"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Friday 5 August 2011

A short visit

On Saturday afternoon, we are nipping off to the farm for a short visit.


Why?  Well, we've purchase two more 130Ah deep cycle batteries and we want to install them onto our solar panel system in our Green Power room.  We left the freezer connected to the two batteries we currently have installed.  I have a feeling that they may not have been enough...


And - they guy who sold us the batteries confirmed what I had read when I was researching connecting solar panels, charge controller, batteries and inverters.  Yeeha!  I LOVE it when that happens.


When one is connecting the charge controller to the batteries, the positive wire enters at one end of the battery bank, and the negative enters at the other.  This is to prevent the first battery from being charged and discharged more than the others - the second battery, in this first diagram, which I wrote about here, is in danger of being a "dump" battery - i.e. neither fully charged nor discharged.
Incorrect way
The following diagram is the correct way to wire up the batteries (to solar panels), if you are running them in parallel, in order to increase the storage capacity:

I hope the diagram is clear enough to understand...?  
Correct battery connection in parallel - for increased
storage capacity.  If you want increased voltage,
then you should connect the batteries in series.
But, again, please check with your local expert before taking my word for it.


It's a bit of a b*gger - Tuesday is a public holiday here (Women's Day) and Wednesday is my birthday LOL  Such a pity we can't stay on the farm until then and, by taking Monday and Wednesday off, have an extra long weekend... but I guess I mustn't be greedy - I did have my birthday there last year :)  So, either we'll be back on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday evening...


And they're predicting very cold weather with heavy rain, and snow on the mountains this weekend - so I will be able to see how effective the new ceiling is whilst I have the Dover stove merrily keeping the kettle permanently on the boil / heating up the room / cooking our food.  As I'm anticipating that the sun will be in short supply I plan to bake a loaf of my "Ultimate Solar Bread" or a loaf of Beer Bread, in the Dover stove, and I also plan to try out a (Dover oven) "Snuggy" bean bag using pearl barley :)


Whatever is successful, or isn't - you'll have to wait until I return to find out :)
Posted by Dani at 10:26:00
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8 comments:

  1. Jane @ Hard Work Homestead5 August 2011 at 13:58

    Well have a happy happy birthday!!

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  2. Mr. H.5 August 2011 at 14:23

    Have a very happy birthday and good luck with the new batteries. Hope the sun shines enough for your solar oven to do its job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. tffnguy5 August 2011 at 14:45

    Happy Birthday early. Yep looks like you have the bank wired as it should be now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dani5 August 2011 at 15:52

    Jane - Thank you :)

    Mr H - Thank you too - I'm not sure about the sun, but you never know... LOL

    tffn - Thanks, David. And thanks for the battery bank approval ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. tffnguy5 August 2011 at 17:55

    Dani, here's a link to a video about fracking in west Texas. Watch it and notice the oil man trying to smooth the growing tide of contempt. most of Texas is under a severe drought and water is getting more scarce all the time.

    http://www.kwes.com/story/15213368/is-fracing-using-up-your-water?Call=Email&Format=Text

    Spoken like a true oil man.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dani5 August 2011 at 18:32

    tffn - Thanks - will check it out when we get back :)

    Damn these oil companies!

    ReplyDelete
  7. garden girl in SA6 August 2011 at 05:50

    Enjoy the weekend and your Birthday.
    There is already snow on the Hottentots Holland mountains.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dani6 August 2011 at 07:41

    garden girl - Thanks. Cool - can't wait...LOL

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment - it makes my day and removes the "loneliness' of sitting at my screen blogging supposedly to myself ;) I try and reply as quickly as possible so please forgive me if sometimes my response is delayed.

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