Project Gallery

World's Cheapest Battery Back UPS. We backfed the 1 ton Pioneer 9A (max) 120Vac mini split for a couple days from a 64 KWH battery pack Chevy Bolt via a 1000W $160 Harbor Freight 12V to 120V inverter with a 100A West Marine Circuit breaker clamped to the 12V battery with the car on in "camp mode". See chevy bolt forum on how to put EV in camp mode. We also had a great winter party after the testing phase. Cleared snow off solar panels with push broom.

Solar RV and EV Charging EVSE Stations Types Meeting Mike brought his well done Solar RV with two 380W roof panels, Renogy inverter, solar charge controller and Renogy LiFePO4 batteries with bluetooth to smartphone data collection to my house for an October REEVA Meeting & show & tell. We went through my Bergey Wind 24V charging, 12KW solar array & ZomeWorks Trackers. In September we looked at various EVSE charging stations. openEVSE.com had a good KWH and amperage display. Portable is best with 14-50 plug-socket on a 50A breaker #6 wire. The neutral isn't needed on vehicles, just ground and both 240VAC hots but hookup incase outlet is used for something else. The cheapest EVSE (charge controllers) come with 14-50 plugs and can then be taken on trips since portable. Also we had a Frisbee Golf meet for a team building exercise and talk about future projects & club direction since more solar contractors are coming into play, less work for our club so more EV focus/meetings.

Cap did a great job on the first Enphase "AC Battery" system with two 10KWH battery packs ($20K) and a smart transfer switch ($3K) added onto his 10KW solar system. Rick & I went to Richmond to a Enphase battery back-up class to learn how to install and Cap did one online. It was fairly large in his basement and he recommended for folks to use cardboard cutouts when planing such a large/heavy system to hang on your wall inside. Inside was best for the equipment due to temperature stability and limitations of battery efficiency when too hot/cold. Almost all our systems are grid tie (no battery) since that's the most cost effective and simplest/cheapest (use the power company as a 100% efficient battery). The back up system is about 80% efficient (in/out) but if you have frequent power failures is desirable. Then in December we installed Melissa's 9KWDC solar system 20 panel array (also ground mount). Since the weather was warm, we got finished in a couple weeks.

Installed Susan's array in Floyd during the summer. The project went well on the ground mount 5.6KWAC array 6.5KWDC using Enphase IQ7A microinverters modulating 144KHZ power line frequency into the IQ "Gateway" (formerly Envoy) data collection WiFi translator box. We found some cheaper panels at Advanced Racking-Solar in Botetourt county startup, 405 W x 16 by JA Solar

We had a great time at EarthDay in April meeting new folks and signing up some new members. We spent the day talking about Renewable Energy and EVs. We also helped with the ongoing Apex Clean Energy proposed 12 GE wind turbines at periodic public hearings and writing the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors to promote windpower. At EarthDay the kids really liked the solar powered water fountain, could cover one photocell and watch the water fountain drop accordingly. I did a couple solar site surveys with schematics turned into AEP in March that will hopefully result in a solar project. I also fixed a HomePower solar system that they left unrepaired, then changed name to Pink Energy to cover the poor reviews.

We had a great time at the annual (vaccinated) Christmas party at our solar home with 10KWAC PV, Jimmy Carter's passive solar home plans house. We had the usual fireworks, dancing, solar hot tub and Tesla Coil, 5 foot lightning bolts to music, food/drinks provided. Also in December there was Jim Bier's Celebration of Life at Ferrum College where he taught Chemistry for many years. Jim was very helpful with REEVA projects since 09 and is missed by all. There were some solar site surveys I did in Nov-Dec but the usual 3:1 ratio, most don't result in a club project. Solar contractors, typically 20:1 ratio in US. We mostly worked on indoor projects, insulating our homes, doing blower door tests and radon testing and carbon dioxide measurements for tight solar homes with resulting projects in January.

We had a great time at Nick & Tracy's installing a 9.7KWDC, 8KWAC array using Seraphim 425W SEG-425-BMA-HV 23 panels with 23 IQ7A inverters by Enphase. This was a shallow metal roof installation, so on the 2-12 section we put 15" tilt up Iron Ridge racks, and on the steeper 6-12 portion flush mounted. The usual breaker combiner was mounted outside next to the solar disconnect and then into a bottom main panel mounted 40A breaker. Solar production daily average is about 4.5 x 8 = 36KWH or 1080 per month or 12.96 MWH per year.

