Post by papaof2 on Sept 2, 2017 23:39:04 GMT -6
The towers used to support the wiring for long electrical distribution paths are many and varied. They depend on the terrain, the size and number of wires and the local weather extremes. Look for pictures of Hoover Dam and some of the lines leaving there. One of the links I provided is probably from Canada. Remember that the US and Canadian grids are tied together so they have some things in common but others things are unique to each location.
Chapter 17 - Answers and More Questions
"Mr. Williams, I thought solar power was hard to do but your diagrams and instructions make it easy."
"Matt, they make the assembly easy. You built your drone from a kit, didn't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"So you didn't need to know the propeller size or the pitch needed to move the weight of the drone or the speed and power needed in the motors or the size of the battery?"
"No, sir. I read all the documents that came with the kit and all the references they pointed me to because I wanted to know the 'how' and 'why' but I didn't need to know any of it to put the kit toge… That's what we're doing! You designed the kit and we're just doing the 'Tab A in Hole B' work."
"Correct. The hard part is determining how much power is needed daily plus how much is needed occasionally then sizing the battery bank and inverters to power the expected loads and sizing the solar array to charge those batteries in an acceptable time frame and putting in the proper combination of charge controllers to most efficiently get the power from the solar panels to the batteries and you must work out how much space is needed for each of the components, how much they weigh, how much wind and snow load the panels can handle, how much wind load panels that aren't flat on a roof produce and what size wire should be used where."
"So you did the hard part - the design work - and we're building the kit. I'd like to know more about the design side."
"Ask me before you leave. I have a paper book that's an introduction to small solar systems. Nothing this big but more what you might have at a weekend cabin for a few lights and charging a cell phone or maybe a laptop. In our current circumstances, maybe running an old CB radio because we no longer have cell phones for instant communications."
"That's a good idea, Mr. Williams! Almost all the kids have said there are CBs in the garage or the basement. Mom won't be going to her job at the insurance agency until there's power for the computers and internet to talk to company headquarters so I could use the battery from her car and maybe just one of the smaller panels to power a CB during the day."
"In addition to the solar panel, you need a charge controller between the panel and the battery that stops charging the battery when it's fully charged and starts charging it again when needed."
"The solar panel would just keep charging the battery?"
"As long as there is sunlight."
"Dad said something about only using the newer battery charger with a timer or the electronic one from Noco so you don't boil the battery dry. You can do that?"
"Yes. Overcharging a flooded battery - one that you can add water to - starts turning the water into hydrogen and oxygen. That can deplete the electrolyte and it also creates a fire hazard because you can't see or smell hydrogen and it burns with a nearly invisible flame. Hydrogen and oxygen mixed in the right proportions are an explosive mixture."
"So that's why you have the little brushless fans moving air over those batteries and to that outside vent. Brushless motors don't create sparks."
"Very good. The unvented batteries are AGM, which are sealed and never require adding water. They do require more careful charging as overcharging them will cause the pressure valve to open and you will lose some electrolyte, some capacity and your sealed battery."
"All car batteries are flooded?"
"Most older vehicles. Some newer vehicles, especially some of the luxury brands and some of the sporty models with limited space under the hood, have an AGM battery in the trunk to keep it cooler and extend its life. Heat is the enemy of batteries. A battery that's in the basement of your house may have a life of 7 to 10 years but that same battery might only last a year or two in a desert environment."
"And a sealed battery can't spill in the trunk."
"Correct. We might make a solar tech out of you yet, Matt."
"It's just so interesting!"
"I'll have that book in the kitchen before the end of the day."
"At lunch?"
"No, because you need to eat, not get lost in a technical treatise."
"Yes, Mr. Williams."
"And there might be an interesting person or two to talk with."
"That, too."
---
I think I can get most of the questions in the folder answered or the person asking pointed in the proper direction before lunch.
The "How soon for full recovery?" question is unanswerable, as they have no supporting information. Let me point them in the direction of finding resources. How many refineries have been verified to be operational, either by a site visit or by a knowledgeable person asking questions of the production manager? How much crude can those refineries process? Where will they get that crude?
