Harvesting the sun

Yesterday was a bit of a long day. My youngest son Callum came over to the cottage for 7.30am and by 8am we were removing the two solar panels I'd put up on the North East facing workshop roof.  The two panels were a trial to see what I could get before the main panels on the south west facing roof. It was an encouraging trial with the two 375w panels giving a good start to the solar harvest each day. So much so i upped them to 5 x 425w panels. One of the two panels coming off the roof may go onto Percy to replace the 15 year old 175w panel... my Victon 15/75 controller will take that nicely.

It was bitter cold and a bit rainy but we got them all up and the sun came out just before they were energised into the Dc coupled inverter I have in the workshop - so now a 4.1kw system. Today we harvested 12.4 kw of 'free' power. it bodes well for covering the demand from the house meaning less need for charging the batteries up overnight certainly for 3/4 of the year. All good. 

We then manhandled two 1.2 x 2.4 metre sheets of 9mm plasterboard onto the vaulted ceiling timbers I'd constructed.... glad he was there to help and id not have been able to do it myself easily. We then hotfooted to his nearly completed house in Chinley to do some stuff there  - only we noticed a person slumped at the side of the road so turned the car and offered assistance. Turned out to be a local lady very worst for wear on the drink. But it was 5c and raining and a bitter wind and she was wet and in the gutter.... my lad phoned the ambulance service and they sad TEN hours for an ambulance. We phoned the police and they said not our problem  - yes they did say that. So I phoned the ambulance service and said she was starting to suffer hypothermia as were we and we got an ambulance in the hour.... the loaded her up and we went off to do what we were supposed to be doing 2 hours ago. I got back 8pm but pleased with the progress at both places.

Skip forward to today and we got to the boat after I'd tidied the wiring up under the panels and the solar was working well. Very pleased with my part DIY system but still got G98 approval  - look it up ! On the boat I plugged in the Ecoflow Delta 2 to the 38-w panel I put up last year made from floorboards from my lads house in said Chinley. it was instantly taking nearly 300w and the boat about 80w so charging up and running our other home  - excellent when a plan comes together. 

We pottered and then went for a lovely short walk as Rachel is still recovering from a nasty virus. Back at the boat I made a banana loaf and Cauliflower cheese and bakes spuds - gas ovens still make the best baked potatoes. We enjoyed a brief glimpse of spring but are ready for rain tomorrow with the stove set for lighting as we may just hunker down eat cake and drink tea  tomorrow. The engine will wait for another warmer drier day when it will be a pleasure to open up the crank door and oil all the bearings prior to its 2024 startup !! 

Some pictures.... 

Nice day after a busy but productive day yesterday