....find the damn horse!
After a computer hard drive failure and general lack of organization, I "lost" where this blog was and which email account was linked to it. Thanks to the complete cluster-fuck at Frugals, over the very very ill-advised handling of the shutdown of the fiction forum, and my resulting formation of a blog on which to continue posting What Went Wrong, I hit my 'blogger.com' button and this window popped up, because I was in an old email account when I hit the link!
Now that I know where it is, I'm going to start keeping up on it a little better!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday, September 6, 2010
Where'd Frugal's go?
Either someone's messing with FS website or my computer is messing with me... anyone have any idea?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
A $7.00 (more or less) 12v light
Was in the Texan's 'home away from home'--that's Wal-Mart to you northerners--and came across this little light fixture:
I should have thought to get a pic of the packaging too, but it's $6.24 in my local Wallyworld, and probably about that in most places. It's touted as "no wires needed!" and other sheeply baloney like that, but what it is, is that it takes eight AA batteries, which it promptly eats within a few days if it's used much at all. Not very frugal or thrifty at all, and seemed kinda stupid to use rechargeable batteries in it, pulling them outto charge them on a 12v rechargeable battery charger. It even looks redundant when typed! So.... I set out to see if I could convert the thing to a wired 12 volt light fixture. Metrowash of Frugal's Forums had sent me a light he had gotten from a website called Mountain Mods (link is to the light he sent me) which, according to my little Harbor Freight three dollar multimeter, draws .65 amps after startup. Not too shabby, but still, the shipping ran this $5.99 light up over twelve dollars to buy just one, so when I saw this six dollar fixture in Wal-Mart, my mind started churning.
To the how-to:
The hot and ground connections are at the far end from the battery access door in this little critter, so I used a half inch diameter dowel rod cut to the length of four batteries as a "spacer" to get the wires pushed up against the contacts:
I cut the dowel the exact length of four batteries and drilled an 1/8 inch hole a bit deeper than the length of the #8 x 3/4" wood screw I had on hand.
I then took a couple of chunks of 16 gauge automotive wire I had left over from putting a trailer plug on my old pickup and stripped them back and tinned the bare end, then wrapped a loop in it that would fit around that wood screw:
Now, I know I should have used some more standard color for hot and ground, but this is what I had. The alligators I put on it (thanks again, MW!) had little red and black grip pieces on 'em, so I used that to indicate which was which.
I then screwed those wires onto the ends of the two pieces of dowel I cut then bound the two dowels together with a couple wraps of electrical tape:
I then marked 'em with which one's positive and which is negative:
and then slid the whole shootin' match into the battery compartment of the light fixture.
Now, to get the little pigtail of wire out of the semi-sealed battery area. A quarter inch hole drilled in the door solved that problem:
Lid snapped on and the critter ready to hook up and see if it's gonna make sparks or light:
So let's do it:
Notice I've got the little multimeter in line, set at 10A DC, and the wires plugged into the appropriate sockets on the multimeter to read 10 amps without blowing the fuse in it.
Let's turn it on....
Notice, .32 amps after startup. About half the cold cathode light kit, and comes with a slick lookin' cover to boot! I think I'll get a few more of these to stick here and there where we want some general lighting for more than just reach in and grab, then shut it back off. Places like the kitchen counters (under the cabinets, to shine on the counters) and maybe in the bathroom.
What this goes to tell me is, and I'm surprised as heck I never thought of it before, is that ANY critter that uses eight batteries can be converted to work on a 12v off-grid home system. Radios, lights, all these things can be adapted to work to your advantage in an off-grid situation.
With the solar flare coming tonight, you might just want to copy this onto your hard drive and maybe print it out.... This one (or the next) might not be as tame. No, I'm not saying the sky is falling, but what if it does? Are you ready, if not in fact, but in knowledge and theory so that you CAN adapt and overcome? A dear family member of mine said that falls into the category of 'the unthinkable', but does not thinking of it prevent it? Damn sure doesn't prepare you. 'Unthinkable' doesn't mean 'ain't gonna happen'
I should have thought to get a pic of the packaging too, but it's $6.24 in my local Wallyworld, and probably about that in most places. It's touted as "no wires needed!" and other sheeply baloney like that, but what it is, is that it takes eight AA batteries, which it promptly eats within a few days if it's used much at all. Not very frugal or thrifty at all, and seemed kinda stupid to use rechargeable batteries in it, pulling them outto charge them on a 12v rechargeable battery charger. It even looks redundant when typed! So.... I set out to see if I could convert the thing to a wired 12 volt light fixture. Metrowash of Frugal's Forums had sent me a light he had gotten from a website called Mountain Mods (link is to the light he sent me) which, according to my little Harbor Freight three dollar multimeter, draws .65 amps after startup. Not too shabby, but still, the shipping ran this $5.99 light up over twelve dollars to buy just one, so when I saw this six dollar fixture in Wal-Mart, my mind started churning.
