Day: February 28, 2013

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Low Batteries Are No Longer Scary

I never did get to recalibrate the battery monitor since the big winds the other day because I’ve needed to use an inordinate amount of juice to keep the office running this week. I’ve been keeping an eye on the amp hour count up and down and the voltage at the end of the evening to make sure that my battery levels are at acceptable level until I can get a full charge.

All would have been well if we had gotten the sun we were supposed to get today, instead of a low cloud cover, which meant I drained almost 30A today. When the solar charger clicked off tonight, I unplugged my fully charged computer, and looked at my voltmeter. The reading was 11.9V, which is about 40% capacity, but I didn’t freak out because I know now that within an hour of unplugging the computer, my voltage creeps back up a few points as the batteries get to rest.

Regardless, I was low and I was pretty sure I’d have to run the electric blanket tonight as I should have done so last night and I ran the furnace for a full hour this morning! So I turned on the engine while I made dinner.

To my delight, a steady 17A began to flow into my batteries! It’s true! If you’re below 80% capacity, your alternator charges more quickly to bring you up to that 80% mark! It didn’t take long for the amount to slowly taper down and I cut the engine at 10A coming in. I’m now sitting at about 12.46V, which is about 80% capacity. Not great, but we should be getting sun tomorrow, plus I have errands to run so I can take some load off the house batteries by charging the computer in the truck.

So I now know that, really, there’s little point to running the engine to get a charge if I’m above 80% capacity, but it is totally worth doing so when I go below that.

I’ve been boondocking for over a month now in okay weather and it keeps getting better and easier as I slowly figure out how to use all the information available to me to manage my power use. The new solenoid has been a big help, as has been able to borrow a generator twice, that’s for sure, but they’re just a tiny part of a much larger puzzle I’m putting together.

And with that, I’m off to plug in my electric blanket. It’s going to be another coooooold night.

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Sunset On the Beach

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As for the last picture, I had a eureka moment as I put water on to heat for washing up after dinner. I was having leftover pasta and that stuff is a bitch to reheat as it sticks and dries out. I simply put my meal in a bowl that I set in the pot of hot water, put on the lid, and turned the flame to medium-low. Ten minutes (and a bunch of sunset pictures later), I had a hot meal waiting for me that was a breeze to clean up after!

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Returning Items From Amazon.com

I’ve been an amazon.com shopper for years. This week, for the first time ever, I had to return something. It turned out that the description on the site was missing some key information and the item was not right for me. It was only about $5, so I decided that I would try for a refund and if the return wound up being a big hassle, I would just eat the amount.

Well, Amazon won’t let me return the item. I tried to go through the return process and got a message that said I’m a valued customer, so I can keep the item AND get my refund! Wow! I’m thinking that the cost of the item and my shopping history (no refund requests ever) prompted this decision.

I will still be able to use the item, so being able to keep it is a nice bonus. And, geeze, there’s no reason to be so mysterious, it’s a recorder (the musical instrument) with an uncommon fingering style. So once I dredge up 25 year old skills on the more standard type, I can graduate to this other one. 🙂

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Do You Need To Replace It?

Since I want to continue downsizing my life, I think about whether or not I need to replace something when the original breaks or stops functioning. I thought of replacing the dishes that were broken in the accident, but decided to first live without them for a while. Guess what? I don’t miss them.

While doing the lunch dishes today, I somehow collided my Las Vegas and Halifax mugs. The Vegas mug won.

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The Vegas mug that I won at Circus, Circus wouldn’t have been much of a loss. I have a couple other mugs the same size and that format is ubiquitous anyway.

But the Halifax mug is a real loss. 🙁 It’s an unusual size, holding about one and a half times the fluid of a standard coffee mug. When I bought it, I had been searching for some time for a mug that held that much and which was nice and thick. I’m sure I could find another one eventually, but this mug took a lot of shopping to find. It’s my slow morning mug. I usually limit myself to one cup of coffee a day, but on the slow morning, I get a little extra to savour. Slow mornings used to be Sunday but are now most often Monday.

I’m not going to rush out to replace my Halifax mug, but I am going to keep my eye out for a replacement. I know I am going to really miss it just because of how devastated I was when I noticed the giant chip and crack going all the way down it. Usually, breaking something in the kitchen is no big deal, but this really bummed me out. Monday mornings just won’t be the same without it! 🙂