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[alfsauve]

One overlooked casualty of EMP is LED lighting.  This goes from light bulbs to indicator lamps.  And could include flashlights and camping lights.  That's one reason I keep a stock of incandescent light bulbs and haven't given up on a couple of halogen flashlights.

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

One overlooked casualty of EMP is LED lighting.  This goes from light bulbs to indicator lamps.  And could include flashlights and camping lights.  That's one reason I keep a stock of incandescent light bulbs and haven't given up on a couple of halogen flashlights.

You are right. I have NOT thought about that angle. I guess I need to invest in a few non-led lights. How about the fluorescent camping lanterns?

[Rastus]

Al you are absolutely right and I am glad that you have brought that up.  I was thinking a few months ago to get some flashlights and halogen light bulbs just for this and forget.  Also, I have some incandescent bulbs but not nearly enough.   

[alfsauve]

LEDs are tiny semiconductors and many devices, flashlights, also have small processors inside them.  In a true wide scale EMP event they will probably be affected.  Metal flashlight bodies might provide some random protection. 

Now in such an event there probably won’t be any commercial power, and our solar powered back up with smart chargers and inverters as well as the PV cells are just chocked full of electronics and will also fail. So I wouldn’t spend too much money on incandescent bulbs IF EMP is your primary concern.

[alfsauve]

Laundry day.  Got to analyze the dryer's energy usage.  I bought this dryer (Whirlpool twin) when they were a new product.  I'm thinking at least 20 years ago.  So I'm surprise at the PWM usage. The machine constantly cycles the heaters up and down.   Below is our four loads of clothes.  The shorter cycle was because Miss Kitty didn't think load number 2 was dry enough and so did a 10 or 15 minute manual cycle.  Reason for not knowing how long she selected, and it's something to investigate  is you'll notice the dryer does a cool down period at the end of each load.  The period is temperature based because it varies from 5 to 10 minutes.  So the question is:  Does the cool down period count toward the manual drying time.  e.g., If I select a 10 minute manual cycle is it 5 minutes of heat and 5 minutes of cool down?  Or is the cool down time in addition to the time I select.  Inquiring minds want to know. 

This is a little more than academic curiosity.  If you're trying to plan energy usage for a solar system, then you can no longer just multiple the max amps * voltage * time.  It's an average of the up and down cycles, which obviously vary.  An recorder/analyzer like Emporia lets you get a better handle on how much capacity over time you need.   BUT, you still have to plan max capacity for those moments in time when all devices are drawing their max at the same exact time.

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

Gotta love Miss Kitty.   Part of the reason for looking into solar for things based in the garage is that we selected the garage as our "project" for the fall.  Have contractor scheduled to come in an fix the walls and ceiling, and a flooring company to put in some type of nice floor.  I've down sized, thrown out, and rearranged my tools and things.  I keep eyeing the fridge and freezer, thinking that we could do quite well, thank you M Kondo, with just one fridge.  But I didn't think I'd broach the subject with Miss Kitty until one of the existing units died.  Both about ~20years old at this point.  Well we stopped at Home Depot for some parts for another project and she said she was going to browse appliances.  10 minutes later she's dragging me down the appliance aisle pointing out the $3,500+ refrigerators.  Takes me to a far corner of the store where they have some clearance items.  A brand new Samsun, 24cuft, SxS model for $1,200.  Absolutely the ugliest thing inside and out.  No rounded corners, no cute storage bins, no indoor dispenser, no water filter, not a wasted inch inside.   Perfectly square corners at every level.  Checked with the associate and it is a newer model that doesn't have Samsung compressor problems of their older ones.  Full warranty.  Arriving next week.

Forget all the power studies of the separate freezer and fridge.  I'm willing to bet it'll draw less than either one of the older ones.  While that's good for our power bill, it means I won't save as much taking it off-grid.   Oh, well, she did ask which battery back up system I was considering, so she may be thinking of rolling that into the garage renovation cost.

More to follow.

[alfsauve]

Had the new fridge/freezer for a couple of weeks now.   It draws typically at most 80Watts.   E-I-G-H-T-Y Watts!  Verified both with the Kil-A-Watt meter and the Emporia analyzer.  (Which by the way notifies me of certain events.  Like if the oven runs for more than 2 hours in case we forgot to turn it off!)   With such a small, and efficient compressor, it runs longer periods than older fridges but the overall result is it uses less power over time.   Below is a second-by-second chart of the new fridge's power consumption.

With Ian just passing by and the upcoming winter, Miss Kitty and I have decided to invest in a small battery backup system.  If I add a solar cell to it of course I can claim a 30% tax rebate for it.   With the fridge/freeze drawing such little current and since this system won't deep cycle the batteries daily, only in a power outage, I've re-designed it with Gel cells instead of LiFeP batteries.   With 200Ah of batteries I can keep both primary and secondary fridge's running for 2 days, maybe more if I turn the temperature up.    It also means I can get away with a smaller inverter.  Below is also a pictorial of what I'm designing.    The since I won't discharge it daily I don't need but a single cell to keep it charged over long periods of non-use. 

[Rastus]

Good information.  Keep it up.

80 watts is astounding.  I knew the power drain was low because I ran one along with other equipment on an 1,800 watt inverter generator....but I had no idea it could get that low. 

[alfsauve]

I don’t know how they do it, but a guess would be a combination of over voltage pulsing and maybe a flywheel and auto-clutch.  Pulse the motor and fly up to speed then the clutch engages the compressor load.  Evidently they run a smaller compressor but for longer periods of time.  Evidenced by the electrical draw, the duty cycle and the instructions to allow 4 hour cool down period when installing.

[alfsauve]

On the DIY Solar forum someone wanted to how they could measure their sunlight, over time, at different locations around their house.  Got me to thinking.  I have an Ambient Weather station which is on-line (yes you can check out the weather at my house) and one of it's features is a Solar Radiation and UV index.  I never paid much attention to those readings, I mean if it's bright and sunny outside they're high.  Duh.  But then I thought I'd dig a little further and sure enough Ambient Weather keeps, at least the last 24hrs of readings on-line.  Now my weather station is located near my only south facing roof usable for solar cells.  Below are the graphs for the other day.   It is fall and the sun is getting lower on the horizon.  The trees are a real problem as you can tell.  If one wanted to go to the trouble one could put the weather station on a base plate and just set it in various places to get sun graphs.