I guess hindsight is 2020 :-), We worked on Tony's 156 solar panel (75W recycled Siemens Panels) with 6 per Enphase IQ7A 349W inverters (9.1KW AC). Tony and I had to go under a road with the UF 6-3 wire, so after checking YouTube, found a method to put a 3/4" metal pipe with a nozzle on one end and a galvanized elbow on the other end to a garden hose to pound on it with a sledgehammer. About 4 hours is what it took to get through to the other side 12' underneath. His dad is welding a custom rack to save money instead of the usual IronRidge. The array is about 35% larger in size since the wattage per square foot 15 years ago was less, 17' x 65' instead of 13' x 53' nowadays.

We had a great time working on Justin's 33 solar panel (375W Seraphim) array in Floyd. It was also on a shallow pitch roof 2-3/12 pitch like Steve's just completed. 12.37 KW DC, 9.6KWAC (Enphase microinverters IQ-7+ 290W each. Since the distance was further than 150' we couldn't use the typical 6-2 UF copper but had to go to 2-2-6-4 aluminum "mobile home" wire torque speced with Noalox connections. Since his breaker box was outhouse we put the Envoy data collection box outhouse also in a 12" square grey PVC NEMA enclosure.

After 5 solar site surveys during the summer, Eric's solar array panned out for a club project in November. We installed 16 Seraphim 275W panels with Enphase IQ7+ microinverters with #6 UF 6/2 and #6 bare GEC in 250' trench to house. This is one of the furthest array's we've done so to stay within the required 2% Vdrop at 19A we had to upsize from #16 to #6 for .19% Vdrop round trip.

We had a great time at the Floyd Renewable Energy Festival EVent talking to EVeryone about EVs, solar & wind. Also had a Renewable Energy Summer Solstice party EVent.

We had a great time at Earthday April 20th at Grandin Village talking to lots of folks. Mark-VP had his Tesla-3 that was a big draw in addition to my Spark EV. We also updated Tom's solar panels with hex 1/4-20 1" long panel mounting bolts to replace the T-bolts that caused some panels to fly off in high >60mph winds. The hex bolts solved the problem.

We're installing a 9.5KW-AC, 11.5KW-DC 32ea SolarWorld SW-350 watt panels with 32ea Enphase 290W IQ-7 inverters on a ground mount array for our December project. In November I visited our webmaster Chip who upgraded the Porsche 914 EV,( added solar panels) I had that was sold to Charlie in Wash DC.

Ted's 8.1KW solar project with 3x9 300W SolarWorld SW300 panels was the project for July (AC watts per power company, Enphase IQ6+ 280W inverters X 27 = 7560Watts). Ac watts are the actual 10KW limitation, so you can go up to about 12KW DC as long as the AC inverter wattage doesn't exceed 10KW (otherwise you get monthly clean energy fee from AEP or Dominion utility of about $50 per month.) The actual state residential limit is 20KW, see dsireusa.org. July 14 was the Renewable Energy Fair in Floyd, VA at Chantilly-Farm (not actual farm). The displays and presentations were great, info on solar/wind systems.

Help With Rodney's 1998 4KW solar array, replacing batteries with L-16 US Battery and wiring in DPDT Transfer switch. Develop a 10KW solar array design for Rodney. Also Set up for Earthday April 21st with REEVA info and sign up new folks at our table . Do solar site survey fo a new house with Habitat for Humanity to put solar either on roof-2.5KW or 4KW ground mount option.

Habitat Solar & Christmas Party: We completed the 6KW (20ea Solar World SW300) Habitat Home solar array with 5KW 20ea M250 Enphase microinverters with Home dedication on December 16th. With costs now down to $1.50 per watt hopefully we can do more solar homes like Jimmy Carter invisioned and states like Colorado and California do (typically 2KW or 8 panels per home $3K). We also had a great time at the annual Dec 9th Christmas Party, checked out the solar powered weather station for the town of Fincastle, ZomeWorks sun tracker crank adjustments on three trackers using trailer crank from Harbor Frieght & had fun dancing, virtual reality Space Station walk and fireworks.

