All Energies

Solar as usual

2012-05-08T19:00:00Z

We recently helped our friends John and Nancy expand their solar power system. They added 1400 watts of PV to their array, which doubled their power input.

Their new panels are mounted to the roof using a prefabricated IronRidge aluminum mounting system.

The SunTech PV modules come with a 20 year output warranty and are well matched to the battery bank voltage, which means the OutBack Power MPPT charge controller can operate at peak efficiency.

John and Nancy are happy to now have more electricity than they need, even during times of heavy electrical usage.

The 1.8 kilowatt SunStation was recently delivered to its new owners on the Terlingua Ranch. The couple is pleased with the performance so far, and are able to run their Airstream travel trailer, including a hefty, roof-mounted air conditioner.

Surprisingly, the brand new, modern AC (13k BTU) consumes 1.9 kilowatts per hour. That's about 600 watts more than the similarly sized window unit at my parents' home, which dates to about 1980.

We received a large delivery of concrete blocks for some upcoming homestead improvements. 380 8x8x16" blocks, 20 bags of mortar and 20 bags of Portland cement.

We are adding a back wall on the shop in blocks up to 7' high, the remainder is framed in steel and covered by steel panels.

The floor of the chicken coop was also excavated and poured with homemade concrete this past week. Just a little bit of ferro-cement work on the remaining wall, and our last surviving chicken Foxy Lady (who is doing really well, by the way) will be moving back in.
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A dog called Pecos

2012-05-08T03:41:26Z

A Mess of Fun

2012-05-05T19:10:57Z

Power-saving Hoax

2012-05-02T17:36:37Z

Came across one of these things yesterday. A neighbor was using it in his off-grid home.
We were dumbstruck by the concept, looked at the thing, and determined it was using about 60 watts of power. Below is the interesting 'device':
Apparently the BBC ran some stories about the elderly being scammed with these things over there.

The Great Chicken Massacre

2012-04-28T13:22:08Z

We suffered a devastating loss yesterday. In the wee hours of the morning a fox broke into our chicken coop and laid waste to all the birds. There were over thirty dead. About 20 meat birds and all 15 of our beautiful and friendly egg layers.

At first it seemed a total loss, but while cleaning up the carnage we found one bird still alive and hiding among the dead.

She has had the skin ripped off one leg, all the way up to her hip and her armpit. The injury makes her almost immobile, but otherwise she seems lively and alert.

We took her next door to the adobe, where she is now living in a dog crate. Her injury has been treated with Woundkote, a spray on antiseptic dressing. She is eating and drinking, and I promised her that if she pulls through, she will live a long life as an honorary egg layer.

We are calling her Foxy, as a reminder of what a terrible loss we suffered because our so-called 'fortress' couldn't keep out one burrowing varmint.

This is the last time we will ever have an intruder in our coop!

Tasty Interview

2012-04-22T16:08:49Z

Yesterday evening we had a great visit from new friends Brittanie, a journalist from the Houston Press, and her hubby Chris, a marine engineer.

Got to feed them some delicious home-grown chicken we had butchered the day before, and they treated us to some wonderful Real Ale from the Hill Country.

They also interviewed fellow off-gridders John Wells and Jess from Shady80.

Always fun to talk with friends and show off the homestead.

Bathroom is moving along, little by little. But we have tile and mortar for the walls ready to go up, and permanent plumbing about to be installed. That and some paint, and she'll be ready for a photo shoot soon enough.

Bathroom door is still waiting in the wings, but in the hot weather it's nice to have just a light curtain that lets the air flow past.

But with new Ikea additions in the kitchen, the revamped bed area with a larger mosquito net, a mirror mosaic, and other upgrades ... the interior of the house is getting more photogenic every day.

Someday soon we'll have to begin prepping the house exterior for stucco. The hard candy coating will be a huge upgrade, but first we have to cover the house with asphalt felt and stucco lath.

So much to do, and not enough days in the week.

Spring Flowers

2012-04-20T21:25:38Z

Ornamental balloon cactus from the 'Many Stones' store in Study Butte

Wildflowers in Alpine

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT)

2012-04-13T03:22:16Z

Solar charge controllers that come with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) are becoming widespread and less expensive. But many people don't know much about charge controllers in general, and even less about electronics and MPPT specifically. So we thought we would share our knowledge and experience on the subject.

Maximum power point tracking has nothing to do with solar tracking.

Solar trackers move your array to point at the sun wherever it is in the sky, which can increase it's power output by a few percentage points, and help your system make power during dawn and dusk.

Maximum power point tracking has nothing to do with physical tracking, and has everything to do with the laws governing electricity. Specifically, Ohm's Law and Joule's Law.

