Lou Schneider

The problem may not be with the battery. If it's a diesel pusher the large 8D starting battery may be too large for an automotive charger to determine when it's fully charged. The charger determines the battery is good by shutting off after the charging current tapers to zero at the end of the charging cycle and seeing if the battery holds it's surface charge. If the battery doesn't let the charger taper to zero current the charger thinks the battery has an internal short and flags it as bad. It may be the large 8D battery has enough natural leakage or normal parasitic loads on the battery are preventing the charger from tapering to zero current, thus it flags the battery as bad. Try disconnecting the battery from the RV (lift the negative battery cable) and see if the charger then says it's OK. On a seperate note, I really like WalMart's $50 Value Power batteries. They're made by the same company as the rest of their batteries (Johnson Controls) and as far as I can tell the only difference between them and the more expensive batteries is the length of the warranty and about 10% less CCA. I've had one in my toad for 3 years so far and in my gas motorhome for about a year and they're doing fine.

Here are a few neat sites. This one displays the satellite positions in real time if you hit the Play button. Or drag the time bar back and forth to see where they will be in the past or future. https://celestrak.com/cesium/pass-viz-beta.php?source=CelesTrak&tle=/NORAD/elements/supplemental/starlink.txt&satcat=/pub/satcat.txt#visualization/orbit Enter your address here and see the path of the satellites above you. Click on Street View to see where to look in the sky to see them: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink And a neat picture of the current constellation's ground footprint: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/fsij1a/is_there_a_site_that_shows_the_current_starlink/

Hoover Dam is in trouble. The extended drought over the past several years has caused the lake level to drop drastically and may make the Feds begin water rationing next year. A byproduct is the lake level is close to dipping below the level of the powerhouse intake penstocks. When I was there a couple of weeks ago only one of the 8 turbine outlets had visible flow into the pond below the dam.

I would guess it's pretty good. It's using 40 acres of otherwise useless desert land so I would think there's minimal investment there, maybe a percentage of revenue to the owner of the gravel mine who's already harvested his ore from the area. They went with multiple short tracks instead of a longer railroad because Cal ISO is looking for 15 minute generation and absorption blocks to smooth out solar production variations, not the longer term peak generation the original project would have supplied

Looks like they changed the parameters of the gravity project, which is why I edited my post. Originally it was to be a long, single track railroad with a 3 phase catenary electric feed running several miles up and down the alluvial plain east of town. The gravity mass cars would climb the grade when there is surplus power, then wait at the top and be released as needed to coast downhill, providing several hours of regenerative energy as they rolled down the track. Now they're using multiple short tracks on a steeper grade along the edge of a gravel pit to get up to 5 Mw per track for 15 minutes. The cars will receive and output power using a third rail, like a subway train. Here's a link to the original 5 mile project design paper: https://energy.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/energynvgov/content/Programs/4 - ARES.pdf

An energy company broke ground last October on a 50 Mw, 15 minute energy storage peaking facility near Pahrump, NV. Instead of using pumped water or batteries for storage, they'll use electric railroad cars loaded with rocks to go up and down the edge of an existing gravel mine southeast of Pahrump, consuming power from the grid to climb the grade and releasing it via regenerative braking on the downhill run. They claim it can supply up to 50 Mw of power for 15 minutes at a time. https://aresnorthamerica.com/las-vegas-business-press-deal-watch-ares-nevada-builds-energy-storage-facility-in-pahrump/

Explain it to who?

