Category Archives: Solar

Only One Shower A Week?!?

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Awww Hell no!

I read an article, somebody is saying we only need to take one shower a week. Read the article here.

I take at least 3 a day. Morning, after swimming, after work, before bed.

One a week? Only if you want to be a skuzzbucket!

This weekend a lot of places are getting an eclipse. Not here. I do hope to be under a total eclipse on a clear day someday, but that won’t be this weekend for me. I’ll be doing laundry and yard work and having a dog assessed. Below is an eclipse Shadow on Earth taken from the Mir space station.

have a great weekend!

Orange Sunset

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Wentt to movie night 🌙 at the Westin, it was The Wedding Singer. Good movie.

There was also a good sunset 🌇 last.night too. Below is a video I took. There was no green flash, because of that last minute cloud with its tip stickING up from below the horizon. I wonder how far away a spot directly under the center of that cloud is? Here’s the video, 62 seconds long

It’s a FRI-Hi-DAYYY! YEE HAW!

Have a great weekend! Oh yeah, whilst typing this, my spell checker kept suggesting little icons, a couple of which I inserted. Soon we’ll be drawing pictures to communicate like the cave man drawing on cave walls. They’re gonna quit teaching the kids to read, already started.

Hava good weekend!

Back To Work

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Today it’s back to work.
All my work will be backed up, plus the normal workload, the  vacation punishment.

I still want to post more Costa Rica pictures. Soon come.

I’m glad it’s not Monday, it seems like Monday to me, but I will soon find out that it’s not.

Yesterday I received my THIRD Nomad 20 solar panel. Two under warranty. We’ll see if this one works. I didn’t even open it for hours after I received it. Not thrilled anymore, don”t care.

Have a good WEEK!

Goal Zero Disappointment

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As you may remember, I had a Goal Zero Nomad 20 portable solar panel. I loved it the few months I had it, and I used it all day every day.

Then one day, it died. Under warranty, with good customer service and friendly staff, the manufacturer sent me a  replacement.

Happily, I took the new panel out of the box and plugged in one of my two Guide 10 power packs.

Nothing. No charge light. I check the cable and when I touch it, the charge light comes on, let go, it goes off. Intermittent (bad) cable.

I emailed the manufacturers and they want me to check all this stuff. “Yeah, it all works, except the bad cable”. I know a bad cable when I see one.

So now, customer service doesn’t seem so good, but really, the problem is on my end, I don’t feel motivated to go through the motions of  getting another panel.

I’m very very disappointed (I should type “very” a bunch more times in this sentence). I woke up at 4 this morning, thinking about it.  I got up and decided to write about it here..

I figured those cables were the weak  point before I bought it. They are permanently attached and cannot be removed/replaced. Plus the storage pouch stays full of all these cables that never get used. I only used one, sometimes two. It would be a better design if there were jacks that you could plug the cable you need into, instead of an octopus of cables coming out of a box. The jacks could be very strong. The cables could be  easily replaced. It would be far superior. Although I must point out that it wasn’t the cable that failed the first time, it was something in the electronics.

I  bought a new connector, and am ready to cut the bad one off and solder the new one on. I guess I should do that today, but I think I’ve “fallen out of love” with my Nomad 20 solar panel I want to find a new model and manufacturer, something more durable and with a better design.

This is a rare Sunday post.  I didn’t post Thursday because of a massive dog mess that I woke up to and had to clean up. Then Thursday afternoon I dropped my motorcycle off to get a new tire and had to leave early Friday morning to catch the bus to work, hence no Friday post either. Now it’s Sunday and tomorrow we’re going to Costa Rica! I’m off work till April 9th!

Sure do wish I was taking my solar panel with me to Costa Rica, Costa Rica is a good place to have a solar panel.

Experiment results

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With the exception of last Tuesday, when my tablet totally died, My solar panel was able to maintain a usable charge on my Nexus 7.

My next experiment is to compare the time it takes my solar panel to charge 4  AA batteries compared to the time it takes the wall charger to  charge 4 AA batteries.

Today is a holiday  here, our first since July. It’s good to have an extra day off. It’s Remebrance Day. A day to remember our Veterans

I got a part time job as a real estate agent. Now I have to pass the test and get my license.

Have a good week!

Experiment Fail / Sorting Pictures

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Yesterday, when I posted my post, my tablet had 11% power. When I got done, it was 6%, when I got to work, it was dead. Both my power packs were dead so I had no choice, I plugged it in. However, the data collection will continue. This morning looks like a typical, perfect Caribbean morning, fresh wind, mostly blue skies with some fluffy white clouds, and the sun, just peeking over the treetops.

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Yesterday, a friend posted an old postcard of the Holiday Inn Grand Cayman.

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Now I’m going through old pictures to see if I have good ones. I used to copy all my pictures to DVD once a year, now I keep them all on a portable hard drive. I am currently copying the pics from the DVDs to the hard drive, then I have to sort them. Not a small task.

This afternoon after work, I have a job interview.

Have a good day!

Goal Zero – Nexus 7 Solar Experiment

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I have a Goal Zero Nomad 20 watt solar panel and two of the Guide 10 power packs.

My experiment is: Can I go a week without plugging my Nexus 7 tablet into AC power and only use the solar charger?

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I haven’t had the tablet plugged into the wall since Saturday night / Sunday morning. Yesterday was cloudy and I didn’t get a good charge on the power pack, therefore I didn’t get a good charge on the tablet. (I charge the power packs with the solar panels and charge the tablet with the power packs.) I can also plug the tablet directly into the solar panel, but don’t usually.

So it’s looking like this experiment is going to  fail. I’m down to 11% power on my tablet as I type this.

Hope for a sunny day today!