The following may seem boring and/or confusing to some of you, but understanding these laws and the behavior of electricity is crucial to understanding how solar power works (and how it can be made more efficient).

Ohm's Law states that current, voltage, and resistance are measured proportionally. This law can be distilled into the following mathematical formula:

V = I x R

Where V = voltage, I = current, and R = resistance.

And knowing what we do about algebra, this formula can be rearranged to find a value for any one of the three elements. For example, to find current:

I = V / R

And to find resistance:

R = V / I

Joule's law states that power (P, which he measured as heat dissipated) is proportional to the current value squared and the resistance in the circuit. The law is distilled into the following equation:

P = I² x R

Thanks to Joule's Law and Ohm's Law, we know that power also has a special mathematical relationship to voltage and current.

P = I x V

Manipulating one value in the equation directly affects and changes the values of the others. And this very wordy explanation is leading to how MPPT charge controllers work, I promise.

So now that we know how the values relate to one another, we can manipulate the input value to optimize the power output. This is usually illustrated with a PIV curve

So what a MPPT charge controller does is this:

The charge controller's electronics evaluate all the data it is receiving from the batteries and the solar panels, and adjusts the values for P, I, and V to the best possible benefit of your battery bank.

In doing so, the MPPT charge controllers increases your system's overall efficiency by huge percentage. Using an MPPT charge controller on our homestead's system has given us added power equivalent to an entire extra solar panel in the array.

An added benefit of using an MPPT charge controller is that you do not have to match your array output voltage to your battery bank voltage. Not only does it make the rules about sizing your system a whole lot less strict, this allows you to set up an array at high DC voltage and transmit the power farther, and on lighter gauge wire.

So you see, MPPT is a technology that opens up many doors to users of PV power. It increases the efficiency of your array, netting you more useable power; it allows arrays and battery banks to be mismatched; and it allows us to use high voltage DC transmission lines from array to power center.

Good Eats

2012-04-09T23:44:45Z

People have asked us why we choose to raise chickens for meat. Is it cheaper? No. A bird you raise to eat usually costs around $17 per bird, from egg to table. We haven't done our own calculations yet, but we hope it is less because we process them by hand. After butchering, we'll try to figure it out and post that info here.

But we do find raising the meat birds very rewarding on many levels.

First of all, the meat is delicious!

Furthermore, the small scale of a backyard flock means it is easier to keep the birds healthy. Large scale poultry operations commonly lose several birds every day, due to disease or other factors.

But in a small flock, the farmer can monitor each individual bird very closely, and manage the ill birds immediately.

Many animals in the industrialized food system are given large doses of strong, chemical medicines in anticipation of exposure to, and to prevent the spread of, disease.

But most small farmers do not need to use those same measures, and therefore the animal has less hormones and less chemical medicine in its system.

Butchering is not something we would ever describe as 'fun,' but at least we know that our birds are healthy and well cared-for during their lives.

Bone to Pick?

2012-04-08T19:11:06Z

Someone clearly has a beef with the local coyotes.

Came across this morbid display on Cedar Springs road today.

Seems like a gory waste, but I'd be interested to hear the story of why the beasts died.

Easy Bein' Green

2012-04-07T21:43:56Z

Terlingua Green Scene 2012

2012-04-06T17:03:46Z

The fourth annual Terlingua Green Scene is tomorrow, April 7th.

The All Energies team will be there all day, powering the Beer Garden and answering questions about alternative energy.

You can listen to Mark and Shannon's KTRS [Marfa Public Radio] interview here.

We are transporting the Sun Station to the Ghostown today, but even if there's no sunshine, there's plenty of battery power! Although, a cloudy day would be unusual for Terlingua.

Come check out the demonstrations and other activities! Plenty of sustainable fun to be had by all!

A Welcome Addition

2012-03-23T02:05:23Z

Yesterday we were given a free, two-axle trailer for moving heavy items such as rock and water, thanks to our friend Dennis, of concrete-bubble home fame.

Dennis also donated three battery cores, which will help with our next trip to the battery supplier.

In other news, we finally received our PV order today, after MUCH difficulty.

UPS Freight and West Texas Freight had lost the pallet of panels for 24 hours, and then tried to double charge us on shipping, but we straightened everything out in the end.

We are also proud to present for the first time, The All Energies SUN STATION!

We have designed and manufactured a ready-to-go power system for anyone looking for reliable renewable, quiet, clean power.

The prototype pictured above is rated at 1.8 kilowatts, and was made to run our client's Airstream RV including a powerful, aftermarket air conditioning unit.

The Sun Station 1800 will be on display at the 2012 Green Scene, actively providing power for the public address system and musicians' equipment.

