The Lost Room + solar power
Well a few things have come about since the last post. A friend gave me a couple of tips on background work. One of them was a part during the filming of 'The Lost Room' a Sci-fi channel flik. It was set in an institution (the old Harwood School) I was to be a slightly looney type. I don't own pajamas so they picked me to walk across the street as the big old Lincoln Continental with 'the principle actors' driving. The car was mounted with the large camera and lighting equipment on the long hood, looking in at the main people. A small Honda generator slung low under the back end was the power for the robotic controlled camera. This stuff takes a lot of time and labor to set up. I was then to walk across the street as the Continental passed. The 'Shrink' walked towards me and a little at an angle behind the car. Of course we did it a few times untill it was correct. That scene then 'poisened' me for the day. I was just a local pedestrian and not an inmate. While waiting for the sets to be made ready we danced around the room at the urging of our casting director (filmsavage.com). She knew that one of the assistant directors was coming. He then saw us and thought we really were a little wacky not just pretending to be. We do have a fun time while waiting for the sets. I wanted to play a slightly 'off page' person. Oh well things happen for a reason.
The reason being to install a solar panel kit on the roof of the Motorhome. I did it with out drilling any holes. 3 M makes an indoor/outdoor double sided sticky tape. The entire setup is about 3' x 3' so it takes up a little space. I fished the wires down the vent for the refrigerator to a compartment below. The controller is there. Now only the wires to the battery compartment remain to be layed in. finished on oct 5th. The main reason for the solar panel set (200 dollars at Harbor Frieght) is to keep from running the generator while parked for a few days or weeks at the seashore or ?...Wherever.
The panel set (three pieces) is advertised to charge the battery bank at 45 watts, 3000 ma. Which is totally unrealistic and grossly overated. This is the older style panel that looks black. The newer style panels are Polycrystaline and blue in color. (amsolar.com) I believe their panels to be more efficient as well as the advertised performance of their controller. Of course the price is higher (about double). You get what you pay for.
The plan was to replenish the power used at night from the four, six volt golf cart batteries, during reading and such. On my installation the output voltage is only at 12.91 vdc. This controller prematurely 'shunts' the 22 volts output from the panel down to 10.5 vdc. It also errantly, sounds the high piercing alarm to indicate it is saving the batteries from overcharge. This is much less than the touted 14.5 (normal with the motor running) vdc advertised. A call to Harbor Frieghts Tech dept resulted in a promise to ship me a new controller. I still am not as strong a believer in Solar cost per watt obtained. Of course the next days sun has a lot to do with the results. The total days power could be enhanced by keeping the panel facing the sun directly. I do not care to climb the ladder to keep doing this. It will just have to do it's best laying flat. I climbed that ladder about 50 times today during the install.
This week I have to go to a friend who has horses. He said he would give me a training seminar to get me in shape for the riding scenes in ...3:10 To Yuma. He lives in the mountains so we will ride like in, 'The Man From Snowy River', remember that famous ride down the mountain? Oh yeah...We will do it just like that. I was in my twenties when I owned horses and have ridden on occasion seldom since then. I need an overhaul of my latent riding skills. Jay (a real Cowboy) is 'The Man' to help me with the Overhaul.
Life is an interesting, fascinating scene in itself. I can't believe there are people in this world today that purposly live their life, only to die as martyrs, taking as many lives away from others as they possibly can.....Now that is really, really sick, not just 'pretending' to be.
The reason being to install a solar panel kit on the roof of the Motorhome. I did it with out drilling any holes. 3 M makes an indoor/outdoor double sided sticky tape. The entire setup is about 3' x 3' so it takes up a little space. I fished the wires down the vent for the refrigerator to a compartment below. The controller is there. Now only the wires to the battery compartment remain to be layed in. finished on oct 5th. The main reason for the solar panel set (200 dollars at Harbor Frieght) is to keep from running the generator while parked for a few days or weeks at the seashore or ?...Wherever.
The panel set (three pieces) is advertised to charge the battery bank at 45 watts, 3000 ma. Which is totally unrealistic and grossly overated. This is the older style panel that looks black. The newer style panels are Polycrystaline and blue in color. (amsolar.com) I believe their panels to be more efficient as well as the advertised performance of their controller. Of course the price is higher (about double). You get what you pay for.
The plan was to replenish the power used at night from the four, six volt golf cart batteries, during reading and such. On my installation the output voltage is only at 12.91 vdc. This controller prematurely 'shunts' the 22 volts output from the panel down to 10.5 vdc. It also errantly, sounds the high piercing alarm to indicate it is saving the batteries from overcharge. This is much less than the touted 14.5 (normal with the motor running) vdc advertised. A call to Harbor Frieghts Tech dept resulted in a promise to ship me a new controller. I still am not as strong a believer in Solar cost per watt obtained. Of course the next days sun has a lot to do with the results. The total days power could be enhanced by keeping the panel facing the sun directly. I do not care to climb the ladder to keep doing this. It will just have to do it's best laying flat. I climbed that ladder about 50 times today during the install.
This week I have to go to a friend who has horses. He said he would give me a training seminar to get me in shape for the riding scenes in ...3:10 To Yuma. He lives in the mountains so we will ride like in, 'The Man From Snowy River', remember that famous ride down the mountain? Oh yeah...We will do it just like that. I was in my twenties when I owned horses and have ridden on occasion seldom since then. I need an overhaul of my latent riding skills. Jay (a real Cowboy) is 'The Man' to help me with the Overhaul.
Life is an interesting, fascinating scene in itself. I can't believe there are people in this world today that purposly live their life, only to die as martyrs, taking as many lives away from others as they possibly can.....Now that is really, really sick, not just 'pretending' to be.
posted by Blogengeezer at Saturday, September 30, 2006
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