Category: Personal

Spring has Sprung?

March 20th 2020

The earliest spring in a hundred and some years … that may be so, but here in the Arizona desert it just seems like another day. It’s not a real warm day not like our family in Hamilton Ontario are experiencing, in fact our high temperature here today is the same as our family back in Ontario are getting. The difference really shows up on Saturday then Hamilton’s forecast high is 32f or 0c degrees and ours is 67f or 20c degrees, it is those crazy temperature swings that indicates while the calendar may be saying spring the thermometer doesn’t totally agree with it yet.

This is the main reason we are not rushing north, as full timers those 21f or -6c degree nights just don’t fall into the range of comfort we are looking for, oh we are aware that we will hit some cold night but if we can avoid another three or four weeks worth … I am thinking is the better choice. Hearing about all the snowbirds going north, gets everyone thinking they should follow, but most of the ones heading north now have sticks & bricks, that is the big difference, and as we look ahead what we would do back in Ontario? No this is the best choice for us, with a kayak in our near future, and it gives the world a couple of weeks to get their shyt all gathered up in one little pile.

We are aware that we will be in isolation or quarantine for two week after we cross the border so rushing back to the cold to do our 14 days in the cold is not our first choice. So we are choosing to enjoy a few more warm days in Arizona, today we are going to meet up with the Savino’s and do some hiking in the desert, we are looking to catching up with the winters adventures.

Thank you Ray for the photo

What a great day … I mean like really … we met up with Ray & Karen and ventured east on US-60 to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior Arizona. We toured a portion of the arboretum, which is divided up into different areas with many ranges of foliage and lots of wildlife, we had a picnic lunch and caught up on our winters adventures, and talked about upcoming travels for the summer and this fall. It seem crazy to be talking about fall travel on the first day of spring, but that is what we do now, it is all just thoughts and ideas for now, but it takes a few months to research items that we want to do and see, then it is just a case of linking them altogether to make an actual trip with a time frame and then finalize a plan.

It was amazing today that while the rest of the world are busy loosing their little minds, that there are still so many wonderful areas still open that give so many an escape from the reality. While the store and other indoor areas were closed, the rest of the park was open to be enjoyed. In fact I only noticed one crazy guy with a mask, and he only had it covering his nose … can you say wacko … just saying.

A quick solar update.

March 19th 2020

Ok be warned this is an update on our solar system. If you have been following the progress of our latest solar upgrade you may remember that I have been having issues with a voltage drop at the solar controllers, and it was large enough that it would keep moving the controllers from bulk charge to a float charge and it would do this because the controller was seeing a voltage in excess of 14.4 volt which is the same voltage as our battery’s when fully charged. But actually the true battery voltage was only 13.4 volts, the difference was the 1.0 volt drop that I have been chasing.

This was the style of circuit breaker that I was running between the controller and the batteries, it was a 50 amp unit that clamped down on the 6 gauge wire by means of a set screw. I have tightened them multiple times but they always seemed to be loose. This problem is maybe magnified because it is a multi strand welding cable, so less rigid.

What I was able to trace was that because now we are running the controllers at near capacity, 550 watts each the breaker was causing too much resistance when the panels were were in full sun. I even disassembled the connections and tried soldering the cable ends to get a much more solid surface for the set screw to tighten against, but the breaker would heat up and the resistance would increase causing the larger voltage drop, sending the controller into float charge mode, reducing the output until the controller sensed the correct battery voltage again throwing it into a continuous cycle switching cycle from bulk to float and back again. So the better the solar harvest available the worse this condition would be and the poorer our actual solar harvest would be.

This is what I replaced the circuit breaker with, with it I was able to crimp copper lugs onto the 6 gauge wire, and then tighten them with a wrench reducing any chance of resistance and have corrected the voltage drop so the controller picks up true battery voltage. I had to upgrade to 60 amp fuses but they are to protect from a catastrophic failure so the extra 10 amps won’t be a concern.

It is amazing how one of the most inexpensive pieces in our solar system has caused me the largest amount of grief. I just today finished changing the fuse blocks and even with a rainy morning and a cloudy sky we have harvested more than 250 amp / hours of solar power. We are still seeing a voltage drop but less than one half a volt, and it stays consistent at all amperage, over the summer I will replace the 6 gauge wire with 2 gauge with proper crimps and will shorten the length of the cables by running them more directly to the batteries … my target will be less than one tenth of a volt drop between batteries and controller.

That’s all for the solar updates most likely till we are back into Ontario.

Please be careful and stay safe!