Coffee and Batteries

What do batteries and coffee have in common? Besides the fact that you can get a charge from both... Well, earlier today I got to experience both. 

Let me talk about coffee first, I am not a daily coffee drinker, but I do consider myself a bit of a coffee snob. I like dark roast, whole bean coffee, I found a good brand from Sam's Club, it can only be purchased online, which is fine with me as I live pretty far from my "local" Sam's. And as with anything purchased from Sam's, it's going to come in an extra large size. It does take me a while to go through a bag. I have been buying this particular coffee for a few years now, everytime I try another brand, I am typically disappointed and quickly go back to this one.

You can try this from Amazon (it's more expensive there, but worth it if you don't have a Sam's account)

Or you can buy it from Sam's (a much better price!) Dark roast (my favorite) or medium roast (I just saw this!!!!)

So today (yesterday technically), I finished the last few beans in one bag and got to open a fresh new bag! If you are a coffee person, you must know the delight in opening a fresh new container of coffee, the scent is heavenly, the beans are oily and shiny... Oh I must say that this coffee roaster is one of the best I've experienced, their beans are whole, not broken, consistent in size and roast (that matters!), it's a pleasure to make coffee from this roaster, and they seem to do some good things for society which is a bonus!

The other exciting thing that happened today (or technically yesterday) is, well lets go back a week, I ordered 2 more LiFePO4 batteries (lithium iron), they came in a couple of days ago and we just installed them. A bit of history, we are running 3 separate solar systems, the original one that we started out with, we call that one the SkyCastle, the second system that we call the Tower of Power, and the third one called the Island. We named them so we would know which system we were referring to when discussing them.

We were using 2 100AH 12 volt LiFePO4 batteries on the SkyCastle system, these are Weize brand and fairly new, just a couple of months old. The Tower has 2 100AH 12 volt LiFePO4 Battleborn and the Island also had 2 100AH 12 volt LiFePO4 Battleborn batteries. The idea I had was to take the Battleborn batteries out of the Island and add them to the Tower giving us 4 100AH 12 volt LiFePO4 batteries together in that system, and buy 2 more Weize brand 100AH 12 volt LiFePO4 batteries to put into the Island. I'm thinking that in the near future, we will get 2 more Weize batteries and add them to the Island to have a total of 4 batteries in that system too, but one step at a time.

The reason for wanting, needing more batteries is because we added 2 more large loads to our systems. We try to keep the loads on each system in balance, the refrigerator is running on the SkyCastle along with the water pump and a few lights. We run a freezer on another system, sometimes it's the Tower, sometimes it's the Island depending on how much power is on each one. Of course we are running more lights, laptops (mine and PB's), and various charging of phones, tablets and the such. 

Recently we purchased a small window unit air conditioner, and even more recently we changed our internet from a local company to Starlink. Both of those items use a LOT of power each. The AC is pulling a pretty constant 500 watts, and the internet runs between 50-100 watts constantly. We don't run the AC all the time, just a few hours during the hottest part of the day, the internet, well that runs from the time one of us gets up in the morning (typically PB) until I go to bed at night (or early in the morning). So between these 2 new loads being added to our systems, we really needed to upgrade our battery storage.

Yesterday, we ran out the Island using the AC, I didn't mean for that to happen, I just got busy and didn't watch the power close enough. It was starting to get dark so by the light of a flashlight, PB removed the Battleborns from the Island and installed the new Weize batteries. One thing he immediately noticed, the Weize batteries are significantly lighter in weight than the Battleborns. Fortunately these batteries usually come fully charged so I have all 3 of my current systems charged up for the night.

We took the Battleborns over to the Tower but decided to install them tomorrow. We need to charge up the ones that were removed from the Island, all 4 batteries need to be as close to the same charge as possible before hooking them all together. It may be a few days before I can get PB to work on the Tower system, I just had an idea, we can run the existing 2 batteries in the Tower down using the AC tomorrow, then we can hook them all up after the sun goes down, that will give them a chance to bottom balance overnight, then they can start charging once the sun comes up the following day.

Hope you are having a great week, how is your week going? Let me know!

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Fridge and Batts... It's a Done Deal

We finally got our batteries and fridge straightened out... For the batteries, we went with real golf cart batteries this time, got them from Sam's Club, these are Energizer CG2, they are 6 volt batteries so I bought 4 of them, had to hook up 2 pair to make 12 volts, each battery is 220 amp hours, so now we have 440 amp hours to use. They are deep cycle batteries, true deep cycle, not hybrids like I had been buying before.