The REEVA party July 1st was great. We discussed project attendance, insurance etc and decided to have folks help with at least 3 projects prior to us working on their solar installation.

Earthday April 22 was a lot of fun talking with everyone about renewable energy and solar installations throughout the year. The Renewable Energy Climate March in DC April 29th was great running up on two Sierra Club busses & with the Unitarians. A beautiful 91F degree April day in DC perfect for Global Warming demonstrations. My blinky sign was "National Renewable Energy Standard Now!" Runner up was "Don't Trump on My Planet"

Roger Beale, an engineer and best blade designer I've seen gave a class for REEVA and KidWind on making a NACA tapered-twisted standard air foil blade like the one's used on large wind turbines. We also had a great time at the Christmas party (Mark Hanson's place with free EV charging from the sun)

John & Sue's 8.4KW Solar Project Had a great time building & installing their solar panels.

the final update in two subfolders is from Franz Josef showing the 2010 glacier photo installed (with melting from 1930 - 2010 with projection melt to 2100 but the photo I took from the same vantage point now shows the melting has surpassed the 2100 projection due to exponential non-linear melting. If you want to see this glacier better check it out in the next couple years. Note the year 1954 in photo 1116 and then in photo 1130 the 2010 photo (when the forest service made the plaque) and the projected melt in 2100. Now look at the photo I took #1140 from the same vantage point which shows a further melt than the 2100 forecast! Photo 1135 I climbed a couple miles closer. All photos are in the link below to download what you like. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v659dg27occu40l/AABTqXUvKV2RuME0T6ngW8aNa?dl=0 It was fun hiking 4 miles out of town and then several miles to the left glacier fork & back and then 3.5 miles up to the second fork & back and then 4 miles back to town for a full day of hiking after the helicopter cancelled due to mountain top clouds occurs 53% of the time due to 200 cloudy/rainy days. I visited the wildlife & Kiwi wingless bird reproduction sanctuary. I then went to Greymouth to ride the Kiwi train to ChristChurch over the western wetland (from the prevailing westerly's - rain shadow) through the continental divide The renewable energy contrast between New Zealand and Australia is that in New Zealand the government provides RE (per utility control with dual metering) whereas in Australia the homeowner is encouraged to provide RE - but under utility pressure has dropped most solar grid tie incentives after 25% solar PV. In NZ the government has set a goal to provide 100% in 10 years, currently they're about 80% with hydro most at 67% , geyser geothermal in Rotorua 13% and wind 4%. To get to 100% it will be some more thermal bores drilled to access steam and more wind turbines on the mountain tops. There are some homes in the North Island with solar but due to the cloudier climate (especially south island and west coast and peaky mountains) solar is not as prevalent as Australia with 25% residential. The glow-worm caves in Waitomo going to Auckland where amazing, with a tour of the white limestone caves prior to riding a boat through the cave to see the speckled glow-worms unique to New Zealand. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v659dg27occu40l/AABTqXUvKV2RuME0T6ngW8aNa?dl=0

Work continues on the Apple Ridge Farm Solar train project. We hooked up all the 24 L16 6V 370ah 24 batteries in 6S-3P Configuration for 48V at 53.3KWH for 3 days autonomy. James and Dang were very helpful as I connected the cables. There were several EV's at our annual Christmas party, Mitsubishi iMEV, Leaf & my Elec Kar (Karmann Ghia EV), then reviewed the SMART Electric Drive at 380V battery pack Manganese Cobalt Lithium now more preferred than the LiFePO4 I have in my EV. The solar pond had solar goldfish babies doubling the population. The solar with the rainwater feed from the roof is apparently amenable to producing more fish. I completed several solar site surveys but no projects yet, the national average is 1 per 20 surveys although the REEVA club averages 1 per 10.

Pikes Peak EV Race, Renewable Energy in West-VA, Colorado and Machu-Picchu. Also visited NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) where we installed the 1st Cray-3 in 91 for global warming/climate change studies.

