by Bob | Jan 13, 2024 | Reviews, Solar Power
I’VE HAD THE GRECELL 200W PORTABLE SOLAR PANEL for six months. I’ve set it out a lot. It has been beaten up by the wind and gone through many rainstorms. I’ve given it a really fair shot, and it has held up well. It works just as well today as it did when I...
by Bob | Jan 6, 2024 | Reviews, Solar Power
BLUETTI RECENTLY RELEASED the AC2A. It is their smallest portable power station to date. I have it alongside the old Bluetti EB3A today and will compare the two. The new AC2A is kind of a little brother to the EB3A. They’re doing a switch from the EB line to the AC...
by Bob | Nov 4, 2023 | Reviews, Solar Power
I RECENTLY UPGRADED MY SYSTEM after finding I had plenty of solar but not a big enough battery bank. I had a 200Ah battery bank and if I had no sun coming in, my batteries died after three or four days. This was insufficient holding power to get me through for an...
by Al Christensen | Mar 3, 2023 | Solar Power
CRAIG SHACKELFORD has been into electronics since he was a child. He started using ham radios when he was 13, graduated college with an electrical engineering degree, and worked for a major electronics company. He decided corporate life wasn’t for him. Now Craig is...
by Al Christensen | Feb 13, 2023 | Build-Outs, Electrical, Gatherings, Heating-Insulation, Mental Health, Minivan, Organization & Storage, RVs, Skoolies, Solar Power, Supplies
IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO A GATHERING OF NOMADS you know there are always people who need a little help with something. A repair, an addition, a modification, some troubleshooting, just an extra pair of hands… It was at such a gathering that some people who wish to...
by Al Christensen | Nov 26, 2022 | Boondocking, Solar Power
WE TEND TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF SOLAR POWER around here. If you’re going to use electricity, it’s the easiest, cheapest way to get it. As long as you have sunshine. Oh. Yeah. Sunshine. That’s a less common commodity in some places. Take a look at the map above showing...
by Al Christensen | Jun 20, 2022 | Solar Power, Staying Cool or Warm
UP UNTIL THE LATTER HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY, our ancestors (and some of us old farts who’ve been around since the discovery of dirt) lived without air conditioning. The first air conditioner was probably the one installed in the Rivloi Theater, in New York City, in...
by Al Christensen | Jun 18, 2022 | Solar Power, Staying Clean
NASA ANNOUNCED its InSight lander will run out of power in a few months because its solar panels have become covered with many years of Martian dust. Meanwhile, my solar panel is covered with many days of New Mexico dust and fire ash. Cleanliness is next to...