In the image above, you can see the 4 batteries, they aren't hooked up to anything there, you can also see the metal tray they are sitting in, that is in case of a leak, and in the upper left, the green thing, that's the Xantrex C35 charge controller, I have the front removed to expose the innards, I needed to change the float and bulk settings on the unit to work with the new batteries.

The biggest drawback to this particular type of battery is the posts on them are small, they were designed to be used in golf carts, so they didn't need a large post to hook up multiple things, but we managed OK. They charge fully each day and have gone through a couple of days of clouds without running out of power.

We hooked up the batteries and allowed them to do their thing for a few days before we plugged in the freezer-fridge conversion, I wanted to make 100% sure my inverter wasn't being a problem, it had been shutting down and the fault light coming on, turns out it was because of the dying batteries we had it hooked up to.

Now we have the new fridge hooked up and it's working great, that fridge is a bit smaller than our old one, not that big a deal, but the baskets I had for the previous one are too big, I can use the smaller basket, just barely, fortunately that freezer unit was still very new and it still had the wire basket that comes with them from the store, that has been a MAJOR help.

We use an external thermostat to convert a chest freezer into a refrigerator, you can learn more about that process here: http://wretha.blogspot.com/2013/02/freezer-fridge-conversion.html

The graphic below is the way we have the batteries hooked up in series and parallel, click on the image to see it full size.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

I'm baaaaack, again :)

Well, again it's been a while since I've been here, sorry and thanks to all those who check back in from time to time to see if I have really forgotten this site. :)

Much has happened since my last update, I mentioned before about our community's churches taking turns hosting the Christmas and Easter programs, Christmas was at the other church, this year Easter was hosted at our church, I was pretty excited about it, we had 10 people in the choir (half from each church) and we sounded pretty good, after the Easter service (which was mostly singing) we had a big breakfast, it was quite fun, and filling :)

The two major things that have happened since writing last, our chest freezer-fridge conversion died on us, the actual freezer (not the external thermostat), I was working online one day and heard some strange snapping/popping sounds, I got up to investigate and found smoke coming out of the back of the freezer, I shut off the power immediately, it was one of the most vile odors I have ever smelled. I am very thankful that it happened during the day and I was here when it happened, I don't know if it would have gone any further, but I have to assume that when there is smoke, fire is usually what happens next.

So for the next month or so, we were without a fridge. It isn't a major problem we have lived without refrigeration before, it's an inconvenience to be sure, but not a deal breaker.

The other thing that happened was our deep cycle batteries were just about on their last leg, it got bad enough that it was messing with the inverter, causing it to shut off and go into fault mode at random times during the day, it didn't seem to happen at night, only during the day while the batteries were charging. It also did a strange thing, when the fridge would come on, everything would be fine, but when the fridge shut off, it would cause the inverter to shut off and go into fault mode. It would only stay off for a few seconds and come back on, I suspect that MAY have been what caused my fridge to die, or it could have been that freezer was old (it was used when we got it) and it was its time to die.

We did get another freezer (I'll write more about it later) but didn't want to hook it up until I had fresh batteries, couldn't take the chance of losing another fridge if that was what the problem was before. I finally got a fresh set of true deep cycle batteries, golf cart batteries (I'll write about those later), we have them installed, hooked up and they are working like a charm, the fridge is hooked up and running like a charm as well.

I'll post a detailed article on the new fridge and batteries soon, I promise :) Oh and I'm thinking about a re-design on the old blog, it needs a facelift.




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Finally, A Ryobi 12 Volt Cigarette Charger For 18 Volt Batteries

I just heard about a Ryobi 18 Volt In-Vehicle Charger, this is perfect for the off gridders who use deep cycle, 12 volt batteries. You can get this at Home Depot for about $30.00.

http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/accessories/batteries_chargers/P130#

http://www.ryobitools.com/product_manual/file_url/231/P130_598_eng.pdf

Home Depot link

We use Ryobi 18 volt drills and power tools, it's always been a problem to try to charge them using an inverter. It takes forever, I have heard that it's not good for the charger and battery (I don't know this for a fact, but I have heard it), that's not to mention the inefficency of going from DC to AC then back to DC. This should be a major leap forward, this is something I have always thought should be available, and now it is.

