May 27, 2013

There were 3 posts published on May 27, 2013 (this is page 1 of 1).

Inverter clue?

Over the past few days we’ve had too much gorgeous sunshine for me to let our power station go idle. I had the inverter on all day Saturday and banked about 18 kWh for the day. Sunday morning had me wishing I had shut down the inverter the night before, though, as its antics woke me up.

I was snoozing in bed around 6:52 AM when I awoke to a loud popping sound from my clock radio. Since this was about the same time the other inverter issues took place, I suspected the inverter had gone offline again.

Before I went outside, I checked the eGauge power graph. It showed power was being generated but, more than that, it showed a very strange anomaly at the time I heard my clock radio pop. All power to the house had been interrupted at that moment: it seems the inverter had malfunctioned yet again.

I let it run the full day yesterday as it seems fine once the sun gets going. I did, however, shut it down overnight last night, and noted no power anomalies.

I’m thinking now that the problem is with the inverter, specifically when the panels produce enough energy for the first time of the day to cause the inverter to resync with the grid. I wondered if the inverter isn’t syncing properly, sending a power surge through the wiring instead. At the time of Sunday’s blip, the panels were up to a mere 100 watts, which is basically nothing.

I’ll leave the inverter shut off until the Southern Energy techs can give it a good going-over. My electronics are at stake here, you know.

Action-packed Memorial Day weekend

Saturday afternoon I went for a 21 mile bike ride on the Neuse River Greenway. Afterward the family and I went to a friend’s pool party.

Sunday the family joined me on another bike ride, this one about 12 miles, lingering in Horseshoe Farm Park. We hoped my brother’s family would meet us there but they ran out of time to join us. We had fun on our own, though.

Three separate groups of people stopped me to ask about the greenways. Something about me must have identified me as the expert! I enjoy helping folks out and am now considering joining the city’s greenway volunteer program.

Today (Memorial Day) we didn’t have solid plans. I went to the dedication of Marshall Park along the House Creek Greenway and was impressed at the ceremony (military honors and all). Afterward, I rejoined the family and hoped we could get out for another bike ride. The kids weren’t interested, however, and so we went about our own projects. Kelly and Hallie picked up vegetable plants at the farmers market and we all planted them. I also sprayed Round Up on the weeds in the garden and then mowed the yard. It all looks very good now.

My day begins at 5:20 tomorrow morning, so we’ll see what kind of week it is. At least it will be a short one!

Walled gardens winning?

I took the time today to install the Tiny Tiny RSS newsreader, a replacement for the doomed Google Reader. Switching back to my own newsreader allowed me to immediately see how many feeds that I once followed have since vanished. It seems many blogs have dropped off the Internet entirely, and many of these only very recently.

Like the word “croatoan” carved in the tree that became the last word of the Lost Colony, some of these blogs left us with a “last post” entry but no real clue where they went. Is blogging dying? Are the walled gardens winning?

I have to admit myself to not posting as often as I once did. Yes, I use Facebook but only post updates there every few days. The job I took in February has sucked up much of what was once free time. And frankly, I’m saddened to see how our state legislature is now hell-bent on destroying this state. There’s not much inspiration there.

I still have a few more observations in me, though, and will post them when they’re ready (or even when they’re not ready – that’s never stopped me before!).