Dumping Excess Power Into Starting Battery

Often when I am camping or when I leave my truck parked for a long period of time at home, I think it would be it would be nice to have the solar panel dump excess, unused power into the starting battery.

 New Battery

This means I would always have a very happy starting battery, ready to give maximum spin to the engine even in cold winter weather. The way to do this would be to have a voltage monitoring switch, like this $7 dollarΒ XY-CD60 voltage-monitoring switch I got from AliExpress. For about twice as much, you can get also get it on Amazon. It came in the mail, and it looks just like below — I haven’t had a chance to test it, but it looks like it will work perfectly for my situation.

My plan is to use this “voltage switch” to connect the relay between the starting battery and other batteries charged by the solar to dump the excess charge into the starting battery. I will probably set the unit into out mode (discharge protection mode), with an activation voltage at around 14.0 volts, with a delay of maybe 120 seconds, so that the relay isn’t activated until I know I have a sufficient charge to keep the voltage from dipping back below the threshold when the starting battery connects. It will take a while to figure out what settings works well for me — I don’t want to connect the starting battery too soon and have the voltage drop have it shut off the relay prematurely.

The product didn’t come with any documentation but the AliExpress website has some decent documentation in somewhat broken English, but I think I’ll be able to get it working fine. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Next Time – Tuesday December 17

Today’s sunrise was at 7:19 am. The next time the sun will rise earlier then today πŸŒ„ is in 36 days on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.

The average high for today is 35 degrees. 🌑 The next time it will be on average warmer then today is in 64 days on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 when the average temperature will be 36 degrees.

Today’s sunset will be at 4:23 pm. The next time the sun will set earlier then today πŸŒ† is in 350 days on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

The average low for today is 21 degrees. 🌑 The next night it will be on average warmer then tonight is in 78 days on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 when the average temperature will be 22 degrees.

Monument to the Civilian Conservation Corp Worker

Alaska students butcher moose carcass to learn life skills | CBC News

Alaska students butcher moose carcass to learn life skills | CBC News

Students at an Alaska high school have received lessons in anatomy, life skills and Alaska cultural traditions through an unusual study source: a moose carcass.

About 30 Chugiak High School students de-boned, separated, ground and packaged the animal during a recent World Discovery Seminar class, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.

Teacher Brian Mason provided an interactive lesson on moose anatomy that produced some squeamish moments. The students processed about 91 kilograms of moose meat. They plan to cook and eat some of the meat at a dinner and donate the rest to charity.

December 17, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Snowy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is Christmas Eve 🎅. Snow and 27 degrees at the CDTA Bus Stop #10595. ❄ There is a north breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There are 1.5 inches of snow on the ground and it’s continuing to accumulate. β˜ƒ ️Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around noontime. 🌡️ God may have put it here but he’s in no hurry to take it away.

Slip sliding my way to work on the bus 🚍. By the speed the traffic is moving it must be fairly slippery around, indeed I’ve felt the traction control kick in hard a few times as the wheels had some slip on the hills. I am fully confident that I will make it into work on time. I thought about walking 🚶 down to the express bus 🚏but that’s the last express downtown for the day and if it got stuck I would be screwed. I will probably take the express home, as worse comes to worse I’ll be home late or have to walk part of the distance.

Today will snow. 🌨 High of 29 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal. North wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1984. 11.1 inches of snow fell back in 1970.❄ I don’t think we will beat the 1970 record today.

The sun will set at 4:23 pm with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for even more snow 🌨 and temperatures around 28 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 22 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly before 9pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 14th. Maximum wind chill around 22 at 6am; Light north wind becoming northwest 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2018, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 20 degrees. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1919. It’s winter. Okay, maybe not officially until the weekend but so be it.

Today in 1777 durting the American Revolution, France formally recognizes the United States. 🍟I am sure that the Idaho potato farmers thank France for that invention of lard fried potatoes. I’ve heard North Idaho is a lot different than the potato growing and cattle grazing region of South Idaho. Beautiful state though.

Cloudy and cold weekend on tap. ☁ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Typical average high for the weekend is 34 degrees. Welcome to the winter. I’m hoping for better weather for next weekend for my camping trip. It looks like the end of the month might actually be quite mild.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 when the sun will be setting at 4:45 pm with dusk at 5:16 pm. By then the evenings will be noticeably longer. On that day in 2019, we had partly sunny skies, with a few snow showers and temperatures between 28 and 8 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1932.

 Late November in Adirondacks