This rainy week has been challenging for #offgrid baking, it takes 25% of my battery to bake a #sourdough loaf, but I've managed to make 2. This one ran the battery down to 9%. #solarpunk
Here's a big #offgrid site: 5 megawatts of solar (plans for 25, think 100 acres of panels), with 3 megawatts of batteries, to charge EVs and electric semi trucks (at 1.2 megawatts).
It's wild that this is (apparently) economical now. There are surely better arbitrage opportunities with a grid connection, to charge the batteries from the grid and sell back to the grid as well as selling EV fast charges.
But interconnection lag be damned, we need this now.
This one took weeks to write. It's about me finding a way to significantly reduce the power consumption of a Raspberry Pi Pico W working as a weather station, collecting environmental data.
I am also writing about powering the Pico using solar panels, and this time it's a success, my weather station can now run indefinitely, powered by the sun!
I found deepsleep to not work reliably. Program code got corrupted with it. I think I pushed it to max power saving at <3mA idle/lightsleep, with a lot of clock tweaking etc.
In hindsight I'd say 2W solar & 600mAh was prob on the low end of feasible :D
Gestern bin ich auf #Risiko gegangen und habe die Popkornmaschine über das Bordnetz des #Velostudio laufen lassen Auf dem Foto ist der Stecker in der Steckdose die ich über einen Wandler aus den Batterien mit 240 Volt speisen kann. Und: es geht - und sogar ziemlich lange. Gestartet bin ich mit 52 Volt Batteriespannung. Der Wandler schaltet sich bei 45 Volt ab. Bis da hin wurde drei Stunden #Popkorn gemacht. Da hätte ich eine Option für #OffGrid Popkorn ;-) #Energiewende#Fahrrad#Dortmund
Video Overview of the Meshtastic Radio Mobile App Interface and Settings
This video explores what the Android app looks like, how to use the main screens, and what various settings and menu options it has. It gives a good feel of how you’d use Meshtastic radio communications from the app to control the radio settings and ...continues
Does anyone have experience with #humanure processing?
We're weighing the pros and cons of #biogas digestion and typical turn-heavy aerobic #composting. Also thinking about a combination of the two but going from anaerobic to aerobic processing could create more labor.
The downside of #offgrid living - while at our friends in Edinburgh we topped up the car overnight on their charger. 69% to 100% battery at a cost of about £2.
I know we're no worse off than those living in flats or those with on-street parking, but the profit margins for the companies and councils owning the charging infrastructure must be sky high.
And I still don't understand why Perth & Kinross can charge 54p a unit for their chargers while Highland Council gouges 70p from us.
Hidden Lotus Herbs is getting ready to move to our new #farm site and really ramp up our operations!
For some backstory,
I was the recipient of a fund from @coop to start a worker-owned #cooperative and decided to make it an herbal apothecary!
We've been operational for around six months and are now starting our regenerative agroecological farm and increasing the capacity of our free clinic.
However, the #renewableenergy systems we're building are more expensive than we budgeted for, and we could use some help getting the farm and clinic going financially.
We're really needing help from our community to make all this cool stuff happen!
If you can spare some $, please consider supporting our transition and future. If you can't, please share far and wide!
The fun of self build. I've spent most of the day working out how to design a sewage treatment plant and drainage field where the water table almost reaches the surface in winter.
I'm now looking at a holding tank and pump to squirt the outgoing liquid from the treatment plant into a "drainage mound". As the saying goes ... its a load of sh1t.
My next task this weekend is to do a "percolation test" so I know how big to make everything.
One of the issues is it looks like I have to anchor the tanks in the ground to stop them floating out of the ground when the groundwater levels are high. Basically I have to bolt them down to a concrete slab.
Climbing the #EnergyAccess ladder at a Finnish #offgrid summer cottage:
The first PV panel 15yrs ago was 40W and ok for phone charging and 2 LEDs (tier 1)
The current 160W panel has been ok for using a laptop for several hours a day (tier 2)
Now I brought two additional 400W panels in order to power a fridge (tier 3).
A new battery might not be necessary if I keep the thermal mass inside the fridge high with water bottles etc and install one of the new panels towards east and one west.
Not as "prise it out of my cold dead hands" as I expected, so I won't be grappling with the dilemma of paying Elon more than £1k/year. Phew!
It's impressively easy to set up and use and works on the roof of my #narrowboat. The 45W consumption has some downside but the fact is I really can do 99% of what I want using a 4G mobile at £240/year. So it's not worth the money to me.
My friend, also on a boat, uses it for endless video conferences. #offgrid