Prep of the day

[~MG~]

I have been considering a soft start for my minisplit AC system for a long time now. This spring I got off my ass and actually measured the amp draw when the unit starts up. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a normal hard start surge but a gradual rise in amp draw. A quick call to my Lennox install dealer confirmed that this machine already has a sort of soft start built in from the factory. One in the plus column!

Most Excellent. !!

I expect ours is going to make a real difference. Sitting inside I could always hear the compressor kick on, after it was installed? Nothing.

[Texas PO]

I have been considering a soft start for my minisplit AC system for a long time now. This spring I got off my ass and actually measured the amp draw when the unit starts up. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a normal hard start surge but a gradual rise in amp draw. A quick call to my Lennox install dealer confirmed that this machine already has a sort of soft start built in from the factory. One in the plus column!

Ours was installed yesterday and it seems to work well. It's much more quite on start up then before and the lights don't dim. Without that huge amp draw on start up my big gen set should run it with no problems.

[Chiefster23]

For years I’ve been buying milsurp GI jerry cans from Coleman’s Military Surplus. I have quite a few already filled with non-ethanol gas, diesel, and even kerosene. I just ordered two more to remain empty and on standby. If things really start to go sideways, I will run out and fill em up last minute. Quite honestly, I do fully expect things to get much much worse here in the near future.

[Texas PO]

For years I’ve been buying milsurp GI jerry cans from Coleman’s Military Surplus. I have quite a few already filled with non-ethanol gas, diesel, and even kerosene. I just ordered two more to remain empty and on standby. If things really start to go sideways, I will run out and fill em up last minute. Quite honestly, I do fully expect things to get much much worse here in the near future.

As do I my friend. The march towards war quickens each day. Poland is telling their people to make BOB's, Germany is studying draft options, Russia is massing troops and getting ready to do another call up, the fat kid in NK is firing missiles again, we have unfinished business with Iran and who knows how that's going to come out.

In the mean time, XI is just quietly watching, inflation is way up along with interest rates, and I am thinking the Republicans are going to get their asses kicked in the upcoming midterms. I am sure I am forgetting something.

About the only thing I see on the positive side is the unemployment numbers and the border situation, and that pendulum will swing hard the opposite way when the dems take over.

This winter should prove interesting at the very least.

[T-Man 1066]

As do I my friend. The march towards war quickens each day. Poland is telling their people to make BOB's, Germany is studying draft options, Russia is massing troops and getting ready to do another call up, the fat kid in NK is firing missiles again, we have unfinished business with Iran and who knows how that's going to come out.

In the mean time, XI is just quietly watching, inflation is way up along with interest rates, and I am thinking the Republicans are going to get their asses kicked in the upcoming midterms. I am sure I am forgetting something.

About the only thing I see on the positive side is the unemployment numbers and the border situation, and that pendulum will swing hard the opposite way when the dems take over.

This winter should prove interesting at the very least.

Yep, 100% agree. Iran is just going to keep plugging tankers in the SOH. Then with dumbass Zelinski beating the shit out of Russia's refineries and fuel infrastructure being smacked around in Saudi Arabia, the keeps fuel prices high, especially Diesel.

I hear that Russia is going to stop exporting diesel, save it for their war machine and their economy.

All these global players know if fuel prices are high in November (39 days away), and the fact that the worthless sumbitches could not get the SAVE act passed, it but guarantees the republicans lose seats in the midterm general elections, and Trump won't get anything done for his last 2 years.

By the 2028 election, prices will have stabilized for a good while, the demonrat majority will claim they "stopped" Trump's policies, and they will cheat their way into a solid majority in the house, senate, the president and VP. They will stack the Supreme court to 11 or 13 justices, all crazy commies, and guess what.

We will NEVER regain any position of importance in the government. Full on socialism / communism by 2035.

I pray I am wrong, but I don't believe I am.

[Texas PO]

Yep, 100% agree. Iran is just going to keep plugging tankers in the SOH. Then with dumbass Zelinski beating the shit out of Russia's refineries and fuel infrastructure being smacked around in Saudi Arabia, the keeps fuel prices high, especially Diesel.

I hear that Russia is going to stop exporting diesel, save it for their war machine and their economy.

All these global players know if fuel prices are high in November (39 days away), and the fact that the worthless sumbitches could not get the SAVE act passed, it but guarantees the republicans lose seats in the midterm general elections, and Trump won't get anything done for his last 2 years.

By the 2028 election, prices will have stabilized for a good while, the demonrat majority will claim they "stopped" Trump's policies, and they will cheat their way into a solid majority in the house, senate, the president and VP. They will stack the Supreme court to 11 or 13 justices, all crazy commies, and guess what.

We will NEVER regain any position of importance in the government. Full on socialism / communism by 2035.

I pray I am wrong, but I don't believe I am.