Thanks Seth for alerting me to this.


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
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Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Off Grid - On The Cheap

It seems that the “green” (or brown) movement is growing faster and faster. It used to be the realm of unwashed hippies, tree huggers and other so called “degenerates” who lived off the grid, in the wild, on the fringes of society.

Lately, I keep reading about how more mainstream people are jumping in, purchasing solar panels, adding passive solar rooms, collecting rain water. I read about people who build $300,000+ green homes, that price doesn’t include the price of the land it sits upon! It’s all fine and dandy for those who have lots of readily available cash sitting around, or worse, they get loans to bankroll their ubergreen homes.I have no complaints about those who can afford the extravagant green homes, if you are wealthy and can afford to do it, then by all means go for it. But what about all of the rest of us, living on fixed or small incomes? Is it possible to live the green dream if you don’t have a cool million sitting in the bank? The answer is YES, you can!...

Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.off-grid.net/2008/12/15/off-grid-on-the-cheap/

To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/


Wretha

Thanks for visiting, Please leave all comments on the Off-Grid site instead of here, all the messages from this blog have been moved to the Off-Grid site, thanks!
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Questions from a reader

One of the very nice ladies who reads my blog, asked me several very good questions, I thought I would copy the message here and answer them, I think they are the sorts of questions that other people might ask, they are certainly the kind of questions I would ask if I didn't live like this and had the opportunity to ask...

Hi Wretha, this is Marty.

I enjoy reading your b-log but I don't know where the guestbook is to sign it. You had asked if we would sign it so that you would know others are reading.

I wanted to ask you some questions about going off grid.

1. How do you get water? We have a well and though there's an electric pump on it I heard that we could get a solar well but the whole well has to be redone. I would also like to add a hand pump.

We do not have a well, it's way too expensive for us to even consider right now, so I get my water from my neighbor, he has a well and is extremely generous to us, we do things for him as well. We have a 300 gallon container, it used to hold fruit punch concentrate so it is food/water safe. We also have a 55 gallon drum inside the cabin, next to the sink, we have a 12 volt pump attached to it and the water faucet, when I turn on the faucet the pump comes on and I have running water, it lasts me about a week, maybe a week and a half if I'm careful. I use that water (inside the cabin) for washing dishes, hands and such, not for drinking. I go to my neighbor's house pretty much every day for drinking water, I carry it back in one gallon containers.

If we have to, we can get water from the community well, it's free to the residence out here, we can get as much as we want, but we have to get it back to our property, that was the original plan to get water from there, but since our neighbor turned out to be such a great guy, we get it from him for now.

2. How do you keep cool in the heat? I think I could go without a lot of things but not being able to keep cool I just can't. (also going through menopause!)

That's easy, it does get hot here, but the humidity is low, it's high desert on a mountain range, it is hot during the day, especially in the sun, but if you have any shade, it's comfortable, there is almost always a breeze too. The nights are cool year round, even in the hottest part of summer, as soon as the sun goes down, you start looking for something to cover your arms with.

3. Do you solar cook all the time or use a gas grill or bbq'r?

I do some solar cooking, but not as much as I'd like, making a better solar oven and other solar cookers is on the list of things we will do this summer. When it was cold enough to use the wood stove, I cooked on it, I made a makeshift oven on top and got pretty good at making biscuits, tortillas and such. Now we mainly use a 2 burner propane stove top. We got a stove and oven (propane) oven from a friend, it came out of an old travel trailer, we have to clean it up and make sure it works ok before I can use it though. No BBQ though, there is a burn ban on open fires until we get some rain, it is very dry out here and not worth the risk just to grill a few burgers.

4. How do you keep your food cold?

During the winter, we didn't have to worry about it much, we kept our cold foods in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Now we use a small cube refrigerator (dorm size), it doesn't hold much, but we can keep milk, cheese, and a few other things cold in it. It doesn't take much juice so it works with our little power system just fine.

5. How do you light your home?

We have regular compact florescent lights, we have some extra low voltage ones that we use most of the time, and the regular ones the rest of the time. Since we are in a small space, we don't require much lighting. We have 3 lights in the main area where we stay, one extra low wattage and one regular that is over the sink. We have another regular one over the mirror in the bathroom area, we have 2 lights outside, but only use them as necessary. These are all hooked up to the batteries through the inverter.

