Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[steveastrouk]

I would think possibly with a firm footing like our clay when it is not wet but damp or some of Don's dry rock climbs. 

Definitely dry tested ! There are some photos I can dig out from the club archives I expect (http://www.101club.org ). There are great ones somewhere of the things being tested running FULLY submerged, and the poor bugger who must have spent the previous six hours driving one round the test track looking less than amused and very wet failing to smile at the camera.

Steve

[steveastrouk]

Looks like Robin Hood country.

Not far by your standards ! - 60 miles or thereabouts to Sherwood Forest from where we took the pictures.

Steve

[glenn kangiser]

Pix would be cool, Steve if you get a chance- I have to do some work before Maid Marian gets back, or I would look them up.

[steveastrouk]

Pix would be cool, Steve if you get a chance- I have to do some work before Maid Marian gets back, or I would look them up.

I've asked the lads if there are some of the commissioning trials photos I can have - there's a nice one of a braking test with the thing on its nose....

Steve

[glenn kangiser]

Cool, Thanks, Steve... I actually got some work done today. 

I'm building my own solar tracker as I don't want to buy a commercial one.  Too Expensive.  I have been collecting junk for it for a while now but needed some heavy pipe that Whitlock and I picked up last trip plus some 1 1/2 square tubing to mount the panels on. 

It will be approximately 8' x 10' so has to be pretty substantial as we sometimes get strong wind here on the ridge.  It is centered over the middle column in my shop about 6 feet above the roof to the center pivot point.

It will use propane to power a hydraulic cylinder to track the sun East /West.  North/South  I will likely start out tracking manually.

[Dog]

Glenn this is so cool what you are doing! This stuff should made affordable so that rest of the world can get on board with power sources that make sense and are in practical and affordable. Keep on keeping on

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, Dog.  I'll post pix as I get farther along -- I need to be successful first.

It is a pretty simple system I read about in Mother Earth News years ago.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1977-11-01/Mothers-Super-Simple-Solar-Tracker.aspx

They used Freon R-12 which is expensive and hard to get.  I will convert mine to propane which is cheap and easy to get.

More info here  http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/4/26/01022/1699

[Whitlock]

Cool, Thanks, Steve... I actually got some work done today. 

I'm building my own solar tracker as I don't want to buy a commercial one.  Too Expensive.  I have been collecting junk for it for a while now but needed some heavy pipe that Whitlock and I picked up last trip plus some 1 1/2 square tubing to mount the panels on. 

It will be approximately 8' x 10' so has to be pretty substantial as we sometimes get strong wind here on the ridge.  It is centered over the middle column in my shop about 6 feet above the roof to the center pivot point.

It will use propane to power a hydraulic cylinder to track the sun East /West.  North/South  I will likely start out tracking manually.


Hey Glenn I can rent you my old dog he moves with the sun.You can tie him to the panels until you get the cylinders working.

[glenn kangiser]

Sorry, Whitlock, but I know your old dog.  [idea]

He is a great old dog, but he moves so slow I don't think he'll be able to keep up with the sun all of the time.

[considerations]

"Hey Glenn I can rent you my old dog he moves with the sun.You can tie him to the panels until you get the cylinders working."



I wonder how many cats would be an equivalent, then again, a herd of cats? 
Never Mind.

[glenn kangiser]

My experience with cats is that they go in whatever direction the darn well please...

[phalynx]

Unless you make them mad,,, then they go on your pillow.....   

[Redoverfarm]

Glenn I saw this and thought about you. Maybe a little nutty but here you go.

ACORN COFFEE
Giliø kava

1 l (1 quart) acorns
1 l (1 quart) milk

Dry freshly picked acorns at room temperature for a couple of days. Shell and cook in milk until soft, about 45-60 minutes. Remove acorns from milk and blot dry, saute in a dry skillet until golden brown. Grind scorched acorns and store in a tight container. 
To make acorn coffee, take 1 part water, 2 parts sweet cream or milk. Place 3 teaspoons acorn coffee in boiling water, boil 2-3 minutes, whiten with milk or cream and add sugar to taste
 

[Whitlock]

Glenn I saw this and thought about you. Maybe a little nutty but here you go.

