I'm a retired firefighter, live back in the bushes surrounded by tweakers and the like so fires are a concern. After sleeping through a small veg fire just up the hill from me, and Watch Duty was still asleep this morning, I've got a problem.
I'm looking for alert options so am looking for someone that knows tone activated radios or maybe computer based receivers to please message me to bounce ideas off of. Thx
Question for fire radio geek types. I'm a retired wildland firefighter, live in rural California, and this morning around 5am I slept through a small veg fire near me, which has me concerned, as expected. I have the Watch Duty app but they often don't send an alert for initial attack or when their scanner jockies are asleep, like this morning.
The modified response was our local small combo department, an engine from a neighboring department, and the local Cal Fire (state) station.
What I'm looking for is some type of computer based receiver (Raspberry Pi?) that would act like a tone activated pager but would only activate when the tones for both departments and the state station go off in the same dispatch. A regular receiver wouldn't work as I don't want to be woken up for every stubbed toe call! 🤣
Any ideas where I could either find something like this or someone that could guide me?
Also, how do I find out the tones I want for this?
As we see here multiple times a day , Amazon is getting worse and worse as far as customer service and satisfaction goes, to the point that people like me won't buy big ticket items from them due to the risk of getting ripped off in one way or another.
Do you think that this will push people back to brick and mortar stores, to other platforms, or will people continue to use Amazon and put up with being mistreated?
My partner and I have been together for 11 years and haven't gotten married because she has medical issues, is on Medi-Cal (Medicaid) and it would affect her medical care. We've not tried for disability for her for several reasons, one being the high rejection rate.
She just received some paperwork from the SSA and learned that even though she's contributed to SS for most of her working life, because she hasn't worked in over 10 years she won't get any SSI when she would be old enough (not even the money she's paid in! WTH?).
I'm on SS, am not in the best health and so I don't expect to live more than a few years, and because neither of us have any assets (long story why), when I go, she's going to be in big trouble. If we get married, will she get anything from my account as a surving spouse even though she doesn't get anything on her own? If so, how do we figure out how much?
TIA
Sorry for the length!
I live off grid on generators (solar is in process). I'm currently primarily running the trailer, including AC, and a outside freezer and separate refrigerator off of a Champion 7500-9375w gas genny. In the morning when we don't need the AC or anything other than lights on the trailer, I run the two outside appliances on a smaller 3500-4000 20A Champion to save on gas ($$$$!).
The trailer (with AC, all 120v) is plugged into one of two 120-240v 30A 4-prong outlets with a "dogbone" adapter, while the appliances are plugged into a conventional 120v 20A outlet.
Until recently, everything was fine. Run the baby genny in the morning then move the appliance plug over and fire up the bigger one so that we have AC and internal outlets. We've even run a microwave for a short time. During a upper 90s° heatwave a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, the 30A breaker on the 120-240v outlet started tripping during the hottest part of the day without warning while the AC was running. For some stupid reason, if the 30A breaker for one of the 120-240v blows, all four outlets go. I've had this happen with other Champions. Stupid system.
Having had a breaker go bad on a prior genny (we go through gennys a lot 😳), I replaced it and thought that was it, until this latest heatwave. Yesterday breaker trips during the heat of the day, I reset it and it's fine for a time then popped again. So I reset it again but this time moved the appliances over to the baby genny, running them both at the same time ($$$!). That worked. No popped breaker.
I thought it was due to the heat (gennys are in a open but shaded space with no breeze, so put a fan in front of the outlet and plugged the appliences back into the big one. Didn't help. Popped within 45 minutes or so so I switched back Then when it cooled down a bit this evening (low 80s vs 99°) and the AC stopped running (was still turned on), I plugged everything in to the big one again and it was fine for 2 1/2 hours and then out of the blue popped again when there was little drawn from the trailer! WTF???
As the appliences are older and are in an semi open shed exposed to dust and the like, I suspect something is wrong with one of them, even though the AC is also old and does pull a good amount of amps. However, the 20A on the baby genny doesn't trip with the appliences so I'm confused.
Is there some type of meter that I can use to remotely real-time monitor the Amp draw from both the trailer and the appliences so that I can figure out the culprit? I need to fix this for multiple reasons, especially for when I get the solar up and running but I can't sit there all day watching a handheld meter!
Again, sorry for the lengthy post.
I'm in limited social security (ie: little to no money lol) and currently live off grid solely on generators, which as you can guess is hellishly expensive. I'm DIY'ing a solar project and plan on backing up the system in the winter during snow or very dark days with one or the other of my Champion generators (4kw and 9kw). I have had issues in the past with some electronics not liking genny power or cheap inverter power due to not being pure sine wave.
I want to be prepared for that possibility so that I don't damage my solar power system. A long time back I seem to remember hearing about a device that "cleans up" (conditions?) power from generators. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and if so, what the name of the thing I'm looking for actually is?
Oh, and how do I figure out what the sine waves are like with my genny power?
TIA
I am ground mounting 28 365w, 38.7v panels in 2 strings of 14. Each string, due to space constraints will have a row of 10 panels then two rows of 2 panels each. Both rows of 10 will start (end?) within about 10ft from the MPPT. What size wire will I need for the home run from those rows to the MPPT?
The rows of 2 panels each will be about 25ft from the end of it's row of 10 panels. What size wire will I need to tie those panel rows together?
Also, the panels are prewired and terminated with 1 male and 1 female connector. Does it matter which direction the system goes? Do I have to make sure that both strings have the male going towards the MPPT or???
