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Thursday, dirsday day…. ☀️

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Going to be a hot ol’ summer day, though again not too humid. We haven’t had too many real muggers of the day so far this summer, but I’m sure they are coming, even if I’m still waiting for the cap. I will make it a priority to call Andy Ruth this morning.

Today is the last scheduled day of the legislative session, 🏦 after which I feel fairly comfortable about wearing shorts and taking off whatever time is necessary for the rest of the summer. 🩳Next week will be a lot easier to take delivery of the truck cap 🚛 too. I really should call today, but I don’t want to hear the bad news that might be further delayed. Still if I get it next week, and get things mostly wired up the following weekend I’m hoping to be ready to head out of town for Juneteenth Weekend assuming the weather is decent. 🔌 Everything doesn’t have to be perfect but I want the solar and inverter wired up, and the ability to move power from the starting battery/alternator back and forth to the accessory batteries. 🪫

Last night after going to the store 🛒 and getting some supplies, I fried up some onion pancakes and with the heat and my exhaustion went to bed, 🛏️ though didn’t get to sleep until a little before 9 PM and awoke around six AM. ⏰ I’ve just been kind of tired lately, though not feeling like I have Lyme disease. Maybe it’s my impatience about the truck cap, 📆 watching as summer fades away as does the days I’ll be free to travel. Hoping the weather in two weeks will be good enough to take dad to the Gas Up. 🚜 He seems a bit better then Mom, but he turned 79 this year, and will be 80 next February. Things that keep me up at night. I know you can hire people to feed livestock, 🐐 but I also know I only have so many days to travel like I have in years past. I got to call 📱 Ruth’s today and make sure the cap hasn’t been sitting on their lot and they’ve not been able to reach me. I’d love to be able to make the appointment for early next week, hand over the cash, catch the bus downtown and bike the remaining way to work, 🚲 and have the cap ready to go. Getting the second solar panel on Saturday. ☀️ I want to be home to take delivery, but I also hope to get up to Thacher Park on the Nature Bus 🚏 for a while on Saturday to read and hang out. 🌧️ Still talking rain showers and clouds this weekend, but not as wet.

Well I need to get in the shower, 🚿 and then hop o the mountain bike 🚵‍♂️ and peddle to work. Chain started to sound a bit dry, it’s been a few days since I last greased it, so I should do that before I get into the office. Probably a pretty quiet day in the office, yesterday was, just updating and fixing little things in the database using the latest property tax rolls. Maybe this evening I’ll go out to Five Rivers, or I could go to the forum they are having at the local library on AI Data Centers. 🖥️ I sort of like playing with AI but I wish the models were more localized, smaller and more efficent that you could run them on your own computer without all this government and corporate censorship 😶. AI is really good for exploring ideas, getting summaries of various issues.

Map: Hawkins Pond State Forest And County Park
Map: Hooker Mountain State Forest And WMA

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

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I concede I’ve been a bit slow at switching the CSS to reflect pride month, but it’s now upon us. One of the great strengths of nation is it’s diversity, and we should let people live as they so please as long as they’re not impacting our own lives. Live and let live!

PWM vs MPPT Solar Controllers

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The fundamental difference between PWM and MPPT solar controllers is how they handle excess voltage from solar panels: a PWM controller acts as a direct switch that drags panel voltage down to the battery’s voltage level, whereas an MPPT controller acts as an intelligent DC-to-DC converter that transforms excess panel voltage into additional charging current.

FeaturePWM (Pulse Width Modulation)MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking)
How it WorksActs like a rapid on/off switch.Acts like an automated, variable transformer.
Voltage HandlingForces panel voltage to match battery voltage.Decouples panel voltage from battery voltage.
Power ConversionClips excess voltage, wasting potential power.Converts high voltage into extra amperage.
EfficiencyGenerally 75% to 80% efficient.Typically 95% to 99% efficient.
CostLow cost and highly budget-friendly.High cost, higher initial investment.

PWM Controllers

A PWM controller functions essentially like an electronic valve. When connected, it locks the solar panel’s operating voltage to the battery’s current voltage.

  • The Problem: If a solar panel naturally wants to run at 18V to produce peak power, but your battery sits at 12V, the PWM controller forces the panel down to 12V.
  • The Result: The remaining 6V is entirely lost. Because it cannot manipulate current, the excess voltage yields zero extra charging power.

MPPT Controllers

An MPPT controller acts as a smart power optimizer. It constantly tracks the panel’s “sweet spot” where voltage and current multiply to create the highest total wattage.

