Amy Smith Linton
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Farming: Harvest the Sun

9/9/2014

6 Comments

 
At the Would Be Farm -- our stretch of abandoned farmland in Northern New York -- things are pretty basic. We spend a few weeks at a time at the small camper we fixed up, making frequent visits to my sister, where we raid the freezer and empty her hot-water tank with impunity.  

Still, while at Base Camp, the laptop and the cell phone need charging, and it's civilized to have electricity for lights and running water inside the tin-cabin-on-wheels.

Since part of the goal of the farm is to keep things low-cost and low-maintenance, we decided against hooking up power.  There's electric service at the road, but it's placed awkwardly for our use. We'd need to install at least three utility poles, which would make an ugly slash through the open vista of meadow and rock. Plus it seems silly to outlay more cash for poles than we spent for the farm's pickup truck...
Picture
Fact #1: the cost of solar power has come down a lot in the past ten years. 
Fact #2: plenty of not-too-expensive kits look pretty cinchy to set up. 
And what else do we know about solar? Fact #3: not much. 

Is that the sort of thing that will stop us? Heck no. 

I browsed the library, but the resources seemed either incomprehensible or too vague. So as is my habit, I signed up for a class. This one is an on-line course through EdX. Free for auditors. Classmates on every continent...





(P.S. doesn't it sound very Mother Nature-y to "design a Solar System"?) 


An eight-week course might be overkill, to be bitterly frank. 

But talk about new neural pathways --!  1 over the cosine of theta. Terawatts. Polycrystalline silicon cells. Diamond lattice crystalline structures...And "band gaps," which, in the Dutch accent of Professor Smets sounds just like "band camps." Making his discussion of how molecular bonds affect the BAND CAMP pretty darned entertaining.

Aside from having those stray three or four brain cells that remembered anything about Calculus go super-nova during the first homework assignment, I think it's going to be fine.  
Picture
A screenshot of homework. Oh yes, those brain cells burst like beluga caviar.
6 Comments
mtt
9/9/2014 12:40:57 am

Photon flux is old school. Flux Capacitor, now that is the way to go. All about the Gigawatts!!!!!

Reply
amy
9/9/2014 01:36:21 am

Oh MTT, you are my density.

Reply
edidad
9/9/2014 04:32:21 am

Can you build a dam and small generator for night time power? Use the solar to pump the water up during the day and let it fall at night to light the lights.
For real technical help, ask MTT for his cousin Paul's address. Paul makes FPL hum.

Reply
Amy
9/9/2014 10:04:41 am

Hey Eidad,
thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
A hydro-electric generator is possible...but it's surprisingly maintenance-intensive from what I can tell. I like your idea -- it seems kind of revolutionary, actually. Sort of like making our own tidal rise-and-fall.

At present, we are trotting the path of solar with nothing particularly radical: storing charge in batteries and using the existing wiring in the camper system for the "mod cons." We'll see how it works and go from there. Maybe that little watercourse at Porcupine Falls will come into play...

Reply
Greg Duncan
9/9/2014 02:43:39 pm

Amy people have been living on boats forever unconnected. West Marine and Home Depot have everything you need at fairly low prices. couple of panels, couple storage Batterys, small 12 volt waterpump. solar hot water panel and a old hotwater tank for storage and your home free. I've been doing my research. LEDs for lights. Cook with gas. Y'all are having fun. I love it.

Reply
Amy
9/10/2014 09:45:39 am

Hey Mr. Duncan,
Right you are! We ARE having fun, and the live-aboard is kind of a good model for what we hope to do in the short-term at Base Camp.

Since to me the essentials include boiling my water for coffee, running water for washing dishes, and charge for electronics. Since we have propane and a 12-volt system already in place in the tin cabin on wheels, it should be easy.

Note to self: knock on wood whenever anyone says "it should be easy." Because it's not the same as "it was easy!"

Thanks for following our little adventures --

Reply



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