To the how-to:
The hot and ground connections are at the far end from the battery access door in this little critter, so I used a half inch diameter dowel rod cut to the length of four batteries as a "spacer" to get the wires pushed up against the contacts:
I cut the dowel the exact length of four batteries and drilled an 1/8 inch hole a bit deeper than the length of the #8 x 3/4" wood screw I had on hand.
I then took a couple of chunks of 16 gauge automotive wire I had left over from putting a trailer plug on my old pickup and stripped them back and tinned the bare end, then wrapped a loop in it that would fit around that wood screw:
Now, I know I should have used some more standard color for hot and ground, but this is what I had. The alligators I put on it (thanks again, MW!) had little red and black grip pieces on 'em, so I used that to indicate which was which.
I then screwed those wires onto the ends of the two pieces of dowel I cut then bound the two dowels together with a couple wraps of electrical tape:
I then marked 'em with which one's positive and which is negative:
and then slid the whole shootin' match into the battery compartment of the light fixture.
Now, to get the little pigtail of wire out of the semi-sealed battery area. A quarter inch hole drilled in the door solved that problem:
Lid snapped on and the critter ready to hook up and see if it's gonna make sparks or light:
So let's do it:
Notice I've got the little multimeter in line, set at 10A DC, and the wires plugged into the appropriate sockets on the multimeter to read 10 amps without blowing the fuse in it.
Let's turn it on....
Notice, .32 amps after startup. About half the cold cathode light kit, and comes with a slick lookin' cover to boot! I think I'll get a few more of these to stick here and there where we want some general lighting for more than just reach in and grab, then shut it back off. Places like the kitchen counters (under the cabinets, to shine on the counters) and maybe in the bathroom.
What this goes to tell me is, and I'm surprised as heck I never thought of it before, is that ANY critter that uses eight batteries can be converted to work on a 12v off-grid home system. Radios, lights, all these things can be adapted to work to your advantage in an off-grid situation.
With the solar flare coming tonight, you might just want to copy this onto your hard drive and maybe print it out.... This one (or the next) might not be as tame. No, I'm not saying the sky is falling, but what if it does? Are you ready, if not in fact, but in knowledge and theory so that you CAN adapt and overcome? A dear family member of mine said that falls into the category of 'the unthinkable', but does not thinking of it prevent it? Damn sure doesn't prepare you. 'Unthinkable' doesn't mean 'ain't gonna happen'
No, I haven't given up, been busy
Between running like a nut and all that's been going on in the world, I've kinda been doing with what we had for a few months. I've added a battery to the battery bank and neatened up stuff a bit outside, those pics will come some other day.
What I've put together today is some 12 volt lighting. Post with pics as soon as I get it together! :) Basically, found some battery powered stuff and adapted it to work on my 12 volt system. Check back in an hour or so!
What I've put together today is some 12 volt lighting. Post with pics as soon as I get it together! :) Basically, found some battery powered stuff and adapted it to work on my 12 volt system. Check back in an hour or so!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Found a propane refrigerator...
...Now to pay for it before it goes away. Trying to horsetrade for it, but can't catch the bossman there to work a deal, and the hired hands don't have the authority to do anything but cash money. Maybe this afternoon.... maybe....
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
An observation about choosing a generator
One thing you DO want to make absolutely certain of when you're running ANY generator for long enough periods where it just becomes 'background noise' is to be sure you're running one with a low-oil shutdown feature.
What this is, is a sensor in the crankcase (the part of the engine where the oil resides) that will shut down the engine if the oil level falls below a certain point.
ALL engines sip a little oil as they run. Think about it, if it's coating the cylinder walls to make the piston slide without eating the engine, that means there's a little bit of oil in there each time the spark fires, burning off a wee bit of oil each time. With an engine running at 3600 RPM, those little bitses add up before too long. Gotta make it up somehow, and that somehow is to add a few ounces ever so often, and to know when to do that you must check the oil level daily. I check this one every time I start it.
Speaking of oil, it's time to change it, too. Running it 4-6 hours a day for 7 days now, that's 28-42 hours, and 50 hours is about max on a small engine for an oil change interval. Simple choice if you do the math: 20 oz of oil a week, or new generator after a few months? Sounds like a no-brainer to me!
What this is, is a sensor in the crankcase (the part of the engine where the oil resides) that will shut down the engine if the oil level falls below a certain point.
