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Old 12-29-12, 12:34 PM   #201
Vern2
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There's been a lot of people finding out about arizona. About the worst thing we get is frost, like this morning. Looks like I'll be getting close to 50 kWh again today. Don't tell anyone, I don't own a long sleeve shirt or sweeter. 61 degrees today, clear sky's, full sun. Phoenix is at 1,200 feet and 33 degree Lat, half mile from home a woolly mammoth was found. I get free water (irrigation - cement ditch), 50 square inch head for 7 1/2 hours. Fills 2 1/2 acres with about 4 inches of water once every two weeks in summer, once a month in winter, might be more rain then you get. I mix 5 ton of compost a year with laser leved 1 3/4 acre of grass and horse manure. Not a problem selling or giving away, soil is poor here, gardens are in demand. I've got about 4 ton mixed now, 500 lbs is compost now in a month I'll have another 500 lbs done. Then in march the 4 ton will be done. It takes a tractor, got a small 2004 New Holland hydrostat 4x4 front loader lift 1000 lbs.

Vern

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Old 12-29-12, 12:54 PM   #202
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Sounds great! I hope you don't pick up a giant population boost out there,
that tends to overload the water supply and dry things up.

It's hard to get by without a good water supply. I remember the long dry spell
we had down in Texas when I was a boy. We had a dry well, no rain and miles of dying corn fields.

Drought in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From 1950 to 1957, Texas experienced the most severe drought in recorded history. By the time the drought ended, 244 of Texas’ 254 counties had been declared federal disaster areas.[23]

I was born in Jan 1946, so I really didn't understand what was going on when the rains came back in my teenage years.
Almost got killed by flash floods a couple of times!
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Old 12-29-12, 06:17 PM   #203
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Xringer,

Double post some how.
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Old 12-29-12, 06:23 PM   #204
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Xringer,

0) We don't allow this info outside of Arizona.

1) Hugh lake under Phoenix.

2) We build dams, can see man made lakes from space.

3) Ever hear of Arizona canal, all the way from Colorado River, Will it's here, goes all the way to Tucson.

4) Heard of Lake Powell, 11 cent a kWh comes from there.

Notes:
1) 27 percent of Arizona is privately owned. We have a little room to store water.
2) When you fly over Arizona wonder why you only see LOTS OF DIRT. See my point zero.
3) We have more boats per capita then any other state, look it up.
4) Got Nuclear power plant.
5) Can fry eggs on sidewalk. See note 4.
6) Leave foot prints in street in summer.

Toe in cheek
Fingers not crossed
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Old 01-02-13, 08:53 AM   #205
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I have the GE Geospring hybrid heat pump heater. It has settings for
- heatpump only
- resistance heat only
- both for high demand
- hybrid mode with intelligent selection (whatever that means)

I keep it on heat pump only, and haven't had any trouble for 5 months. It's in a cooler room of the house, so down to 50F these winter nights. I still have hot water to shower first thing in the morning.

I can't report power usage, because it's 220V and I don't have a meter to read that.
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Old 01-04-13, 10:20 PM   #206
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Ringer-

I'm torn on what to do here. I have natural gas available, but have been using electric for the past couple years (stupid, i know, but it was cheap and i was dumb). I'm either moving back to NG (not powervent) or possibly heat pump, but am scared that DecJanFebMar it will be useless *unheated basement* in this z4 climate (we average 26 nights below 0F). Obviously May/June/July/Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov it would probably make "free" hot water (heat pump only). I've seen NG tanks for as low as $315 (new) at Menards... vs over $1k for the heat pump tank (not building one...no time/3 kids/etc).

You say your basement is 50F and its still heat pump only? How cold will it need to get before it doesn't work? Is your basement insulated from the 1st floor?

I do like the thought of "free" basement AC in the summer.

My unheated basement (non insulated floor/basement) is already down to 54F (1st floor set at 66F).

I'll probably go NG for now and hope to move to some sort of solar hot water/heat pump down the road...
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Old 01-04-13, 11:13 PM   #207
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If the nat gas is cheap, that would be my choice. And, it's great for cooking!

My advice is to monitor your basement temperatures this month.
If it stays below 45F for long periods, maybe you should go with gas.

It was cold in the basement last night, but tonight isn't so bad.

That's the walls beside the A7. The floor (slab) is about 45F right now.
Haven't heard it running lately, because we haven't been using much hot water today. Light dish-washing mostly.

So far, the A7 is working okay. But, I have not had the power monitor on it lately.
So, I'm not sure how much extra it's using to during this cold period.
Maybe I'll set that up this weekend. Should have done a few days ago..
The forecast is for warmer weather in the coming weeks.

The side of the basement where the A7 is installed has no insulation in the overhead.
It makes up about 40% of the basements floor space. 60% is a finished rec room.

It's 29.1°F outside right now, but 24 hours ago, it was pretty chilly!


Check out my post about the Sanyos in cold weather.. They worked great!
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/billia...html#post26970
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Old 01-29-13, 12:10 PM   #208
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Default It's 44F in the basement!

Here's 28 days of outdoor temperatures.


And it's been 44F in the basement for weeks. The A7 has been working okay,
but that corner of the room feels very cold while the A7 is running.
It's uncomfortable in that area, because of the cold air circulating around.
It 'feels' like 30F over there.. Windchill effects..?.

So, since I sometimes want to work in my shop, I decided to sacrifice a few kWh for comfort,
I set up a 1kW (3400 BTUh) space heater to blow warm air near the A7's air intake.

I used the heaters thermostat and it kinda worked. But would not turn off reliably.
So, I used the A7's 120Vac accessory output to switch on an SSR that's
connected to apply power to space heater.
Right now, the space heater stays on while the A7 is running.

The area is a little more comfortable now.
Last night I serviced the backup battery bank and didn't need a jacket..

I've been trying to track the run-time hours, but it varies widely because of the irregular run times.
Some days, we use a LOT of hot water, making the A7 run 3 to 4 hours.
On other days the run times are 1 to 2 hours..

It's kinda funny being able to hold my hand a foot from the heater and not feel any heat..

~~~
Last week, I added some insulation to the 3 windows on that side of the basement.
Not sure if it's any help, since the upper areas of the concrete walls are ~36F.
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Old 02-04-13, 01:33 PM   #209
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Default Solar assist for the A7

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...arrayhoist.jpg

I disconnected the 800w array from the old oil burner boiler,
and hooked it up to the GE water heater 230 input.

It's been cloudy, but I did see some peaks up to 750 watts! (2559 BTU)
Mostly, when the sun was out, it was weak. 400 to 500 watt range.
Right now it's putting in about 15 watts!

But, when the sun was out earlier, it worked pretty well.
10:25AM 39.6C (103.28F)
11:10AM 47C (116.6F)
That's a 13.22 F gain in less than an hour. Not too shabby..
We've been using a little hot water this afternoon, and the temperature
at the test point has been staying between 47C & 50C.

I wanted to try this experiment, because of the low heat loss of this GE tank.
So, even without pre-heating, I might be able to cut the amount of A7 run time.

I'm also thinking that I should buy one of those Blankets for the tank.
The metal skin of the GE tank is slightly warmer than my drill press.

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Old 02-05-13, 07:36 AM   #210
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Xringer,

Here is Burt and his daughter setting next to his array. The price of solar panels are way down. With this you could meet all your needs. I'm posting this because he lives in New Jersey. Lots of clouds and cold weather where he lives. We have the same monitoring system. We went with the same company, SunPower. It's a 10k system. You must click on month and year links for more data. No his system can not change tilt, Burt's getting 13,000 kwH's a year.


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