I hope your wrong as well. Sad to say, at this point I don't think it matters who wins the elections. I don't know for sure who will win the elections in November or 28, I just know who is going to lose. "We the People"

[Chiefster23]

I bought a propane/natural gas conversion kit for my Honda EU2200i inverter generator. Hutch mountain is the maker of the kit. Nice kit. Well thought out and only took me about 30 minutes to install everything. And it works as advertised. I have 2 of these generators, the base unit and the companion. So each can handle 2200 watts individually, and they can be paralled to produce about 4kw total. And now one can run on either gas or propane. Lots of flexibility and options. Today will be generator maintenance day. Change oil and install fresh stabilized non-ethanol gas into the fuel tanks.

[~MG~]

Nice !!!

[White Shadow]

It seems I may have beaten the first floor dungeon boss with Anker. I broke through tech support and my case has been sent to another as yet unnamed team that is reviewing all of the correspondence from me and my solar installation company. Not sure it will pan out into anything, but the whole quest was one more "sorry" email from stone dead so I'll take the minor victory.

I think I finally have a path to victory. It took a while, but Anker has ponied up a pretty nice package deal. I will end up with some flavor of the E10 system ( I have two choices in component bundles ) that will unlock the ability to not only get my solar panel permits, but have them roof mounted instead of ground mounted. If I agree to their package deal I can basically order the new equipment at a discount using their 60 month financing option, have my electrician swap out the systems, and then Anker is going to refund me 100% of what I paid for the components that I purchased directly from them ( including paying shipping back to them ). I can then use the refund to pay for maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the new system depending on which new components I buy. It does leave me with an F3800 and one expansion battery ( about 7Kwh total ) that I can't use, but I may be able to sell that locally.

Like the system I have, the E10 is customer expandable after you have an electrician wire in the panel so I'm leaning towards taking the smaller bundle of components offered in this deal to minimize up front costs and then look to expand it next year.

[White Shadow]

I would guess that the replacement of the existing system should be done by December. The solar panels probably not, but IIRC they do solar panel installation during the cold months as long as it isn't a ground installation because they can't trench in the winter so it should be good. Maybe by Christmas I can have it all done.

[~MG~]

IF frequent or heavy snow is likely for you - cleaning it off the panels is much easier with a ground mount than on a low-slope roof. Ask me how I know..LOL

[White Shadow]

The two winters I have been here I have not seen much snow hang around on the South side of the roof. Even when we had the record two day blizzard the wind scoured it pretty clean and the sun finished it up in short order ( quite unlike the ground ). Where we were going to have to put the ground installation was going to be very obnoxious so I would be very happy to see it go on the roof.

[~MG~]

White Shadow
Very glad to hear about your outcomes with Anker! We've got our router plugged into the S2000 just to see how much it draws (3watts, lol) and also to keep the unit active a bit rather than just sitting dark. We're also looking at the new S5000 to supplement up a bit.. which would give us 7Kwh between the two. I wish the expansion batteries weren't so pickin expensive, using everything we could kick it up to 40K, and that's not nothing.

[White Shadow]

As best as I have been able to figure out the Anker batteries are likely expensive because they have to meet the electrical code requirements to be considered portable batteries ( they have a specific term, I don't remember if that is exactly it ). Seemed there was a fair bit more engineering and certification testing than just putting a housing on a battery.

I'm sure a nice profit margin figures in there as well, but it did appear that there was quite a bit of work put into the development to meet code.

Anker seems to be like Harbor Freight in a way - you never buy at list price. There is a big sale on a very regular basis.

[Texas PO]

As best as I have been able to figure out the Anker batteries are likely expensive because they have to meet the electrical code requirements to be considered portable batteries ( they have a specific term, I don't remember if that is exactly it ). Seemed there was a fair bit more engineering and certification testing than just putting a housing on a battery.

I'm sure a nice profit margin figures in there as well, but it did appear that there was quite a bit of work put into the development to meet code.

Anker seems to be like Harbor Freight in a way - you never buy at list price. There is a big sale on a very regular basis.

We have done a lot of research on the Anker S5000 and I believe it is by far the best unit we have looked at. Has all the UL certs. and great efficiencies plus a 7 year warranty. It's a bit pricier then the ones we were looking at but I signed up for the early bird savings saving a bunch of money. This is perfect for what we need to cover short term outages as well as supplement long term outages. We will update as soon as we get it in and running.

[Piratesailor]

Decent article. Most of us already know this but good to reacquaint ourselves with some aspects.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nine-days-dark-what-sixty-million-people-learned-about-water-warmth-and-medicine-during

[Texas PO]

Decent article. Most of us already know this but good to reacquaint ourselves with some aspects.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...edicine-during

Always a good idea to refresh the old memory banks. As I have said before, grid down, by any means, is my number one. My money is on our friendly neighborhood terrorists or a rogue state but they are all in play.

Thanks for the refresher.

[~MG~]

Decent article. Most of us already know this but good to reacquaint ourselves with some aspects.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...edicine-during

That is absolutely the BEST article on this that I've read. I skimmed over the prepper parts, but the information on the grid, the stations, the dependencies, the functions, the timing... it's good knowledge to have. And it doesn't bring much comfort - other than what knowledge brings of its own accord.

The data center UPS draw raised the hairs on my neck, and that was just one center. We're not in a good position being this fragile - especially with the lead times on repair parts. At least it provided a good argument against grid-tied solar.

Big thanks for posting the link.