Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Solar City

Tuesday December 11: We left Ho-Hum and that beautiful scenery and moved to near Lake City. We are at John Palmer's Energy System. He has several acres of land here with trails all groomed.



We are getting our solar checked out and modified. Bob hasn't been happy with our output of energy considering we have 5 panels and 8 batteries. Turns out 4 of our batteries might not even be connected to the system. We also have a leak of 6 amps. They have discovered many things wrong with our initial installation. They had to run new wire because the wire was too small to handle the load of the panels plus too many other things wrong to mention here. It is very peaceful and secluded here. Several other rigs here for work and some stay the winter and help clean the trails etc.
Donna put our Christmas tree up. We have been wanting to but still in a moving mode wondered how it could be transported safely. Simple, took off the lampshade on the attached lamp and cable tied the tree to it and decorated it.

Wednesday there were footsteps on the roof all day but it wasn't Santa. They had to remove all the panels, moving them into the center so they get the sun to the best advantage. All the screws were rusting already as they weren't properly caulked. Bob was up there helping and supervising. In the afternoon 6 of us gathered for stirfry and a campfire.

Thursday the roof work was finished and they moved onto the basement area. Installed a new 2800 full sine inverter. Now our appliances won't break. Already had a coffeepot go bad and the microwave wasn't working to it's best. An inline surge protector.......was reinstalled from Bob's old 5er. The factory one didn't do power surges. Donna went to town to locate the Freightliner shop where we go for the first oil & lube on the motorhome when we are done here. A quick trip to Walmart just proves why we are not Christmas shoppers.

Friday they moved into the coach itself to rewire the breaker box and install a second one that was needed to control the inverter to the coach. Our old neighbors left and we got new ones from Ottawa. We visited with them in the lawn chairs when the days work was done before going into the Red Lobster for their Seafood feast that has been advertised on TV.

Saturday was a brief day of indoor work. A wire needed put on so one of the monitors worked correctly. Then we had to run the generator for 4 hours to equalize the batteries that had not been hooked up for months. Now we have to run everything and bring them back down low and do it all over again. We took a ride down one of the trails and found the alligator pond with 2 gaters in residence.


It stormed during the night and we were under tornado warnings but thank goodness it was just a brief t-storm. We had to deplete the batteries to equalize them again because of the 4 batteries not being connected to the system. Out for breakfast at Bob Evans. Then back to the MH for the equalizing. We will be leaving here late afternoon to go to the Freightliner shop for our 7 am appointment before heading to Homosassa

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, what a mess! Beautiful Christmas tree, though.