6. I see that you got internet connection. Congratulations. How did you plug your computer in?

I have a device that hooks up through a network cable, it's like super wifi, it works off an antenna that is across the valley from me on the other mountain top, it's a radio signal that is picked up on a small box attached to my cabin, there is a network cable that runs from that to a small box inside the cabin, then it goes into my computer, I have internet access as long as I have the box powered up (plugged in), I turn it off when I'm not using it to save power even though it doesn't use much power.

7. If you'd like you can post my questions in your b-log and then others who are wanting to know can read your replies also.

Thanks!

8. What do you do about washing clothes?

Again, I use my neighbor's facilities, but if I didn't have that available to me, I can use the RV park's facilities that is not too far from me, they have showers too, but again, I have been very lucky to have such a good neighbor. We originally planned on (and still may do this in the future) hooking up our washer to use and hanging the clothes to dry.

9. How do you feel now about being off grid? Is it harder than you thought?
Is it a good feeling?

I love it, I wouldn't want to go back. It is hard, but not harder than I though it would be, in many ways it's easy, I have electricity just like you, the only difference is I generate it right here, I do have to be conscious of using power, I can't go off and leave things running, I can't run everything at once, if we use power tools during the day, then we have to be aware that we probably will not be able to watch videos on the internet all night, if the night is cold and we don't have wood cut for the wood stove, we can use our small electric blanket, but if that happens, I know that I can't use the computer all night, we have learned from trial and error what we can and can't do, and so far, we have done very well and are very happy with the setup.

We did give things up to live like we live, things like microwaves, big appliances, these are all energy wasters. We gave up convenience stores, gave up close by stores, we can't go to Walmart in the middle of the night, we can't eat fast food any time we want. Just going to the mailbox is a 12+ mile round trip, on up and down, in and out, dirt roads. But the things we gained far outweighs the things we gave up, we gave up the noise, pollution, stress and danger of living in the city. We gained safety, security, quiet, clean air, healthy living... we don't hear cars honking, car alarms, slamming doors, our neighbors, our neighbor's kids... we gained some really good friends, though we did leave some really good friends (and family) behind, we hope to get some or them (all of them!) to move out here where we live, I know that is not realistic, but the invitation is open, if nothing else, we have a great place for them to come vacation. :)

Thanks for any help/tips you can give.

My biggest tip is to not wait too long, often times we want to do something, but we put it off, we wait until we have more money, time, energy, whatever it is, or we are afraid to take the big step, whatever the problem is, don't wait, start NOW, you aren't getting any younger, and you probably aren't getting any richer living where you are now, just DO IT, live your dream, you will not regret it, when you are on your death bed, are you going to regret not taking the plunge or are you going to be happy with your life as you lived it? No one ever wishes they have worked more hours (at a regular job) or wishes they had made more money. Go for it, do it, don't wait, it's OK to be scared, it's not OK to let that fear stop you, in baseball, you will miss 100% of the balls if you never take a swing.

God bless,
Marty

Thanks Marty for your great questions, if you have any more, or want more clarification of what I posted above, please don't hesitate to contact me again and ask, ask all you want, I am more than happy to answer your questions.

Wretha
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2 Comments

lindy said...

Wretha! I cannot agree MORE with not waiting! There will NEVER be a perfect time to live off-grid.

I spent a cold winter in the bus, but I do not regret it at all. I am even more convinced that this is the life for me :) I love being responsible for myself .. if I do not make a fire there is no heat, if I do not charge the dvd player or the batteries, there is no entertainment. Everything in life comes with a price, but in the standard American culture we become so removed from that. I'll take independence and looking out my windows any day. I get to live where I want to live and how I want to live and it is a slice of heaven. Take care. I'm glad I know ya .

Lindy

April 27, 2008 10:46 PM

Wretha said...

Thanks Lindy, I love your statement that there will never be a perfect time to live off grid! I think I'll incorporate that into a title of one of my future posts. I think it's so sad that people wait for this, that, whatever to be or happen, there will never be enough time, money or you fill in the blank, I am so glad I did this, my ONLY regret is that I didn't do this earlier in my life.

I am glad I know you as well, thanks for your group, it is a wellspring of knowledge, humor and probably lots of other stuff I can't think of right now. :) You are the best!

Wretha

April 27, 2008 11:41 PM