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Living on a boat, you fight humidity and wish I could send it to the less fortunate, but I have a water maker, reverse osmosis, and it works great. The one I have is good, it's a small volume model, and only makes just under two gallons a day, but I salvaged it from a salvage boat and rebuilt it...

Seriously, this is a real DIY wind turbine video, but from somewhere in Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, Russia, hard to tell, and it's funny as hell. These guys are freaking crazy and if your one, like me, who hates too much government regulations, this is an excellent video to show you why we do...

Same here; I've been working, living, and sleeping around batteries all my life, and as to inverters, I doubt it seriously. I mean, other than one leg longer than the other and the third eye, I'm fine. :cool:

Anyone in business right now knows how hard it is to hire people, and the real problem is finding those with skills and work ethic. For this reason, have patience as long as they're trying. Just saying.

I live in Houston, Texas, and not sure how the solar deal works here; I'm rebuilding an older 28-foot class C RV so I can hit the road. I live in a crappy apartment, and when we lost power for days during a record-breaking winter storm back in February, that was a wake-up call. I was trapped in...

I like the Down here on the coast we call a basement a heated indoor swimming pool, HA! ?

Entertaining banter, but silly at best. I'm an old fart, fixing to be sixty-six come this December, and my parents were raised during the great depression by farmers and ranchers; my father flew Mustangs over Germany during WWII protecting the B-17's bombing the crap out of the German factories...

Here's a quick diagram showing what Supervstech means by hooking up a 5v USB load to discharge a cell. (promoting Wills book too, getting brownie points) ;)

Kill-A-Watt also makes an 8-outlet power strip with memory functions. I find it helpful to get the wh/amps/pf, etc, usage of several items at once.

@Prefersdirt I'm with you. I live in Texas, Houston to be exact, and yeah, that was a rude awaking, and on Valentines' too. I was in the hood, a poor section, and we were without power for five and a half days; it was below freezing and snowing for two. I could get around in my WJ Jeep if I...

Yep, this is a problem, but it's a human nature problem one has to live with. I've managed forums of my own for years and still have one I own going since 2003. Honestly, keeping a thread on a topic is like herding chickens and cats. :cool:

@justgary is correct; you don't have enough solar. You're going to need at least 2000 watts like me, and 3000 watts is most likely the sweet spot. So, like me and some others, you're going to have to ground deploy what you can't fit on the roof or go to expensive large high-wattage panels. Me...

No, but you can buy a DC to DC charger in 12/24-volt designed to charge lithium batteries from your alternator. Victron And Renolgy have the most popular.

It's a message count thing.

Well said, sir! Those boys out there on the highway hauling goods have to squeeze the squeal out of every ounce of fuel to stay profitable. These big trucking companies are serious about limiting drag, taking care of tires, and limiting idle time. Most trucks nowadays have small diesel...

Don't be; everyone's confused; life is a confusing journey. You're doing just fine, better than most.

Hey, don't let folks get you down, some people just have just have always to find a reason to fuss about something and in this case, tended to be a little rude and condescending which was totally unnecessary. Please don't let it discourage you from posting links to more interesting tools or...

Do you mean like switching to both? I've done this with crew boats in cold weather to crank off the diesel's but switched back to battery one or two depending on which is the spare. On offshore crew boats, each engine has two batteries, one as a spare keep fully charged, or you can use both in...

And, most importantly, get rid of that horrible pinkish color! :cool:

A little sheet metal to round things off would help. Look at modern cross country big rigs for inspiration.

DIY Solar Tracking System Inspired by NASA (Parker Solar Probe) Another using light sensitive risistors.

Hehe, that means I'm living in EM paradise. With everything I have humming running around me, I might even glow in the dark. :eek:

That's the one, thank you so much! yeah, I have limited roof space so to get the juice needed to feed my beastly battery bank, I need some panels bathing in the sun. I've been looking at new and used while banging away on the calculator, and yes, it's a great way to use two or three different...

@dougbert Thanks, I'll give it a watch. I have friends in California desperately trying to get out, one in Bakersfield, how he lives there I don't know, one near LA, and the other up in Weaverville. The lady friend in Weaverville says on a good morning you can smell the marijuana growing, and...

That's been looked at here, and I suggested server rack slides as they're much more heavy-duty.

@Dzl Well said, and good job covering both sides of the argument, you'd make a good politician, chuckle, teasing, okay, I find humor, after the light of day, to be the best antiseptic. That being said, I've survived the game of life for 69 going on 70 years now. Heck, we used to hunt dinosaurs...

I just finished helping a friend of mine put panels on top of his 35-foot (might be near 40-foot) class A that he got really cheap. Here's what we did, using 1-inch .125 wall aluminum tubing and 1/4 inch plate we made a rack, like a giant luggage rack, raised above and level with all the vents...