Divemedic

Panels

IcyReaper wants to know more about the panels that we selected. I checked through the previous posts and realized that I hadn’t talked about them at all. The PV panels are the heart of any solar system, so let’s review them.

When considering which manufacturer I wanted to go with for our PV panels, we wanted to go with a large, reputable panel manufacturer. SunPower, REC and Panasonic are three manufacturers widely known for producing some of the highest quality solar panels with low degradation and good warranties. For that reason, they cost up to 30% more, but I wanted reliability.

Although REC was originally a Norwegian company with a good reputation in the industry, their panels are actually made in Singapore. The company has been bought and sold several times, and is now owned by another company headquartered in India. The company makes panels with higher efficiency and more output at up to 470 watts per panel, but they are more expensive than some of their slightly less efficient models. It winds up costing more to get the extra output than it would to simply add more panels, and roof space isn’t an issue for me, as I have a lot of sun facing southern roof to work with.

We decided on the REC Alpha Pure 2 panel for our PV panel. The spec sheet can be found here (pdf alert). The panel is 1.8 meters by 1 meter, and has an output of 420 watts with an efficiency of 22 percent. It has a 20 year warranty and has been tested as retaining 92% of its rated output at 25 years. If the REC panels are installed by a certified installer, the warranty is extended out to 25 years. You can read a review on REC panels here.

REC solar panels operate at high efficiency, have a low 0.25% annual degradation rate and come with an excellent 25-year performance, product and labor warranty. As I mentioned in earlier posts, the panels are designed for 140 mile per hour winds and hailstones of up to 35mm. In my book, that made them durable enough to withstand some serious weather.

The panels look nice, because they are pure black with no light colored lines. They simply look better than the older panels.

The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Engineering is Done

It’s been a busy week here at the Sector Ocho support facility. Aside from working three 12 hour days, I also had two days of training tossed in, for a total of 52 hours this week. Let’s see if they pay the overtime or not.

I also got the final engineering report on the solar project. The 24 solar panels have a total surface area of about 500 square feet. That works out to 46.5 square meters. The panels have an efficiency of 22 percent, meaning that we generate a maximum of 10,260 watts at full daylight (full, direct sun is 1,000 watts per square meter). What is interesting is that even in heavy clouds, we still get 230 watts per square meter of sunlight here in Florida (I measured it), and the panels will still produce more than 95% of full output at that light level:

The panels themselves are rated for wind up to 140 miles per hour, and hailstones up to 35mm in diameter.

Now that the engineering report is done, we are applying to the electric company and the city for our operating and construction permits. I have to clear out one side of the garage for the wiring, panels, and mounting of the Tesla powerwalls. Installation should be within the next two to three weeks, depending on permit times.

By Divemedic, ago

Another of those supposedly rare bad Apples

The description of the crime I am about to give is disturbing, but I think that it is needed, so that we all can understand the nature of the evil that we are looking at here.

A police officer in Bartow, Florida has been arrested after he went to a party and had four girls naked in his home in Lake Wales: two were 18 years old, one was 17, and the last was 16 years old. All were nude, all of them were high school students, and he gave them alcohol and marijuana before he directed the 17 year old to perform a sex act upon one of the 18 year olds. He had sex with all four girls, and even choked some of them.

He compounded this by recording the entire thing before showing the recording to his police officer coworkers. I guess he felt that the blue wall of silence was strong enough that his fellow gang members in blue would support him. At least one of them was brave enough to come forward, and for that I recognize that there is at least one cop with a conscience in the Bartow police department. As a result the police chief turned this over to the Polk County sheriff’s office, and Grady Judd himself made the arrest announcement. Judd, who occasionally does the right thing and never misses a chance to look tough on camera, then ran with it.

I know from personal experience that Bartow cops doing the right thing isn’t always the case, since one of them was part of a scheme to get me in some serious hot water a few years ago. That failed for two reasons:

What is most revealing about this, is that the cop thought that he would be safe in telling other cops about molesting kids, and that they would be OK with it. It makes one wonder what the police culture looks like, and how many crimes cops ARE cool with covering up.

Still, in this case, the police who decided to do the right thing are to be commended.

