Carl and Tom rallied the troops (RE students) to head out to the Navajo Reservation to do a one day major upgrade to Jim and Selma's off grid systems. They don't pay The Man for their electricity, they make their own.
Jim has several separate systems that have grown over time. Friday we installed a solar thermal hot water system. This simple low maintenance system should provide all the heat needed for their hot water supply. The panel gets hauled onto the roof. Water is heated in the panel during daylight hours by the sun, and that water is sent to their hot water tank where it used as the heat source instead of gas or oil. If the sun doesn't produce enough heat then the heater can be assisted by gas or oil.
We also reconfigured some solar PV arays, added some new panels to the main house system, and upgraded the major components, inverter, charge controller, etc. We rewired the battery bank to push higher voltage for the new components.
They've got a beautiful spot, they live independently on Selma's family land (Selma's 85 year old mother lives in a hogan on the property, but she was off to sheep camp for the week so we didn't get to meet her.)
Selma cooked us mutton stew and Navajo fry bread for lunch! I stopped at 4 gigantic delicious wonderful pieces of fry bread, just moments before I would have exploded. The others, though they have youth on their side, couldn't rally past 2 single pieces. Mutton stew with dumplings. Bring it on!!
If you cook Navajo fry bread and mutton stew, I'll be there!
Rule 1: Let the owner cut the holes in the roof.
Tom and Carl, the RE Gurus try to rein in the group.
