One thing I briefly mentioned in my post about Solar Panels is that we are mounting them on a pole. We are doing this because we have a flat roof on the cabin that we may eventually build a deck on. Additionally since it is a flat roof the snow will accumulate and block the panels in the winter. A top of pole mount allows us to leave the roof clear, avoid having snow block the panels, and have the ability to adjust the angle of the panels seasonally.
When searching for top of pole solar mounts I learned a few things:
They are on the pricey side considering there is no electronics involved.
Wind is the biggest thing to be worried about but snowload is also a concern.
The pole used is big heavy and requires a really large hole.
The price is what it is and we ended up with a good deal.
The wind in our area is not too bad. We do not get tornado’s, yet, so nothing special needs to be done. The snowload for our area is on the bubble for the mount we purchased.
Top of pole solar mounts do not come with a pole. That is because they require a very large steel pole that would be really expensive to deliver. Instead we had to make a trip to a local steel shop to buy a 12′ 4″ 40 series steel pipe. Its big and heavy.
Next the mount manufacturer informed us that the pole needs to be set in a 58 inch deep 24 inch wide hole. Digging a hole that big by hand would be a difficult job. In our case digging that hole by hand is pretty much impossible because our soil is clay and compacted.
To dig this hole we need a mechanical auger. A 24 inch auger:
Getting StartedProgressDoneLeft boot for scale. Don’t want to fall in that hole.
The hole now needs to be filled with concrete. The volume of concrete needed for a hole that size is about 2/3’s of a yard of concrete. That’s about 26 80-lb bags of concrete. Fortunately we found someone who can handle a load that size and are hoping to have it cemented in tomorrow.
The plan is to have the panels mounted and connected this week. Very exciting.
Workout detail
The wiring from the panels to the cabin are going to be buried. I dug the trench for that today. I am very tired now. Good night.
Holy moly we are halfway through the 100 days of blogging challenge! In some ways it feels like the time has flown by but I remember days where I scrambled to come up with something to write about. Also we are only halfway there so who knows what might happen.
What I do know is that this is the most consistent I have written for a long time. Probably since University or even longer. It has been great practice to sit here at the end of each day and spend time reflecting.
Part of this challenge was also to help distract me from the pandemonium that is the US today. Not only does writing about positive things help me stay positive. Spending time writing also means I have less time to read the news. There is only so much news that I need in a day to stay on top of things.
This blog started off focused on my cycling. It has progressed into being more about what is happening in my life in general. The cabin project is coming along. We almost have the solar finished. The wiring is pretty much done and we are digging the hole for the pole that the solar array sits on tomorrow. The trail building has grown into a new hobby for me and I am enjoying talking about it. Kate and I are designing a house so I will definitely start writing more about that process.
I am sure more will come up and I hope you stick around and keep reading.
Yesterday I wrote about getting a new tool: the Rogue Hoe 55 HR. This thing is made for making trails and it does a really good job. Today I used it for a while in the morning before work and again after work. In 2 hours of work I was able to cover the length of Kiss of Cactus a quarter mile loop.
The difference that the Rogue Hoe makes is startling. This first photo is of a section of trail where there is a fork. Even for me it is hard to see where the trails are:
Where’s the trail?
This second photo shows one trail to the left of the fork pretty much done. The trail to the right is started but still needs some work:
Found it!
Here is another section of trail that has been updated with the Rogue Hoe:
The reason for bringing this up is not just to show off my trail but also to talk about buying good tools. There’s nothing quite like a bad or broken tool making a job feel tedious and even dangerous. Before I bought the Rogue Hoe I had bought some ok tools. My metal rake is not a cheap piece of junk, but it is no Rogue Hoe.
My first lasting experience with this was when I got my first job out of college. I was working at the local newspaper handling the layout. My job was to build the newspaper based on the ads they had sold. I would then layout the ads and send the files to the printer. It was a pretty fun job but what I learned was why people in the printing world used Macs. They just worked.
This was in 2000 so before Mac OSX came along. While you couldn’t have multiple programs running at the same time the programs you did run worked. When you are laying out a hundred pages with a deadline you don’t want to deal with a crash.
At home I had a computer running Windows 98, and it crashed almost non stop. It was a very frustrating experience. One thing I noticed at the paper was that there was almost never a crash and no one was rebooting their computer. I was dumbfounded.
Then I bought my first Mac and haven’t looked back. This year marks 20 years I have owned a Mac and it has only gotten better. Yes it costs more than a PC but it works and its fast, and did I mention it works?
