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In Idaho anyway, it doesn't matter who owns the land, it's who owns the water rights! I have 1/4 ,ile of stream thru my 40 acres, and I can and don't use a drop of it, BUT, I do have a state issued (after much paperwork blah blah) that gives me the right to use around 100 GPM non consumptive...

I've used a Coanda screen and a stainless collection box for the last 17 years, but I may have moved on. It's always been a bit finicky as to providing the proper flow to it, too much/too quick and it fails to deliver is the biggest issue. So, oddly enough, during spring runoff when the melting...

I remember getting all excited when I bought a 100 watt panel, for only $500.00, about 30 some years ago, it was a great deal! I paid 30 cents per watt on my last purchase. The best deal I ever got was a 40 watt "Solarex"panel that was abandoned on a 9,000' mountain top as part of a failed...

Go PV, end of story. Buy used panels, I've dealt with SanTan Solar twice and was/am very pleased with their output and for sure the price! You don't have enough water, or at least enough head, not to mention the permitting process, if like in Idaho, can be a hassle. PV will do the job...

I have a friend who makes a partial living off his YT channel, call him a pro video guy, in a week or two I'll post a link to a video we will be doing, after the trees get fully leafed out. The last one he did about my wood boiler/thermal solar panel seup got over 2 million views! Pretty...

I got it solved, simply by opening it up at the bottom (no jets, the 3" line unobstructed ) and letting it run wide open for over 48 hours straight. I think what happened, sure actually, I jumped the gun in getting it back on line, while there was still a large drift directly over a section of...

My Harris hydro (grid tied 24 VDC, 900 watts) has been in operation for 17 years, with no issues. This spring when I put it back in operation, the 3" HDPE fusion welded 1/4 mile long line appears to restricting the flow. Over this weekend I inspected every inch of it (it is not buried, too...

No. Having bought twice from them I would highly recommend them also.

Having a crimper meant for aircraft cable (as in wire rope, not electrical cable) work, I have long, over 20 years, used copper 3/32" swedges for splicing 10 gauge stranded cable on PV systems. They pass any kind of pull test, most likely not approved or legal, but they work great. Cheap too...

As it's all I have paid for the last 18 years, I guess I can say my electrical costs have doubled! They raised it from $5.00, to $10.00! It's a still a great deal of course, to have a "battery" of infinite capacity, that never needs replacement, takes up no room, and is 100% efficient, as my...

Wow, I'm glad that's not a factor here! I remember my brother in Fairbanks AK telling me once, that his well casing was frost heaving, and it was over 100' deep. I will be more appreciative of our 24-36" frost depth here, at least I've never had anything come close to what you describe...

I did a few with a bit more complicated to fab hinge point, until I hit on the channel concept, as you say, keeping it balanced is key. We used a mini excavator, with a good operator, who was told to keep the hole as narrow as possible while reaching the required depth (a sloppy operator will...

I'm now grid tied, after 28 years off grid on different property, but here is how I do it: my own rack design, I've built over 50 of them, no failures. This is my latest array, 12 250 watt modules, bought used from SANTAN Solar, just yesterday I saw a 3600 watt output, so still "good as new" and...

Yes, they will wear out gradually, the bronze ones anyway, mine have, the newer stainless ones are supposed to be bulletproof.

This is the first summer since I developed a spring at the bottom of my 70 acres, and installed a SQ Flex running direct (the controller is NOT needed, one less thing to go wrong) of a 1300 watt array. It's pumping thru 2100' of 1" poly pipe and up, for about a 260' elevation rise, into a 2000...

I used to deal with them back in the '70's, I think I may have bought a 12 V Wincharger from him! Didn't know they were still kicking, I'm going to call him tomorrow and bounce some ideas off him about using the 155 pound alternator from the A.R.E. wind turbine I just bought.

My grid tied 900 watt hydro uses NO charge controller, the Outback inverter rides herd on battery voltage, shunting it into the grid as fast as it arrives. I've never felt inspired enough to try a MPPT controller, as I have surplus power anyway. As far as a dump load , I use a MorningStar load...

My own plug in Prius use is to just plug it in when I get home, EVEN THOUGH, when I leave I will drive down a 1200' grade every day. It has occurred to me that I could just partially charge it, and let it top itself off on that descent, but I don't bother as I have a surplus of energy anyway. I...

