What first world problem did you have today?

[shortylickens]

I was watching Me, Myself, & Irene.

Gas was a dollar thirty-three.

FOR PREMIUM!

 

[snoopy7548]

I was watching Me, Myself, & Irene.

Gas was a dollar thirty-three.

FOR PREMIUM!

Back in my day I could buy a steak dinner for five cents and have enough change to go see a movie!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Would anti-icing windshield fluid help clear off the ice?

Don't really want to be using chemicals, some may also react badly with the resins, or aluminium frame etc. But either way they will end up on the lawn. If I had a bigger battery bank I could do heat strips of sorts, might experiment with that next summer (too cold to be doing any kind of wiring/modifications to them now). If I can put nichrome wire under the panels, and run it at a couple kw for a few minutes it might possibly be enough to melt the ice from under the panels and have it slide off.

Some kind of spray on the glass might help too, like rainx or something. Will have to try that too in summer.

But yeah, probably one of the reasons you don't see solar a lot here. If I had a big property I could make it work, a ground mount system would be much easier to access and maintain, and could also tilt it at a better angle. Could do an east/west array that is vertical and has an awning to protect from freezing rain. Then a south one that is like 60 degrees and would simply be a write off in winter. Could use the power generated from the east/west array to melt the ice off the south one.

 

[snoopy7548]

But yeah, probably one of the reasons you don't see solar a lot here. If I had a big property I could make it work, a ground mount system would be much easier to access and maintain, and could also tilt it at a better angle. Could do an east/west array that is vertical and has an awning to protect from freezing rain. Then a south one that is like 60 degrees and would simply be a write off in winter. Could use the power generated from the east/west array to melt the ice off the south one.

A retractable awning would be cool, especially if it sensed raindrops and automatically closed itself... and opened when the raining stopped.

 

[sdifox]

A retractable awning would be cool, especially if it sensed raindrops and automatically closed itself... and opened when the raining stopped.

Awnings don't do well against snow and ice.

 

[lxskllr]

Stopped by the hardware store to get a new chainsaw, and they didn't have it anymore. They have to order, and it'll be a couple weeks. I already owned it in my head, but now I have to wait :^(

 

[Chaotic42]

Stopped by the hardware store to get a new chainsaw, and they didn't have it anymore. They have to order, and it'll be a couple weeks. I already owned it in my head, but now I have to wait :^(

Just get your cardboard pretend saw and go outside. Make the noises to up the simulation. Wrrrrrrrr.

Maybe we need a VR chainsaw game.

 

[lxskllr]

Just get your cardboard pretend saw and go outside. Make the noises to up the simulation. Wrrrrrrrr.

Maybe we need a VR chainsaw game.

Neighbors would appreciate that, but it would raise other questions :^D

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Got a hankering for something more healthy, wanted a tofu and bean sprout wrap (used to love them, but nobody else does, so I don't buy them).

Produce guy at grocery store said they haven't stocked sprouts for like two years. :-(

 

[Red Squirrel]

Awnings don't do well against snow and ice.

Depends what they're made out of. Probably would want to use steel frame and wood. The mechanicals are what is tricky, the actuators, gears or whatever is being used need to withstand the winds we get.

 

[IronWing]

Went for a hike at Saguaro NP today. Today is another ho-hum perfect Tucson day: sunny, high around 70F, with recent snow and rain putting water in the normally dry washes, perfect and the desert smelling awesome.

As I was returning to the trailhead I passed one gentleman playing music on his phone. It wasn't too loud so one couldn't hear it from more than twenty feet away or so. I figured to each his own.

Then I passed a older gentleman blaring political talk radio on his phone. One could hear it a good 50 meters out. He's hiking on this gorgeous day and he can't go without filling his head with that crap long enough to enjoy his hike? Rage addition has got to be a mental illness.

 

[clamum]

My solar panels have been fubared for the past week or so because we had freezing rain a while back. Been trying to chip away at it with no luck. Managed to get some cells exposed today though. That snow is harder than it looks, it's all crusty and crap.



They arn't running anything important, but if I can't salvage this I'll have to bring the battery in the house. Was hoping this system could be a bit more self sustaining other then me having to broom snow off but forgot about dreaded freezing rain. That just ruins every surface for the rest of the winter.

Maybe this is a totally fail idea but could you put the solar cells under like a clear housing, like a clear plexiglas container? I realize that would just get iced/snowed then, instead of the cells themselves, but it seems like it might be easier to clean a plexiglas (or whatever material) housing than sensitive solar cells.

 

[clamum]

Why do browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer specifically cause they are the ones I use at home and work, but maybe others too) use so much frickin memory? I swear they were more efficient 20 years ago.

Here's my Firefox, with a single tab open (naturally to ATOT):

Almost 700 MB. That just seems excessive to me, but I guess I'm missing something.

 

[sdifox]

Why do browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer specifically cause they are the ones I use at home and work, but maybe others too) use so much frickin memory? I swear they were more efficient 20 years ago.

Here's my Firefox, with a single tab open (naturally to ATOT):

Almost 700 MB. That just seems excessive to me, but I guess I'm missing something.