ALL engines sip a little oil as they run. Think about it, if it's coating the cylinder walls to make the piston slide without eating the engine, that means there's a little bit of oil in there each time the spark fires, burning off a wee bit of oil each time. With an engine running at 3600 RPM, those little bitses add up before too long. Gotta make it up somehow, and that somehow is to add a few ounces ever so often, and to know when to do that you must check the oil level daily. I check this one every time I start it.
Speaking of oil, it's time to change it, too. Running it 4-6 hours a day for 7 days now, that's 28-42 hours, and 50 hours is about max on a small engine for an oil change interval. Simple choice if you do the math: 20 oz of oil a week, or new generator after a few months? Sounds like a no-brainer to me!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Where we are, so far (lotsa pics)
Any suggestions are welcome, as are screams of "NO DON'T DO IT THAT WAY!"
This is, for now, the main workhorse of our electrical system:
That orange wire is 10/2 romex going to the top feed of this branch box:
The ''old'' feed for this box is the 10/2 coming in and hooked to the upper left double breaker. That now 'feeds' the main house box inside through the 40A breaker in the main box, which is simply a connection point now, being that it passes through that double 20 in the branch box shown.
All the other breakers in the house box (shown below) are shut off, except for the 40A dbl mentioned above. What I'm doing is backfeeding the house main which is out under the meter can. Bear with me, there's a reason for this :)
It's too dark out there to go get pics of that tonight, but there are three separate breakers under the meter: One double 30 to the water well, one double 60 to the house, and a double 40 to the workshop. The shop is turned off. (If I need electricity out there, I'll deal with it then.) By backfeeding the house main, I can use the bus bar in the box to power the well branch. I know, this energizes the lower lugs of the meter can, but I have a warning written in magic marker on the socket cover. Being as how I'm not buying any juice from them, they've got no business poking around out there anyways. AND if this works out through the summer, I'm going to go down to the courthouse and revoke their easement, and tell 'em to come git ther junk off'n my land ...But that's on down the road. I can just imagine the looks on their faces, I doubt they've ever had anyone revoke an easement!
Now, on to the show'n'tell.....
Clearly, we don't want to have to stumble around in the dark or hunt for flashlights after bedtime, nor can we afford to run the noisebox 24/7, so this setup below works fine for a few lights as needed and the nightly fix of Al & Peg, the only TV I watch. (Hey, I do have one vice....and they're a heck of a lot more intelligent than any of the late-night news shows or talk shows!)
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/2w1ru6h.jpg[/IMG]
That is a Harbor Freight (or Wallyworld, can't remember--it's OLD!) 225A charger/starter and 3 O'Reilly's group 24 marine batteries, batteries tied together in parallel (that's positive to positive and negative to negative) with the charger hooked to opposite ends--by that I mean the positive is hooked to the positive on the left, and the negative charger cable is hooked to the negative battery terminal on the right hand battery. Likewise, the inverter is hooked up diagonally opposite. This forces the system to charge and draw from the entire battery bank instead of just the closest one. The little meter is hooked to the center battery just to make things look even
The inverter (below) is HF's 750 watt inverter, with 11 volt shutdown IIRC and 16 volt overcharge shutdown.
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/2l8kxzd.jpg[/IMG]
So far so good. It runs the old analog TV, the converter box, this laptop, a little 6 inch fan, and occasionally a couple of 10 watt CFL lamps if needed. The three batteries are plenty for that small load, and the charger recharges the batteries in about 2 hours of runtime a day on the medium (40A) setting. We're running the generator 4-6 hours a day as it is, simply to keep the fridge at 45 degrees somewhat consistently. Soon as I find a propane fridge, this requirement will be off our backs.
Water system:
Right now, we run the well pump to fill these:
[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/25q9lvp.jpg[/IMG]
That is two 275 gallon poly tanks that had roundup in them. Roundup is a salt, sodium glyphosate to be particular, and just simply vanishes in a product called Nutra-Sol, which is available at Tractor Supply or any other ag chemical house. If the water from our well weren't so :puke:-inducing awful, I'd have no problem drinking from these tanks.
The pump to the left (the blue thing) is another Harbor Freight product. Does an admirable job as a booster pump, and runs on 110v, at much less amps than the submersible pump does when pumping to pressure. We've had this dual pump setup for about a year, and it's worked well for us.
However, that pump means that the generator has to be running to get water. I found this in the motorhome in the back pasture. (Neighbor and I do not have a separating fence in our pasture, we chose instead of fence the outside and graze our animals in common. Works out well for both of us.)
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/s0wyeh.jpg[/IMG]
This is what it came out of:
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/w8qntl.jpg[/IMG]
The MH also has the following two critters in it:
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/2up4h0h.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i48.tinypic.com/2wfoifm.jpg[/IMG]
I did confirm with neighbor that it IS in fact all mine for the taking still, so I'm gettin' after it!