Same for power restoral. How many highline towers damaged? Where are they located? How many spare towers? Where are they? How many qualified people to do the work? Where are they? How many transformers damaged? How much switchgear? How many spares of what types are available? Where is the damage and where are the spares? How much wire of what types is available? How long to restart a wire factory if more is needed?
The "How will they feed people?" is answered the same as always. There are crops in the fields. Can they get fuel to the farmers for cultivation and harvest? Can they get fuel for the trucks to get that food to market or to processing plants? When will there be power for processing the food?
These people aren't yet aware that they're looking at planning something the size of the WWII effort but with very few qualified planners. They need to start at the edges where there is food, water and power and work into the circle. They need to start at any working power plants inside the circle - maybe Hoover, Boulder and Grand Coulee? - and work outward from there. That gets the most possible people working on restoring power which will also restore fuel pipelines and communications.
Add a few more comments and some names of people who can get things done - not the people that came up with some of these questions. I doubt that some of them could find their butts with both hands even with a flashlight and a mirror. Am I getting old and cynical or is there lots more stupid in the environment lately?
I'll make a copy of this with my answers and Amos can take it back. And a copy of my notes and the map for Amos.
"Amos?"
"Yes, Paul?"
"Time to be messenger again."
"That's fine. I've been fed well and had enough chamomille tea to keep me calm for several hours. Carla even fixed me a Thermos of it for the road. Thanks, Paul."
"You're welcome."
---
"Dad, go tell the crew lunch in ten minutes."
"Thanks, Sarah. You and Alex have really been busy in the kitchen today."
"In addition to lunch, we're getting some things ready for canning after lunch. Mom told Kelly Kilgore to stay when she rode in with Debbie and Denise. She took Kelly with her to the garden to get everything that's ripe enough. We'll be canning soup and stew stock. It'll just need thinning and heating for veggie soup or thinning and adding some beef or venison before heating to make stew."
"Sounds good. I'm certain Kelly is happy to be 'working' and Carla is glad to have the help and have another child to teach about gardening. Thank you both for working on it."
"Mom talked with us earlier about things you found out last night. We could be here through the winter or longer. Having food put back is important. Is there a place Dave could stay if they close the jail?"
"There's the cabin that your great-grandfather built when he purchased this land many years ago. Dirt floor, wood heat, outhouse or bucket and bringing in water by the bucket when it's freezing because the water line that was run out there to make it a playhouse for you and your siblings isn't below the frost line."
"That's still better than a cave in the woods."
"True. We'd also have to agree on some rules for him."
"The girls asked me about him being here and how much contact they had to have with him."
"When the medications have cleared from his system, I don't think there'll be any further problems but I don't know how long that will take. Ask our resident nurse."
"Will do."
---
"You're back, Sheriff Thatcher."
"Yes, Lieutenant Ferguson. With a few answers to the questions and more information in some areas than you had."
"What?"
"Read the notes and look at the map."
"Where'd he get this?"
"The notes and the map from a couple hours of listening to country-wide AM radio stations. The sat photos are from a public feed on one of the NOAA weather sats, using a home-built receiver."
"Who is he? NSA or something?"
"I asked and he said 'No comment'."
"I'll note that on the first page and send it up the line. I'm sure the Major will want to know more about this Paul Williams."
"His wife told me that my TS4 clearance wasn't high enough to know more."
"I'll note that here also."
---
"Lunch is good, Momma."
"Sure is, Mrs. Gentry."
"Thank you, Kasey, Matt."
"I wish we could eat outside. Stuff always tastes better there!"
"Maybe a picnic, Alex?"
"That sounds good, Kase!"
"There's a nice place behind Bobby's house."
"I've been there, Matt. It's a nice place."
"You've been there, Momma?"
"Kasey, I grew up here. I've been up close and personal with most of the area within ten miles of the house."