My wife is a Windows database developer. When her PC laptop died a few years ago I suggested she give a Mac Pro a try. That was over 5 years ago and she isn’t looking back either.
To a lot of people we are part of the Apple Fanboi culture, and part of that is true. However the biggest part is that we both earn a living using our home computers. We need to have dependable fast machines that get the job done. I may enjoy working with computers but I do not enjoy working on them.
Circling back to the Rogue Hoe and buying quality tools: I could have gotten a similar tool on Amazon for less than half of what I spend on the Rogue Hoe. Would I have been happy? Probably. I would not have known any better so I would have gotten on with things. However having now used a Rogue Hoe I understand why my friend recommended one. Its a tool made for being used all day. Its well balanced and just works.
Does this mean we should only buy the best and most expensive tools? No it does not! Personally I don’t want to spend anymore than I have to. However there are times when it makes sense to spend some extra money and get the good quality tool. Determining when it is that time is dependent on you, your budget, and how important the job is that needs the tool.
The day has arrived: my new Rogue Hoe 55HR arrived today, and it is even better than anticipated. First of all it is much lighter than expected, even with a 54″ wood handle. The head is made from recycled agricultural disc blades which sounds super strong, and apparently means super light.
My forest firefighting buddy recommended I get a Rogue Hoe. It is what he personally uses with his crews. He recommended I go with the 54″ handle to make things easier on my back. He also likes the wood handles over fiberglass as he finds them to be easier on his joints.
Naturally the Rogue Hoe arrived midday so I had to stare at it for the rest of my workday before taking it to the trail. Once work was over I was out the door and chopping away at the trail.
Trail building is basically gardening but you don’t care about growing anything after cultivating the land. This means everything in the trail is a weed and must come out. The RH is perfect for this as it is like a regular hoe but with a big nasty sharp bit that cuts into dirt like butter. It felt like I was giving the trail a shave rather than digging.
Once vegetation is cut the next step is raking the plant material out of the trail. This can be done with the RH, but if there is a lot of grass I find that coming back with the regular rake is much better. Then we can shape the trail by either raking the dirt flat, or use the RH head as it is a tamping tool.
Overall I give my Rogue Hoe 5/5 and highly recommend one for trail building or gardening.
Workout Details
There’s mountains out there somewhere…
This morning was a slow and mellow one. The smoke from the forest fires are still lingering for a while in the morning. I listened to some podcasts and worked on my pull ups. I managed 4 sets of 3.
When we lived in Phoenix we redesigned the kitchen and laundry room. Since we bought the land in Colorado we have designed: a highway entrance, half a mile of road, 2 rv pads, a septic system, and a cabin with shed.
To do all of those designs I have used Sketchup. When I first used Sketchup I enjoyed how quick and easy it was compared to Auto CAD. There is some learning curve but the ability to connect lines and build things is easy and fun.
It has been helpful to watch YouTube videos to see how others use the tool. There are so many ways to build your floor plan. Then you just pull the floor up 8′ and you have your walls. If you remembered to cut out doorways then those are already built.
The web based version is free and works in the browser. Watch a few tutorials and you can start building in no time. From creating first drafts quickly to highly accurate building plans you can use Sketchup to do it all.
Currently I am playing around with some layouts that have a large central living room. Its been fun to see what works and what doesn’t. I find that with Sketchup I am too quick to start building walls and the roof. First I need to get the floor plan figured out.
Sometimes it takes building the walls and roof to see the earlier mistakes. Depending on how bad the mistake is I may undo a few times or I may just start from scratch. The copy and paste capabilities make iteration fast and easy.
One additional tool that Sketchup has is the warehouse. This is where people can upload their Sketchup models for other people to use. I pulled down someones King size bed to scale.
Workout detail
Got up and on a 30 minute bike ride this morning. The smoke from the forest fire was still pretty strong then. The rule of thumb is that if you don’t have 5 miles of visibility then you should not exercise. I could see at least 5 miles but the air still stunk with smoke.
The ride was pleasant and made me feel great all day.
This is the 4th part of a multi part series covering the solar energy system we are building in our cabin. The 1st part discussed grid tie vs off grid systems. We are going to be off grid. The second part talked about AC vs DC and how an off grid system has to have at least DC because of the batteries. The third part covered batteries which we are going with AGM’s with 832 amp hours of power.
