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My week with electricity
By dnix71, Section Rants & Opinion Posted on Wed Jun 18th, 2008 at 11:38:58 PM MST
high voltage and low voltage

Last Thursday there was a lightning storm in West Palm Beach just west of Pratt Whitney's old place that destroyed some FPL equipment and knocked two cement plants offline.
My ex-neighbor Roberto has a service account with one of the plants to keep their computerized mixing equipment up and running. He came by Friday and asked me to help him solder two transformers to a control panel to get Adonnel back up and running. Neither Roberto, nor his partner know how to solder a wire, but are software gurus with Linux, Windows and Mac servers.
I don't normally want to travel out of town to work on a Saturday, but Roberto said the transformers cost $300 each and they had paid $100 for overnight shipping so it could be done on the weekend when business was slower. Since people's jobs were on the line, I said okay, you pay me what you think it's worth.
The lightning took out relays, transformers and the APC ups's that were supposed to prevent that. The plant operator said the power went off and on rapidly and then smoke came out of the control panel. I'm glad I wasn't there when it happened. He was having to manually mixing 10 yards trucks with one damaged panel and couldn't make a living that way.
It took 8 hours, including travel time, and they paid me $65/hour, breakfast, lunch and drove me there and back. We (especially me) went home happy. APC will probably foot most of the bill because their equipment should not have allowed that kind of damage.
With the money I made I went to Sun Electronics in Miami, today, and bought two 28 watt and a 50 watt polycrystalline panels for my home setup. $421 for all of it. The panels they advertise on the web for $2.98/watt are 25v panels. The man who helped me said they required a special charge controller and weren't suitable for a small home setup.
If you ever visit the place, they have parking and are directly across the street from the Miami Herald building on the Venetian Causeway entrance.
My desulfators (a 12v and a 24v "Sulfarid" brand) came in from Malaysia Tuesday. I haven't had them long enough to comment on how well they work. I paid $93 for both. One is for my Currie electric bike and the other for my home solar.

My week with electricity | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: My week with electricity (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by blueyonder (windwoodgood at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 18th, 2008 at 05:59:20 PM MST
(User Info)

hi dnix. it looks like thay say .its a ill wind that dos no good.
but you were a lucky guy that day.
as to the guys who cant solder well now you got sum nice panals.
a ride there and back. all your crub.
i bet you just love to watch out now for new lightening storms.
its a ill wind that dos no good

Re: My week with electricity (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by richhagen (richhagen (a t) Juno.com) on Wed Jun 18th, 2008 at 11:46:55 PM MST
(User Info)

I've had my eye on those Sun (Evergreen) panels they have listed there, the 190 Watt version. You could run them 3 in series on a 48V. system, although not perfectly matched - but I think two in series would be cutting it close especially in hot weather, but at the price they are offering them, it would be worth it to pick up an MPPT controller to go with them. I have been reading that demand is picking up for panels, although the supply (production) is increasing as well. I am uncertain whether prices will go up or down. Rich
'A Joule saved is a Joule made'

Re: My week with electricity (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by dnix71 (yahoo.com 'dnix71') on Fri Jun 20th, 2008 at 05:55:24 PM MST
(User Info)

The controller to go with those Evergreen panels was over $500. The voltage is also a little high for a 24/48 volt system. That may be why they use them mostly to run grid-tie systems.

Sun Electronics has 28 kwatts of panels on the roof and batteries with inverters for cloudy days. With all the tall buildings around them (the owner of Sun won't sell the property) I'm suprised they get enough sun.

That part of Miami has been rebuilt and cleaned up. I hadn't been there in 20 years. All the public housing projects are gone, and with them the drug dealers, hookers and homeless. There is a homeless shelter now in the old arena not far from there. The roads are confusing even for the locals. I made a right instead of a left onto US 1 and had to backtrack to get to Sun's building. I then drove past it and almost went over the causeway before making a u-turn and looked up to see their name on the building.

Downtown Miami has a sterile feel to it now, but I would feel safe on foot there now. The drivers were polite and there were people on foot and bicycles even though it had been raining most of the day. It was kind of strange not to see any crack whores walking where 1-95 drops down onto Biscayne. They used to be pretty brazen about it.

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My week with electricity | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial)

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