"You walked ten miles?"
"Ten miles each way. Ten miles is a little more than a two hour walk. When your primary transportation is walking, you get pretty good at it."
"I guess so."
"Maybe on Sunday?"
"We'll still be here then, Kase?"
"Let me answer that, Kasey. Alex, the doctor said no long drives for me until after PT. At least two weeks before I'll be allowed to drive that far and possibly longer depending on the progress I make. It's a long way back to California. With the power off around us, I'll have to find out whether gas is available for a drive that long. "
"OK, Momma."
---
The ice is broken for the girls to have a picnic with their current boys of choice. I'll task them with coming up with CB callsigns for the various farms while they enjoy the picnic - callsigns obvious to neighbors but not meaningful to those from a few miles away. Then we can say they were a work crew and they worked on Sunday.
---
"You're not going back out with the solar crew, Love?"
"No, Paul. The work is finished except for the final connections you marked as needing your attention. They're all back out on building work. Kelly wants to be part of the canning crew so she'll get the safety instructions along with Alex and we'll be canning veggies most of the afternoon. Go put the finishing touches on your new solar power system and then get out the ham gear and put up antennas. I'm curious about what you can learn tonight."
"On my way as soon as I get the non-contact infrared thermometer so I can check the temperatures of connections, wiring, batteries and electronics. And a notepad to record those readings and the battery voltage readings before and after turning on the breakers for the new pieces of the system."
---
First use the digital voltmeter to check the battery banks. The flooded battery bank is at 12.52 volts and the AGM bank is at 12.63. Both are fine for having been lightly loaded earlier. It would be more efficient to have one 48 volt battery bank and use 48 volt DC to 110 and 220 volt AC inverters, but I'm stuck with the 12 volts of the original small solar system because Andrew didn't have any 48 volt charge controllers or inverters. Having a 48 volt battery bank would allow using smaller wiring and fuses for the same power levels and I could have one large, efficient inverter instead of having multiple inverters for different areas - one for the well pump, one each for house and barn, and so forth. The system we have does provide enough AC power to live close to the 'normal' of having commercial power. Much better than being without power. Turn on the breakers between the MPPT charge controllers and the battery banks. The charge controllers show the same voltage as the DVM. Turn on the solar array breakers and the "Solar Volts" on the various controllers goes up to the open circuit voltage of each one's panels. And that begins to drop to the maximum power point voltage (Vmp) as the MPPT circuitry in the controllers tries for the best match between the group of panels that controller handles and the battery bank it's connected to. The "Solar Amps" and "Solar Watts" are approaching their optimums and the "Battery Amps" is climbing toward its maximum on each controller. 6,000 watts of solar panels is providing almost 5,000 watts of power to the batteries. That's better than 80% of the rated panel output - and that "rated" output is usually only achieved under factory test conditions, not in the real world. Real world expectations should be 73-75% of the panels' rated power so you're not in the dark when the solar panels fail to recharge the battery bank in time. I'm very pleased with how this system is performing. No more than the batteries were discharged while the solar panels were disconnected, the system should be at "Float Charge" in a couple of hours. And a typical full day of use in the summer will be replaced in a few hours. I'll need to make notes when we have several cloudy/rainy days to see if my estimate of 4 to 6 days of typical use before needing to use a generator of some type to charge the batteries is correct. I'll not be concerned about using the ham gear for multiple hours tonight.
---
The older small solar panels that were removed are stacked by wattage and physical size. Each panel has the power specs written on the front edge of the frame in black marker if the frame is aluminum or silver marker if the frame is black. The inventory sheets are on the clipboard beside the panels. The listing for each panel includes the brand, model, serial number, power specs, the date of manufacture and any obvious problems - cracked glass or damaged cable or whatever. Rose - and whoever she recruited as her "other hand" - did an excellent job on this.