Today we are going to talk about solar panels, also knows as PV or photovoltaic panels. PV panels collect energy from the sun and convert it into electricity. When you think of solar electricity the panels are the first image that come to mind.
The cost of solar panels dropped significantly over the last 10 years. Kate and I added PV to our home in Phoenix in 2012. The renters haven’t paid a single electricity bill in 6 years. I haven’t priced our system again but I imagine its about 20% to 50% cheaper to do it now.
When it comes to solar panels there is a lot to consider. Watts generated, size, efficiency, and more. To me the panel is the least complicated item in the entire system. I want to set them up and never think about them again.
In this case since we have 832 amp hours of batteries to recharge we went with four 320 watt panels. This should be a little more solar panel than we need based on usage but its better to have too much than too little. For a cost comparison the solar panels all together cost about 30% of what the batteries cost.
We will mount the panels for the cabin on a top of pole mount. This is because we want to keep the roof clear for a possible future roof deck.
Workout details
I did not manage to get up at 7am and get my workout in. There was a decent amount of smoke in the air from the nearby fires so I used that as part of my excuse. I have walked a little tonight and am going to get another lap in now.
Featured image is of the smoke from the East Canyon forest fire. It started around 1pm and is about 10 miles from us. We are not in any immediate danger except the smoke may blow our direction and be annoying. Welcome to Colorado in a dry summer.
Solar
Yesterday I did the second part of a multiple part series about building an off grid solar system for our cabin. The first part was about the differences of a grid tie system vs off grid. The second part was about AC vs DC. In this part we are talking about batteries.
Batteries are the most important part of an off grid system. You can have solar panels, a solar charge controller, an inverter, but if you don’t have batteries nothing else happens. The biggest surprise is that lithium ion is not necessarily the best option.
Electric batteries have been around since 1800 but we want batteries that can be recharged. The earliest rechargeable batteries were lead-acid, invented in 1859. Today rechargeable batteries are mostly associated with Lithium-Ion type batteries.
When choosing a battery for powering a home there are a few factors to consider:
Cost
Voltage
Amp Hours
Maintenance
1) Cost is always the first thing to consider when buying batteries. On the cheap end you can get Marine Deep Charge batteries from your local auto store. On the expensive end you are looking at Lithium. In the middle you have flooded lead acid and absorbed glass mat(AGM).
You want to spend a little more on batteries than the cheapest so that they last longer. The lead acid batteries we bought for the trailer were a little more but have lasted for six years at the point.
2) Voltage is important because that determines how your DC system runs. Recall from the last part of this series that DC electricity is the only type of electricity that can be stored in batteries. So by default when you have batteries you have a DC system.
Most DC systems are 12 volts as are most rechargeable batteries. However the longer lasting lead-acid based batteries come in 6 volt packages. This means we have to connect our batteries in series bring the voltage up to 12.
3) When you are talking about a batteries capacity, amp hours give you a way of comparing batteries. On the set of batteries that we chose for the cabin the amp hours are 416ah @ 20 hour rate. This means that they battery will deliver 20 amps of power over the course of 20 hours.
We are going big with this system though and are going to double it. We will get 4 of those batteries and tie them into 2 pairs in serial for 12 volts. Then we will connect those 2 pair in parallel to double the amp hours to 832 amp hours. The main goal here will be to run an electric refrigerator 24/7 in the cabin.
4) Maintenance is an important aspect of having deep state rechargeable batteries. If you take care of your batteries then they will last longer.
With flooded lead acid batteries, like what we have on the trailer, you have to check the water levels of the batteries at least once a month. If the water level gets too low, due to evaporation cause by usage of the batteries, the lead plates will corrode and stop working. AGM batteries do not have this issue as they are sealed.
The other maintenance of a battery is making sure it doesn’t run out of juice. Not only is it annoying when the power outage causes the lights to go out, but it is also damaging to the batteries to let them get too low.
The depth of discharge is usually defined as a percentage of how much of the battery’s capacity has been used. For lead-acid type batteries the depth of discharge that you should never go below is 50%. Ideally you want to avoid going below 80% if you want them to last the longest.
That is correct, with lead acid batteries you are only getting half of the listed amp hours. Keep in mind that using them that much will make them last half as long as only using 20% of them.
Lithium Ion batteries have an almost 100% usable capacity with no ill effects for taking them down almost to 0%. You want to avoid completely draining them but even then it does not damage the battery.
This is an area where lithium ion batteries are on a different level of performance. The problem is that they are over twice as expensive and the technology is not nearly as proven.
