Stormfly

Southerly breeze picking up pace here.

4 hours ago, notvirga! said:

@psuhoffman do you have any snow cover left? We have a small patch here behind the deck but it will be gone this week I imagine 

We have plenty.  Too much on the deck to use the grill even.  In the middle of our deck there's a good 6".  Hard to call it snow, more like shaved ice consistency you'd get at a snowball stand!

Only in the shade of course.  Any place that gets sun is bare.

Speaking of cold temps and "nuking", yesterday, as I was walking out of Giant (Rock Spring Shopping center) I saw a fly, yes a FLY!  Big one too, it was kind of circling around on the parking lot couldn't decide if it wanted to fly in circles getting nowhere or bug out!

With no real arctic outbreak for us we're probably in for a doozy of a bug season.  On top of a mega billion cicada march! 

Calm before the storm.

3 hours ago, KAOS said:

The upfront money is meant to take care of initial expenses for larger projects like wiring an entire house. Certainly not asking for anything upfront as it relates to "service calls". Basically just want to cover the cost of permits and materials. A roof is different, in a lot of instances it is a one day job... in and out. Not really hiring people on Craiglist for an electrical project which requires not only a licensed contractor but a workforce that has the education and are certified to do the work of a real electrician (journeyman, etc.). So I am not sure that is a fair comparison?

 

Good luck on a warranty claim (i.e. GAF) if installers aren't certified!

I've never had to give money up front.  Even on a $23,000 roofing job.  I've had some ask for % up front and I pass on that.

Roofers though, lots of skeevy crap going on!  Some just present collaterals and take advantage of people that know nothing about roofs, take five grand up front and the next day they're posting ads on Craigslist looking for people that can use air nailers and lift shingles!  And then go to a supply house and buy shingles.  And rent a dumpster if it's a tear off (which it SHOULD be!).

I counted seven robins in the yard and my border collie busted them all in less then 5 seconds!

Breezy and chilly here.  39/21

No discussion with Captain Chesapeake would be complete without mentioning Gilligan's Island!

Nice little gem here:

Can't believe only one of the original cast is alive today.

2 hours ago, Deck Pic said:

spring and summer are vile.  Want cold as long as possible.  who wants to sweat in March?  disgusting

I had the air on in the work truck today.

11 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

Bringing over from obs thread. I've seen what looks like older solar systems on several roofs in the neighborhood over the years, but know nothing about them (nor whether those neighbors have been happy/unhappy with them). Legit question though -- realizing that installs vary based on the size of the roof/home, do solar panels add a lot of extra weight to your roof? Or have manufacturers slimmed them down a lot over the years?

The weight isn't a factor with a properly installed rail system that's anchored to roof trusses. There are skirts at the bottom to help with wind.  Strong southerly winds could definitely get some pull away force going if they got beneath the panels.  Common sense just as you wouldn't keep a garage door open during a bad storm! The biggest issue is shingle age and type.  I've never liked 3 tab shingles.  And shoddy roofers that don't tear off old shingles and install another 15-20 year roof on those!  That weight adds up fast!  And any contractor that wants to put new dimensional/architectural shingles over old!  Run don't walk away from those guys!

Most lease/PPAs will allow temp shutdown/removal/reinstall for a very reasonable price.  The contracts are 20 years and if your roof is new (ours needed replacing so my system was installed over a new roof) you should not have to worry about it outside storm damage, et al.  But if the roof is OK but still near EOL within the system contract / life expectancy paying a $500 fee for them to take it down and store for up to a month and then reinstall is a bargain!  The only thing you lose is (up to) a month of production.  Maybe do that in January haha.

Solar efficiency has gone up, way up as well as component prices come down.  We have two arrays on the house and a third on a shop building with two inverters.  51 300W panels total.  They use optimizers and the ABB inverters are 98% efficient.  The 4.2kW inverter on the shop doesn't even have a fan!  The 12kW main inverter does.  It's a grid tie system so it does NOT produce electricity if the utility power goes off.  We do have several backup sources as we cannot be without power due to livestock and other things.  I've looked into storage and whole facility line interactive systems but they are prohibitively expensive.  We have 3 phase power on the street, I'd love to have a 500kVA 13.2k to 480 pad transformer here but again $$$!

Everything's digital/smart with net metering, too bad as I'd love to have a traditional electromagnetic meter (spinning disc).  On sunny spring days with no AC or heat that sucker would be spinning backwards like my Love Over Gold CD in my Sony discman (back in 1988).   The meter does have a segmented LCD indicator that provides that function but nothing beats a 'real' meter!

