Pictures of snow…

Must resist temptation to publish pictures of snow… Must Resist Temptation to Publish Pictures of Snow…

Installing our Photovoltaic System, part V

Inspections.  There are three inspections.  When scheduling the inspections,  thou shalt count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest on to three. Five is right [...]

PV system technical specs

I know there are a few technical readers out there who might be interested in this stuff.  For the rest of you, browse through some old posts, some of them are quite entertaining.

The PV system sizing is based on a few ground facts, as we used to call them.  First, the current usage of [...]

Tool Review, Husqvarna 240 E Chain Saw

In order to put up our Photovoltaic system, we had to remove an old pear tree.  The tree was exactly in the prime location for the array, and figuring that we could replant an apple tree, which I like apples more than pears, everything would be just fine.

I got out the old chain saw, [...]

Installing our Photovoltaic system, part IV

Now for the fun part, the frame is all done.  The frame is pressure treated 4×4 post and beam style.  The rafters are pressure treated 2 x 10 x 12 feet.  Over all, it came out pretty nice.  Next year I intend to replace the front deck with a covered porch, also post and beam [...]

Installing our Photovoltaic system, part III

Constructing the mounting frame. I had my one “oops” moment in the project already, hopefully there will not be another one. It seems that when I laid out the position of the mounting frame, I was a little too close to the property line. In the end of October, the town that I live in [...]

Installing our Photovoltiac system, Part II

Laying out the support frame.  As mentioned before, the south facing roof on our house is taken up with the solar hot water system.  The only mounting option for the photovoltaic system was to build a sun shade type support frame in the yard.

The first thing that was needed was the size of the [...]

Installing our Photovoltaic Solar System, Part I

I have had a pretty good year with the solar business thus far.  Therefore, I decided to roll some of this year’s profits into our own Photovoltaic (PV) system.  This idea has been batted about before, including as a battery back up for the sump pumps, however, a few things have developed since then.

First [...]

Things to ponder

I think Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.

Or have term limits.

Building a Boat Dock

This is what I did on vacation:

I made a new dock for the cottage in Canada.  The old dock was built about 20 or more years ago, nobody is really sure.  It had a useful life but last winter the ice caused the dock part to become detached from the crib and fall in [...]