ACORN COFFEE
Giliø kava

1 l (1 quart) acorns
1 l (1 quart) milk

Dry freshly picked acorns at room temperature for a couple of days. Shell and cook in milk until soft, about 45-60 minutes. Remove acorns from milk and blot dry, saute in a dry skillet until golden brown. Grind scorched acorns and store in a tight container. 
To make acorn coffee, take 1 part water, 2 parts sweet cream or milk. Place 3 teaspoons acorn coffee in boiling water, boil 2-3 minutes, whiten with milk or cream and add sugar to taste
 

Man I bet that is some bitter coffee

[glenn kangiser]

Cool, John -- I didn't gather my acorns this year but hope to do it next year -- too many htings going on.  It sounds like the milk likely leaches the tannins out so it won't be bitter.

[glenn kangiser]

Unless you make them mad,,, then they go on your pillow.....  

Hairball, Phalynx....hairball.... she tried to cough up a hairball on my pillow yesterday -- I yelled, "Oh no you don't", when she started coughing, ran to get her and took her to her room, and scared it back down.

It's Sassy's cat, but it likes me... it has an evil streak - split personality that likes to torment me with hairballs every so often...she used to bite me.... 

The cat... not Sassy.... 

[phalynx]

Ah, hairballs, it's the gift that keeps on giving Clark.... 


Glenn, how does your place look from Google Earth?

[glenn kangiser]

Not well enough hidden, Phalynx....

John had it back in the fire pages --- around page 35 of this post I think.

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.680

[Dog]

Thanks for the solar panel link! motherearthnews.com
I'm trying to educate myself on this stuff.  So much to take in!

Seeing all the amazing projects you are working on and the way you go about figuring each project out is great.

Thank you for sharing your adventures and practical information! Much appreciated~

[glenn kangiser]

My pleasure, Dog.

Since you are interested, I took some pix today and will add them here as I progress on this and improvements are made.

I built a frame and put mounting clips on it to simplify installation of the first 8 panels - as I check out wind loading I may ad more and made that easy to do also.



I have increased my power about 4x what I was getting with the panels laying flat on the roof.  I put the second set up last night and this morning they were also providing 4 times the power and as I manually tracked the sun today they provided power 4x as long also. 



Even at right after daylight I was getting 10 amps where I was getting nothing to very little for the first few hours.  I had so much excess power today that I pumped water 3 times, or about 450 gallons and still didn't use all of the excess.  The controller shut down the panels for part of the day.

Here is the back.  The post is 6 feet tall and is attached to the center post above the center beam in my shop.  I added web stiffeners to the I beam to transfer the load to the column below -- just as an engineer would specify if I paid one.



That puts the base of the post about 12 feet above the shop floor.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is one from a distance showing the tracker on the shop roof.



The panel area  currently measures around 8'8" x 10'

I picked up the parts today for the propane powered part of the tracker.  About $95 hoses and fittings at the auto parts store.  About $28.00 at the hardware store.  $35 for 20 feet of 1" EMT tubing at the electric supply since copper was $120 for 20 feet and I'm a tightwad.  The EMT will work as good as the copper.  It will use less than $3.00 worth of propane to power it. 

Keep in mind that I am doing this in a mountain community with locally available products and junk from my scrap pile.  We have 1700 population in our town and 17000 in our county - about 40 miles to the nearest decent sized town.

The value of the tracker is around $2500 if I bought one plus shipping and installation if I paid an contractor, so I am easily looking at a $5000 project if I hired it done... likely a lot more the way things go around here.  [idea]

[Redoverfarm]

I might even be able to pick you out better on Google Earth now with that reflecting. 

[glenn kangiser]

Hmm -- now I need camo netting for sure.

[Whitlock]

Looking good Glenn, maybe you need to get more water tanks

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks- Just what I need -- another project....