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Today's Photos

Much cooler today. Scattered clouds and it even rained a little bit. They got all the moisture barrier material up and some of the exterior paneling.

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Nothing happened today. I'm not sure if that is because he couldn't find/purchase the materials he needed for the work he planned to do today, or for some other reason. But as usual, there was no phone call or text. Hopefully, he will show tomorrow.

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Nothing happened today. My contractor was no show, no call. Hopefully he'll show on Monday.

I disconnected my 200W portable solar panel. I had been disconnecting it (and putting it inside my shed) when I left the property to go into town and then reconnecting it when I returned, because I didn't want anyone taking it for themselves. Quite the pain, but better than losing it. I hooked up one of my two 200W "normal" solar panels in its place. I'll hook up the other one soon in series, due to the specs of the Bluetti. Then I'll have a total of 400W and should be able to better handle less than "perfect" days. Also, with 400W, the Bluetti should reach 100% of charge much more quickly when depleted. That way, I'll be able to use it longer after sunset, knowing the 400W will get it back to 100% rather quickly.

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The one 200W solar panel I have hooked up to my Bluetti is working out pretty well so far. It's charging it pretty quickly and keeping it charged throughout the day (as long as it is a nice sunny day). And knowing that it will charge quickly the next day, I'm able to use it after sundown. But even so, I'll do my best to get the second matching panel in the system soon. I'll need the extra wattage on cloudy days and it won't be summer forever. Once fall and winter roll around, I'll need all the extra Watts I can get.

Today is another windy day. Yesterday was pretty bad too, but today has been worse. My weather app says 29mph winds and I believe it. I'm been having to run around the property picking up everything that's been blown somewhere other than where I put it. Then I've been putting rocks on those things so they stay where I want. Fortunately, it's predicted to drop to 20mph by sunset and then to 4mph by tomorrow, just before sunrise. Then it should pick up to 18mph tomorrow and then keep dropping throughout the week until next Sunday when it's predicted to be 5mph.

Also, the wind has reminded me I need to get air filters to put over my screens to keep the wind blown dust out of my living area. I need the windows open for airflow, since it's been about 88° today, but that means I have to deal with the dust. Then, when the winds die down I forget about the air filters until the winds pick up again. And the intermittent low frequency rumblings of the wind on the shed is somewhat mentally tiring. I've read where that is the case with people who live near the giant wind turbines. One's quality of life takes a hit if they install those near where you are living.

I'm hoping my contractor will show tomorrow, but I don't know how much his work schedule will be impacted by the Independence Day holiday coming up soon.

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I really didn't expect him to show up at all today, but he was here around noon, ready to work. He worked until about 2pm. He filled in the empty area on the roof and got a couple more exterior panels. He said he will be here early tomorrow morning.

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Today's Photos

My contractor said he would be here by 7:30am, but he made it by 9am. Close, but I'll give him a cigar anyway, for trying.

It's now 12:30pm and he is done for the day. He finished all the exterior siding/paneling. He will be adding metal drip edge pieces and some trim during his next couple of visits.

In one of the photos it looks like the door is about half the width it should be, but that's just because he hasn't trimmed away the extra. It'll be a normal width door after he does that.

Then the metal roof panels, the door and the interior (toilet & shower). And then finally, the water cisterns and pipes to deliver the water to the shed/outhouse.

We haven't talked about painting the outside, though he previously said painting is not his favorite thing to do. If that turns out to be the case, I'll try my hand at it. It's not my favorite thing to do either, but if it can save me some money, I'll do it.

He asked if I wanted it insulated. I said no, mostly to save money. I'm pretty sure I should be able to do that also, if I choose to do it at all.

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My contractor didn't show up yesterday or the day before. He called me today to fill me in on what was keeping him away. At first, I thought it might be due to some continuing Independence Day activities, but it turns out he had some family emergencies to deal with. But those seem to be over and he said he would be over to continue his work on the shed early tomorrow.

But he will only be able to work about half the day due to some legal problems he has to deal with in court. That may take a couple of days, but after that he said, barring other unforeseen emergencies, he would be able to continue working until it was finished. I don't know if by that he means the shed only, or also the water supply system needed to use the shed for the purpose for which it is intended.

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Today's Photos

My contractor told me yesterday he would be here around 8am today, but didn't show up until 10:30am. Oh well, I'm getting used to that, but at lease he did show. He brought the metal panels for the roof and drip edges.

It's a little after 1pm now. He got all the flashing, drip edging and metal roof panels in place. He said that tomorrow he plans to do some finishing work on the exterior.

On a different note, I was getting concerned about my 100Ah battery. It wasn't reaching what I call "float level". LiFePO4 batteries don't truly have a float level the way lead acid batteries do, but people still call it a float level. Fully charged LiFePO4 are typically at 13.1V, but when the sun is out and everything is working fine, it regularly gets to 13.7V.

But it hasn't done that for the past few days. At first I was concerned. I even checked the cable connections and they were all fine. But then it ocurred to me this was because of the cloudy days we were having. The mornings were bright and sunny but then clouds came in later in the day. I was even increasing the temperature settings by a couple of degrees for both the refrigerator and freezer sections to make sure it would get through the night. Then after sunrise, I would put those settings back to where I wanted them (refrigerator: 34° and freezer:8°).

Today is the first day in a while that it got to this float level. It has also been in the high 80s / low 90s recently and the cooler is running longer and more often then it does during cooler months. Sometimes, the battery gets to this float mode by 10am, but only during cooler months. Long story short (too late), I'm breathing a sigh of relief. But this puts a higher priority on my plan to get more panels in place.

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Wow it's hot! It briefly reached 101° in the shade today. It might be even worse tomorrow. But then there may be a slight break in the heat after that.

I'm finally about ready to put my second 200W panel in the circuit for the Bluetti solar power station. I had to locate the second support rack and then mount this second panel on it. Then I'm going to fill some sandbags to put on the support racks to keep them in place during high winds. I'm going to point one slightly towards sunrise and the other slightly toward sunset. Hopefully that will be the best of both worlds without me having to reposition them 3 times throughout the day.

My contractor didn't show today, but he said he would be here tomorrow to work on the siding and trim. He went to pick up the door at Lowe's, but they got the wrong one and he had to reorder it. I don't know if he will have it with him tomorrow or sometime next week.

I'm spending way too much time browsing Amazon to find a solar powered vent fan (but that's always the way it is with just about anything on Amazon). The shed won't be insulated for a while, so it will be getting quite hot in there. I didn't know anyone built kits with batteries, so that was a nice discovery. Those can run anywere from an hour to six hours after sunset. I already ordered a solar powered interior light (with a battery) and motion detector. I looked at both my current shed and the new outhouse shed to see where I could place the solar panels for these. I had thought the walls would be the best place, but there really isn't any location that stays in the sun all day. It looks like the roof is going to be the best place. But I don't want to put any holes in the roof, so I'll have to look for some heavy duty adhesive to lock them in place.

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I put my second 200W panel in the circuit. Technically, the specs say it is a 225W panel, but I was only getting about 135W out of it. Yes, I'm sure some of that is due to the angle of the panel not being set perfectly. Also, I am not moving it to track the path of the sun. Eventually, I may get a setup that does that automatically, but for now, they are staying in one spot all day. Right now, at 8:30 in the morning, I am getting 203W out of both panels. It will continue to increase throughout the day. I'll make a note of what it is around noon or 2pm.

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