Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Yeah, I know, I just like to complain and since there's no one here at home to listen (the cats don't even feign like they are listening), you guys get to hear it . Plus, I had a whole week of full sun prior (rare), so all the gloominess outside is a shock to the system.

I'm actually pretty close to last September's numbers. With the mini split providing heat, I'm using 10-12kwh a day so it will definitely be really close by the end of the month.

 

That would be 5 yrs. supply for me

 

Didn't move much.....not going to affect me much anyway. Power & internet went out at 7am, so got genny up & running......nice to have a nice cup of coffee while the wind howls . Believe it or not, I'm running my Mac desktop wi-fi off my Android flip-phone as a hot spot. I did it just to see if it could be done, and it's VERY slow, but does work.

 

Instead of the mostly cloudy conditions we were supposed have yesterday, it was clear skies nearly all day. What clouds we had were the high, wispy clouds that didn't really affect the sunlight too much. That was thanks to the system high that parked on top of us and kept the clouds down south (it wasn't supposed to do that). So, I got the following charging done off my two yard panels that are 320w each:

• My main station (D2M - 2,048 kwh) charged up from nearly depleted. This is my workhorse that I use every day for various kitchen appliances. and charge my Ryobi batteries
  
• Also rolled my big guy (DP - 3,600 kwh - at 63%) out to the yard panels and managed to get it up to 87% before shade took over.

Using house power (from the excess rooftop solar), I plugged my new station that was delivered Thursday (D3+ - 1,024wh ) and got it charged up from the 28% it arrived at.

Also got a sunburn working outside progressing on a project, so got plenty of vitamin D

 

Thanks for the update on imacman, I hope he and his can stay safe. It is horrendous down there!

 

I'm sure your 540w panels do much better than my 320w panels - you just don't see it because you have limited charging that needs to be done. Although, mine are on the ground, I can turn them to face the sun periodically - which is a huge help in sun harvesting. Here is the big DP charging in the afternoon and the input wattage that is from a cloudless period



And this is from earlier that morning when I had just set up while the panels are still in shade and charging the D2M (obviously, once the sun hits that number goes way up).



In other news - I replaced the firebox door gasket to the P61a and the ashpan door gasket to the P43. Only grabbed pics of the P61a door for proof that it happened

 

During summer those panels were in my back yard (east side of house) - sun would clear the trees about 10am and shade from the house wouldn't hit until about 3pm. But this time of year, that north side is the only part that gets sun for 4-5 hours. I'm expecting the deep of winter they will be useless basically. If I had a good spot, I would get one of those automatic solar tracker set ups.

 

I'm baaack.......well, thanks to JT for forwarding my cries from the darkness (not really dark....LOL). Predator genny ran flawlessly almost non-stop for 3 days. Only shut it down for re-fueling & checked the oil once (didn't use a drop). Our power outage was due to 2 big trees taking down the wires about a mile from me (see attached pics), but Duke Power had so many outages in the state, they weren't in a huge hurry to fix power for just 200 homes. Internet was another issue....there was a fibre-optic cable break in Greenville, SC that affected a BIG area. Finally got that back last night around 6:30.

A ton of branches in the yard (already cleaned-up), and leaves, but besides very soggy ground, house came through un-touched.

One of these days I'll try running the house A/C off of the genny. It's a 9500 watt inverter unit, and local electrician neighbor thinks it might do it w/o the need for a soft-start, since my system is a 3 ton variable speed and it would try starting on the lower speed. What's the worst that could happen?.....breaker on genny would trip. If that happens, I'll get the soft-start unit and then I know it'll work.

 

Time for my check-in...I must need help! LOL

Anyone use aftermarket parts in their stove??

OEM Aftermarket
Agitator $225.00 $80.00

Burn Pot $200.00 $100.00

Fire Grate $140.00 $80.00

Total $565.00 $260.00

Appears to be a no-brainer, just wondering if any of you have tried the aftermarket scene?