New consulting relationship with GreenTecAuto begins
What actually goes wrong with the batteries????
A look at todays Hybrid and EV battery packs
Battery packs exposed
Keeping Warm In New England
Plugging into the SUN
Making a small solar concentrator
Building MIMA and the plug in adapters
Converting a telephone truck to electric
DIY dual pulse Capacitor Discharge Spotwelder
Chevy Bolt EV joins the family
Getting in shape while making electricity
Retirement
Replacing gasoline with solar electric lawn equipment
What is Genesis One?
How to stop the aging process DIY
MIMA Install Day 2005 a Big Success!
Building a hybrid car grid charger
Tapping into the Wind
Expanding MIMA with the Distribution board ( users projects )

keeping warm.

keeping warm.
keeping warm while working

The room that the equipment is in, is not heated, so I made a simple electric heater that can run on the dc from the panels.
The 14 strings of 3 panels in series each, give me a nominal 130VDC to play with, so my 120VAC parabolic IR heater provides a nice load. I had to bypass the tilt switch,the on off switch, and the thermostat, so that the unit can safely run on the DC current. With the full sun, the 1KW heater runs nicely on just 2 of the strings as shown here.
The room is not very big, so I can easily get it to 70F in less than 1/2 hour.