First wash.

  Last week, I promised myself and the boys that by today, I would, in fact, wash a load of clothes using solar. It seems the electric company want to charge me a demand use charge every time I do laundry or use anything that pulls a fair amount of electricity.

  I’m over it, I’m moving full steam ahead, I’ll keep the power turned on but I will continue making it so we don’t need it. All they will get is the $20 or whatever the fee is for allowing them to have poles and meters in my yard.

  One doesn’t even run to our house, and I have no idea when they set the second pole. I wasn’t home when they did it.

  I had intended to buy a deep cycle battery or two today while I was out shopping. However, they were being, well boys.

  I took too long for thier short attention spans, I of course look at multiple things because I have so many projects going at any given time.

  If I went by myself I could definitely get more done, but they are young and it’s not like I’m just driving across town, which here I’m convinced you can get anywhere in town leaving from any point in town and arrive in five minutes or so.

  Where we go is an hour one way in either direction so I make the best of it.

This is running on one 100-watt solar panel and a truck battery of unknown age and condition.  I generally use this battery to run the 12 volt grill. Which allows us to cook a meal for the price of a handful of pellets.

The last bag was $17 for a 40-lb bag.

  While my set up for this is sketchy at best, it is working and I can see where I need to improve to make this a regular thing.

  As it sits now, there is one 100-watt panel, one 100amp mppt charge controller, a Jupiter 5K 12 volt inverter, and a pair of 4agw 20-foot Viking jumper cables.

  Running full capacity, it calls for 2agw wires not more than 3 foot long. So I’m really pushing my luck here, though I’m only pulling around half or a little less of the rated power.. Nothing is getting warm. The cooling fans haven’t even kicked on yet and may not. The unit is cool to the touch.

  At first, I tried with just the battery, but it shut down on the first spin, so that was when I added the panel.

  While I would discourage anyone from trying the things I attempt and will tell you this as everything else I do and / or share are strictly for entertainment purposes only. I’m far from being an expert and am learning as I go, I have plenty of power to electrocute myself and burn our house down.

  I’m just doing a little at a time and figuring things out as I go. The soon to be 12 volt swamp cooler is my next big undertaking, or at least that is my plan.

  Once I figure out the pully, I can start putting it together.

  As always, thank you for reading my blog, I appreciate you.