January 14th 2007
Good morning
Here in northern New Mexico, we've had a spell of cold snaps, it went down to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit one night, then hovered well below zero for several more. The result was our gray water drain froze a few days ago.
People driving up the valley, if they could see our house in the forest, probably thought it was on fire. I had bonfires burning above the drain line, one fairly close to the house. I worried my favorite picture window was going to crack from the heat.
In order to make the fires stay lit and burn hot, I used 25 gallons of glycerol on brush and waste wood from around the yard to defrost the ground, for what I imagined was going to be an unpleasant day or two digging in semi frozen and very charred dirt.
I have been boiling saltwater and pouring it in the last drain before the gray water leaves the house at the washing machine.
Praise the gods,
Last night the boiling saltwater idea paid off, the drain gave a large gasp, and the gray water flowed down the hill without my needing to use the pick and shovel! What a relief. I was soooo not looking forward to chipping away at the soil I just put out there this Summer.
As many of you know we built a new septic system and totally used my own muscle power to fill in the leach line and tank. Digging in the soft Summer dirt is good exercise, I don't know what digging frozen dirt would be, maybe an exercise in futility?
I can tell you I was wishing I had tossed as much soil on the gray water line as I did the septic line, or tied the two lines together like the EPA guy suggested.
Somehow I found the time yesterday to go to the special meeting of NMSynergy Fest at Justin's home in Las Vegas. What, me go to town on the weekend? Yep, I feel this project deserves the attention. It works out that my attention as well as attention from several others will be needed this year to make the Synergy fest the success Justin and Ben have built it into since its inception five years ago. It was a great meeting and I think it is agreed by all that it is time for us newcomers to step up and help continue what Ben and Justin started. Ben will be here for a month longer, not nearly enough time to learn everything he knows about Synergy Fest, so we agreed we need to pick his brain while he is here.
Justin set a date with the NMSEA for April 25th & 26th for our 5th annual Las Vegas Synergy Fest. Slightly more than three months away. Now is is the time to create a public statement letter, once we have this in hand and a list of prospective local businesses for sponsorship and or presence with booths, we will hit the pavement and sell this door to door. Since we are losing Ben in a month we feel the need to have another get-together soon. We decided to have the next meeting in two weeks, on January 30th and I volunteered the Renewable Energy building at Luna Community College as the place to meet. Time: 12:00 Noon, Wednesday. Although classes are just beginning today I will make every effort to bring Luna students in on the Synergy Fest at this early stage when we feel we need the help the most.
We need someone to make posters for the meeting and place them around town and at all three colleges and the high schools. Something like, Synergy Fest Membership Drive. The idea being, we need a lot of energy to make up for losing Ben and with Justin working extra hard this semester as he finishes a Masters degree at Highlands University. It will be a catch up game for the new people learning the ins and outs of running this show. My daughter Brittany has volunteered to make posters. I feel good, very good, about our chances to make the Synergy Fest something Justin and Ben will feel proud of. But then again, we haven't even hit our first snag yet. This is why we are looking for help now.
Okay, this is looking to be a beautiful sunny day and already beginning with an open drain what could be a better way to start the day?
Bueno bye.
Brian Rodgers
P.S I'll add one letter since it is about this forum:
I wrote: I have been spending most of my on-line time at the otherpower forums where they talk about the Xantrex and other solar gear often check it out and you may not need to talk to Indians after all.
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my friend wrote:
So I broke down and joined. Someone was talking about timers, motors and trackers and I just had to get involved. Then I left the question about the TM500A Guess-o-Meter which didn't get posted...yet. Monitored first? Lost in the vapors? Who knows?
http://www.fieldlines.com/
Where does one find such a timer? I mounted my 4 panels (24A) on an old C-band sat. mount and want to utilize the original linear motor to move them. I've been moving them manually about 3x per day which seems adequate w/o getting too obsessive. When I'm not around they're locked at about the 1pm position. An adjustable timer which would operate the linear motor for x minutes y times per day would be awesome.
The sat. mount with some minor modifications makes a free, perfect, windproof, bulletproof basis for panels. I have owned Zomeworks Trackers, etc. They're beautiful things to own and watch - when you don't need to spend your own cash on them. I (and many other old pv heads) have come to believe in simple rigid mounts and buying more panels as a better alternative to expensive commercial trackers. The free sat mounts make sense even if they're rarely or never swiveled.
The juice I'll spend on the linear motor may prove to be more than it's worth. Going outside to move the panels at 10:30 and 2 is the only exercise there is some days.
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I thought I saw a username that was you.
http://www.fieldlines.com/user/dr2pks/comments
One of the features I like about Scoop the forum software they use is the "Recent activity" button on the right side. If you keep scrolling down you'll find a place where it says "Replies to your comments".
Yeah the timer idea sounds great. Can you get me the make and model of the motor on your DIY tracker. Maybe I can build you a timer.