Our 15kW system averages 21 MWh annually.

This year has been the worst due to snow/ice covered panels.  If we just had fluffy snow for once it could be raked. 

If a system is properly planned, installed, and maintained the ROI is indeed favorable.  Not all installations meet that criteria.  And if a poor contractor is hired and the install causes problems things can get bad in a hurry.

We even bust on wind now! ;)

Quote

 

42 minutes ago, CAPE said:

Are they still huge? I thought they had changed ownership or something. I remember the place was always crowded, and standing in line to get them years ago.

They are decent sized for sure.  And they are quite crowded.  They did add on to their building around 2008 IIRC.  I imagine this whole pandemic thing has really impacted their business.

I have a few hundred bucks in gift cards for them I've been saving for the past few years and now with the restrictions I will probably just buy some ready to heat.  Shipping is too expensive and they are about an hour drive from here so I'm just going to pick them up.

Local to my area we have Madonna Seafood and their crabcakes are probably 90% of G&M for about the same price.  Closer to 95 is Box Hill Pizzeria and they have pretty decent ones too although they tend to be more on the creamy side.  Everyone's taste is a bit different of course.

One thing's for sure, down in Florida they do NOT understand what "Maryland Style" crabcake means! 

Not much filling other than saltine crackers to bond together the lumps.

Anyone like crabcakes?  If so, they're s G&M!

If you don't mind getting muddy it will be easy to dig/till/cull!

Derechos are taking SlimFAST?

It did get dark about an hour ago, saw that really skinny line to the south and just like late spring when we're stuck at 55 and fog and southern MD is in the 80s getting severe, it's just misty showers and a few breezes not even enough to blow anything around.

Speaking of the past, I had one of these when I was a kid!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

I also had the Gilbert spinthariscope.  It was a cardboard tube with one end painted with radium "undark" paint and had a small aspheric lens on the other side.  At night, looking through the lens one could see all the scintillation activity which was essentially alpha particles striking the zinc sulfide scintillating agent.  Looked like lightning in a bottle.  And to my disappointment holding this little miracle near an AM radio yielded no "sferic" noise.  Little did I know such a disc was quite dangerous and easily clocking 50+ mrem/hr gamma!  But it was sure fun to keep under a blanket like a night light that never needed batteries...

Anyone remember "SuperTV" from the early to mid 80s?  WNUV (TV 54) would "scramble" their signal in the evening and show premium content.  Subscribers would have a UHF directional installed connected to a Zenith decoder box that allowed watching.

Here's an Ad:

32/31 light sn/zr mix now.

Can't believe we got 1/2" out of this!

But there you go!

About 10 min ago, iPhone 12 Pro Max using night mode @30 seconds (30 1 sec exposures stacked, no post just cropped right from phone).  It's quite bright out due to the crazy moonlight above the cloud deck but the long exposure makes it look almost like day.

Snow shower, 39/29 winds picking up out of southeast.

Obligatory "imagine if that were snow" remark.

4 hours ago, Paleocene said:

Man, we got absolutely nuked by the derecho in 2011. I was living in Falls Church near I-495 at the time and my neighborhood was lit up by that beast. I will never forget the sky looking like that - purple, black, swirling, words do not do it justice. There were transformers blowing everywhere and constant lightning and it looked like the fourth of July.

Folks in my office at the time, particularly those in the Bethesda area, were out of power for up to two weeks. 

At the time I bailed out and drove to PA for the weekend to stay with family. It was on a Friday night, right? Came back when the power was back on in the nhood.

Yeah it was bad that way.  I was in Vienna the week after and the brush piles at the curb were ridiculous!  Power still out in those places.

A few videos are on youtube from the baltimore area, it was breezy and at times it looked like the winds gusted over 50-60mph picking up dirt and trash cans.  Lots of green flashes from arcing wires too.  And of course nearly continuous lightning.  Up our way the most significant thing was lightning and it rained hard.

The derecho here was a meh event.  No severe, power went out for 5 seconds due to lightning strike on highway.  Was an average storm for us.  A few miles south it was another story.  And of course NOVA.  Even so, it was nothing like the one that hit last year in Iowa.  This area just is a (natural) disaster free zone.  Which is a good thing.  Only a total psycho would feel good coming home from work to their home being destroyed, pets killed, etc.

1 hour ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

By hatchet, axe, and saw?

Exactly!