We surely do get spoiled by some of our modern comforts, don’t we? When I was a kid, we didn’t have air conditioning at the first 3 houses in which I lived, nor at school. Our first car with a/c was a ’65 Pontiac. Although I don’t crank the thermostat down low, I still like to have it to knock down the humidity and cool down on those muggy Florida afternoons. One of the goals […]

Bring a big truck when you visit and work safe when you get home.I write this stuff for fun and to be helpful. I’m not an employee of Sun Electronics, I’m a customer. In my role as customer, I set out the other afternoon for my third visit to Sun’s Miami headquarters and my first visit to the Miami Lakes facility. This place is a lot nicer than the Miami Gardens warehouse, though it lacks […]

In my last post I mentioned that I had gotten carried away at Sun Electronics’ Miami warehouse and had filled my trailer and truck to the point that I decided to leave some batteries behind. I shredded one tire at one A.M. and only had one spare, so maybe that was good that I didn’t try to overdo it. Will I have enough battery power to get by until my next trip to Miami? Probably, […]

How hard is solar power? Some folks are a little intimidated because they don’t know anything about it. John has asked me to put together a booklet for do-it-yourselfers and I think that is a good idea. It just requires a little more focus than writing down whatever pops into my head. Today, though, I am going to write down whatever pops into my head AND give you an idea of how simple solar can […]

The state has a pretty dismal record on solar promotion and subsidies. I didn’t even know there was a program until I read about it in a California magazine! The first couple of years, it appeared that most of the program’s budget was spent on office furniture and administration, leaving only a few slots for participants. Then the rules were a bit too burdensome to make it worth the bother, in my opinion. Maybe this […]

Once you get your first taste of solar power, you want more. You can always find ways to use it. Want 30% more? Back in the 70s and 80s, when solar modules cost a lot more in dollars and dollars were worth a lot more, equipment choices were far more limited and people were always trying to get more power from their solar panels. Makes sense. Naturally, if you point your solar panel dead-on at […]

Just a letter to John that somehow got posted here! I’m glad to hear you are back in the water. Sounds great. Somehow I didn’t get to the water all year. Now it is too cold to stay out on the boat overnight.I like pelicans, too, from a distance. It is funny how they almost always travel in squadrons. 8 or 10 of them will sit on a floating log or do a fly-by. Sometimes […]

When my grandfather came to this country over 100 years ago, he worked his way around the US and Canada learning English and looking for just the right spot to establish a farm. About 1920, or so, he found the right spot on the shore of Lake Okeechobee, in Palm Beach County, Florida. It was heaven for a Danish farmer, with a climate that allowed year-round crops. Solar power was already a big deal in […]

Going through my morning email newsletters, I came across a press release from a company called LONGi, announcing a new record of solar module output efficiency of 20.41 percent! The exclamation mark was theirs, because another tenth of a percent doesn’t get me all that excited. Last week some outfit announced their record output of over 40 percent. A close read of that announcement showed that their output was achieved with concentrating lenses. Concentrating lenses […]

I have been rambling about backup power and it is time to touch on the batteries and other topics. My advice on backup batteries is a little different than for solar systems. I advise that you get something that requires little or no maintenance. The reason for that is that you will probably lose interest in a system that just sits there doing nothing when the power company is doing there job, because the lights […]