Moving on

Monday I finally got around to disassembling one of my projects that no longer made any sense. Some years ago I built a solar batch hot water heater. It was maded from a salvaged propane water heater, salvaged windows and scrap plywood.

Our tankless water heater failed and at the time money was especially tight. The local building supply company had a small 3.5 gallon water heater for sale at a ridiculously low price. It was just barely big enough to make hot water to wash dishes or take a quick shower. The solar hot water tank, on good days, provided enough hot water to fill the bathtub for a hot soak.

Over the year the 3.5 gallon heater failed and was replaced with a 40 gallon tank. The big tank was also hooked up to heater coils off the woodstove. The solar water heater, over time, became heavily shaded by trees. Some of those trees were actually on the neighbor's land. My quickly growing nut trees provided even more shade.

Monday my lovely wife asked if I was ever going to do anything with the solar water heater or if it was time to scrap it. As much as I hate to let things go it was time to take it apart. Some of the glass could be salvaged, as the tank itself plus the insulation. The wood had both rot and an ant infestation. The remains are now burning in the fireplace.

Solar hot water only makes sense here for about 3 or 4 months out of the year. At least, the low cost 1970s, style low tech heaters only make sense for that long. Current high end systems with sophisticated controls, large storage tanks and a freeze proof working fluid can work year round. My daughter has such a system and it makes sense for her.

Right now I might just suck up a couple months of higher cost hot water. It's only until the short summer is over and we start burning wood again.

That doesn't mean we aren't thinking of solar options. I do have a large coil of ¾ inch plastic pipe that I could toss on a sunny roof then feed into the hot water heater. Perhaps if I can get away without spending to much money or time on it, that might just happen.

-Sixbears

Cabin in the woods, then and now

There's living in the woods and there's living in the woods. I'm living in a low population density area surrounded by trees and wildlife. However, it's a compromise area for me. When we moved out here we had young children. My wife didn't mind moving for one major reason.

The road was maintained year round. Sure, having some access to town services is nice, but the fact the road is plowed in the winter is huge. It's inconvenient if the kids have to cross country ski to the bus stop. Sure, it's a pain to haul groceries in on a tobaggon. That's bad, but not the deal breaker. Mud season is the deal breaker. When roads and trails turn into a knee deep mix of slush and mud, there's no traveling.

You can't keep a job or live even a semi-normal life if you are housebound for a mouth until the mud dries out. Whatever you do don't have a medical emergency or need supplies in town. It's not gonna happen.

Now that the kids are grown and on their own I suppose I could live in a more isolated cabin. Off the grid cabins can have a few things my dad's old hunting camp lacked. The big one is cheap solar electric. Just being able to have bright LED lights is a huge plus.

Another thing I'd change is the outhouse. There's nothing worse than having to put your boots on and struggle through the snow to do one's business. Dad was smart because he kept the toilet seat on a hook behind the woodstove. That way you could take a toasty warm seat with you to the outhouse. Believe me, it made a huge difference. Instead of an outhouse a nice indoor bathroom with a composting head would be a huge improvement. No need to put boots on and plow through the snow.

The problem with moving to a more isolated cabin is that I'm pushing 60. One day I could wake up with shooting pains down my left arm. Being able to call an ambulance and have it appear at my door could save my life. Actually, if access to emergency medical services is a necessity, it really makes sense to live in town. EMS response times make a difference. Also, you get help from professionals who stay right next to their ambulance ready to go. Beats the heck out of waiting for volunteers, no matter how dedicated they are.

Personally, living in town would probably kill me quicker than a heart attack. Being out in the country is probably one of the reasons I'm not dead before age 45 -like one doctor told me I'd be. Clean air, water, exercise, and natural beauty do wonders for one's health. That doesn't mean I can't fall down and break a leg. Should that happen I'll be very happy that my local volunteers will be able to eventually get to me. Beats the heck out of dying in the mud.

-Sixbears

Game changers in electric transportation

In many instances alternative energy can replace fossil fuels. The one big area where renewables fell short was transportation. Liquid fossil fuels pack an awful lot energy into a pretty compact package. Combined with the fact that gas stations exist in great abundance all over the world, it's a tough nut to crack. Electric cars had poor performance and recharging took forever.

