The Quarky Engineer

Speaking of data… boy that trip to Hawaii really sticks out.

Interesting that there is an observable correlation between detected radiation and the air quality. You can see how the peak CPMs match up with the peaks in air pollution. Note the scale of air quality is pretty tight, going from 4.0 to 5.5 PM2.5 ug/m^3, which is all in the very good range.

It is also possible that the correlation is only with the time of day for both of them. The peaks are both more often in the mid to late evening. This could be a result of the daytime/nighttime temperature variation effecting the muon decay rates, which are a large source of overall cosmic ray observations… however CRs only account for 10-15% of typical measured background radiation. Radionuclides in dust could also be a factor.

Time for some solar + battery power for the new house. I’m looking to put as much solar as I can fit, and enough battery capacity for my typical peak load on the generator panels.

Looking at load, my typical usage on the ‘generator’ panel, I’m running a peak of around 13-14kw, an idle of ~4 (will be higher in the summer). The other set of non gen panels has larger peaks, but lower averages since it has more non essential things on it.

In terms of amperage and balance, the Gen panel is peaking at ~60 amps on the A-side and 40-45 on the B-Side. The third graph is the differential, which is less than 20A all the time. (Neutral current). That makes a difference in off-grid running because the autotransformer is neutral limited.

4th graph is a typical evening load, which peaked at 13kw on the gen side. My average power usage each month is around 8MWh, or 96MWh/yr. All of this doesn’t include the 200 amp dedicated TOU service for Tesla charging.

I have narrowed it down to three choices:

(1) An Enphase system, with the smart switch, 3x Encharge-10 10kWh battery systems, and 20kWs of panels. The Encharge-10 systems can do 3.8kw each, so 3 of them could deliver 11kw from battery, plus the additional 20kw from solar, and of course generator backup from there.

(2) A Tesla system with their panels and 3 Powerwalls. That would give my 3*13.5=40kWh of storage, and 15 kw of power delivery. Panels are however DC with a DC inverter.

(3) I roll my own using the Victron Battery+Solar, add Solar, and build batteries.

I am leaning towards #1 primarily because the Tesla setup does not allow generator power to charge the batteries, and doesn’t really do a mix of generator, battery, and solar.

The Tesla batteries are overall a bit cheaper, as 3 powerwalls would be 23,000 or so with the supporting stuff, while 3 of the Encharge-10s would be about 28k.

Of course I need to figure out how to fit 60 panels on the roof. 😉

Comments and suggestions welcome of course. 😉

I ordered up a couple of small 100W solar panels to take with me for camping/astrophotography trips. I also ordered up the very cheapest Chinese made grid tie inverter ($50) which is both an MPPT panel controller and a backfeed controller just to see if it would work.

Sure enough the panels work well, generating 140Ws together at 5pm with low sun. I suspect I can get closer to their rated 100Ws each during the middle of the day.

For camping I’ll use a Victron MPPT Charge controller to charger lithium batteries.

I’m happy that the factory spare location can hold a 34″ tire.

Istvan from Nightmotorsports send over a very very cool set of their billet valve covers to go along with the billet build.

One of the great thing about these billet covers is they have built in AN fittings for the crankcase/head venting. Since the billet block also has AN fittings I can be completely free of any clamps on liquid hoses!

They also have a cool machined air/oil separator (in red), and reliefs to make it easier to get spark plugs out once the motor is installed.

The were super easy to install using the new included hardware and gaskets.

https://nightmotorsport.com/product/nightmotorsport-ej25-billet-valve-cover-kit/

I’m going to put the wire harness on, and it is time to install this in the car!

I pulled a few cars out of the garage to do some cleaning. Each of these cars has a special place in my heart. All modified in some unique way. I took each out for a drive … and damn that R35GTR is fast. 🙂

I put together a new hose for the oil drain. It is a -10AN line now. It was a very tight fit, and I had to redo the hose three times to get it the perfect length that didn’t bind up and allowed the threads to engage on the 90 degree fitting.

I also got the alternator and power steering pump on so I can figure out the other side fuel routing. Next up I’ll install the wire harness, and start on the sensor harness.

I think I’m going to put the fuel pressure regulator here. One thing I really like about this regulator (Perrin) is you have both in and out for each rail, so no need to use AN Y fittings.

I’m getting happier with my Suburban setup. The water can ( the sand colored Jerry can) won’t stay there all the time, but will be good when I need it. I have some adapters for a side mount shovel coming in, and they I’ll work on some LED light bars.

I’m excited to get my overland setup and head out with Eric Bryant to do some astrophotography in some dark far away from civilization places. ( Steens mountains, etc).