200th Post. Where I have been. What I am up to. Video updates!

Pondering...

I've been dead a while on Blogger. My mind has been racing elsewhere. Taking care of various projects here in our 8500FT mountains. Transitioning to Spring. (Although the weather goes back and forth between it and winter) Today we even got some small hail?

Anyhoot. I've been working more at creating Youtube videos to document the progression of living Off-Grid. To pair up better with that I have created a Facebook page as well. http://facebook.com/thestayathomegardener

I believe that will allow me to interact easier with people as well as post photos and commentary between video updates. :-) 

As far as resuming blogger... I am not sure whether I will simply remove it or retain it as another platform to interact with such great and interesting people.

On the chance that a few of you have missed the Youtube channel, Youtube.com/user/cnypilot, below are a couple video links to recent happenings! #61 is a video about the start of the 2015 Garden season here at 8500FT/2560m in the mountains of Colorado. While #60 is a video flashback to when I first installed Solar electricity in 2013 and the journey started. :)

 

#60 - Beginnings of Solar

 

#61 - Changes (Gardening)

PS. In the upcoming #62 video I will be showing off the build of a Garden Shed that Samantha and I have been working on.

Garden Shed inspiration from Pinterest

Raising Walls.

Hanging about.

Coming along nicely, me thinks.

Collecting Sun-rays.

Yesterday, late afternoon, I plugged in half of the solar array to the combiner box. (1000 watts out of 2000) Before it rained and went dark, I was able to harvest 200watts. Today has been mostly cloudy. It started to rain in the late afternoon. Occasionally the sun broke out between the clouds and beat down onto the panels. (Still only half connected) Saw a lovely sight of 15.2 amps being put into my drained and bottom balanced Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack. Or 819Watts.

The whole bottom balancing these cells are different than Lead Acid batteries. You pull each individual cell down to 2.750 volts. Get all of them within a few milli-volts of each other. Then charge them all up (connected in series for a nominal 48v pack (actually 56v) ) together.

Happily, as they are charging up, they are remaining well balanced. The last reading after today's cloudy day, putting in 2.4 KwH, showed them all within 2mV.

Fantastic.

I am relieved to no longer need to balance the cells. All in all, it took me a week and a half for the 16 cells. Between the rain, building the other structures, sleeping, and sun-stroke.

Tomorrow I'll connect both strings to the combiner box. Today showed me that even in some not so perfect conditions, half of the array was producing enough to power (per hour) my 42in TV for an hour. With the full array pulling in power.... I should be golden!

A view into our Life.

2000 Watts basking in the sun.

Putting 15.2 amps into the batteries. 819 Watts (1000watts connected)