Chris gave a great demonstration of how to fix individual cells in a Prius for $25 instead of $6k from the wheeler dealer (no schematics in the shop manuals anymore). This was a *very* useful meeting and we learned quite a bit on the Prius and reading/resetting codes on the OBD-2 port.

We helped Todd with his solar thermal project for his saltwater pool using two flat-plate collectors in a heat exchanger configuration. We helped build the wood racks for the two-panel copper flat plate collectors. For February we'll work on Walt's EV, an electric Mercedes that needs new battery balancers installed etc.

Todd's second 3.3kw rack was completed for a total of 6.6kw and then work is continuing on his salt water solar pool with two thermal solar panels also ground mount. Folks are also involved in the Solar Home Tours presenting their homes to the community.

We had a great time Saturday May 3rd tightening the Bergey XL-1 guy wires with the Chicago Grip attached to a come-a-long and using the Loos Gauge for the 50lb pull 1' deflection. . The standard procedure is to go in one direction, say CW and do all the lower wires, then mid and then upper (per retired wind guru Dale Delassandro). I found if you pre-check with a level vertically on the pole on the axis in question (see photos) then you can adjust mainly on one side of that axis, tightening and straightening the pole at the same time. After Steve & I did one axis we moved to the other which was already vertical so we had to adjust both sides. If I was to do it over again I’d pour a concrete pad first (Bergey said isn’t necessary) so the metal pad doesn’t keep settling into the ground and require annual guy wire tightening. I also noted with Bergey that they weren’t that interested in the lightning rod (2’ aluminum stick) I added to the top but I’ve seen a couple lightning strikes hit mine and safely divert around the alternator windings (nacelle) to the NEG grounding (2 rods at base). I also added one to Billy’s a couple years ago since his fried in lightening. The other improvement to the Bergey (we did last year) was to move the boost converter power components (choke, cap & power-diode) to just outside the control box in the basement. In order to save $100 they use the inductance in the windings of the magnet alternator for the boost converter at 1500 hertz (right in the middle of your hearing). The result of course is a perfect loudspeaker on top of the 60’ pole screeching “eeeee” and making unhappy neighbors as the turbine spins up. At full PWM of course the boost converter carrier frequency goes away but they (+12mph) the blade tip noise is pronounced since Bergey refused to make standard NACA airfoil tapered blades (that are wide at the base & narrow at the tip) again to save a few $$.

Jan 4th: Mark, Mike, Rick & Billy helped with Rick’s direction installing brackets on the top of the solar generator trailer for mounting the panels (see attached). At lunch we talked about the solar site survey apps for the I-pod/I-pad/I-phone from the Home Power article HP136 pg 70-75 for solar installers. Now there’s more on the I-phone store. We looked at the NEC codebook for wind/solar/EV’s and tabs that are useful in finding all the information, about $14 on Amazon. Feb 1st we did a blower door test (actually sucker door) and IR viewing of all air leaks with recommended improvements (caulk all window-door leaks, ceiling down-lights, foam wall concrete walled basement-joist band & http://www.atticfoil.com attic floor.)

For the September meeting we did a solar site survey for member Jim Bier at his place based on what I (Mark Hanson) learned from the new NABCEP solar class and PV-UL with OSHA-30 training for solar installers. The equipment was spec'd and purchased from altestore.com to be installed for the October project. The Sedalia RE Fair went great with Mark Howard (PV contractor) and Roger Beale (wind enthusiast/engineer). The Mother Earth News Festival was fun and Ed Begley Jr. gave a great talk on incremental renewable energy (helping folk's save money while saving the planet)

