On Thu, 19 Nov 2015 17:11:34 +0800, A2 wrote:

On 19-Nov-15 1:48 PM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2015 13:11:35 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

wrote in message

snipped


You won't make -me- jealous, I have more toys than space to store
them. I wasted the morning digging around for wiring harnesses I made
to test a solar panel controller and then put away until time to
install it, which I've finally gotten to.

Why didn't you leave the harness with the controller, duuuuude?


http://www.amazon.com/WindyNation-Re.../dp/B015S39PTU
Its price was $19 when I ordered it, $29 on their website the next
day.

I love beating the price hikes. New vendors on eBay usually put stuff
up for a song to get the feel of pricing, so if you buy one early,
it's 20% of the end price. My backup controller was $13 delivered,
but doesn't have an LCD.

Thinking about moving to a smaller water heater (20g) which can be
heated with lower power elements fed directly from a 24v solar array.
Hot water is nearly half my electric use, which now averages $41/mo.


Sounds cheap, how much is off grid power? I'm guessing you are US based?

Yes, Oregon, USA. It's not so much the cost of off-grid power, it's
the concept of being entirely self-sufficient during the coming grid
crises. 1) The increasing age/fragility of our electrical grid and 2)
terrorism loom just off the bow of our future. The grid has suffered
362 attacks between 2011 and 2015. Granted, some of those are from
kids wanting to see a transformer explode, but look at this article:
http://tinyurl.com/pc9pfyv (Crom, I hate listening to broadcast news,
but it can carry tiny tidbits of actual information.) Metcalf wasn't
a simple attack and cost over $15 million to repair.


We pay about $0.27 per kW.hr here in Australia.

Grid power is just $0.06 here. Thinking of adding another 400W to 1kW
($600-2,200) to the whopping 45W of power I now utilize. Selling
unused assets for it.

--
Cogito, ergo armatum sum.

(I think, therefore I am armed.)