There are a number of factors coming together that will change all that -and relatively quickly too. The first factor is the huge expansion in cheap renewables. Wind and solar generation are getting cheaper and more abundant every year. It makes little sense to have an electric car that gets its electricity from a plant burning dirty coal.

Battery technology is finally producing batteries with enough energy density that electric cars can travel over 200 miles on a charge. There are also quick charge stations starting to pop up that charge batteries in minutes instead of hours.

Of course, Elon Musk's Tesla company is in the news. People lined up to throw money at him for a car that won't be on the road until sometime next year. That's huge. It's not so much that Tesla is making electric cars. Tesla is making really cool cars that are fun to drive and own -they just happen to be electric too.

All eyes are on Musk's Model 3 as if it will make or break the market for electric vehicles. It won't. The really big news is not from the West but from the East. China is making a huge push for electric cars. They will turn them out in the millions, and they will be pretty cheap too. They won't be Teslas, but they will be good enough to get the job done. Expect China to try to flood the world market.

It makes perfect sense for China to invest heavily into electric cars. Their urban pollution is horrific. Replacing gas with electric will help. China has another problem: they aren't a huge producer of oil. Going heavily into electric vehicles will reduce their reliance on imports.

Also under the radar is the quiet invasion of electric buses and delivery vehicles. They make sense in an urban setting where speeds are low and distances between stops are short. Quick charging stations can keep even fairly short range vehicles on the road all day long.

I've had my eye on electrics for years. The idea of electrics powered by alternative energy was a powerful one, but the numbers just never came together. Now they have.

-Sixbears

Electric sailboat

As most of you know, my lovely wife and I lost our boat in a shipwreck. That doesn't mean we won't be sailing. Once the ice is off the lake our Oday 19 will be back in the water. While it doesn't have the creature comforts the Ranger 23 had, we've made it work for us in the past.

Last year I did away with the gas engine and switched to a 55 pound thrust trolling motor. Since it's a sailing boat, the motor isn't needed all that much anyway. Mostly, we used it for leaving our anchorage. Once last year the wind totally died and we came back using the electric trolling motor. We traveled about 4.5 miles and there was still plenty of charge left in the battery.

It was nice to not have to deal with a heavy gas motor and gas cans. Because we used the motor so little, a small 30 watt solar panel was able to keep the battery charged.

That was great for the type of boating we did, but what if we use the boat for days or weeks at at a time? One thing I'd like to do is to convert the home made gas can box into a battery box. There's plenty of room for two heavy duty deep cycle batteries. That's great, but how to keep them charged up?

The little 30 watt solar panel would probably not be up to the job. Since we occasionally stay at marinas, it would make sense to be able to charge the batteries at the marina. About 6 years ago I converted a regular heavy duty outdoor extension cord into a 30 amp marine cord. I already had the extension cord it was easy to just purchase a 30 amp male plug and wire it myself.

That was great but this past winter I noticed a lot of marinas have done away with the 30 amp power poles and completely replaced them with 50 amp. In fact, plenty of boats were tied into two 50 amp power outlets at the same time. What the heck where they doing that they needed so much electricity? Arc welding?

Probably not. Live aboard power “needs” have increased to the point where 100 amps barely does the job. Air conditioning is a big power hog, but things like freezers, ice makers, and a whole host of appliances really increases the power draw.

The simple solution would be to buy a 50 to 30 amp adapter. The problem is that they run for over $100. Sure, I could buy one, but If I solved all my issues by throwing money at them, we'd never be able to afford to sail at all.

One good thing now about marinas is that for many of them electric power is not included. How is that good? That means a guy like me who uses very little power isn't paying the same price as a guy who's got the AC turned so high they could use their boat as a meat locker. Once the 100 watt solar panel was in operation we never connected to marina power. The sun provided all the energy we needed.

The solar panel was one of the few things salvaged from the wreck. If it was installed on the Oday it should be able to do a good job of charging the trolling motor batteries. I could even keep the 30 watt panel charging the ship battery that runs the lights.

The best part is that outside of the batteries themselves the project could be done with materials already on hand.

-Sixbears.