By Divemedic, ago

It Isn’t the Same

All of Europe has spent years slamming the people in the US for using air conditioning. I have blogged on this before. Now the UK is crying because they are facing a “record heatwave,” with heat and humidity never seen before. It’s called summer, and you whiny bitches do this every year.

Pussies.

The temperatures in the UK are topping out around 78 degrees Fahrenheit, with dew points at 55 degF (13 deg C) or less. That makes the heat index (feels like) temperature 77 degrees.

Here in Florida, 80 degF was our low for the day, hotter than your high to start the day. The dew point is 74 degF (23 degC), making the heat index a balmy 84 deF (29 degC) before the sun even comes up.

It’s called summer, not climate change.

By Divemedic, ago

Reimagining Home Defense

Now that the ATF rule on pistol braces is no more, it’s time to reevaluate the home defense gun situation. I can again have a pistol brace on my Scorpion, which is a superior home defense gun for a number of reasons. It is shorter and less unwieldy, allows for faster follow on shots, and swings better than a shotgun. This makes it easier to work corners. I did a review of this PDW a couple of years ago.

Loaded with 135gr Critical Duty FTX ammo, I get a bullet leaving the barrel at just less than the sound barrier, meaning that I get a hard hitting round that is easily suppressed by my Tundra suppressor. With a light, along with laser dot and holographic sights mounted on it, this weapon is great for clearing the house.

It will be stored in a location that makes it easy to access in the event that something goes bump in the night.

By Divemedic, ago

Collapse

As empires collapse, the government employees/legislators begin to loot the treasury in preparation for the coming hard times. I believe that we are there. In support of this, I offer the increasingly blatant examples of Congress making hundreds of millions, the Bidens selling access, this morning’s story about CBP agents on the take, and someone in the Arkansas Department of Education creating a fake $66 million contract that, according to the vendor, doesn’t exist.

I have been posting on this since 2009, nearly since this blog began.

  • Reagan borrowed his first trillion in 6 years
  • George HW Bush borrowed his first trillion in 3 years, and he increased the National debt by 170% in four years.
  • It took President Clinton 3 and a half years to borrow his first trillion dollars. All told, he borrowed $1.2 trillion in his first term, and $600 billion in his second. He increased the national debt by 140% in eight years.
  • President George W Bush borrowed his first trillion dollars in two and a half years. He borrowed his second trillion a year and a half later. Another two years, another $1 trillion. All told, President Bush borrowed $5 trillion in 8 years, increasing the national debt by 187%.
  • Obama borrowed his first trillion in 13 months.
  • Trump borrowed his first trillion in just over 7 months. In all, he borrowed about $8 trillion in four years.
  • Biden has borrowed $6 trillion in the three and a half years he has been in the Oval office. Now we are borrowing a trillion dollars every 5 and a half months.

The US treasury has borrowed $24 trillion in the past 15 years.

By Divemedic, ago

The Left is Pissed

I will still say that I believe that the Democrat candidate, whomever that turns out to be, will be declared the winner in the 2024 election. After that, what comes next? Here are some clues:

Like most dictatorships, the left only has respect for a court that rules the way that they want it to. Once the court is no longer serving leftist ends, expect there to be big changes. However, the President is simply ignoring the decisions of the court that he doesn’t like. See student loan forgiveness.

This tells me that the rulings coming out on bump stocks, abortion, and braces are simply tools to rile up the leftist base, so the court is permitted to continue. Still, expect to see some changes after the election.

By Divemedic, ago

Tactics

I am putting an Ambush manual in the training manuals page. It’s a great summary of the tactics to be used in setting up and conducting an ambush. The money quote is one that I want to point out to all of you:

Maintaining a 3:1 ratio is imperative. It is standard in the U.S. Army to always have three soldiers for every one enemy soldier when initiating contact. This rule ensures that you will have superior firepower over the enemy and will not become outnumbered. You should NOT initiate the ambush if the enemy unit is larger than expected.

It is an important tactical consideration that you, as someone who is initiating an ambush or an assault, never allow your assault element to be outnumbered by the defenders. That is how you ensure that your team doesn’t get overwhelmed by the superior force. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor.

By Divemedic, ago

I Can’t Ignore This One

A large fight involving over 100 guests of the Canadian persuasion broke out in an Orlando Waterpark owned by Sea World.

The incident resulted in police locking down and evacuating the park.

By Divemedic, ago