Mmm, sumwun gaif mwe pink dwonots! So delish!  

Lots of beautiful canals here in #belgium 🇧🇪

Did you know canals were typically dug simply by lots of people shoveling dirt? 🤯

Nom nom 🍩

#night #photography #sky #barge #canal #twilight #clouds #nightphotography #wintersky #windgenerator #industrial

So, regarding the work I was doing yesterday... We're going to be replacing a windmill soon, and there was some wiring in this cabin that had been done by a professional solar installer years ago. The task was to remove an old charge controller and install the new one (for the new wind generator), ahead of putting the actual generator up later on.

If you're setting up an off-grid power system, or really doing any electrical work, please try to keep future you in mind (or anyone else who might touch it later on) as far as ease of wiring, overcurrent protection, and disconnects. The previous installer had run 2/0 cables from a fairly large 24 V battery bank into a small metal box with a disconnect (a repurposed 3-phase AC disconnect, but that's another story). The switch itself only controlled the inverter, leaving a minor rats nest of cabling still connected to the battery. There were wires going to other components as well which at that point were unused.

I wanted to disconnect the power before removing the old charge controller, since the terminals were fairly close. Unfortunately, this would be difficult without going to the battery and disconnecting the wire there. I eventually realized I could just cut one of the wires to this charge controller to remove power, carefully tape off the live end, then disconnect the remaining wires from the terminals of the controller. I was able to finish what I wanted to do, and leave it safely. But it was kind of a pain.

So, if you're setting up an off-grid system, consider a battery disconnect that shuts everything off. Also consider proper bus bars, and enclosures with enough space to keep things tidy and easy to work on. 24 V isn't high voltage, but I'm still not interested in shorting huge cables from a big battery in close quarters.

#batteries #WindGenerator #OffGrid #electricity

on the #Autobahn again

#road #street #cartravel #trip #highway #sign #sky #blue #windgenerator #windmills #eastfrisia #germany #europe