D Nikolls

I had a permitted septic system put in recently here, a similar function.

The installer was *extremely* particular about perfectly leveling the pipes, which are bedded in sand. The feed enters from the center, not one end.

Interestingly, the holes in the pipe were drilled on site; smaller holes than commercial perf pipe, at spacing determined by math required to design the system to code.

We've done geotextile/gravel sausages for drainage purposes, and I do not think they would be a good replacement for the perf pipe..

No data on trees/shrubs nearby, interested to see what data you find related to that part.

Tereza Okava wrote:One thing  we hear in the mechanic shop every day is "my car is such a gas hog". Most of the time the person in question came screaming in and goes screaming out. Drive the limit- take it easy. If you're coming up on a stop sign or light there's no need to accelerate-- you have to stop soon anyway! I was super lucky to learn to drive on a tractor hauling heavy loads. Drive calm and you'll accelerate less and get better mileage.

Exactly. I drive the limitish on smaller/slower roads, and around 90-95k on the big highway with 110k limit. It's 2 lanes with minimal traffic, lots of room for everyone else to zip past at around 120.. the difference in fuel consumption in my big boxy truck is noticeable on thoese rare occasions that I am hurried enough to break this rule..

Ahmet Oguz Akyuz wrote:Hi David,

I am using Lithium (LiFePO4 to be specific) at 48V. The battery box has a BMS in it and I can monitor the individual cells (there are 16 of them) using an app. But the inverter has no communication with the BMS -- it is an hybrid inverter rated at 6.2 kW. So I think my inverter is already relying on the global battery voltage readings from the poles of the battery. Is this a problem?

If I add a second charge controller, which in the mean-time I realized to be quite an expensive option, it would also connect to the battery poles directly and would sample the battery voltage from there. But I will make sure to enter the same battery settings for the existing inverter and the new MPPT.

I do have a question regarding the MPPT choice. Given that my panel specs are 320W-410W 32V-40V 7.7A-10A and I will connect 6 of these in series, can you recommend me a budget-friendly MPPT that will work with them. Victron models are unfortunately very expensive.

Also, I noticed that inverters can consume non-negligible battery capacity at night. The aforementioned 6.2 kW inverter easily eats up around 15% of my 100 Ah battery. Do you know if charge controllers also consume such capacity?

Thanks.

Since your battery is LiFePO4, is there any risk of freezing temperatures where you are? If so, does your BMS have a functional low temp shutoff to prevent destruction of the battery by charging beow freezing?

If this is a possible issue, seeking out MPPT controllers with temp sensing/limiting options may be desirable. I am runnning cheap LiFePO4 batteries without temp protection, relying on the Victron MPPTs for this.. You may not need to worry about freezing temperatures, though?

Anne Miller wrote:Thanks for bringing this up as I have more questions.

How strict are airlines for carry on luggage?

I don't want to buy luggage and plan to use bags that we already have.

The duffel bag is bigger than the 22 x 14 x 9 that is stated.  If I have to pay to check the bag it is cheaper than buying luggage.

I want to put the laptop in a backpack that is bigger than the 9 x 10 x 17 to fit under the seat.  I can put my feet on the part that will not fit.

I really worry about my stuff getting broken if I have to check the bags.

I am spending our daughter inheritance to make this trip.

Airlines definitely vary. I don't have a ton of experience, and all of it was going to SE Asia. Most of the time, they don't care a lot about carryon size or weight; if it fits in the overhead it flies, and for the personal item if it basically fits under the seat it flies. They do go around checking that bags are in the right place, not sure how much of a problem it is if the personal item has made it this far but doesn't fit according to their criteria.

Some of the time they check if it will fit into a box of under-seat dimensions, and sometimes they have carryon weight limits that are being enforced, in both cases there does not seem to be any flexibility if they are checking.

If you bring a duffle that is not crammed full, but would be over if it was crammed full, I would guess it would be ok. But there is a degree of variety in the rules between airlines, and more variety in whether they are diligently enforcing them.

As far as checked bags go, when my wife comes home from visiting family, she uses beefy cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic with a fabric handle strap. They make her sign a waiver that damage is her fault due to unsuitable packing, but thus far it's worked out well. The one time we used proper hard suitcases they were busted after one trip..

It is not 100% necessary to have multiple MPPT charge controllers communicating with each other, or with the inverter or BMS, if you have a BMS.

