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When my now grown daughter was 4 or 5 years old I was in the habit of taking a couple mile walk every day. She couldn't keep up so I built her a solar powered tricycle out of junk in my garage. It has a 12v RV battery powering an old trolling motor driving a lawn tractor transaxle with 5 forward...

I've been off grid since 1987 and have never regretted it. The first few years were filled with experimentation since there weren't many people doing it at the time. Haven't really had to think about my PV power system for the last 20+ years except for replacing lead acid batteries periodically...

My yard in Central Oregon 1 week ago. Still burning here.

30 years ago thinking about how to use excess power I decided to produce hydrogen and burn it for cooking. I made a hydrolizer from a plastic barrel, a bucket, and some motorcycle parts. I filled a couple cheap air mattresses with hydrogen and tied them down to my fence with the idea of stacking...

Here in Central Oregon the 1.8 million acres of the Deschutes National Forest has many hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles of roads and trails to explore. It's border is 1/2 mile from my house. BLM land a few miles to the east is vast. Almost all NF and BLM is open to dry camping wherever you...

I looked but couldn't find my last power bill. It was about 35 years ago. I seem to remember a price of 4.3 cents per KWH.

Sunny day greetings to all. Just discovered this forum when researching charge controllers but have been off grid PV since 1987 in the sunny part of Oregon. There was a magazine called Home Power that got started around that time, owned by Richard and Karen Perez. Things have really progressed...

Happy Solstice Everyone! Wishing everyone lots of sunshine in the coming days.

Yes, still have some lead acid batteries but they are set aside and the LFP battery is in service running the washing machine as we speak. Should be better and cheaper in the long run. Won't miss watering and terminal cleaning.

In 1993 I bought a Bogart Trimetric meter from Ralph at SEER 93 in California. It has been working 24/7 since then, 30 years. Great meter!

Some builders mount the alternator so it turns backwards in order to make the unit more compact. The alternator doesn't care which way it turns except that the cooling fan is designed to suck air through the case, not blow. Overheating happens unless the load is a small percentage of the rated...

For that to happen there would have to be a leak in the exhaust pipe or gasket. Running a diesel heater at 8000' on the stock sea level settings will indeed clog them up but under no circumstances should exhaust gasses be able to enter the cabin unless there was an installation error.

With proper installation there should be no, none, zero exhaust gasses entering the living space. I've been using Chinese diesel heaters to heat my house, shop, and camper for 4 years.

Tricycle I built 30 years ago for my 4 year old daughter from junk in the garage.

Some Chinese generators are pretty good and some are pretty bad. Having had a Lifan motorcycle that was great I bought a Lifan inverter generator that was terrible. I returned it and bought a 1200 Watt Wen inverter generator that has been perfect for over 2000 hours. Also have a 3800 Watt Wen...

Remind her of the wisdom of the centuries old proverb, "Make hay while the sun shines."

One of the great things about living in a high desert ponderosa pine forest is there are no mosquitoes and pretty much no bugs of any kind. No surface water for miles around and wells are 400' deep. The well water is good enough that it is bottled and sold in grocery stores.

FYI I have an Aims 3000 watt MSW that has had zero problems over the 8 or more years I've owned it. It runs power tools in my garage including an air compressor and welder.

I'm using a 12v system because it was the norm when I installed it 35 years ago. Wire was cheap back then and inverters were crude and expensive, as were PVs. I still have some PVs with round cells about 2" in diameter set on a fiberglass backing and covered with silicone rather than glass.

My daughter was in grade school when compact fluorescent bulbs were new. I built this exercise bike generator to demonstrate the difference in energy consumption between CF and incandescent bulbs. Using a battery, small inverter, and a multimeter I would have the kids peddle a CF bulb then...

I'm over on the sunny side of Oregon in Bend and have had a Solahart (made in Australia) solar water heater on the roof for about 35 years. When I installed it I got a tax credit from the state that paid for it, all but $56. The heater cost $1200. It's a passive thermosiphon system with an...

I run my 110v mig welder from my off grid solar system. It runs from a 3000 watt Aims MSW inverter and a lead acid battery bank. Not sure if the welder or the air compressor draws the most current.

The world's largest lithium deposit so far discovered is on the Oregon/Nevada border. Wonder if that has something to do with the price drop? https://phys.org/news/2023-08-evidence-mcdermitt-caldera-largest-lithium.html

2.661 litres per 24 hrs is what mine uses on the lowest setting where it runs 99% of the time.

Water is a product of diesel combustion so it doesn't come in from the outside, it comes from the inside. The exhaust pipe needs to have a downward slope or drain holes drilled at the low points for the water to exit.

I bought some 1/8" x 1" copper bar stock, held it in a vise, and bent to 90° with a hammer. Not sure of the alloy but it was made to be used as a buss bar. It bent easily cold with no cracking. I use stainless steel bolts to attach it to the battery terminals and to attach cables. Stays cool at...

The tankless propane water heaters in my house each use 2 D size batteries for ignition. The batteries last for years.

Here's one for $10. https://www.ebay.com/itm/364836179527?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=z2lxpkrusjm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=OBNvB0WBQ6-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I have some ARCO and Solarex panels on my roof that are more than 35 years old and still going strong. The voltage output hasn't changed but I haven't checked amperage output of the individual panels. BTW the ARCO are mono crystal and the Solarex are poly crystal. I also have a couple really old...

Normal installation has both the combustion air intake and exhaust outside so there is no negative pressure inside. If the combustion air intake is inside, there will indeed be a negative pressure, and the exhaust should be piped far enough away so there is no risk of it being sucked into the...