Time for me to get the boxes of antenna parts from the barn and recruit an extra set or two of hands for putting up antennas. There are tie points on the house and a couple of trees and there's a vertical antenna in the barn that can be installed on the mount beside the house. That one first so we're not trying to weave it under and around the multiple wire antennas I want to have. When the antennas are up, I'll move the ham equipment up from the basement myself.
---
Chapter 17 - Answers and More Questions
"Mr. Williams, I thought solar power was hard to do but your diagrams and instructions make it easy."
"Matt, they make the assembly easy. You built your drone from a kit, didn't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"So you didn't need to know the propeller size or the pitch needed to move the weight of the drone or the speed and power needed in the motors or the size of the battery?"
"No, sir. I read all the documents that came with the kit and all the references they pointed me to because I wanted to know the 'how' and 'why' but I didn't need to know any of it to put the kit toge… That's what we're doing! You designed the kit and we're just doing the 'Tab A in Hole B' work."
"Correct. The hard part is determining how much power is needed daily plus how much is needed occasionally then sizing the battery bank and inverters to power the expected loads and sizing the solar array to charge those batteries in an acceptable time frame and putting in the proper combination of charge controllers to most efficiently get the power from the solar panels to the batteries and you must work out how much space is needed for each of the components, how much they weigh, how much wind and snow load the panels can handle, how much wind load panels that aren't flat on a roof produce and what size wire should be used where."
"So you did the hard part - the design work - and we're building the kit. I'd like to know more about the design side."
"Ask me before you leave. I have a paper book that's an introduction to small solar systems. Nothing this big but more what you might have at a weekend cabin for a few lights and charging a cell phone or maybe a laptop. In our current circumstances, maybe running an old CB radio because we no longer have cell phones for instant communications."
"That's a good idea, Mr. Williams! Almost all the kids have said there are CBs in the garage or the basement. Mom won't be going to her job at the insurance agency until there's power for the computers and internet to talk to company headquarters so I could use the battery from her car and maybe just one of the smaller panels to power a CB during the day."
"In addition to the solar panel, you need a charge controller between the panel and the battery that stops charging the battery when it's fully charged and starts charging it again when needed."
"The solar panel would just keep charging the battery?"
"As long as there is sunlight."
"Dad said something about only using the newer battery charger with a timer or the electronic one from Noco so you don't boil the battery dry. You can do that?"
"Yes. Overcharging a flooded battery - one that you can add water to - starts turning the water into hydrogen and oxygen. That can deplete the electrolyte and it also creates a fire hazard because you can't see or smell hydrogen and it burns with a nearly invisible flame. Hydrogen and oxygen mixed in the right proportions are an explosive mixture."
"So that's why you have the little brushless fans moving air over those batteries and to that outside vent. Brushless motors don't create sparks."
"Very good. The unvented batteries are AGM, which are sealed and never require adding water. They do require more careful charging as overcharging them will cause the pressure valve to open and you will lose some electrolyte, some capacity and your sealed battery."
"All car batteries are flooded?"
"Most older vehicles. Some newer vehicles, especially some of the luxury brands and some of the sporty models with limited space under the hood, have an AGM battery in the trunk to keep it cooler and extend its life. Heat is the enemy of batteries. A battery that's in the basement of your house may have a life of 7 to 10 years but that same battery might only last a year or two in a desert environment."
"And a sealed battery can't spill in the trunk."
"Correct. We might make a solar tech out of you yet, Matt."
"It's just so interesting!"
"I'll have that book in the kitchen before the end of the day."
"At lunch?"
"No, because you need to eat, not get lost in a technical treatise."
"Yes, Mr. Williams."
"And there might be an interesting person or two to talk with."
"That, too."
---
I think I can get most of the questions in the folder answered or the person asking pointed in the proper direction before lunch.
The "How soon for full recovery?" question is unanswerable, as they have no supporting information. Let me point them in the direction of finding resources. How many refineries have been verified to be operational, either by a site visit or by a knowledgeable person asking questions of the production manager? How much crude can those refineries process? Where will they get that crude?
