Solarstik

One of the benefits of the solarstik is that I was able to rearrange it inside to charge my batteries.  There is no power in the building that I am in so this allows me to run my 100 watt inverter to run sanders and other tools.  I had it outside for a wile but it works inside as well thru the windows. ~Kurt

Charging from multiple sources

From www.svreach.com




If all of your charging sources have multistage regulators that are all set to the same charging regimen points (and you have a large enough, or sufficiently depleted battery bank), then all of them will put out all they can during the bulk charging stage.

When bulk charge is reached, then they may start to play against each other and the output of one charging source might shut down the output of another due to slight variations of the regulator set points and how charge is sensed. But now it doesn't matter because your batteries cannot accept the higher current of all your charging sources and as long as one of those sources can supply the absorb current, all is well.

In fact, it is dandy if you have multiple charging sources. For example, if you are in the absorption phase of the charge cycle and your solar panel regulator has shut down your wind generator regulator and is supplying the entire absorption charge, then when clouds decrease the solar output, your wind generator will step in and shut down the solar regulator and continue the charging regimen. 

Harken winch update

Winch update

The new Harken 40 “Radical” Winches are on order. A very hard pill to swallow. But I thingk we will be very happy with them. I am hoping that they are sized correctly, I would of liked to get the 46’s but we just didn’t have the money and they weren't just a little bit more.

Removing the old winches was pretty straight forward. The Lewmer 43’s were bolted completely thru the wooden blocks thru the deck and have 1/4 bronze plate under the deck. All the bolts came out but one. All were bronze with bronze nuts....but one, the one that would not budge. Since the new buildings had no power yet it was a hack saw blade in hand by hand. After about an hour, success and both winches were off. Under the the winches on the wooden blocks the wood was a little wet but no rot. I will sand, clean and put a coat of varnish on to protect. I will wait for the new winches to arrive and order new bolts.

Kurt