both have complementing advantages.

Dennis Barrow wrote:......but pay them off each month.

I think using the cards helps keep the score up there, maybe, maybe not.

Truthfully, I've not looked that much into how credit scares scores are produced, but the frugality of both self and wife have helped keep it generally high when needing to get a rare loan.  I was not aware of the impact on insurance rates.....thanks for that info!!   What I was curious about with respect to the clipped statement is whether most pay their cards off themselves or have their bank/credt union do it for them.   One of my earlier credit cards from a credit union set it up so that for an annual $5 fee, they would pay off the card each month when due.  My main credit card today does the same, but may not even have an annual fee (need to check again).  If having that paid off on time by the credit union helps to maintain the credit score, I consider a small annual fee worth the expense. Outside of the house mortgage, long since paid off, all other loans to date were tractor/UTV purchases (new) at 0% financing and paid off on time or early.

Potatoes (foreground) and Jerusalem artichokes (background).

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Outwit a HOA? Now THAT is a noble cause!

.................Nothing to see here! And maybe there's a market for water tanks that look like a parked BMW or Lexus?

.....or an HOA-approved 'shrubbery'! :-)   A bit of social engineering with the HOA president probably never hurt either....

Athough I have not carefully monitored specs on them, I have 2 different BougeRV charge controllers....one inside the batter compartment of my EZGO 36V golf cart, charging lead acid batteries, and a second one mounted in a carport and charging the 48V Polaris Ranger EV.  For the way we use those vehicles....very short trip as farmyard 'go-fers',....the charging from single 300 - 400W PV panels is sufficient.  So absolutely no complaints with them to this point.

Sorry to hear about your friend and hoping it's nothing serious....

I've received a 1/2 hp water pump now that I hope to run with my new battery and inverter combintion.  Will give a report after trying that out and seeing what needs arise after testing.  A few pieces to outfit the pump for water suction and discharge still needed, but should be done soon.

Our garden is fenced against deer, but rabbits occasionally get in .... and that's the effect they would show on our beans.  As others have noted, if these are on a low deck, try moveing them to a higher point like a deck railing or table.  If the new location is away from deer and rabbits and *still* occurring, I would suspect squirrels or similar.

David Baillie wrote: .....Unfortunately there is also a proliferation of low end junk as well. Its now the wild west. I'm fairly conservative in my design choices sticking to companies with a North American presence for support.  

^^^ This!   I'm possibly being overly cautious with expenditures and the rate of installation, but prefer not to end up with useless piles of electronics destined for the scrap heap or landfill.  Trying to be as modular as possible with installations and buying used PV panels that I can test locally on-sight first before buying on-line as an option.  Still, with a Permie approach to energy needs, PV/wind/hydro seems like such a sensible route for home power.

David Baillie wrote:.............The transformation happens at the inverter mounted near the end user. You should plan on a good steel jacketed teck cable and metal junction boxes or trays all the way to the inverter to minimize risk. Use a high voltage rated isolation switch at the array and high voltage rated Breakers at the inverter. It costs money but saves money in wiring and allows for much larger systems. It boils down to size of system, how far out you are and the level of loss you are willing to take.

David B.,   Does this suggest that micro-inverters installed within each panel are going by the wayside now for the industry at large?  If I'm thinking about this right, micro-inverters would kick the DC voltage from the PV panels into 120VAC (yes?), which would reduce line loss (correct?) and possibly allow for less expensive cabling from panel to destination, although best not to skimp on that with any wiring exposed to the elements.  For battery charging, this would need to be converted back to DC at the destination point.  But I thought one advantage of micro-inverters was being able to grid-interie without an inverter positioned near the end-user.  Thanks....

Riley Hall wrote:I really like this one by dewalt. ......

Same.   We're heavily invested in Dewalt tools, so that compressor was a natural add on and it hasn't disappointed.  I can't speak to the longevity of the unit with large truck tires, but we routinely use it on a Toyota Tundra pick-up with no problems as well as on my small-ish tractors, cargo trailer, horse trailer, etc.