Storms Hittin The Northeast.

[ilikekicks]

Bundle up folks, looks to be doing the coastline pretty good. Its a heavy/wet snow or ' heart attack ' type as its been called. The coastline is looking at blizzards and I believe Boston is already closed down/driving ban. Stay safe! -Ilk

[Shafted]

No worries. I have two sources of backup electricity, two sources of backup heat, two sources of backup cooking and many months of food. Prepping make dealing with such potential outages a piece of cake.

[ilikekicks]

Im out on the farm this weekend so, I have more then enough provisions, shelter, hear, generators, 50,000gallons of ethanol, a barn with cows, hogs, horses, ATV's, loaders, a Gehl/Bobcat. Just joping Darian makes it from the city to out here as she just left work. Good news is she took my truck . Theres NO WAY her car would make it out here in present conditions.

[Heelster]

Missing us, just a dusting with some wind. Might get a bit more, but I most likely wont even fire up the snow blower this go around.

[Shafted]

50,000gallons of ethanol

When I consider the sheer volume of that amount of ethanol is all that I can say is wow.

[JeffB]

Well, here in Philadelphia, were looking at 2 to 4 inches in the city proper from this storm by the time all is said and done. Clearly, we're going to dodge the artillery shell hitting the New England area.

[Bubba136]

Really was a wonderful pre-spring day here. Sunny, clear and a high temp in the mid 60's F.

[ilikekicks]

Missing us, just a dusting with some wind. Might get a bit more, but I most likely wont even fire up the snow blower this go around.

Good to hear! Its one of the reasons Im looking to head your way when I do move.

When I consider the sheer volume of that amount of ethanol is all that I can say is wow.

1158 acres of corn and veggies on the family farm. Some is put to good use .

Last year, I spent a grand total of 130$ on gas ( Thats Petro for those across the pond SEE! Im catching on! ).

I converted Both of my former work trucks, my personal truck and the wifes car. Stainless fuel lines, New pumps and a laptop. Grand total of 2300$ for all of it. For 4 vehicles, I think I saved quite a bit of money.

Well, here in Philadelphia, were looking at 2 to 4 inches in the city proper from this storm by the time all is said and done. Clearly, we're going to dodge the artillery shell hitting the New England area.

Thats good to hear! Boston is getting slapped pretty damn hard. I heard the NYC area wasnt so bad.

Really was a wonderful pre-spring day here. Sunny, clear and a high temp in the mid 60's F.

GFY!

-Ilk

[Heelster]

I'm a bit farther west than your looking to move too. The area your looking at still gets a far amount of snow - lake affect. I'm a stones throw from Cedar Point.

[meganiwish]

50,000gallons of ethanol,

You'll be all right for martinis then

[Shafted]

Well folks, it's officially a blizzard here and winding down. When I got up this morning it was snowing horizontally. I even went out for the short drive to McDonald's for breakfast, coffee and WiFi. When I got back my driveway had been plowed in, so I had to fire up my snowblower and clear it out so I could drive in. I still have grid power and the batteries are fully charged on my solar power system. Just another snowstorm in Maine. No biggie.

[JeffB]

Well folks, it's officially a blizzard here and winding down. When I got up this morning it was snowing horizontally. I even went out for the short drive to McDonald's for breakfast, coffee and WiFi. When I got back my driveway had been plowed in, so I had to fire up my snowblower and clear it out so I could drive in. I still have grid power and the batteries are fully charged on my solar power system. Just another snowstorm in Maine. No biggie.

No biggie or not, be careful.

[Shafted]

No biggie or not, be careful.

Always am, Jeff. But here in Maine, this is pretty routine.

[PatsyCline]

Still sounds dangerous to me. Hope everyone affected is save and sound. Sounds like a good time to curl up in front of the fire, and put on your favourite pair of heels.

[Shafted]

What many do not realize that here being mobile in the worst of weather is the key to keeping a job. It's simply a fact of life. You learn to deal with it.

[meganiwish]

There;s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.

[fatfuzz]

There;s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.

Billy Connoly.

Billy Connoly.

Who also said "Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on"

The weather in Manchester is grey and damp. Again. Like it was all last week and will be all next week and probably for the rest of eternity.

It rarely snows here - or at least we rarely get any significant snow that lasts. And when it does the whole place grinds to a halt. Because it's so rare we are not prepared for it. We had some major snow fall a couple of years ago followed by a big freeze so all the pavements (sidewalks) were coated in a thick layer of uneven, shiny ice. You'd see people walking down the road all the time so they didn't slip on the ice.

It was funny watching some women in town on a weekend night still determined to go out in heels. I tried it one night for about 10 seconds outside my flat and very quickly decided my physical health was more important than my desire to walk outside in heels. Have you ever seen a dog on a frozen pond?

[dww]

Can't say I have but have seen a drunk hampster trying you use it's wheel, very funny. Reading between the lines Mr Shafted I assume your second method of cooking is Macdonalds?

[JeffB]

Twenty-four hours later, and what little snow that fell here in the Philadelphia area Friday night is pretty much a distant memory, save for ice on small, untreated streets like mine. But with temps expected to reach 40 today, followed by periods of rain on Monday, even that will be gone soon enough.

[Shafted]

Can't say I have but have seen a drunk hampster trying you use it's wheel, very funny. Reading between the lines Mr Shafted I assume your second method of cooking is Macdonalds?

Nope it's solar and wood.

[dww]

Very glad to hear that, in the uk our solar panel systems do not charge batteries, just put juice back into the local grid system. whenever they ask me about solar panels I ask can I run a 10Kw shower of off it the answer is always no. So until they come up with a system that charges batteries and runs a very large inverter I'am not interested. My neighbour has a system and he says it will take at least 10 years to break even on the cost. Have been in electronics all my working life, so I do know all about it.

