A busy day over by the upcoming garlic field. I am spending time over by array-c and adding protective wrapping to the wires that go to the solar panels. These wires are tough, meant to be direct buried into the ground. But the harsh UV light and elements will wear those wires down when not buried. So I added some plastic protective sleeving to the exposed wires. And then tied them up to the frame so they do not get ran over or hit by a mower or such.
At the same time, I hired an insulation company to add blow in and side insulation to my storage building. This will help keep the batteries and inverter inside the storage building at a good temperature. The upper limit for my inverter is 113F (45C) after that it has reduced performance. And during the winter, we want to keep temperatures above 45F (7C) otherwise battery heaters will activate and use extra power. If temperatures drop below freezing the batteries will not charge. So keeping the right temps is key for solar power systems and batteries.
I also have been paying a local tree trimming company $50 a load for wood chips, with 15 loads I should be able to add quite a bit to the upcoming garlic field. It already has 10 loads in it, so adding some more should put us in a good place and hopefully hit an organic content level over 6%. Right now we are at 3.9% so hoping next year we can raise that number a little bit.
Everyone was doing their thing, and took me a few hours to get all the wrapping on the wires.
I do not understand why my electrical tapes keep doing this... lol
As I wrap the wires, I tape up the ends and connecting points where I had to add segments of the protective sleeving.
What it all looks like before I started, just the PV wires laying around without covers.
It is hot, and sunny.. a good day for the solar panels. I am wearing all white and a hat to try to keep the UV rays at bay.
I tie the ends of the wires to make sure they do not get pulled on as I wrap them.
Lol looks like a long snake in the grass. I will get them all tied up so they are not laying on the ground.
While I am working on wrapping the wires, I inspect the components of the solar arrays. Most of it looks good. As we can see a proper grounding clamp installed to the frame.
Here further down the line looks like the bolt broke. I will need to replace it.
Lol sorry about the finger, we can see all the wires are protected going into the breaker box.
Soon we can mow back here with all the wires tied up.
But its a slow process, took me about half a day to get both rows all wrapped.
A couple of my wires were a bit long, I did not want to cut them. So I just tied them up higher up under the frames.
Its great to have this array up and running, it is powering the blow in insulation machine that they are using inside the storage building.
Lots of insulation to blow in, will take them a few days to complete.
Having a ceiling on the storage building helps keep the wasps away, and gives us a place to blow in lots of insulation.
The side walls are up next, but for now they are focusing on the ceiling.
A generator was brought along by the workers for the insulation installation. Though it was not needed, my solar array provided more than enough power and still charged up the batteries before lunch time. Next to the generator is a dehumidifier, I run it around the clock and it dumps into that barrel. Eventually we will just run a line outside to drain. Its okay though, takes it weeks to fill up that 55 gallon barrel.
The pump house will also be insulated, and with a simple light bulb we hope to keep the equipment warm enough in there not to freeze. Still a few months away from any cold weather, but I am working toward being ready for it.
You're really shaping-up a kickass homestead! 😃
Hah thanks!
Nice job!!! Don't feel bad about your tape, happens to all of us lol.... frustrating I know!!!
I think everyone's electrical tape ends up doing that! It looks like you are coming right along!
Hah okay, good to know.
Yeah sure is.
Ahh the electrical tape... The adhesive on those is very strange, Hot temps also make it even worse, I always find anything I use electrical tape on ends up been covered in goopy sticky adhesive eventually.
Hehe yeah I know what you mean. Maybe I will regret using it.
Your project reached at advance level, it will help me when I will get this project...
Ah nice, best of luck with yours.
Sounds like a super productive day! Great work protecting the solar wiring and getting that insulation in those little details really make a big difference for long-term performance. Excited to see how the garlic field improves with all those wood chips too!
It sure was a good day.. thanks
Man I think back to when you arrived here and the first few building projects i thought were so monumental. Little did I know they were just the tip of the iceberg and I couldn’t imagine where you would get by this point.
Is it possible to actually bury those wires so they require no maintenance and are permanently out of the mowing equation? You don’t have to dig trenches and there are simple tools that can get a line down se real inches without a big production.
The heat you mention is probs my to blame for the duct tape melting its adhesive and sliding to the side.
Imagine where you will be in another couple years! I will be moving in by then. ;)
It really has come a long way, lots going on here on the farm.
Yeah probably burying them would be the smart thing to do, maybe on my next build I will do that.
Ah okay, yeah the tape has been sitting out in a hot workshop.
That place is looking great! Getting those wires out the way will make you're life so much easier down the line. I forgot just how humid it gets back east in summertime, it's been a lot of years since I lived over there!
That's going to be nice now that the insulation is installed and you'll use so much less power.
Nice work!
So true, I hate having wires everywhere.. so its much better this way.
Hah yeah it is quite humid, that is the hope in the winter.. keeping the heat in the batteries wont need to run their heaters as much.
That's a good price for the wood chips (assuming several cubic yards per load).
How nitrogen hungry is garlic? It shouldn't matter much as long as you aren't tilling in those chips and just letting them decompose from the top. If they are tilled in you may inclined to take some samples for nitrogen content.
Yeah they are pretty big loads, so I think its a good deal.
I tested nitrogen, we have lots of ammonia which turns into nitrogen. The soil testing lab suggested we retest in the spring to make sure it indeed became nitrogen.
What kind of batteries are you using that won't charge below freezing temperatures?
Lithium Iron Phosphate
I'm very glad I never tried them! My old-school Li-ion batteries perform well in temps down to -20 F. Maybe even colder than that, but fortunately I haven't experienced any temps lower than that yet!
You can still charge them technically but at a highly reduced c rate. But for the health of the battery it's best to heat them.
Luckily my pytes setup has built in heaters that kick in around 45f and if they cannot keep up charging is reduced by the build it BMS.
That would never do for me, winters up here just get too cold to be using electric heaters on the batteries.
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