Incoming weather

[gipsy]

They are forecasting Wed at 6 am to get back up to 0.

[gipsy]

Well they are still right, it's darn cold here for sure.

[gipsy]

Makes me want to run right out and buy one.

youtu.be/ZEI_7b_HT_A?si=-Y1vncR1zUHQBmdv

[gipsy]

If anybody can check, the "Weather Channel" website appears to be down. Might be having problems because of the storm.

"Weather Underground" site is up

[papaof2]

This link: www.isitdownrightnow.com/ allows you to check whether a site is just down to you or is down to the world.

[papaof2]

Jan 16, 2024 15:10:24 GMT -6 gipsy said:

Makes me want to run right out and buy one.

youtu.be/ZEI_7b_HT_A?si=-Y1vncR1zUHQBmdv

Those of us who have dabbled in battery backup tend to read the datasheets on the batteries of interest - and most lithium-based batteries can't be charged when below freezing. First, you get your $80,000 toy into a warm space and then you wait until the battery is warm enough to accept a charge. Then you can charge it. Of course, it takes a lot of hours to warm up maybe 300lbs of batteries that are bolted to a large metal frame. I suspect at least overnight in a well heated space. But the owner has to get the Tesla to that warm space and then get it to a charging station before the battery cools down too much to be recharged. Maybe put a kerosene lamp under the battery and let that heat warm it enough to be charged? Maybe with a metal plate to spread the heat so it doesn't melt the plastic of the battery case?

Regardless of the hype and advertising BS, in very cold weather a vehicle using an ancient technology internal combustion engine with a lead-acid based starting battery is more reliable than any vehicle with lithium-based batteries as its source of motive power. Lead-acid batteries do lose power when cold but they work at some level unless it's so cold the acid freezes.
There are many stories from the military of one truck in a convoy being startable so they piped its exhaust under another vehicle until the oil thinned and the battery warmed enough to be useful for starting that vehicle. And then the two running vehicles could warm two more and so forth - and these were diesel engines which are much harder to start in the cold than gasoline engines.

Some lithium-based batteries have warming pads that continuously siphon off a little of the battery's charge to keep the battery warm enough to work (probably true for most if not all electric vehicles - you need to read the fine print on page 1327 of the owner's manual). That's fine IF you never let the battery drop below maybe 50% before starting to look for a charging station in cold weather - BUT once the battery is too low to adequately power the warming pads, that battery is just so much electronic waste until it's warmed up enough to accept a charge. That's probably somewhere in the owner's manual but buried very deeply because the EV manufacturers don't want to admit that their design for protecting the battery in cold weather runs it down faster than if it didn't have protection. Maybe add an alcohol, kerosene or LP-fueled heater to the battery packs?

Based on historic weather extremes at my location, using LiFePO4 cells for the battery powering the lights in the equipment shed is acceptable because the solar charging won't start until after 10AM and the solar panel's output won't exceed the battery's allowable charge current in low temperatures. A much larger solar panel could provide very fast charges in warm weather but would exceed the allowable charge rate in very cold weather. If all the datasheets I have were paper-based, I'd need another bookcase or two to store them - but that does mean I have good info for my shadetree engineering projects. At my age, I expect the shed lighting to outlive me. If there's occasional rain to clean the solar panel, the lighting should just keep on keeping on - like the haunted houses where doors and windows open and close with no one near them or the structure in a sci-fi movie that responds to the presence of intelligent beings and plays a video or whatever. Nothing that fancy, just a lighting system that works whenever the knob on the timer is turned ON.

[techsar]

Cold temps and LiFePO4 batteries was a concern since last winter was rather mild, but this last cold snap has provided some good real-world data. With a fairly long duration (10 hours+) of temperatures below 20F my battery banks didn't go below 47F. Between the heat output from the inverters and the bulk of each bank (approx. 600 lbs) I don't foresee problems even if record cold sets in...and for here that is 12F. If things went really stupid cold I could put the kero heater in there on low and keep it toasty.

[papaof2]

I have one story where the jack-of-all-trades installs a diesel RV/parking heater to keep the batteries and the water pipes in the basement at acceptable temperatures. Just do whatever keeps the batteries happy ;-) And you do get the heat retention of the batteries' mass.

The Relion RC10-PC LiFePO4 datasheet (one I have handy) shows at 10C (50F) the battery has 80% of its 25C (77F) capacity. Not a problem if you have some "excess" capacity or you can plan around having 20% less battery capacity at 50F. At -10C (14F) the battery has 70% of its 25C (77F) capacity. Again. something to plan for.
However, that RB10-PC is rated for 6000 charge/discharge cycles to 100% DOD, 12,000 cycles to 80% DOD and 24,000 cycles to 50% DOD. At one charge/discharge cycle per day (assumed for solar calculations) that's 16.4 years, 32.8 years and 65.7 years, respectively. Depending on your age and how much the batteries are discharged, this might be a "lifetime" battery ;-)
If I had the $$$$, I'd like to have enough LiFePO4 capacity for 36 to 48 hours of "slightly better than camping out" power - run the gas-fired furnace, the fridge, the freezer, a few LED lights and charge phones for 36 to 48 hours without needing solar or gasoline generator input.

[gipsy]

Got the snow gone to get ready for more tomorrow.

[papaof2]

With one of them there Snow Joe lithium-battery powered snowblowers? Or did you use one of them ancient, air-polluting infernal combustion engine machines that actually works at temperatures in the minus double digits Fahrenheit?

I'm pretty sure you've retired from using a shovel for more than two steps...

[gipsy]

It is 20 years old so you guess.

[papaof2]

Too old to be appreciably affected by the cold - set the choke full, spray in some ether (more likely toluene in a spray can now) and it'll start on the first or second pull of the cord.

[gipsy]

No Ether needed. Turn on the gas, set the choke, prime it 6 times and pull.

[gipsy]

Well I expect there will be flood warnings next week. Rain starting Monday will melt the snow. Glad We live on a hill.

[papaof2]

One inch of snow = 0.1 inch of water when it thaws. If it thaws quickly, the landscaping and the sewers can't handle it.

[gipsy]

We will have to see how fast it goes.

[gipsy]

We had a confirmed Tornado southwest of us earlier today. Weather channel had some storms on the radar but they missed us to the south.

[gipsy]

A view of the storm.

youtu.be/2OkMK2PjpMc?si=j6y2WMji_yqI5W8c

[gipsy]

We got lucky and missed the blizzard that is hitting Indiana today.

youtu.be/cGNrxb2pad0?si=2gWsEXGQEw0L2A0p

[papaof2]

We have family up in northern VA and they're forecast 7" snow +/- so today was a Costco day ;-)

[feralferret]

Got about 1.25" of snow. Streets and sidewalks cleared themselves

[iamnobody]

I woke up to 4 inches of snow this morning.

This global warming is awesome......

[gipsy]

We caught the tail end of the cold front but no snow, just cold.

[gipsy]

It is 64 and sunny but, This is the forecast.

"There is a likely risk of severe weather today. Wind, tornadoes and hail are possible. Look out for large hail. Stay aware and be prepared."

Nothing on the radar now but keeping fingers crossed

[gipsy]

It's up to 72 now. The predicted weather is supposed to pop up around Davenport and come this way.