I've been driving a 2013 plug in Prius for the last several years, bought used for 18 K with 38 K miles, now has 110 K miles, between my pure EV range (10 miles or so) and its all gas MPG, I average in the high 60's MPG at fill ups. I also have a beater Toyota RAV4 for winter use (AWD) that is...

All I know is that in the airplane world, a cylinder is to be avoided like the plague! Fairing cub style gear, which uses round tubing, yields several mph gains in speed. Some pilots say their unfaired gear "doesn't matter" enough to bother fairing it, I tell them about the test I did years...

I bought back the wind turbine I installed from a guy about 20 years ago, (the same former customer whose inverter I "borrowed") it's a predecessor to my A.R.E and is complete with the controller, dump load, and grid tie inverter. THIS is the way wind turbines that last are built, HEAVY! The...

I bought it about 2 weeks ago from NAZ Solar, and paid $1376.94 for it. I will sell it for $850.00, firm. Buyer pays shipping, it's still in it's original factory shipping carton. I will also be putting it on EBAY and Craig's List shortly. Why so cheap? I had thought to use it to revive my...

On the drive back across the desert from my former customer's deserted house, I remembered ANOTHER past AWP customer, who died 5 years ago, and decided to check out what happened to his equipment, here's a pic of the control room. It also, besides the wind equipment, has a small 1100 watt PV...

As I recall, A.R.E. started out as African Wind Power (could be wrong, it's been a while) and I bought one for myself, and one for a customer, about 20+ years ago. When I moved off my off grid property I sold it to a young couple, and also installed it on a home made tower. They had inherited...

Not that hard to grid connect really, any wind turbine. IF you use a Outback battery based grid inverter like I use on my 900 watt 24 VDC hydro system. Plus, since it's a 3500 watt unit, I have misc. solar panels also involved, another 1500 watts or so, configured for 24 VDC. A Morningstar load...

I make my living with a crane service, a 30 ton boom truck with 110' of stick. If you had all your "ducks in a row", tower prepped and ready to lift, it'd be less than $500.00 here in Idaho.

I've made several like the mono pole signs seen at gas stations etc., starting big dia. and getting smaller as they rise. Used pipe bought a local scrap yard for less than half the cost of new and just as good. They've been up for decades, with 12' diameter mills on them, no issues. I'll post...

Bumping this thread: after waiting some months for a Fronius inverter, I found a 3.6 KW Solis grid tie inverter in stock at a good price. A shout out to NAZ Solar Electric, they are very old timers in the biz, formerly known as Arizona Wind & Sun for about 40 years, now NAZ. I ordered over the...

All AC connections are good, not many of them as the inverter is mounted on the same pole as my utility meter base, 2' away maybe. I'm going to chalk it up to my utility, some sort of momentary glitch on their end perhaps, as to why the inverter made that somewhat confusing display, I have no...

My Primo Fronius, 3.8 KW, showed a 308 error code, in pushing a random button, (in the field, no manual, no phone) this happened :. And it kept happening for 10 minutes....., so I cycled the solar input, and it still continued. Then I shut the AC grid tie breaker off and back on, that brought...

Yes, those spring wound timers are handy, though not applicable for my situation. Countdown timers (Amazon, of course) are what I use on charging my electric bikes: plug a device into them, cycle a push button from 30 min., 1 hr, 2 hrs, up to 6 hours, and it auto shuts off. Exactly like a...

Ha! I JUST NOW noticed that I failed to see they make a DC model also, I ordered one months ago, an AC one it turns out, in the middle of winter, and somehow didn't notice at the time they make both DC and AC models. I just ordered the proper, DC, model, and will use the AC one next winter for...

I feel your pain! After 16 years of my Outback VFX selling power to the grid (hydro input, with some misc. PV) it checked out and I bought a new one. First thing I learned was another $460.00 Mate was needed. Got that, and have been struggling for the last two days deciphering the frigging...

No response from Voltsys, not even a "can't help, you're on your own!" Which is what I figured anyway. I happened to be working by my PV array yesterday, a broken cloud cover was rapidly moving across the sky, giving conditions that went from heavily ocluuded (with real dark clouds) to a...

Thanks for the tip, I've reached out to them and will report back on their response.