Unfortunately no refrigerator in this thing, so have to go hunting afield for one of those. Think I've found one... Will know this week.
The "where we're going" part will be in a separate post, following shortly. Thanks to all who have been following this! Feedback is welcome, just hit the "comment" button!
This is, for now, the main workhorse of our electrical system:
That orange wire is 10/2 romex going to the top feed of this branch box:
The ''old'' feed for this box is the 10/2 coming in and hooked to the upper left double breaker. That now 'feeds' the main house box inside through the 40A breaker in the main box, which is simply a connection point now, being that it passes through that double 20 in the branch box shown.
All the other breakers in the house box (shown below) are shut off, except for the 40A dbl mentioned above. What I'm doing is backfeeding the house main which is out under the meter can. Bear with me, there's a reason for this :)
It's too dark out there to go get pics of that tonight, but there are three separate breakers under the meter: One double 30 to the water well, one double 60 to the house, and a double 40 to the workshop. The shop is turned off. (If I need electricity out there, I'll deal with it then.) By backfeeding the house main, I can use the bus bar in the box to power the well branch. I know, this energizes the lower lugs of the meter can, but I have a warning written in magic marker on the socket cover. Being as how I'm not buying any juice from them, they've got no business poking around out there anyways. AND if this works out through the summer, I'm going to go down to the courthouse and revoke their easement, and tell 'em to come git ther junk off'n my land ...But that's on down the road. I can just imagine the looks on their faces, I doubt they've ever had anyone revoke an easement!
Now, on to the show'n'tell.....
Clearly, we don't want to have to stumble around in the dark or hunt for flashlights after bedtime, nor can we afford to run the noisebox 24/7, so this setup below works fine for a few lights as needed and the nightly fix of Al & Peg, the only TV I watch. (Hey, I do have one vice....and they're a heck of a lot more intelligent than any of the late-night news shows or talk shows!)
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/2w1ru6h.jpg[/IMG]
That is a Harbor Freight (or Wallyworld, can't remember--it's OLD!) 225A charger/starter and 3 O'Reilly's group 24 marine batteries, batteries tied together in parallel (that's positive to positive and negative to negative) with the charger hooked to opposite ends--by that I mean the positive is hooked to the positive on the left, and the negative charger cable is hooked to the negative battery terminal on the right hand battery. Likewise, the inverter is hooked up diagonally opposite. This forces the system to charge and draw from the entire battery bank instead of just the closest one. The little meter is hooked to the center battery just to make things look even
The inverter (below) is HF's 750 watt inverter, with 11 volt shutdown IIRC and 16 volt overcharge shutdown.
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/2l8kxzd.jpg[/IMG]
So far so good. It runs the old analog TV, the converter box, this laptop, a little 6 inch fan, and occasionally a couple of 10 watt CFL lamps if needed. The three batteries are plenty for that small load, and the charger recharges the batteries in about 2 hours of runtime a day on the medium (40A) setting. We're running the generator 4-6 hours a day as it is, simply to keep the fridge at 45 degrees somewhat consistently. Soon as I find a propane fridge, this requirement will be off our backs.
Water system:
Right now, we run the well pump to fill these:
[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/25q9lvp.jpg[/IMG]
That is two 275 gallon poly tanks that had roundup in them. Roundup is a salt, sodium glyphosate to be particular, and just simply vanishes in a product called Nutra-Sol, which is available at Tractor Supply or any other ag chemical house. If the water from our well weren't so :puke:-inducing awful, I'd have no problem drinking from these tanks.
The pump to the left (the blue thing) is another Harbor Freight product. Does an admirable job as a booster pump, and runs on 110v, at much less amps than the submersible pump does when pumping to pressure. We've had this dual pump setup for about a year, and it's worked well for us.
However, that pump means that the generator has to be running to get water. I found this in the motorhome in the back pasture. (Neighbor and I do not have a separating fence in our pasture, we chose instead of fence the outside and graze our animals in common. Works out well for both of us.)
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/s0wyeh.jpg[/IMG]
This is what it came out of:
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/w8qntl.jpg[/IMG]
The MH also has the following two critters in it:
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/2up4h0h.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i48.tinypic.com/2wfoifm.jpg[/IMG]
I did confirm with neighbor that it IS in fact all mine for the taking still, so I'm gettin' after it!
Unfortunately no refrigerator in this thing, so have to go hunting afield for one of those. Think I've found one... Will know this week.
The "where we're going" part will be in a separate post, following shortly. Thanks to all who have been following this! Feedback is welcome, just hit the "comment" button!
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