The main thing to look out for is excessive charge current. If your battery, wiring, fuses are all large enough to handle the maximum input from all connected panels/chargers (on a cold sunny day with the thermal coefficient of the panels considered) simultaneously, then the MPPTs will not cause problems with excessive charge current, as they simply can't produce excessive charge current.

If this is not the case, you would have a problem to address.. you'd need some way to avoid excessive current.


It might also be a good idea, if the above is not an issue, to configure slightly more conservative charge parameters in all but one charge controller. The idea being to have the other controller/controllers end their charge first, so that around max voltage only one charger is operating, in order to avoid confusing behavior as multiple chargers try to manage the relatively low current/high voltage gain end of charge behavior. This may be completely unnecessary, but can probably be determined experimentally..

Dakota Miller wrote:

D Nikolls wrote:I use a system with a 50micron, 10/1 micron, 0.5 micron in series, followed by a Luminor GUV-4S LED UV treatment.

I run it at well under 1GPM, into a 40 gallon stainless tank that gravity feeds the sink. Sink is the only water source in the tinyhouse.

I like the energy efficiency of the very small UV system that I can use with such low flow, and batch filtering keeps power usage super low.


Your system sounds pretty good to me; I haven't used a RO system before for comparison..

I would want to hit the shower water with 1micron/UV, personally. I usually take my mouth with me into the shower, so it just seems less worrisome to treat that water like it might meet my mouth.


Main issue in my system that may also pertain to yours; first flush diverter and coarse filtration before the main storage tank. I have a first flush diverter using a screen at the intake, a float to divert water to tank when diverter full, and a small weep hole to allow it to drain slowly.

It sucks, it clogs in multiple ways, and it runs all the water over the accumulated debris. I will start from scratch on this part of the system next time round.

I am thinking covered gutters, centrifugal first flush diverter, and a barrel sand/gravel filter before storage..  time will tell.

Ok. I think I found the same unit. The specs me it
(30 mJ/cm2 at 95% UVT) 0.6 GPM

(40 mJ/cm2 at 95% UVT) 0.4 GPM
So it looks good.

I'm wondering if I set up a low flow rate UV system, how would it affect the physical filters? If I recall correctly the standard Culligan candle style filters need at least 20gpm to work properly? Maybe I need some sort of flow/pressure regulation between the prefilters and RO. And between the RO and UV.

There are more small UV filtration options becoming available over time, I haven't compared lately. I don't much like the connection style on this one, but it has been working without issue for a couple years so far.

I am using 10" 'big blue' style filters, which are generally specced for a suggested minimum of 1gpm for 'efficient operation'. But I don't see any mechanism that should make them cease to filter at a lower flow rate.

I am using an RV water pump with a small pressure tank. Then I manually flow limited the system with a ball valve, with new filters. Flow falls over time, I can recalibrate if I care to bother.. the pump is noisy as heck and clearly doesn't love this way of using it, I will seek a more appropriate pump for the next iteration.

Personally I would absolutely not want to use untreated rainwater, at one point I was cleaning gutters and discovered I had a rat or chipmunk hanging out on a gutter doing his business extensively.. yuck.

I use a system with a 50micron, 10/1 micron, 0.5 micron in series, followed by a Luminor GUV-4S LED UV treatment.

I run it at well under 1GPM, into a 40 gallon stainless tank that gravity feeds the sink. Sink is the only water source in the tinyhouse.

I like the energy efficiency of the very small UV system that I can use with such low flow, and batch filtering keeps power usage super low.


Your system sounds pretty good to me; I haven't used a RO system before for comparison..

I would want to hit the shower water with 1micron/UV, personally. I usually take my mouth with me into the shower, so it just seems less worrisome to treat that water like it might meet my mouth.


Main issue in my system that may also pertain to yours; first flush diverter and coarse filtration before the main storage tank. I have a first flush diverter using a screen at the intake, a float to divert water to tank when diverter full, and a small weep hole to allow it to drain slowly.

It sucks, it clogs in multiple ways, and it runs all the water over the accumulated debris. I will start from scratch on this part of the system next time round.

I am thinking covered gutters, centrifugal first flush diverter, and a barrel sand/gravel filter before storage..  time will tell.

Latest that some of ours have hung on is end of November in northern PNW..