Same for power restoral. How many highline towers damaged? Where are they located? How many spare towers? Where are they? How many qualified people to do the work? Where are they? How many transformers damaged? How much switchgear? How many spares of what types are available? Where is the damage and where are the spares? How much wire of what types is available? How long to restart a wire factory if more is needed?
The "How will they feed people?" is answered the same as always. There are crops in the fields. Can they get fuel to the farmers for cultivation and harvest? Can they get fuel for the trucks to get that food to market or to processing plants? When will there be power for processing the food?
These people aren't yet aware that they're looking at planning something the size of the WWII effort but with very few qualified planners. They need to start at the edges where there is food, water and power and work into the circle. They need to start at any working power plants inside the circle - maybe Hoover, Boulder and Grand Coulee? - and work outward from there. That gets the most possible people working on restoring power which will also restore fuel pipelines and communications.
Add a few more comments and some names of people who can get things done - not the people that came up with some of these questions. I doubt that some of them could find their butts with both hands even with a flashlight and a mirror. Am I getting old and cynical or is there lots more stupid in the environment lately?
I'll make a copy of this with my answers and Amos can take it back. And a copy of my notes and the map for Amos.
"Amos?"
"Yes, Paul?"
"Time to be messenger again."
"That's fine. I've been fed well and had enough chamomille tea to keep me calm for several hours. Carla even fixed me a Thermos of it for the road. Thanks, Paul."
"You're welcome."
---
"Dad, go tell the crew lunch in ten minutes."
"Thanks, Sarah. You and Alex have really been busy in the kitchen today."
"In addition to lunch, we're getting some things ready for canning after lunch. Mom told Kelly Kilgore to stay when she rode in with Debbie and Denise. She took Kelly with her to the garden to get everything that's ripe enough. We'll be canning soup and stew stock. It'll just need thinning and heating for veggie soup or thinning and adding some beef or venison before heating to make stew."
"Sounds good. I'm certain Kelly is happy to be 'working' and Carla is glad to have the help and have another child to teach about gardening. Thank you both for working on it."
"Mom talked with us earlier about things you found out last night. We could be here through the winter or longer. Having food put back is important. Is there a place Dave could stay if they close the jail?"
"There's the cabin that your great-grandfather built when he purchased this land many years ago. Dirt floor, wood heat, outhouse or bucket and bringing in water by the bucket when it's freezing because the water line that was run out there to make it a playhouse for you and your siblings isn't below the frost line."
"That's still better than a cave in the woods."
"True. We'd also have to agree on some rules for him."
"The girls asked me about him being here and how much contact they had to have with him."
"When the medications have cleared from his system, I don't think there'll be any further problems but I don't know how long that will take. Ask our resident nurse."
"Will do."
---
"You're back, Sheriff Thatcher."
"Yes, Lieutenant Ferguson. With a few answers to the questions and more information in some areas than you had."
"What?"
"Read the notes and look at the map."
"Where'd he get this?"
"The notes and the map from a couple hours of listening to country-wide AM radio stations. The sat photos are from a public feed on one of the NOAA weather sats, using a home-built receiver."
"Who is he? NSA or something?"
"I asked and he said 'No comment'."
"I'll note that on the first page and send it up the line. I'm sure the Major will want to know more about this Paul Williams."
"His wife told me that my TS4 clearance wasn't high enough to know more."
"I'll note that here also."
---
"Lunch is good, Momma."
"Sure is, Mrs. Gentry."
"Thank you, Kasey, Matt."
"I wish we could eat outside. Stuff always tastes better there!"
"Maybe a picnic, Alex?"
"That sounds good, Kase!"
"There's a nice place behind Bobby's house."
"I've been there, Matt. It's a nice place."
"You've been there, Momma?"
"Kasey, I grew up here. I've been up close and personal with most of the area within ten miles of the house."
"You walked ten miles?"
"Ten miles each way. Ten miles is a little more than a two hour walk. When your primary transportation is walking, you get pretty good at it."
"I guess so."
"Maybe on Sunday?"
