3R Home and Barn Project

[hayden]

Rob, I'm curious about a few aspects of your solar system.

As I recall, you batteries are in a divided section of the shed. Is it insulated at all, and what sort of temperature range do you get in the battery room? Batteries like to operate at room temperature, but that's seldom a realistic options so it becomes a question of how close you can get.

Who does the monitoring and maintenance of your system? Do you do it, or does your solar contractor provide that as a service? When I say "maintenance", I'm thinking about watering the batteries, equalizing the batteries, monitoring to be sure the batteries are getting back to full charge on a regular basis, and monitoring how deeply they discharge on a regular basis?

I'm real interested in how people operate off-grid system on a realistic, day to day basis.

Thanks, and congrats on getting moved in.

Peter

 

[dfkrug]

I'm real interested in how people operate off-grid system on a realistic, day to day basis.

I am very interested, too. As Rob gets settled, I am hoping to hear about
the performance and economics of his system. Especially when he will be
taxing the system with 110F temps like he may get today or tomorrow!

 

[3RRL]

Thanks for the questions.
To be honest, we are still learning how to monitor the system. We have watered the batteries but have not equalized them. They are in their own compartment, but it is not insulated, so I'm sure it gets pretty hot (and cold) in there. There are 2 power vents though that run automatically. They don't do anything for temperature control though.

After running the AC several times and for a full day one time, the generator kicked on for about 2 hours last week. That's been the only time it kicked on to help charge the batteries. Our solar contractor is coming out after he gets back from a job up North to help us understand the system better. We have a monitor in the home that tells us what the system is doing, but we don't understand exactly what that information is. So we need to get more educated in that respect. We have only lived in the house last week for the first time, so it is all brand new to us. Once the contractor gets back, he is going to go over all of it again, now that we are really using the system. Our plan is to become educated enough where the monitoring, maintenance, and wise usage of the system will be our responsibility.

 

[tommu56]

Rob I have this meter http://store.altenergystore.com/Met...Tm-2020-Trimetric-Meter-Battery-Monitor/p254/
and even my wife understands the basic info on it we leave it on % battery capacity and use it like fuel gauge to determine what we can run she was up for 2 weeks and it was overcast and down to 80% and she stopped using the microwave and other heavy uses till i came up and hooked the generator up and charged battery's.

tommu

edit link didn't post

http://store.altenergystore.com/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Ammeters-Voltmeters-Battery-Monitors/Bogart-Engineering-Tm-2020-Trimetric-Meter-Battery-Monitor/p254/

 

[hayden]

Rob,

Did you paint the floor in your barn/shop, and if so what kind of paint did you use? I want to get a real durable surface down in my shop while the floor is still virgin adn from what I can tell Epoxy paint is the best solution, but I've never used it before.

 

[rox]

Hi Rox,
Thanks for all the ideas about terracing the land. I've already found out that wider is better, because I don't want to drive off one of those accidentally. Like you said, I will be restricted as to the size by the lay of the land and the structures though, so I may have to have one narrow terrace sort of pie shaped to get the run off channeled away from the structures as needed. But I guess I will have to accept that.

I also thought about steps like you suggested, except mostly at the house end where the terrace is most pronounced, and making them out of wood. The other end will hopefully blend into the road at the same level where we wouldn't need steps. I didn't want to put steps in the middle because that's where I want the wall of rock barrier to be most visible when driving up to it. But I imagine the rock wall will also blend and taper down as it gets closer to the road where it all blends in. I don't know, I'll have to see how severe the terraces are in relation to each other.
In any case, I would live to see the rock steps you speak of to give us some ideas. It sounds really cool.

About the greenery around the footing of the house, that is a good idea and I'm glad you pointed it out. Loretta and I have plans to make a walkway about 2' away from the footings and a planter bed in between for small shrubs and flowers etc. Perhaps a coy pond or something which she wanted anyway? Although that might be a ways off (after solving proper drainage) I still need to keep in mind those planters for irrigation purposes. I'd like to get at least that part done by Fall and before the rains come.

Rob, I took a couple pictures today.
Pic 1 is he built in stepsPic 2 is a coseup of one step
Pic 3 shows step in a higher wall and notice if the wall is high at the top fo the stone wall they placed a large boulder so you can hang on to it to lift yourself up.
Pic 4 is showing if you build terraces with stone walls be very careful NOT to build up your dirt higher than the stone wall. The previous owner ripped our grapevines and planted Almond trees. Whne he did so, after digging the holes for the almond trees he left the dirt, whihc was now higher than the top of the stones. we ahve a lot of stone wall reapairs to do because with the dirt now higher the wall looses integrity and stones fall out. From experience I would say have your dirt even or a tad lower than the final rocks. Our walls are 200 years old and except where the old owner left the dirt higher than the stone wall they are still very solid. No cement either, dry laid stones.

 

[3RRL]

Hey Tom,
Thanks for that link man. I am going to look into that one and maybe purchase it. Seems like it gives the information we are looking for without having to go through a bunch of menus. I will check with the solar contractor first to see if our control can give us any of that information though, since we have one already. Just don't know how to use it properly I guess?

Rob I have this meter http://store.altenergystore.com/Met...Tm-2020-Trimetric-Meter-Battery-Monitor/p254/
and even my wife understands the basic info on it we leave it on % battery capacity and use it like fuel gauge to determine what we can run she was up for 2 weeks and it was overcast and down to 80% and she stopped using the microwave and other heavy uses till i came up and hooked the generator up and charged battery's.

tommu

edit link didn't post

http://store.altenergystore.com/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Ammeters-Voltmeters-Battery-Monitors/Bogart-Engineering-Tm-2020-Trimetric-Meter-Battery-Monitor/p254/

 

[3RRL]

Hayden,
No, I didn't paint the floor, but just had it sealed properly right after the concrete cured. I can't remember what the contractor used to seal it though...sorry. It seems fairly durable and has an easy to clean surface on it now.
I also know it was not an epoxy, but from what I've read, that is probably the best and most durable finish you can get.

Rob,

Did you paint the floor in your barn/shop, and if so what kind of paint did you use? I want to get a real durable surface down in my shop while the floor is still virgin adn from what I can tell Epoxy paint is the best solution, but I've never used it before.

 

[3RRL]

Rox,
Thanks a million for taking those very cool pictures of your rock walls and steps.
They are very interesting. Incredible they are 200 years old! Building the rock wall like what you've shown is pretty much what I want to do. I want the top of the wall to be at least a foot above the ground to become a visible barrier. The steps I had in mind will be more like a rock staircase leading down to the next terrace. I'd have to be in as good a shape as you to climb up those ones you have. I'd like mine to be so I could carry something up and down the steps if I needed to.

 

[charlz]

I want to get a real durable surface down in my shop while the floor is still virgin adn from what I can tell Epoxy paint is the best solution, but I've never used it before.

I've used it a few times. The first couple times it was a two-part mixture I bought at Home Depot, don't remember who made it. You had to mix the components and then paint it on within a certain time. This gave a very nice coat that was pretty durable.... if you dropped a hammer or something it might chip a little but other than that it was tough.

The last time I have used it was the Rustoleum 'garage floor' product. This was more like paint and does not give as thick of a coating. I used this in my shop which has no 'drive-on' areas. Gives a good coating... I put it on an old floor so not quite as nice as the first product which went on virgin floors.

I believe you have more of a choice these days and can get the 'garage floor' product on up to an 'industrial floor' product. The best part is if you spill oil or something you just wipe it up with no staining etc.

You have to have a really clean, dust-free floor and there are limits to how soon you can put heavy items on the floor etc. I think the first product you could not drive on it for 7 days.