We designed it with the goal of creating a self-contained power plant that can be easily expanded, and that will last a lifetime. We will be offering the Sun Station in a variety of sizes, rated in watts. Come check out Version 1.0 at the Green Scene in Terlingua Ghost Town, April 7th.

Spring Chickens

2012-03-20T21:54:05Z

Rebuttal

2012-03-14T17:42:48Z

As of today, it has been one week since our beloved family member Sprocket was killed by hit-and-run driver Carolyn Ohl.

In an attempt to evince some kind of explanation or apology, friend of the blog and wonderful neighbor Jennifer left a post on the Yahoo! group Terlingua Islands that read "Hit and Run - Rest in peace Sprocket" on the 8th of March.

Later, Carolyn Ohl had this to say (I believe this is an exact quote, but the formatting has certainly been altered by multiple cutting-and-pastings):

Loss of a beloved pet named Sprocket
Posted by: "Carolyn" carolynohl@yahoo.com
Thu Mar 8, 2012 8:32 pm (PST)

This is very difficult for me to write because it was my vehicle that
accidentally hit and killed someone's much loved dog. Words can't
express how sad this has been for me. Here's the story of what happened.

I was driving to Terlingua Ranch lodge pulling a water trailer to buy
water in a probably futile attempt to save my trees during Texas's worst
drought ever. I've grown very attached to them and can't stand to see
them die the way tens of millions of trees are throughout the state. But
it's been so hard and I've had almost no help or support, which is very
discouraging. So I was already down and depressed having to still be
buying water. Every day I think about just giving up, but something
keeps me going. So yesterday I found myself driving to the lodge for
water. When I had been there 10-15 minutes (I know exactly how long it
takes to fill the tank) a vehicle came speeding into the lot as I was
getting ready to leave. The driver told me she wanted to inform me that
I had killed their dog on the Lake Ament Road. I was speechless, since I
had not so much as seen a dog on, or near, that road in about a month.
I was too stunned to remember much of what was said, but I know I told
her how sorry I was, and I remember her saying the dog got run over by
my trailer tire. I want everyone to know that I would never knowingly
hurt a dog and had I known I hit it I would have stopped.

Later I stopped by their place to apologize again. I told the gentleman
there (I'm sorry I can't remember his name) that I hope the dog didn't
suffer. He said it lingered for an hour. That really made me feel
horrible until I realized that couldn't be true since the woman got to
the lodge shortly after I did and the dog was already dead (according to
her words) when she left to confront me at the lodge. So it had to have
died almost instantly.

I'm sure the dog was just wanting to chase my pickup and didn't realize
there was a trailer behind it. I was accused of traveling at least 45
mph, but it's not physically possible for me to go that fast on that
rough winding road pulling a trailer and still stay on the road. The
fastest I have ever made the six miles from my place to the lodge was in
20 minutes. That means at best I average 18 mph. Normally it takes much
longer because I stop to pick up rocks in the road, or look at a bird,
or check the trailer, etc. I'm sure watching your beloved pet get hit
would make it seem like it had been by a speeding train. It had to have
been heart-wrenching for them to see.

Yesterday I didn't stop to watch birds or pick up rocks and I made it
there in slightly over 20 minutes at my normal steady pace. I'm a 72
year old woman just trying to help the environment for birds and
wildlife and do the right thing.

The home where the dog was visiting stands on a hill quite some ways
from the road and I theorize the dog ran from a distance hoping to chase
the truck, and was focused solely on positioning himself behind the
pickup. Because of bushes and vegetation along the road I didn't see it.
I'm at least grateful the bereaved people, from their higher vantage
point, saw what happened and know that I didn't knowingly hit it with my
pickup, but that it accidentally got hit when it darted in front of the
trailer tire.

In my whole life I've never run over a dog before. I've never even hit
a deer. Never had a speeding ticket. I hope that Sprocket's owners, as
well as the rest of the community, can find love and forgiveness in
their hearts.

Sincerely, Carolyn Ohl-Johnson

We have several things to say on this matter, but foremost among them is this: Carolyn Ohl is a liar and we have many witnesses to prove it.

Her first dubious statement is this: "I had not so much as seen a dog on, or near, that road in about a month."

Sprocket had considered the Lake Ament House part of his home for almost a year, since Kathy & Bob acquired it April 1, 2011. She has seen him many, many times in those 342 days. The Lake Ament House is just a couple hundred feet from the road, and in fact the road is an easement through their properties there.

