Starting out
Why inverter power can be safer
The big inverter in my truck is rated 800 watts or 6.5 amps which is the same as 6,500 milliamps. It takes roughly 100 miliamps to stop a human heart. Yet, I don’t give much though to my worn electric cords that in some cases have bare wires. Certainly I could get a nasty shock from them but it’s actually fairly unlikely and a fatal shock is quite unlikely. Why not?
While the inverter will stall and go into fault mode, shutting off output upon overload that’s far above the levels needed for a nasty shock. But because the neutral on the inverter is floating – not tied to the ground and is not supposed to be referenced to the frame of the truck if the isolation is proper the shock risk is quite low. Electricity is defined as the difference in electrons between the hot side and the neutral – in alternating current the difference can be either positive or negative.
But for electricity to exist the neutral and the hot must be connected together at the source – either in the battery, the coil of the alternator / generator or the solar panel. No reference between the hot and the neutral and therefore no power exists.
So if I were to touch the hot wire on one of my electrical wires running off the inverter, no power would be transmitted, even though I’m touching the ground as the hot wire on the inverter is not referenced to the ground, it’s simply referenced to the floating neutral. There is no shock potential unless I touch the neutral wire at the same time, and it’s unlikely such a shock would run through both hands or to the ground.
Large electrical systems are referenced to the earth, because the earth has a fairly stable number of electrons across long distances unlike a floating ground. This means the voltage is more stable and also means if a wire touches the ground if it will quickly throw a breaker. If lightening strikes the line, it also will be quickly passed to the ground, avoiding melting many miles of wire. But it also means if you touch a hot wire, you’ll get a very nasty shock if you are touching the ground.
Exploring a Hidden Archive of New York City’s Historic Trash
September 15, 2019 Morning
Good morning! Happy Sunday. Four weeks to Average High is 60 🍂. Partly sunny and 56 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 54 degrees. Seems like a nice morning. I’m making up some french toast 🧇 and coffee ☕ now and going to soon take a shower 🚿.
I think the plan for today is to hike Windham High Peak 🗻 and go out to my parents house 🍲 for Sunday dinner. 🚶 I haven’t done Windham High Peak in a number of years and I have think it will be a nice hike, even if last time I was up there I was under impressed by the views. 📷
Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 75 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 10th. Maximum dew point of 57 at 11am. West wind 3 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1915.
The sun will set at 7:06 pm with dusk around 7:34 pm, which is one minute and 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 69 degrees. The dew point will be 55 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a slight chance of showers after 1am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 2nd. Maximum dew point of 56 at 10pm. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was sticky. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 32 occurred back in 1964.
The display in my bedroom is still getting stuck and malfunctioning a lot. 📟 I think I’ve found the bad solder joint and the board, I will have to hit it again with the soldering iron. 🔬
Next weekend keeps looking increasingly hot and sunny. 😎 I think it might be good for one more weekend at the potholers after I do the Pine Bush Bird Hike 🐦 early on Saturday morning.
Been thinking 💭 about hiking back to Pharoah Lake in late October or early November. 🚶 I made up a revised map 🗾 yesterday and was thinking it would be a nice day hike. The hike back there is an easy 3 1/2 miles each way over virtually flat terrain (you gain only 200 ft in elevation from Beaver Brook Road) but the 420 acre lake 🐠 is 5 miles around it so it’s a good distance. Do it in November and all your bound to see is a few deer hunters, 🦌 the crowds 👪 will be long gone.
I haven’t talked or given a whole lot of thought towards saving for my off grid house 🏡 lately. The automatic investments are doing their thing and I’m getting closer one step at a time. Yeah, a lot of people I went to school with or know are buying houses out in the country 🐮 but I just can’t see doing that while I still live in New York. I’m fine spending a lot of weekends for now in the wilderness, camping, cooking and having fires. 🔥
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Average High is 60 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 6:17 pm with dusk at 6:45 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly cloudy and temperatures between 55 and 41 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 61 degrees. We hit a record high of 81 back in 1930.
How Misdemeanors Turn Innocent People Into Criminals
Misdemeanors have always been the chump change of the American criminal system. We call them “petty.” We call them “minor.” They are the way that we punish people when we think that their offenses are not serious enough to warrant felony treatment. Not only felony punishment, but also the due process and attention that goes with prosecuting and adjudicating serious crimes. In writing this book, it was shocking to me how little attention we have paid to this vast swath of criminal justice work that the state engages in.
Dog Looks Off Ledge