In May we had a regional meeting at the solar home of Joy Loving in Harrisonburg - talking with other groups in Virginia on growing solar clubs and promoting solar/wind through projects & legislation. I also met with Tony Corraza on a hydro site survey at his solar home. The 2 story Mother Earth News composting toilets were the latest in toilet technology & didn't smell. Kid Wind in Harrisonburg was great too and REEVA (me) set up a demo with my EV and REEVA info. The project I'm working on for June is a converted electric wheel barrow (adding electric drive) to haul firewood from the bottom of the mountain, runs on 24V - same packs as my electric lawnmower. I used a McMaster 6280K632 5/8" bore 9 tooth sprocket for #40 chain on the motor (Surplus Center 160rpm gear-motor right hand). The chain was #40 1/2" pitch 6261K173 and used a 80 tooth sprocket on the 15" wheel. Then a brush rigging modification was completed, I did on my EV to eliminate dissimilar brush wear. (brush rigging must of equal milli-ohms feeding each brush to armature.) Drill-tap 10-32 (1/4-20 better) centered holes for the ARM cross bar. Then for the other two quadrants use a 1/2" OD smashed flat copper water pipe that reads .1 milli-ohm in parallel with the .2 milli-ohm bar. Also the Mersen C-2482 brushes using graphite grade CB821 (48V rated 80A^2" .65m-ohm) were replaced for better wear with A121 carbon based C-4282X (100V rated 90A^2" .89m-ohm) June 1st meeting in Grandin Village - we set up a solar waterpump and are working on a waterwheel display/pond solar landscaping animated feature along Grandin Road.

Roger Beale had an excellent homebuilt wind turbine 3kw with 3kw of PV solar added for a battery based, grid tie hybrid system. He wound his own 3 phase coils, made his own blades and welded together a 100' tilt down tower! Last photo #40 is Mark Howard in front of his PV array at http://www.powermarkelectrical.com For Feb 2nd project we met at Mark Howard's house to take apart a chinese made wind turbine generator that failed & did a face-plant during the June 2012 deracho storm. The generator was a fairly standard wild-ac 3-phase wound stator with neodenium magnets epoxied to the rotor. There was 3 brushes on the pole mount to transfer the power down the pole that had rusted to to a poor seal on top. Due to the non-serviceability of the welded case it could be used bypassing the slip ring with an easterly rotor stop & cable twist. Mark also showed his Xantrex solar hybrid with battery back-up and pv panel array. On Feb 17th REEVA went to Wash DC for the Renewable Energy Rally, see photos

Finishing up Mike & Monica Burgoon's 16 205W panels for Enphase inverters and half for Xantrex Battery backed up system. Note the 3 nice peak anchor holders Mike made in his shop for roof harnesses. In October We set up a demo at the Sedalia Center with the EV http://www.evalbum.com/4346 and solar/wind info with REEVA. The theme was to start your own DIY club (for cities outside of Roanoke).

The May 5th project we aligned/tightenned my Bergey XL-1 guy wires with the Chicago Grip, Com-a-long and Loose Guage to get them all even and equal 50lb tension/deflection. Then we rode around in the electric Karmann Ghia wringing out any bugs. Also a visit to the Salem power plant was interesting as they've included solar grid tie for their municiple customers. The June 2nd project was a blast with great friends & food at Mike & Monica Burgoon's place putting together the solar racks for his grid tie and battery backed up dual solar system with 28 205W Evergreen panels for about 80c per watt. prices on solar have really dropped so we're seeing more activity. After Mike's place I went to the annual C&B co-op power company meeting to help edvertise their wind REC's now available on your power bill and demonstrate the electric car and lawmower. They had a cool HV operating set-up of the pole transformers, fusing and connections to a house. It was good to see the "Kilowatt Ours" movie on nasty coal and then see how power is transfered realizing that it can all be renewable energy, not dirty coal.

We finished installing the SPP-30 from http://www.solarpanelsplus.com

We went to Jason's place to see StructuresDB PassivHaus and to install a SPP30A evacuated tube thermal solar system. StructuresDB did an excellent job on this German PassivHaus design encapsulating the house in a 6" closed cell styrafoam in addition to the standard 2x6 construction making the walls about 12" thick with R-30 values. the Ireland imported triple pane doors/windows were about 2" thick. To meet PassivHaus standards of .6 Air Changes Hour (ACV at 50 pascals of pressure we observed a blower door test with measuring equipment (actually a sucker door test). To achieve this level of tightness special seam sealing tape from Germany was used on exterior OSB and around windows/doors. The basement cement slab was also on closed cell foam about 5" thick. A Heat Recovery Ventalation (HCV) unit is used to ventalate the house through "GeoThermal" water lines to pre-heat the incomming air above freezing and for summer intake at 50F. It was great weather with friends and a cool project.

We toured the http://www.solartour.org in the Wash DC area on Saturday and the http://www.solardecathlon.gov on Sunday. We saw many new cool designs for new solar development and LEED architecture.