It's not just here. Such (deliberate?) confusion is rampant in the renewable power market. As but one example, we RVers know the difference between a generator that can produce 1800 watts continuously compared to a 1800 watt battery-inverter setup that only lasts as long as it's battery. Most people don't. Take this "solar powered generator" for example. It's typical of many such battery-inverter setups being touted as replacements for traditional fuel powered portable generators It's rated at 1800 watts continuous power so at first glance it's an attractive alternative to a 1800 watt gasoline generator, right? But unlike a real portable generator that can run 6-8 hours before needing to refuel (10,800 to 14,400 watt-hours) this "solar generator" only has 768 watt-hours of storage. This fact is buried way down deep on the web page. That's less than 30 minutes at it's rated output. But wait, it comes with a solar panel to recharge the battery ... a single 100 watt panel. So increase that runtime by 6% under full sunlight. https://4patriots.com/products/patriot-power-generator-1800

They're rated in watt-hours because amp-hours are meaningless without also knowing the battery voltage. Amps x Volts = Watts 1000 watt-hours divided by 12 volts = 83 amp-hours. The same as an 100 amp-hour lithium battery discharged to the 20% level. Or a bit less than a pair of GC2 6 volt lead acid batteries discharged to the recommended 50% maximum.

The requirement is for a 60 amp breaker on the output side, not the input, to handle the 12,000 watt one minute surge the inverter can deliver. If you go to a 60 amp breaker on the supply side you'll also have to replace the standard 50 amp plug with something larger.

What's missing from the market rate electricity scheme is real time notification to customers of the going rate and the option to refuse making that purchase even if it means temporarily disconnecting from the grid. This would accomplish the goal of lessening the load during times of extreme demand and could be accomplished via networked smart meters programmed with a "do not exceed" price. Of course, this assumes the business or individual has backup plans for when grid access is interrupted. There's nothing inherently wrong with market rate energy purchases, as long as you know what you're paying in advance. We do this every time we put gas in our car's tank. Not knowing the price until after the purchase is completed is the crazy part.

Fry's Electronics has been on life support for several years. There were several reports of the brothers draining capital from the company and at least one multi-million dollar embezzlement case. A few years back (well before Covid) Fry's told their suppliers they were going to a consignment business plan, where instead of paying up front for merchandise they would only pay when the products actually sold. Many suppliers refused to go along and simply stopped shipping product, thus the empty shelves as existing stock drew down. For those looking forward to a going out of business sale, forget about it. Fry's is simply packing up the merchandise they haven't yet paid for and is sending it back to the suppliers.

Sorry for the acronym confusion. BTW (By The Way) Escapees just revised their Facebook posting saying the office and mailroom will be closed on Thursday, too. Originally they were hoping to be back by then.

OIC, SBT! 😀

Escapees posted on Facebook Tuesday the offices and mail forwarding are closed TFN so their employees don't have to risk driving into work during the record setting severe weather hammering the area.

I guess it's a good thing we haven't elimated all those CO2 greenhouse gasses keeping the planet warm.

The Escapade Extras signup and ticket sale notification is also on the current Escapade page ... just scroll down below the video. https://escapade.escapees.com/

Right, and power them with huge on-site diesel generators when the grid can't keep up with demand, as happened during holiday weekends in 2018, 2019 and now 2020 when the electric infrastructure in San Luis Obispo couldn't charge all the Teslas going between Los Angeles and San Francisco. By Thanksgiving 2019 Tesla put a mega battery on a semi-trailer instead of hauling a diesel generator there to meet the demand. Green Power! Except they had to use a diesel powered truck to haul the battery back and forth to Fremont every night to recharge it. Again, not enough grid capacity to recharge it overnight on-site or to supply enough grid-connected charging stations to meet the demand. SLO's problem isn't as simple as building another substation to feed the Superchargers, it's not having the transmission line capacity to bring in enough power to handle the Tesla demand. This will be replicated nationwide if electric vehicles are widely adopted. Here's a look at the immense backup waiting to charge at the Madonna Inn over the 2020 New Year's weekend, even with the additional mega battery charging stations. Makes the gas lines during the 1979 oil crisis and in the days immediately after "Superstorm" Sandy look tame by comparison. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmnDU2CJCwM

Neutral and ground are only connected together at one point. You can ground the meter if neutral is kept seperate there, then take hot and neutral to the house panel and bond them there, with ground provided by a grounding rod. Other panels downstream from the main panel (like a RV panel) are subpanels, with neutral and ground kept seperate. They can also have hot and neutral taken there with individual ground rods. The idea is to have all of the current return via the neutral wire, which will happen as long as only one point has neutral and ground bonded together. Bond neutral and ground in two places and part of the current will return through the ground.

Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda agrees with Elon Musk that we don't have enough electricity to power a wholesale conversion to electric vehicles: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2020/12/21/toyota-ceo-agrees-with-elon-musk-we-dont-have-enough-electricity-to-electrify-all-the-cars-n1222999 "... the CEO's disdain for EVs boils down to his belief they'll ruin businesses, require massive investments, and even emit more carbon dioxide than combustion-engined vehicles. "The current business model of the car industry is going to collapse," he said. "The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets… When politicians are out there saying, 'Let's get rid of all cars using gasoline,' do they understand this?"

I have no problem with change, new solutions, etc. What I do worry about is committing to change without considering the full costs of new paradigm. Changing from horse drawn transportation to automobiles put a few buggy whip manufacturers out of business. Doubling the size and cost of our electrical infrastructure to do away with petroleum based transportation is whole different proposition with impacts that have been largely ignored so far.

How do you reconcile this with having to double our existing electrical generation and distribution capacity to support converting to electric transportation? Transportation currently uses 27% of our total energy supply, electricity provides 22% of our energy. Converting transportation from oil to electricity means doubling the size of our electrical generation and distrubution infrastructure, in effect making the investment we made over the past 100+ years again in the next 15-20 years as petroleum fueled vehicles are phased out. I've not heard much discussion about this in all of the electric car hoopla. Solar and wind power may be part of the solution, but most electric car charging will take place at night while the car is sitting idle and wind and solar energy is largely non-existant, so you're just switching the point of consumption from individual cars to central power plants. Hydro generation is currently maxed out, so these new power plants will have to be coal or petroleum fueled unless we get a breakthrough in fusion power along with public acceptance of this new centralized energy. Lighting a miniature sun in every power plant? And you thought harnessing atomic bomb power was dangerous.

I don't have an ERPU lot, but I wanted to point out with 5 year renewable leases you should expect to see a surge in availabilities every 5 years as people decide not to renew because their circumstances have changed. Livingston was the first ERPU park and the others followed later, so their 5 year cycles are different. I have a lot in the Pahrump, NV Escapes co-op, and many of the ERPU benefits also apply to buying a membership in one of the co-ops. You get exclusive use of a space which can be your domicile, at Pair-A-Dice each site has a 10'x14' fully framed outbuilding with electricity and a 10'x10' partially enclosed covered patio extending out from the shed entrance. Most also have an external cement patio along the side of the RV. You buy into the co-op ($10k for Pair-A-Dice) plus pay the depreciated cost of any improvements made by previous owners. Many have finished off the interior of their building with drywall, insulation and a small air conditioner, turning it into a bonus room that stays comfortable during hot weather. When you leave this amount ($10k membership plus further depreciated improvements) is returned when a new member buys in, which is immediate as long as there's a waiting list, so your only expenses are the park maintenance fees (currently $1200/year or $300 a quarter including water, sewer, trash and taxes) and the electricity you use.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the feeding freenzy stops and the day traders who drove up the price so dramatically are left holding the bag as the price reverts to normal levels. Expect to hear lots of wailing when this happens.

Sure it will ... for about 30 minutes per MX Fuel battery pack. 72 volts x 6 amp-hours = 432 watt-hours. Since it uses two MX Fuel batteries, it has a total of 864 watt-hours of energy storage. That's 1500 watts for a half hour (coffee maker or microwave) or 864 watts for an hour (window shaker A/C). To put t another way, each MX Fuel batery pack contains about the same amount of energy as a cup or two of gasoline feeding a 2000 watt quiet inverter generator. You can't change physics. This thing may make sense instead of having a generator drone on all day long to poweri a single construction tool that's used for a minute or two at a time, then sits idle while the worker does something else. But not for long term loads like a microwave, coffee maker or air conditiioning. If anyone else is interested, here's what we're talking about: https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Equipment/Power-Supply/MXF002-2XC