Ironworker arrival

[dcyrilc]

Your right about the punches. No point have the ironworker and not have enough punches.

Have enough punches???

...like that could ever happen.

No such thing as having enough punches.:laughing:

 

[4shorts]

Have enough punches???

...like that could ever happen.

No such thing as having enough punches.:laughing:

Cyril if I buy anymore the wife will punch me

 

[dcyrilc]

Cyril if I buy anymore the wife will punch me

Don't feel bad. I almost got off track myself today. I finally have the cash put together to get the property taxes paid ($4K) and happened to see a decient looking piece of old iron (tractor) for sale. Luckily, I managed to stay focused and didn't stop. If I had, I could have been in some BIG trouble.:laughing:

 

[hawkeye08]

:laughing:My wife mentioned paying property taxes last night before buying any more tractor stuff (looked at a Frontier RB1172 back blade last night). Must be something in the west coast water...

 

[Window Geek]

:laughing:
Hawkeye, it's on the East Coast too!

 

[4shorts]

Boys priorities are messed up everywhere. A few weeks ago we had Igor blow through here causing millions of dollars worth of damage and while following the evening news cast of all the damage one guy gets on the news complaining that his community is completely cut off due to a bridge washout and there local market can't get any supplies in. He went on to say that the situation was so serious that they ran out of smokes and beer

I said to myself " I hope I'm the only one that picked up on what he just said" I guess everyone has different priorities :laughing:

 

[varmint]

Paul- you are right in worrying about priorities. Someone wise once observed that "no one ever lost a nickel underestimating the intelligence of the average citizen" or something in that gist. The older I get, the more I wonder about people and their priorities. FWIW, my wife and I just finished with a photovoltaic system installation on a well-situated small barn here- I had the roof pressure washed, and then sprayed an expensive elastomeric white coating on it before the installers came. The attached photos show the racks, and then the finished system. Let me tell you, watching the electric meter slow and then turn backwards when the system came online yesterday afternoon was a real rush.

 

[4shorts]

Paul- you are right in worrying about priorities. Someone wise once observed that "no one ever lost a nickel underestimating the intelligence of the average citizen" or something in that gist. The older I get, the more I wonder about people and their priorities. FWIW, my wife and I just finished with a photovoltaic system installation on a well-situated small barn here- I had the roof pressure washed, and then sprayed an expensive elastomeric white coating on it before the installers came. The attached photos show the racks, and then the finished system. Let me tell you, watching the electric meter slow and then turn backwards when the system came online yesterday afternoon was a real rush.

Oh man that's super cool. I bet that was a hoot seeing the meter go backwards. They have been experimenting with wind mills around here and although there are times the wind will blow the head off you they still say there's not enough wind. Will you sell the excess power back to the power company? Very nice set up. :thumbsup:

 

[hawkeye08]

Paul- you are right in worrying about priorities. Someone wise once observed that "no one ever lost a nickel underestimating the intelligence of the average citizen" or something in that gist. The older I get, the more I wonder about people and their priorities. FWIW, my wife and I just finished with a photovoltaic system installation on a well-situated small barn here- I had the roof pressure washed, and then sprayed an expensive elastomeric white coating on it before the installers came. The attached photos show the racks, and then the finished system. Let me tell you, watching the electric meter slow and then turn backwards when the system came online yesterday afternoon was a real rush.

I would like to hear more about your solar system. Perhaps you could post a thread with the particulars for those of us interested. We have a southern facing roof on the house that would handle it well. It is strong enough for the added weight I think also.

 

[varmint]

Paul and Hawkeye: well, my wife and I have done about all we can to reduce our energy requirements, and since there is a Federal tax credit and a Maryland tax grant or credit for solar system installs, we decided to take the plunge. We understand that technology is always improving, costs coming down, etc., but we are getting older, so why wait? I installed a solar space heating system for my shop building last year which should mostly keep me warm over there for not much money. There is a requirement for utility companies to buy renewable energy credits, too, so we should get a bit of money every year thru that. I don't know what the rates will be over the next few years, or what our usage might be, but we sort of figure that the system will cut our bills way back, and after 7-9 years will be actually paying us- seemed like a safe and useful investment!

I should add that my wife runs some university environmental science and studies programs, so she (we) walk the talk or whatever. She has had a Honda Civic hybrid for about 7 years now, and gets upset when she gets less than 50mpg on a tank of gas.

Our 13 panels should generate about 85% of our annual electric usage. Whenever it makes more power than we are using at the moment, we will get a credit for it from the utility. And yes, watching the meter un-wind our electric bill is very satisfying! The panels only weigh about 50lbs each, so most roofs should handle the extra weight without a problem. Everything is aluminum (well, except the SS fasteners) and they are engineered to handle wind and hail, etc. and should produce for 25 years or more. I will attach a foto showing the underside of the panels, where we had a "micro-inverter" installed for every panel- that way, when one or more panel is in shade, the system will still produce power from every panel in light, unlike the systems that have a single big inverter. Trees are a big consideration between the roof and the sun here. A side benefit of the micro inverters is that we will have an online monitoring ability to see what each panel is producing, system performance averages, anything you would want to know.

I keep hearing about new wind systems that make power in 5 mph breezes, so that is an exciting field ripe for development. I keep hoping our government will get off its collective butt and start encouraging solar and wind improvements. The potential is great, we just have to engineer our way into it. If we spent half the money we spend on making war on this, we'd be home free for electricity in 10 years, I'd bet.