July 31, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Mostly clear and 72 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees.

I went out to the folks house for burgers 🍔 and a nice evening. 🐶 They got a cute puppy, which I wore out taking around the path. Fast but not that fast.

Pleasant evening 🌃, I kind of wish I had sat out back but ended up sitting inside watching some of the YouTube videos I had downloaded. 📹 And spent some time working on maps.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 59 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 21st. Maximum dew point of 62 at 11pm. Northwest wind around 5 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1964.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 93% illuminated. At 11 PM, the moon was in the south (180°) at an altitude of 24° from the horizon, some 235,412 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by January 26th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Strugeon 🐡 Moon is on Monday, August 3. The darkest hour is at 1:02 am, followed by dawn at 5:15 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:47 am in the east-northeast (64°) and last for 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 2 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:28 am with sun in the east-northeast (71°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 31 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 84 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 8am. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was very sticky. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 101 was set in 1933.

Should be a nice day. 😎 I am thinking 💭 I’ll run to the store in the morning 🏬 and then I will go out to Patridge Run or maybe Cole Hill then over to the friends farm for their socially distant summer celebration 🎉. She works in public health and COVID-19 so I’m sure we will be super safe. 😷 Coronavirus can’t end summer.

In four weeks on August 28 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (284°) at 7:36 pm,🌄 which is 40 minutes and 26 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 85 and 66 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 78 and 58 degrees. The record high of 98 degrees was set back in 1948.

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6 Ways to Build a Roth Retirement Nest Egg

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6 Ways to Build a Roth Retirement Nest Egg

uilding up a Roth nest egg can pay off in spades for retirees. Money in a Roth IRA grows tax-free, and the account doesn’t have required minimum distributions—so you withdraw the money only when you need it. Withdrawals are also tax-free, so they don’t trigger other consequences. Roth withdrawals don’t count in the calculations for taxing Social Security benefits or determining Medicare premium surcharges, for instance. Roths “give retirees a lot of flexibility,” says Gil Charney, director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, “and some control over their tax liability.”

But there isn’t just one route to getting money into a Roth. You can take a variety of paths to reach tax-free nirvana—some more well-known than others. We’ll provide you the map, so you can choose which routes might best serve your situation.

Lithium ion batteries! 🔋

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Lithium ion batteries! 🔋

One of the technologies I’m continuing to watch is Lithium Ion (LiON) batteries for off-grid applications. Currently mostly used in high end installations, I expect within a decade it will become the go to technology for most off-grid properties. LiON batteries aren’t a miracle technology but they’re a steady evolution in the world of deep cycle batteries. They are generally lighter than lead acid batteries, store more energy, and require less energy. But they’re currently still a significant price over lead acid.

Lead acid deep cycle technology is a 120 year old technology that is proven and has seen small improvements that have added up over the decades. But the technology has its limits – its easily abused and damaged, it requires a fair share of maintenance. Traditional lead acid batteries batteries can be cycled deeper then starting batteries but they are easily destroyed if they are over discharged, warping their internal plates and changing their internal chemistry with sulfur building up on their plates to so they can’t be fully recharged. They also produce explosive hydrogen gas when being charged and regularly have to be topped off with distilled water and sometimes require additional acid and cleaning of battery terminals from sulfuric acid that builds up on them. They can last as long as a decade and are almost completely recycled when returned for the core charge.

Lead acid is a technology that has long been the standard like florescent lighting but is quickly becoming obsolete. LiON batteries don’t produce explosive gas, don’t require additional water or regular cleaning of the battery terminals. They can safely cycled to a much lower discharge level, have intelligent integrated battery control and are much lighter. But they are still a much newer technology and still expensive and novel. Come another decade, much is expected to change.

The truth is while off-grid technologies are a lot more advanced than a decade ago there is a lot more improvement and technological improvement that is certain to happen in the next decade. The push for electric cars and more renewables is only going to push the price of solar panels and LiON batteries down and make them more efficient. Microcontrollers are becoming more efficient and smarter at driving IGBTs and better at moving and switching power appropriately. The next generation, when I’m ready to make the leap should be mature and quite reliable if used within the parameters of the equipment.

Check out this video of Raspberry Rock and his new LIFEPO4 powerwall …