The beautiful 10kw Bergey went up with installers and some from our club bolting tower bolts, attaching an anemometer etc. This was a *cool* project. Doug & mary have 12mph annual average wind speed on top of the mountain so it was a great wind site. About 1% of residents actually live on top of mountains in a good wind site >12mph though. Giving lat & Long coordinates to http://www.dsireusa.org (click on state) will get back local AWEA wind data from the Renewable Energy coordinator. With a 33% typical duty factor the 10kw machine should meet all their grid tie energy needs to be net zero (about 1200kwh per month average) carried forward up to 12 months.

The Great EV Race 2011 is held annually in Hagerstown, Md the first week of June, this year June 11,12th 2011, Autocross Saturday & Dragrace Sunday, see http://www.powerofdc.com for who won, times & info. Check out the E-Delorean from "Back to the Future", Flux Capacitor, the new Leaf, Volt and Teslas. The Teslas won in the drags & autocross although I got a hybrid award for REEVA. Everyone had a great time.

May 7th 2011 was the electric E-Cat http://www.evalbum.com/2749 Smith Mountain lake cleanup with the solar charged E-Boat. Lots of trash & lots of fun on the electric cat with canoe trash shuttle service. Mark hanson, Mark Howard, Brad Bowles & Bruce Knappe were along. We found a couple messages in bottles and other odd things.

Rob Leonards http://www.solarpanelsplus.com see for thermal solar schematic of the SPP-30A panel installation. It's a closed loop system using a http://www.dudadiesel.com weird name heat exchanger, amazing small thing you can hold in your hand, 40k BTU/hr transfer. The project is finishing over several week-ends due to the snow. We finished up at the Feb 5th project meeting. A fun project.

I tought a night time 2010-2011 Wind Energy class normally on Wednesday evenings 5:30-8:30pm as part of the http://www.dslcc.edu Dabney-Lancaster CC in Clifton Forge, VA wind program to bring Wind Jobs to Virginia and West Virginia. Green Jobs update on http://www.nawindpower.com

Originally built in 92' as Jimmy Carter's Solar Home Plans House, added onto in 2000' and PV in 09, with additional thermal SPP-30's 4ea from http://www.solarpanelsplus.com in April 2010. The PV has 42 Enphase inverters, one for each panel & monitored for SREC's at http://www.srectrade.com. The panels are 1/3rd each of Evergreen, BP-Solar (Solarex) and World Solar, 7kw dc nameplate, 6kw AC-side. BP-3165 x 14 = 2310w + SW155 x 15 = 2325W + ES-180 x 13 = 2340W or 6975W total and adding another 13 BP3225T additional 2925 for 9900W DC nameplate total (8.4kw actual on the AC side) The SREC's reduce payback to 5 years, see http://www.srectrade.com (80% wattage warranty is 25 years) Circuits on http://www.evdl.org/lib/mh/

Solar Electric Cat see http://www.evalbum.com/2749 Has 10kwh worth of Thundersky batteries (32ea 100ah in buddy pairs) 16 x 3.2V = 51.2V nominal. Charges overnight from my grid-tie solar system. Goes 15 miles on the lake on a charge. The reeva club tried a inboard drive to compare to the existing 48V outboard (4hp Briggs-Etek-R) and the efficiency was the same. Pontoon efficiency measured 28% less so the pionty cat type hulls are the best. Now trying a 16" x 16" pitch prop on a 9.9hp converter Johnson with a 2k rpm Etek-RT 1:2.44 ratio outdrive = 820 rpm's

Hagerstown, Md June 5th & 6th 2010 More fun than anyone should have in one week-end. Got 2nd place in saturday's hybrid autocross & got to drag race on Sunday with no gassers on the race track. See http://www.nedra.com and http://www.powerofdc.com for EVents. My circuits (EV & RE) are now on http://www.evdl.org/lib/mh/

Installation in May 2010 of solar hot water and solar panels at Adam Cohen's house. The PV system is 48ea M190-72-240-S12 Enphase microinverters with 48ea Suntech 175W panels (8.4kw dc nameplate) Typical AC output is about 85% of dc nameplate