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 )

Snow melt prep for test 2

Snow melt prep for test 2
getting ready for test #2

After the panels cleared and dried, I bridged the gap with some 3" aluminum tape, and bought a 60 foot roll of the 5W/linear foot ice dam heating wire.
I set it on my pool table still coiled up, and plugged it in so I could use the thermal camera to watch the warm up.
On the way to the camera, the phone rang, and I found my self in a conversation about battery charging. About 10 minutes into the conversation, My eyes started burning, and I could not breathe. I looked over at the coil of heater wire, and saw a plume of smoke rising. Put on some gloves, unplugged the now totally melted coil of wire, and threw it into the snowbank out back.
Like most engineering types, I had not read the manual, where it clearly states that plugging it in coiled up was not advised. Well that was a $45 lesson I will not forget soon.
With yet another 3-7" of snow predicted for tomorrow, I could not waste a good test opportunity, so I went back to Lowes, and bought another 60' coil.
I installed the wire by taping it to the panels with aluminum tape, in the pattern shown, and will plug it in when the storm ends, and carefully watch what happens.
I also contacted a local company
Calorique
that makes many types of heaters for snow melting, and they graciously agreed to send me a heating pad that I can apply to the rear of the panels so I could give that a try.Now we just wait for the snow to stop again.