If she had not seen any dogs, it is because she is blind and deaf (more reasons she should not drive). The dogs have been there almost every day, all winter long, and have always barked at her going down the road. In fact, at the time of the murder, there were three dogs at the house baying and barking at her. Sprocket and Naia - both hound dogs, so they have a very shrill and piercing bark - and Ozzy, the 150 pound Saint Bernard, who has a beautiful, deep, and sonorous WOOF that can stop a crazed dog or person in their tracks. I'm sure our neighbor will agree that they are, in fact, very hard to ignore!

Perhaps the reason she had not seen the dogs is because we were working so hard to train them to stay out of the road. For weeks we were outside with the dogs to correct them, or if not, one of the dogs was always on a tether in the yard (as all dog owners know, two dogs will do stupider things than just one dog alone). We had even spent over a hundred dollars of our hard eared income on a radio collar to keep them out of the easement.

Sprocket was a running dog, and he must have had some greyhound in him. We called him Sprocket the Rocket. But he had just turned three years old, and had mellowed out immensely, as anyone who knew him will corroborate. He had chased a lot of things in his protracted puppyhood, but he had stopped chasing all vehicles.

Except for Carolyn's. We theorize that her ballistic speed was just too tempting for him. She has been, without a doubt, the fastest thing driving down the road since she decided to use it for her water-hauling route.

Her next lie is huge distortion of the truth designed to make herself look better in this situation: "Later I stopped by their place to apologize again."

Really? She went out of her way to visit our grieving parents? Not quite.

What actually happened is that she was driving down the road again to haul more water when Bob chased her from the front yard, waving a pick-mattock and shouting at her. Then she finally found her brake pedal.

I'm sure our parents said many desperate things to Carolyn in the minutes and hours after Sprocket's death. I hope that Bob was lying and trying to make her feel bad when he said he lingered for an hour. He told me ten minutes, and I pray and pray and pray that Sprocket did not suffer very long.

It should be known that Kathie and Bob are both huge animal lovers. They have had many dogs, including purebreds and rescued mutts, and rescued purebreds. They also have raised and cared for many cats, rabbits, chickens, and horses. And they are both extremely emotional. They do not hold back. When Kathie's current Saint Bernard, Ozzy, threw bloat at just four months old, she was so crazed and panicked that she had to be physically carried into the vehicle that was taking him to the emergency veterinarian.

Carolyn on the other hand, is not an animal lover. She watches wild birds, but does not handle them, or nurture them, or care for them when they are ill, or take them to the vet, or pay for surgery and inoculations. She does not allow minors or pets on her property, according to her own website. So I suppose she has no love for children, either.

And on the issue of her driving, she is a repulsive liar.

Our neighbors Terry H, Lori M, Rusty (Lori's teenage son), Dan K, and Casey have all been driven off the road by her. That's just the five people who have volunteered that information, so the real number is surely much higher.

She barrels down the back roads at unconscionable speeds, down the middle of the road, with no concern for anyone's safety, half the time with thousands of pounds of water on back.

She never stops, even after she has forced you to drive into the bushes and you are honking your horn and yelling at her.

And the final insult: "I'm a 72 year old woman just trying to help the environment for birds and wildlife and do the right thing."

In truth she is doing much more harm than good to the flora and fauna. Her 'oasis' is an unnatural concrete pond that she fills with rain, well, and Ranch water. She has depleted precious water resources to create a 'pond' where none should exist. She has planted trees that have no business living there, and then she insults me by claiming to feel some sort of emotional attachment to these transplanted sticks on life support.

The animals that have become dependent on her gluttonous 'pond' are ruined by her. She has tricked them into relying on her false spring, and could die from such brazen human interference.

It should also be known that she waters these wild animals with water not fit for consumption. This is probably not broadly known, but the non-potable well at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge is non-potable because it is so close to the septic system. The water is very high in coliform bacteria. Speaking to my own experience in New Jersey - the Superfund site capital of the US - if it were the waters of Toms River, the townships would have to close the beaches.

But now my testimony has gone on long enough, and I apologize to anyone who found the preceding too verbose. Moreover, I really do appreciate her apology, even though it is tardy and riddled with falsehoods.

On Monday, Kathie observed Carolyn traveling down lake Ament Road again, and (for once) she was going very slowly. She even paused to view Sprocket's memorial.

Perhaps she will mend her ways and we will be able to forgive her someday. But for now the wound is too fresh, and her statements too disingenuous. I can't imagine she felt anything at all for us in our agony that day, because she continued to barrel down the road for the rest of the day, hauling water for her unnatural 'oasis'.

Sprocket's collar and twisted metal tags serve as a plain reminder of the horrible thing that happened that day. But perhaps with time we will be able to ignore the marks of violence and focus instead on the message engraved on his tags "I AM LOVED."

You certainly are very loved, Sprocket, and deeply missed.