After a little over 12 years of service, a few weeks ago we replaced the two monster lead acid battery packs of our solar electric system with a deceivingly petite set of lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries. The change felt somewhat comparable to trading in a lumbering, gas-guzzling—but familiar—2009 Crown Victoria for a snazzier set of …
Tag: solar electricity
Let there be light emitting diodes
Because we rely on solar panels for our electricity, we're conscious, though less so each day, about appliances, lights and other gadgets that suck up juice, and curious about new ways to conserve energy. So we were glad to find our local hardware store stocking LED lights that seem almost too good an idea. We …
The limits of conservation
While still planning the construction of this house, we received a terrific piece of advice from our friend Roger: Make sure one of the bedroom windows faces east, so you can enjoy, while still in bed, the daily spectacle of a sunrise. We've since read that's a pretty standard consideration when siting a house but …
Buy more panels and call me in the morning
After several suggestions and theories--from two installers, an electrician, Stew, various blog readers, friends, and equipment manufacturers, among others--it turns out that Stew's German orthopedic surgeon-cum-solar energy wizard was right all along. We don't have enough panels in our array to keep us going through the shorter days of winter. Doktor Schmidt says his house …
Home alone
My Cuban relatives in Miami informed me several weeks ago that the weather had been so cold there--an overnight low of 37! the orange trees froze!--that some people didn't go to work. It just wasn't safe. We're retired and have nowhere special to go, least of all to work, so Stew and I stayed home …
There goes the sun
For all our obsessive planning and computing, Mother Nature, a.k.a. “The Lady Upstairs,” has had the last word by unleashing nearly three weeks of gray, clammy and rainy weather that culminated two days ago with a half-inch of snow. We had fretted about not having enough water but our cistern, thanks to a series of …
Watt crisis?
One night, about three weeks ago we had our very own Thomas Alva Edison moment. We went to the kitchen, flipped a switch and the ceiling lights went on. Eureka! Indeed, our $30,000 solar electricity system came alive. Over the next few days the gauges reported more good news: The batteries were "floating," which in …
Almost Show Time?
During the past month construction speeded up to the point that the architect triumphantly announced, a couple of weeks ago, that the house would be finished...a month ahead of schedule? That would be a landmark event in home construction probably anywhere in the world and certainly in Mexico. If the house in fact is finished …
El Rancho Santa Clara 