"We'll still be here then, Kase?"
"Let me answer that, Kasey. Alex, the doctor said no long drives for me until after PT. At least two weeks before I'll be allowed to drive that far and possibly longer depending on the progress I make. It's a long way back to California. With the power off around us, I'll have to find out whether gas is available for a drive that long. "
"OK, Momma."
---
The ice is broken for the girls to have a picnic with their current boys of choice. I'll task them with coming up with CB callsigns for the various farms while they enjoy the picnic - callsigns obvious to neighbors but not meaningful to those from a few miles away. Then we can say they were a work crew and they worked on Sunday.
---
"You're not going back out with the solar crew, Love?"
"No, Paul. The work is finished except for the final connections you marked as needing your attention. They're all back out on building work. Kelly wants to be part of the canning crew so she'll get the safety instructions along with Alex and we'll be canning veggies most of the afternoon. Go put the finishing touches on your new solar power system and then get out the ham gear and put up antennas. I'm curious about what you can learn tonight."
"On my way as soon as I get the non-contact infrared thermometer so I can check the temperatures of connections, wiring, batteries and electronics. And a notepad to record those readings and the battery voltage readings before and after turning on the breakers for the new pieces of the system."
---
First use the digital voltmeter to check the battery banks. The flooded battery bank is at 12.52 volts and the AGM bank is at 12.63. Both are fine for having been lightly loaded earlier. It would be more efficient to have one 48 volt battery bank and use 48 volt DC to 110 and 220 volt AC inverters, but I'm stuck with the 12 volts of the original small solar system because Andrew didn't have any 48 volt charge controllers or inverters. Having a 48 volt battery bank would allow using smaller wiring and fuses for the same power levels and I could have one large, efficient inverter instead of having multiple inverters for different areas - one for the well pump, one each for house and barn, and so forth. The system we have does provide enough AC power to live close to the 'normal' of having commercial power. Much better than being without power. Turn on the breakers between the MPPT charge controllers and the battery banks. The charge controllers show the same voltage as the DVM. Turn on the solar array breakers and the "Solar Volts" on the various controllers goes up to the open circuit voltage of each one's panels. And that begins to drop to the maximum power point voltage (Vmp) as the MPPT circuitry in the controllers tries for the best match between the group of panels that controller handles and the battery bank it's connected to. The "Solar Amps" and "Solar Watts" are approaching their optimums and the "Battery Amps" is climbing toward its maximum on each controller. 6,000 watts of solar panels is providing almost 5,000 watts of power to the batteries. That's better than 80% of the rated panel output - and that "rated" output is usually only achieved under factory test conditions, not in the real world. Real world expectations should be 73-75% of the panels' rated power so you're not in the dark when the solar panels fail to recharge the battery bank in time. I'm very pleased with how this system is performing. No more than the batteries were discharged while the solar panels were disconnected, the system should be at "Float Charge" in a couple of hours. And a typical full day of use in the summer will be replaced in a few hours. I'll need to make notes when we have several cloudy/rainy days to see if my estimate of 4 to 6 days of typical use before needing to use a generator of some type to charge the batteries is correct. I'll not be concerned about using the ham gear for multiple hours tonight.
---
The older small solar panels that were removed are stacked by wattage and physical size. Each panel has the power specs written on the front edge of the frame in black marker if the frame is aluminum or silver marker if the frame is black. The inventory sheets are on the clipboard beside the panels. The listing for each panel includes the brand, model, serial number, power specs, the date of manufacture and any obvious problems - cracked glass or damaged cable or whatever. Rose - and whoever she recruited as her "other hand" - did an excellent job on this.
Time for me to get the boxes of antenna parts from the barn and recruit an extra set or two of hands for putting up antennas. There are tie points on the house and a couple of trees and there's a vertical antenna in the barn that can be installed on the mount beside the house. That one first so we're not trying to weave it under and around the multiple wire antennas I want to have. When the antennas are up, I'll move the ham equipment up from the basement myself.
---