This is a not so small story about poof that no good deed goes unnoticed or unpunsihed.
Last year, I helped several of my neighbors install the infamous HF solar panel sets.
They are of course not the best in the world but do come with just enough "stuff" to get people to see quickly how easily it is to start using Solar.
And with a Ghurd kit added they can be very useful.
Many of my neighbors have seen my Panels approved by the city, (St.Louis) up here.
The light is back where the panels normally pass into the house.
And many asked how they were how well they worked and such. After the power outage from a late ice storm, most of them asked me to help them with some as well.
I also explained that the controller wasn't the best and that I had some "kits" that a friend had designed which was a much better choice to keep the batteries from being wasted.
Everyone I helped had an old car battery so we used those to prove that this stuff worked. Most of them liked them and it was pretty cool to see little lights on when the power went off each time :-)
One of our neighbors, 5 houses to the west of me, was one of those families. They had a near perfect setup. Flat roof, solid sun clearance all winter & summer. Sooo off we went, got the panels, got the batteries, installed the panels using plastic 2x4s and the cute kit that comes with it. They were happy as clams!! Really got into having a little 12V camper TV and some LEDs and CFL bulbs all setup and ready for when or if the power went out again.Plus they noticed that the kiddies liked the whole idea too.
Worked very well with only minor looking after...... then they decided to move,:-( but wanted the new owners to have the panels and install better ones at new place.
New people moved in, we and other neighbors were out front to say hi and all.
WELL, the couple are nice, buuuuut the lady is NOT anything about solar anything other than suntanning.
They asked if anyone knew someone who would get up on the roof and take those nasty ugly things down . Otherwise they were going to rip them out and throw them in the trash.
I said I'd help and just get them out of their way. /:-)
Took me all of a couple hours.
NOW !! I am the proud owner of a complete set of HF Panels setup , the complete set. FREE!! okay labor not included.
Ahh but the story doesn't stop there.
I have a neighbor "lady" that seems to think that anything out of the norm is wrong and fights me all the way.
Fights me on 'mills, fought me on the first set of panels ..every blooming thing she can think of....including new privacy fence:-(
So, with spring here, and rain laying off for a day or two.. I get out the new panels and put them up.
Nice neighbor lady called city :-( said they "looked" dangerous. ?
Well I get a nasty letter from the city about what a horrible and dangerous thing I have done !@%^!
The city inspector ( I now know him by sight and first name, [:-> ) comes out to the house on a weekend to see that I was in fact obeying the law.
He'd asked me to just take them down until the new Privacy fence was up.
I said okay cool no problem, asked him if he'd help me unbolt them from anchors 24inches in the ground.
He (the city inspector) laughed and said sure no problem.
The "nice" neighbor lady is walking by and starts nagging about those ugly dangerous panels.
I told her to go look in the mirror and that at least I CARE about the environment!!
The city guy couldn't hold the panel ,laughing too hard, he dropped the panel!! as luck would have it,-->> he dropped it on and broke the bag of fresh manure (:-x) I had for the roses. Saved the panel, ran Connor < the dog> off (:->.
The lady threatened to call the city again. The guy piped up and said he WAS the city guy and if she keeps nagging anymore about unfounded complaints and he'd cite her :-)
Asked me again to wait til fence was finished, I said don't sue me over falling and it's a deal.
What a town!!
I saw she was putting up a Fence, I walked over and asked if they had a permit? NOPE I , being a computer person, complained online :-)
Then went and had another beer :-) helped City guy, clean up manure and open another beer. He's really interested in getting more city people into stuff like this, but he's also a stickler about saftey.
Here now is the 2 winter old panels on the west (left and their new friends on the right)
They are ALL currently on a TEMP place, so there's squat she can say :-)
What you cannot see is how I connected everything. I use a water resistant outside box approved by the city for mains power. I merged the 3 new units into a box and have them going off the old HF panel , commonly called the screamer by me, due to it's little screaming it does when over voltaging. Along with yet another ( MY LAST!! ) Ghurd dump controller.
But here is the room and stuff where to "POWER" comes into. The night lights have cute little 120Vac 1 watt light bulbs in them.
Found the bulbs at Walgreens 2 for 3.99. They are candelabra size and are perfect for bed size light.
I did a small test with the new digital controller and a NiCd batt pack wired for 12Vdc and equaling 16Ahr and a 100watt invertor ( 12Vdc plug in) and turned on one of the lights with a LED light and then a cute small CFL. The pack read 12.5 and stayed that way until I turned off the little light the next morning.
Just goes to show::: Good deeds do come back to you:-O
Cheers
Bruce S