[Shafted]

I had the know how to build my own solar power system from scratch. At least the panels anyway. It was not that big of an investment just time. In recent years, panels could be had for as little as 1 dollar per watt. Those that didn't jump at that opportunity missed the boat. My biggest expense was not the panels but the AGM batteries. All of the lighting in my house is solar powered, as are my hydroponic systems. I also use forced hot air solar heat. I also just finished turning a bicycle into a human powered generator, and a wind turbine is my current project, also from scratch. I still use grid power for the heavy loads, but when I look at my electric bill, it doesn't amount to much. I only pay a bit more than the connection fee. If your smart, solar is quite affordable. If your not, you'll pay much too much for it. Every watt used from my solar system is a watt not used from the grid. What's up with the 10Kw shower, dww? That seems extraordinarily wasteful. The systems you referred to are grid tie systems, where your surplus electricity production goes back to the grid. The BIG problem with these systems is that if the power goes out, so does your solar power system. Only a fool would build such a system Radical environmentalists hate people like me because we actually put our money where our mouth is. I should probably add republicans and democrats to that list as well. Opps, I think I just insulted most of my countrymen. Too bad.

[dww]

I totally agree with everything you say about solar power, is that 1dollar/watt at 12volts, Yes I could put together a solar panel system charging a few batteries and running a say 2kw inverter for supplying all my house lights and maybe the telly, all my lights are very low energy say less than 100watts for the whole house upstairs and downstairs including all the outside lights if they are all on, and the telly is only about 60watts. I do have a 1200 watt petrol generator, but to be honest I have lived in my house for over 30 years and I think we have only had about 2 power cuts in all that time, my electricity bill works out at just less than a pound a day (less than 2 dollars) the biggest outlay is gas this time of year. During the summer months gas is about 2 pound per 3 months as we only cook with gas in the summer, but this time of year central heating on all the time, more when the grandkids are here. Forgot the shower is a must can't live without it.

[Shafted]

I totally agree with everything you say about solar power, is that 1dollar/watt at 12volts,

Doesn't matter. A watt is a watt, whether its 12, 24 or 48 volts. I used 2 watt cells for my panels (0.5 volts 4 amps each). Each panels has 36 cells and outputs 18 to 20 volts. That's a 72 watt panel. I currently have 2 of those panels in service along with a 45 watt harbor freight system. I have parts on hand for building 3 more of those 72 watt panels.

Using solar is not for stupid people. You have to learn to how to manage electricity usage and find creative ways to use that electricity more efficiently.

In fact this very post is solar powered.

[fatfuzz]

The problem, I think, is that the companies that currently supply us with electricity make an absolute fortune out of us and they don't want us to produce our own power because they will lose out. The technology is there for everyone to get cheap green energy but the energy companies will go to great lengths to make sure that it stays expensive so we have to keep getting it from them. Shafted, good work on powering your own place - all the respect from me on that one. I've just switched to an energy company here in the UK called Ecotricity who supply all their electricity from green sources (or at least most of it) and invest their profits back into development and building of green energy sources. It's not cheap either but I'd rather that than give my money to the money grabbing a***holes who were supplying me before.

[Shafted]

Here's a Youtube link to my channel that shows the the panels I made.

[fatfuzz]

I can't wait til I buy my own house then I can start experimenting with stuff like this. Just watched Shafted's youtube video and then got watching a whole load of other stuff. There's loads of people showing how they made their home made energy devices. I currently live in a rented flat in a block - no space for setting such things up...

[dww]

Watt is a measure of power, depends on the voltage. So you have roughly 12amps at 12volts to play with, 12amps into a good inverter assuming it's 100% good (more like 80%) that will give you a output of 600 milli amps at 240volts it would run the lighting but nothing else. So I assume you run things at 12volts, my 12 volt kettle takes 45 amps, can't run that through a cigarette lighter socket. I agree with what you are doing and very well done, but I need a system that gives me at least 4kw at 240 volt if I forget about the shower. Thats a lot of amps at 12 volt, watts even.

[Shafted]

We've all heard people complain about energy cost, but very few take the effort to do anything about it. I've heard people complain about the price of gasoline, while they were drinking bottled water that was more expensive than gasoline. Sometimes people have no idea how stupid they sound.

Watt is a measure of power, depends on the voltage.

Uh, no. It depends on both voltage and current. More voltage, less current and vice versa.

I do use many 12 volt items and my lighting is 12 volts. I have 3 inverters. (150 watts true sine, 400 and 2000 watt mod sine) The 150 watts runs 24/7 supplying the pumps for my hydroponic systems. Yes I also grow my own food year round.

I will be ordering another 110Ah worth of AGM batteries to bring my storage capacity to 220Ah. Right now on a sunny day my batteries are fully charged by 9AM. On a cloudy day it takes most of the day. You really don't want to put a 2000 watt inverter on only 110Ah worth of batteries. It's capable of destroying them. 220Ah worth of batteries will allow me to use that inverter to near it's full potential. But right now the safe battery draw is only 70 amps (840 watts at 12 volts). A 2000 watt inverter is going to draw 167 amps at full power if 100% efficient.

[dww]

Your 100% right 2000 watts at 240 volt thats roughly 160 amps in at 12 volt, 110a/h would not last long a few minutes once the input voltage drops below 10.5 11 volts I think the inverter would switch itself off, 220a/h will last a bit longer. I run a 100watt hf radio transmitter of off a 110a/h battery and that does not last very long on full load, terminal voltage drops very quickly. I sometimes use a battery booster for when the terminal voltage drops to 10 volts but that does not last that long either.