Alright, it looks like I pushed a few buttons on the whole TAXES issue? Good! We should all be more than a little pissed about the outright theft of our money. That money  has a direct connection to the amount of time we traded to get it. We all live relatively short lives and theft of our money on the scale that the government does it should be a capital crime. Ever heard the phrase – “Time is money”?

   I think that phrase would be more accurate if it were turned around – “Money is time”! Last I checked none of have a lot of time to spare! Time is a valuable commodity and it is traditionally treated as a crime to abscond with a persons valuables?

  If we all had the opportunity of making one annual tax payment, maybe even on the 15th of April, I believe we would have our country back in short order! I seem to recall a small blip on the historical timeline that had something to do with taxation without representation. Were those particular tax payers be held up for half their earnings? Hmm, a revolution over taxation? Hmm?

   Someone is sure to remind me that we’re getting a lot of services in return for our tax money. We often even get to vote on how our tax dollars are assessed. Well, let me relate a little story to all of you on how we Washington State taxpayers are being represented…

   A few years ago the voters were given the opportunity to vote on the building of a new baseball stadium for our local team. Much to my surprise, the very “blue state” voters rejected the new stadium by a wide margin… You might think, that would be that – Oh No, not quite! Our politicians decided that the voters must not have been fully informed prior to casting there votes, so they conducted a media campaign and brought the issue before us soft skull-ed citizens again… If I recall correctly the second vote was to reject the new stadium by an even larger margin?

  Who knew – the voters didn’t want to pay for a new stadium? Certainly, that would be the end of it! Oh No, not quite! If you aren’t familiar with Washington State sports arenas, let me explain – we didn’t just get to build one stadium, we got to build two… In the politicians infinite wisdom, they decided that we voters just couldn’t see what was in our own best interests, besides if we didn’t build the stadiums, we would lose our teams!

   I think you can see what I’m driving at here so I’ll let this drop… Sorry, I just have to relate one more thing… We, Seattle, already had a Stadium! Anyone remember the KING DOME? Yes that giant concrete domed monstrosity, we had to destroy that stadium to make room for the new ones! One issue though – we hadn’t finished paying for the King Dome yet! We still had a measly 20 more years worth of payments. No biggie, this is all just tax money, right! Tax money that we have already agreed represents a big piece of our lives… I’m not bitter, really I’m not – just disillusioned!

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    I digress, I really was going to run an idea past all of you and see if I could get some reader feedback… With all of the talk we’ve been doing lately on our foundational systems, I wanted to move a project up the priority list for a small solar electric system at the BOL.

   I currently have a couple of UniSolar 64 Watt solar panels stashed away, just waiting to be utilized. I also have the (3) 12 volt deep cycle batteries that were previously installed in our fifth wheel. A charge controller, conduit and some wire would still have to be purchased but the big ticket items are already here.

    As far as the amp hour storage and other specs on the batteries, I can’t be sure until I get a look at them next time I go to the BOL. The panels would put out 128 watts per hour at the maximum. Being conservative, I would only plan to average 3-4 hours a day of good sun exposure. I was thinking that a safe estimate would be 50% efficiency for 3 hours a day to total, 192 watts of usable power each day. I would rather be off to the low side and end up with extra watts, rather than not enough power.

  So, what I was planning to accomplish with this small system was mostly interior lighting. I have a few calculations done and with a light fixture wired into all of the major rooms or areas of the BOL, I should still have watts to spare. This will of course require that I use the very efficient LED lighting technology.

   I’m going to need a light fixture in the kitchen, living room plus both bedrooms and both baths. I think that’s getting off pretty easy! Six light fixtures for an entire home… Yes, a small home, but either way not to bad.

   Since this isn’t a big powerful system and I’m not real interested in spending the dollars required for a quality efficient inverter right now, I thought I would wire these lights for 12 volt DC. The LED bulbs have come a long way and are available in many different configurations now. I found some with the traditional “Edison” style twist-in bases that we’re all familiar with from our regular household light bulbs. These bulbs would allow for the use of standard light fixtures with just minimal wiring modifications.

  I found several bulbs offered that were advertised as equivalent to a 50-60 watt incandescent in brightness or lumens… The best part is that the LED lights only used 1.5 – 7 watts rather than the 50-60 watts normally required. This is a real windfall and is the central factor that makes this a workable project on such a small scale.

   Unless I’m way off in my figures the lights should only be on 4-5 hours a day and not all at the same time. Even with all 6 lights on at the same time and figuring the 7 watt bulbs, I could run them all for 4.5 hours each night and still not quite hit the 192 watts. These lights will not be as bright as what we are currently using but should be adequate for their purpose!

   In addition to the lights, I plan to wire in a couple general outlets. These could be used to run a rechargeable battery station, cell phone charger and various pieces of radio equipment we keep for our security setup. If I’m right about having watts left over and as conservative as I am, I should be. I think it wouldn’t be out of the question to run a laptop computer and even a TV/DVD combo unit from time to time as well.

   My plan is to get the solar panels positioned properly but also trying to keep them as close to the center of the house as I can. This positioning would allow me to only have to run the 12 volt wiring half the distance of the house in either direction. Even though I won’t be asking the county building permit office for their permission, I will build this at least to code if not better. All wiring will be run in the proper conduit and done in a permanent fashion. I want this to be a real asset for us in the long run, with expandability in mind too!

   Well? Will this work? I’m sure we’re all a lot alike and I know I often miss things, usually small details but sometimes the big stuff too… What am I missing? I calculated out the total remaining costs that I’ll have to get this done but like I said the big items, batteries and panels are already there. I do plan to photo document the entire project and will definitely give you an after action debriefing. If you see something I’m forgetting, please speak up as I’d like to get this up and operational ASAP… Thanks!

Prepper