Summer, summer, summer time....

We knew after such a long winter, cold spring, that when summer hit, it would hit hard! We also knew that with the increase of wildlife we've seen out here in the past 6 months, would also mean more snakes, and yes we've already seen more in the past three weeks than the past two years combined! In fact, I had to dispatch a 30" Mohave Green Rattler this evening, as he was cruising toward the safety of under our saloon. Tried as he did, he wasn't faster than than a 12 gauge shot! I would've posted a picture, but there wasn't enough left! Did I mention I hate snakes!

On the lighter side, the temps have been holding steady in the triple digit range. We haven't had a chance to get the evaporative cooler up and running yet. I wanted to change out the main drive motor and the pump with smaller units. That way we could run it with a smaller generator and maybe save a few dollars on gas. Not to mention less noise! In the meantime, we've been staying in the saloon under the ceiling fan. It works much better than I thought and the inverter we have running it uses very little power. In fact tonight we ate dinner after sunset, under the fan by the light of 120v chandelier all while listening to our new 60w radio! After dinner when we checked the battery bank we were still at 12.8 volts!
So to answer the question, can a cheap solar array, and deep cell 12v batteries run a house? The answer is yes, we have lights, a 32" wide screen LCD TV, DVD player, ceiling fans, radios, not to mention using a sowing machine, small power tools, etc. The only difference is, you use things at different times, and the heavy use items, only during the day. A small mindset change which really isn't any inconvenience at all.


-------------------------------------------------My insanity on display www.pioneeringaz.blogspot.com