Cuz the page is 500mb

 

[IronWing]

One of the cats is a nineteen year old female. Lately, she has started demanding new food when there is still food in the bowl. The food in the bowl is a few hours old. Generally I ignore her demands because I think finicky eaters can starve if they want to. Anyway, I decided to appease her by stirring a bit of water to the old food and putting it back out. As soon as the food bowl hit the floor she was on it. Then she spun around and gave me the best DIAF look I've ever gotten from anyone in my whole life. Then I laughed at her and the look got even better. She won and I gave her new food. I figure she's nineteen.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Maybe this is a totally fail idea but could you put the solar cells under like a clear housing, like a clear plexiglas container? I realize that would just get iced/snowed then, instead of the cells themselves, but it seems like it might be easier to clean a plexiglas (or whatever material) housing than sensitive solar cells.

I kinda thought of that, but like you say still have to clean that, and it would probably come up to the same issue. I'm toying with the idea of installing nichrome wire under each panel with a temp sensor, and I would just run a couple kw worth of power through the nichrome wire to melt the ice from the bottom which may be enough to make it all slide off in one chunk. Only thing is I would need a lot of battery capacity for that if I'm going to try to make this grid independent. I'm thinking I would need to run it for at least an hour per panel, ideally do one panel at once so I can concentrate all available power to one panel at a time. Though I'll have to experiment as it might turn out to work faster than I think.

Got a huge storm the other day, bought some snow shoes so I don't have to keep shoveling a path to the shed every couple days, went to take all the snow I could off them. I will still try to stay on top of that, as if by chance we get a warm enough day the icy snow layer might actually melt off. Our weather is so messed up these days, can be -30 one day and +5 the next. Hate it tbh. I prefer stability.

 

[sdifox]

I kinda thought of that, but like you say still have to clean that, and it would probably come up to the same issue. I'm toying with the idea of installing nichrome wire under each panel with a temp sensor, and I would just run a couple kw worth of power through the nichrome wire to melt the ice from the bottom which may be enough to make it all slide off in one chunk. Only thing is I would need a lot of battery capacity for that if I'm going to try to make this grid independent. I'm thinking I would need to run it for at least an hour per panel, ideally do one panel at once so I can concentrate all available power to one panel at a time. Though I'll have to experiment as it might turn out to work faster than I think.

Got a huge storm the other day, bought some snow shoes so I don't have to keep shoveling a path to the shed every couple days, went to take all the snow I could off them. I will still try to stay on top of that, as if by chance we get a warm enough day the icy snow layer might actually melt off. Our weather is so messed up these days, can be -30 one day and +5 the next. Hate it tbh. I prefer stability.

Lol use more power than you generate to keep the solar panels working?

 

[clamum]

Cuz the page is 500mb

The front page of ATOT is 500 MB? I think that's rather... nuts. I mean, there's small pictures for ads and avatars and the rest is text; only 24 total threads are listed. There must be a bunch of JavaScript behind the scenes too, or something. I do recall seeing an article last year about the growth in web page size. SMH

 

[sdifox]

The front page of ATOT is 500 MB? I think that's rather... nuts. I mean, there's small pictures for ads and avatars and the rest is text; only 24 total threads are listed. There must be a bunch of JavaScript behind the scenes too, or something. I do recall seeing an article last year about the growth in web page size. SMH

I am making it up xd

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lol use more power than you generate to keep the solar panels working?

Well that's the thing it would take about a week to recover so if we get freezing rain several days in a row I'd probably be kinda screwed either way. For regular snow I still need to take it off manually. Might experiment with an automated brush system at some point.

We just keep getting blizzards now so I kind of gave up for the time being. There's like 2 feet of snow sitting on top of the ice now. I stopped bothering clearing a path to the shed I just use snow shoes now. Might go clear it tomorrow if the wind slows down so I don't get it all in the face lol.

My setup is still more viable than Solar Roadways. lol.

 

[snoopy7548]

I still think you should just get a sledgehammer and smash the ice off.

 

[sdifox]

I still think you should just get a sledgehammer and smash the ice off.

That is probably not viable with solar panels.

 

[Charmonium]

One of the cats is a nineteen year old female. Lately, she has started demanding new food when there is still food in the bowl. The food in the bowl is a few hours old. Generally I ignore her demands because I think finicky eaters can starve if they want to. Anyway, I decided to appease her by stirring a bit of water to the old food and putting it back out. As soon as the food bowl hit the floor she was on it. Then she spun around and gave me the best DIAF look I've ever gotten from anyone in my whole life. Then I laughed at her and the look got even better. She won and I gave her new food. I figure she's nineteen.

Check her teeth. She might only have a few left so chewing is difficult. I had an old cat a while ago and I used to use a wand blender to mix water in with wet food so she could just slurp it up. She had kibble the rest of the time but she seemed to really enjoy the cat food soup.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I forgot my coffee mug in my car overnight and went to retrieve it and of course it's all frozen lol. Hopefully I didn't mess up the seal. It's a nice one too, it's more like a small insulated coffee pot.

I usually dump the coffee from the pot into it and then use that to pour in my normal mug but won't be doing that today.

 

[clamum]

I'm at work for another 2-2.5 hours and I was almost falling asleep when doing code reviews for my co-worker a bit ago. At least it's time for my daily vape break so I can walk around a bit. Can't wait to get home and take an hour nap.