Thanks
I am ground mounting 28 365w, 38.7v panels in 2 strings of 14. Each string, due to space constraints will have a row of 10 panels then two rows of 2 panels each. Both rows of 10 will start (end?) within about 10ft from the MPPT. What size wire will I need for the home run from those rows to the MPPT?
The rows of 2 panels each will be about 25ft from the end of it's row of 10 panels. What size wire will I need to tie those panel rows together?
Also, the panels are prewired and terminated with 1 male and 1 female connector. Does it matter which direction the system goes? Do I have to make sure that both strings have the male going towards the MPPT or???
Thanks
I live off-grid and bought a slightly used Qcell "Qhome" hybrid inverter/charger with a 6kw battery. I'm looking for either a dedicated support forum or social media group/sub for Qcell as I have some brand specific questions.
I messaged their page and haven't heard from them so am hoping someone here knows a good resource for Qcell product questions
TIA
I live off-grid and bought a slightly used Qcell "Qhome" hybrid inverter/charger with a 6kw battery. I'm looking for either a dedicated support forum or social media group/sub for Qcell as I have some brand specific questions.
I messaged their page and haven't heard from them so am hoping someone here knows a good resource for Qcell product questions
TIA
I live off-grid and bought a slightly used Qcell "Qhome" hybrid inverter/charger with a 6kw battery, which I'm in the process of mounting. I'm looking for either a dedicated "Qhome" support forum or social media group/sub for Qcell as I have some brand specific questions.
I messaged their FB page and haven't heard from them so am hoping someone here knows a good resource for Qcell product questions
TIA
I'm retired Cal Fire and when watching cockpit videos of our S2T air tankers, I've always wondered when they are making a run what the hanging T handle does that the pilot has his right hand on?
TIA
Sorry, forgot the picture last time!
Putting together an off-grid system and have a couple of questions (I have a ton of questions but the rest can wait for now lol).
What is the name of this connector, and where can I find a guide to wiring up 28 panels to a used 7200w Q-Cell w/2 MPPT (1 string per MPPT)?
TIA
Putting together an off-grid system and have a couple of questions (I have a ton of questions but the rest can wait for now lol).
What is the name of this connector, and where can I find a guide to wiring up 28 panels to a used 7200w Q-Cell w/2 MPPT (1 string per MPPT)?
TIA
Other than the minimum dose of Ozempic, I usually manage my blood sugar with just diet and what little work around the property I can do. I just had a colonoscopy a week ago, complete with the near liquid diet for 36hrs, and in addition to my bowel movements still somewhat messed up, my blood glucose levels are on average 50-60 points higher than normal, with a couple of times hitting just over 300 after a normal meal, which is about 80 points higher than it ever has been since I started working to control and way over my average. WTH is going on? Anyone have this happen to them?
I live off-grid on a property where our water is gravity fed from a tank and we only have about 10psi, which of course is a problem for several reasons. I want to add a pump, switch and pressure tank into the system so as to provide 40psi avg (30-50psi cycle range). The all-in-one pump and tanks won't work due to being too small, which makes for a lot of cycling on/off, and their set pressure is too low. Will something like this work with the addition of a pressure switch and 30ish gallon pressure tank? Does anyone that has done this before have a recommendation for an inexpensive but all metal pump?
TIA
Anyone know about how many watts current model power supply draws? I live off grid on generators and batteries and have a small inverter for nights when the genny is off. We just got Starlink and it's not liking the inverter. It seems to cause some type of interference with the couple of phone chargers that are also plugged in along with it and there's no internet available when plugged into the inverter and sometimes even no signal at all, but is fine when in genny power. I know this shouldn't affect the signal but it is so I'm wondering if I'm over-drawing the inverter?
BTW, this is a replacement unit as the first one did this no matter what it was plugged into and then the power supply starting buzzing! 🤣
Odd question here, and yes the trees will be trimmed back!
I'm going to be ground mounting a bunch of panels here on homemade wooden group mounts ($) as it's the only south facing area available. The west to east slope is roughly 1:7 - 1:8 over 35-40 ft. In addition to being tilted back about 38°, can solar panels be tilted to the left so that the bottom is roughly parallel to the ground or do I have level them all out?
Note, pictures were taken at about 6pm so the fence shadows from the west won't be an issue.
Component recommendation needed.
​
I'm building a completely off grid system that will have about 10.5kv in commercial sized panels and up to 3000AH in 24v or 48v LifePo4 batteries (or 24s paired for 48). This of course is all on a budget which means I'm full on DIYing this. What is a good midrange 120/240v (pure sine wave preferred) charger/controller/inverter? Can't afford top of the line or garbage either so am looking for something as inexpensive as I can get away with but that won't set everything on fire! 🤣 Maybe Amazon prime deals? Everything that pops up on social media ads (such as Ankor) is expensive as hell. Thoughts, recommendations? TIA
I'm building a completely off grid system that will have about 10.5kv in commercial sized panels and up to 3000AH in 24v or 48v batteries (or 24s paired for 48). This of course is all on a budget which means I'm full on DIYing this. What is a good midrange 120/240v (pure sine wave preferred) charger/controller/inverter? Can't afford top of the line or garbage either so am looking for something as inexpensive as I can get away with but that won't set everything on fire! 🤣 Maybe Amazon prime deals? Everything that pops up on social media ads (such as Ankor) is expensive as hell. Thoughts, recommendations? TIA