Saturday 1 November 2008

Flat calm


The trouble with having a windmill (ok it doesn't actually mill, but you can't just call it a 'wind' can you?) is it makes you a little bit obsessed with the wind. If there's one thing I don't need it's another obsession. I've got obsessions coming out of my ears! It's been boom and bust with the wind recently, gales on the weekend and then flat calm ever since so no charging action for me. I've been anxiously logging onto xcweather and the good ol' BBC hoping for some big arrows but it's not looking good for the week. I can feel my smugness draining away.

I went up there for 10 minutes earlier. I'm trying to make a little folding table out of old bed headboards to work on each weekend and when I got there the battery was about halfway through (12.2 volts, I think 12.8+ is 'full'). I used a table saw to get through one headboard but bottled out after 5 minutes of watching the red light flash on the charger controller. The voltage recovered after that. I learned three important lessons:
  • the voltage does recover after an initial dip and I have to mend my multimeter to work out what voltage drop I can expect and tolerate from the things I use up there
  • I could do with an alternative to just wind. It's a windy spot here, but if there's a northerly (there's a tree to the north of the charger) or no wind then the charger won't turn. So now I want solar panels as well
  • I need another obsession to take my mind off my new obsession. Then I'll need a new blog to blog that! There goes my weekends.

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