For the cabin we chose AGM batteries for cost, and maintenance. We are getting more and spending less than with lithium.
Workout Details
We went on a beautiful ride around Mancos today. 22 miles in total.
A few posts back I talked about solar for our cabin. That was the start of a multi part series about how we designed the system and then may have parts of the installation of the system.
In the first part I talked about Grid Tie vs Off Grid and some of the ins and outs of the two types of solar systems. In this part I will talk a little about AC vs DC and why with off grid solar we need to have both.
AC stands for Alternating Current and it is how electricity comes from most wall outlets. AC power can be transmitted across long distances with little power lost. However it cannot be stored.
DC stands for Direct Current and it is how electricity is delivered from a battery. This means that in an off grid system you will at least have to deal with DC. This is fine for many electrical items: lights, charging phones, and anything with a USB cable.
Unfortunately we live in an AC world. For example while laptops run on DC batteries, their chargers only work off of AC outlets. So if you want to charge your laptop you will need AC power. Same goes for all modern appliances: blenders, toasters, instant pots, air fryers, etc.
In order to generate AC power from DC power you use an inverter. An inverter converts DC power into AC power with some power lost in the process. This means that AC power drains the batteries even faster than DC.
Inverters come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The basics that you need to consider are: pure sine wave and amount of watts. You want to get a pure sine wave inverter. Period. Modern electronics will emit a high pitch tone with any other types. The amount of watts is determined by your most powerful appliance in terms of watts. In our case that is our Vitamix blender. It tops out at 1800 watts so we went with a 2000 watt inverter. However I noticed that the 3000 watt inverter was only $75 more and we grabbed that up.
DC comes in a variety of voltages. 12volt is the most common and is what we use. In the next episode of the solar system series we will talk about batteries and why we ended up with what we did.
Workout details
Today was a day of errands. We drove to my mom’s and picked up a washing machine. This is the first washing machine we have owned in 6 years. It had to run off the generator for its first run but it did great. All this is to say that I did not get much exercise in except for lifting a washing machine a few times.
Kate and I have decided to build a home on the land in Colorado. We already have a guest cabin built but its not quite a home. The main issue is the kitchen area doesn’t really exist. There is only one sink, in the restroom, and it was never intended to be lived in full time.
Now that we have been on the land for a few years we have a better idea of what we want. Until we started trying to put things down on paper. Who knew that architecture was so hard?
When we first bought the land I used SketchUp to design the driveway, water, septic, and propane. Now we are talking about a house and I am using SketchUp again. Its very intuitive, once you get past the steep learning curve. The free version is only available online but that is enough for our needs. Once we have a general idea we will have legit plans drawn up by a pro.
The process is exciting and draining. How large should a bathroom be? Do we want a second floor? What about a basement? The options are endless. This is gonna be fun.
Workout Details
Strength training on the recommended routine this morning before work. Got up and going again for 2 days in a row.
My local trail group, Mancos Trails, has made an adjustment to how volunteer trail work is going to happen this year. Usually they would meet as a group on a section of trail and go to work. All of the tools would be provided and delivered to the site. Volunteers would show up and work then go home.
This year we have the COVID pandemic going on and group activities are being limited, severely. The trail group works along with the United States Forest Service to maintain a section of trail known as the Mancos Spur. Currently the USFS is restricting volunteer efforts in part of the attempt to combat the pandemic.
Part of this is that large groups cannot work on the trail together, unless they are isolating together. To accommodate this the trail group is organizing an adopt a trail program. In this program we will be assigned sections of the trail which we can then work on our own, or with anyone in our isolation group.
As an added perk the trail group is distributing tools to everyone for the season. More tools are always welcome and tools for building trails will be helpful for building my trails. They even mentioned that one of them would be a Rogue Hoe.
We will have 3 goals for trail work this season:
Cut back brush from the trails.
Repair or improve trail tread.
Report any larger trail issues or issues that we were not able to complete.
For part 3 we are using an app called Survey 123 that adds data to the USFS’s ArcGIS data for the area. This allows us to quickly and easily add a GPS point with notes and photos. If say a large tree needs to be chainsawed we will be able to let the USFS crews know exactly where they need to go.
Overall I am excited about adopting a stretch of trail and working it this summer.
Workout detail
I got up and rode my bike before work today. It was a great feeling to get up and get things done before work. I had a nice breakfast and then rode up and down the highway doing a few intervals for about an hour.