  • The Process: It allows the solar panel to run at its highest native voltage (e.g., 36V or 100V).
  • The Result: The controller drops that high input voltage down to match the battery voltage, while simultaneously boosting the output amperage going into the battery. You capture up to 30% more total energy from the exact same panels. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Climate and Environmental Factors

  • Cold Weather: MPPT controllers drastically outperform PWM options in winter. Solar panel voltage spikes as temperatures drop. MPPT converts this bonus voltage into more charging power, while PWM simply discards it. [1, 2, 3, 4]
  • Hot Weather: The performance gap narrows on hot summer days. High heat drops panel voltage closer to the battery’s voltage level. Because there is less “extra” voltage to convert, an MPPT provides a much smaller efficiency boost over PWM in tropical environments.

System Design Considerations

  • Panel Matching: PWM requires the solar array to have the same nominal voltage as the battery bank (e.g., a 12V panel for a 12V battery). MPPT allows you to use high-voltage house panels or string multiple panels in series to save on wiring costs.
  • System Size: For small, low-power systems under 200W (like a single panel on a small camper or a gate opener), a PWM controller is highly cost-effective. For larger arrays or high-performance setups over 400W, an MPPT controller is almost mandatory to avoid massive energy waste.
Thematic Map: Percentage of Municipality Forested
Map: South Mountain State Forest

It was the third of June on a hot summer day… 🩴

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With all apologizes to Bobby Jo Gentry and her song of nearly 60 years ago now. I still can’t believe how many wrinkles that farmer girl I knew from high school now has. All that time out in the sun turning dirt I guess.

It’s going to be a nice ride in today, 🚴 as today I don’t have any meetings to go to after work. Guilderland adopted the local law requiring properties being considered in Albany Pine Bush Study Area to get reviewed by the Albany Pine Bush Technical Commission 🔎🦋 which we spoke in favor of the meeting last night. So that was good, and I got home at a reasonable hour. If I wasn’t tired and hungry, 😋 I could have gone for a ride for a bit, I thought about getting some groceries as I’m low on a list of things, but I’ll just do that after work today.

Still no news on the truck cap. 🚛 I will call around 10:30 AM this week but I doubt I’ll get it installed before the weekend. ☔ Going to rain this weekend, so probably not the best weekend to do this.  Second solar panel and “y” connector is getting delivered on Saturday so I want to be here to take delivery. Friday, if it’s hot and nice, ☀️ I might drive in so I can run mid-day to Metal Warehouse to get some aluminum bar for mounting that second panel. I figure if I could also squeeze in some time after work in the hammock if it’s hot by the river at Henry Hudson Park, read until dark and then run into Wally World for supplies. Also need a second battery box, I will get that at Albany Walmart when I have the truck cap installed. Might also go up to Thacher Park on Nature Bus 🚏 this weekend, depends on when the panel is delivered and how wet things really are. Kind of looks like a dreary weekend.

Well, it’s time to shower, turn off that Ode to Billie Joe, 🎙️ and hop on the mountain bike 🚵‍♂️ and get to work before it gets too hot and it’s too late in the morning. 🌅 Important the big boss man gets to work on time, need to make that money, so I can save and invest it to buy hog feed, 🐷 land  🚜 and that heavy-guage metal for the homestead incinerator 🔥 some day in the future at the off-grid cabin. 🐐 Plus pay for the truck cap and other things I’ve already committed to for the next few years.

A gas crisis like COVID ⛽

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I often dream of an energy crisis like COVID. Quiet roads, people stay home and stay safe because they can’t afford fuel for their cars due to the continuing Middle Eastern Crisis brought on by the lack of leadership by the President.

I remember those days during the height of the COVID Pause in early April 2020 when the roads were mostly quiet and free of traffic. Schools and businesses shuttered. People stayed home, worked remotely. It was nice not hearing the constant mill of traffic. Much less urban air pollution as vast fleets of cars stop running, as people can’t afford to gas up. A deep crisis, an economic shutdown.

This time I would be much better prepared if it came to that with my laptop and VPN set up. Plus I would have my bicycle so despite dramatic cut backs in vehicle use due to excessive gas prices, I could ride my bike to work most days. And if I needed to work from home, I could always use the much more extensive data my phone plan offers, or go down to the library, which would be unlikely to be closed due to high fuel prices.

Even camping, while expensive, would be good during such a crisis, with the woods mostly quiet and free of others, and I could remote work, writing reports from the hammock and taking calls from side of swimming hole, taking breaks to jump into the swimming hole. But maybe I just have too many good memories from the working from the backcountry in summer 2020.