Off the grid thoughts

On my last trip to Houston, I managed to bring back my solar panel, amongst some other things.  Slowly, but surely, I am working down the contents of that storage space.  Eventually, I'll have everything out, but it is a slow process.

I forgot something, though.  Without all the equipment, I cannot set up the panel and see if it works.  It did work a couple years ago, after exchanged the one I bought, which didn't work.  My confidence level is not that high in this equipment.

If it works, I can use it for experiments here.  But I am not doing any experiments.  Somehow, I have got to get that going.  My time here in the sticks has got to get more productive.

I want to get my power consumption way down.  To that end, I shopped around for some L.E.D. lighting.  It looks like I can get some lights for this place, which will not take up too much power, nor cost too much money to buy.  I use an LED light already.  I may not need anything more than another bulb for the other fixture.  Trouble is, these things I am using don't clamp down on anything anymore because they are broken.  I need some clamps.

I brought back the device I want to use for passive solar heating.  But there's no place to put it just yet.  I was thinking of putting it on top of the van, and pumping the hot water out of it after sundown.

So, there's some slow progress.  Things are moving along, but I wish it went a little faster.