{"id":30103,"date":"2024-01-14T11:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T18:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/?p=30103"},"modified":"2024-01-14T18:45:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T01:45:05","slug":"jan-14-colder-than-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/2024\/01\/14\/jan-14-colder-than-before\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 14 Colder than Before"},"content":{"rendered":"

I need a long, cold winter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

John Rzeznik<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking a breath break. Swept solar panels, gathered snow and froze my fingers doing that. Oh and I brought in a 32 inch long log.<\/p>\n

Cats were fed, some boards were sawn. The log sawing is only a quarter done. Then I had to rest.<\/p>\n

I sawed the log with a short hand saw, then split it. I realize now that my splitting wood for and entire winter is done.\u00a0 My injuries, and arthitus have taken its toll.<\/p>\n

Now I am on the next breath break.<\/p>\n

The boards and half the split log are in the fire. The fire room is up to minus one. Its minus fifty outside.<\/p>\n

I had idea of going outside to gather more wood. I decided against that plan. There was s sheet of osb that needed cutting up in my garage. It is still minus 50 in there, but no wind.<\/p>\n

I am boiling water for coffee. I forgot to empty the rest of the hot water into the thermos.\u00a0 Today I realized another reason to do that. The water in my kettle was ice the water in my 2\u00a0 gallon water tank also starting to freeze.<\/p>\n

I am off to make coffee.<\/p>\n

Coffee made, breakfast eaten, temp is upto zero, feet are frozen.\u00a0 I will have to check the fire again soon.<\/p>\n

I put the rest of the firewood in the woodstove and let it burn. It got as high\u00a0 12 in here.<\/p>\n

I played Starfield for a couple of missions. My battery power dropped to below 30 percent. I had\u00a0 to quit. I should be able to run the gen tommorrow if the outside temp gets up to -25 like they say.<\/p>\n

The 5 day extreme cold warning is supposed to end tomorrow. I can only hope. Soon I need to make a decision about the solar. I either need another battery or two more solar panels, or both. The battery is a better solution for winter install.<\/p>\n

I just experienced the worst case scenario for solar, 5 days of short sun hours along with extreme cold. I couldn’t run the gen without destroying it. An extra battery gives me more capacity. More solar panels gives me a higher charging rate for shorter days.<\/p>\n

Both of those would be ideal. The one thing I didn’t mention is that more capacity also means I need a bigger battery charger.<\/p>\n

The bill for all that not including my time, parts and labour would run just under $2000. Since I still have 3 or 4\u00a0 months of winter, it is worth it.<\/p>\n

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