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10-MAR-2013 Jesse Roberge

IMG_0009.JPG

8 active breakers. 4 lower breakers are inactive - two have the lightning arrestor, the other two are nothing (spares).

3 tiers:

Magenta - Off-grid without generator assist. Indefinite or very long term outage of a month or longer. Civil war, foreign invasion war, 1859 level CME ('solar flare'). Solar hot water pumps, garage swamp cooler, fridge, chest freezer + patio swamp cooler plus 2 empty outlet spaces for gadget chargers and a small microwave or crock pot.

Yellow - Generator assisted off-grid. Rolling blackouts reaching into evening hours or Long-term outage of multiple days or a couple weeks - short enough to be worthwhile to feed fuel to the generator (fuel demand will be less after expansion because there will be enough PV to fully charge batteries and run loads simultaneously plus opportunity loads). Outage of days to a couple weeks - Blown substation transformer, cascading regional outage, weather disaster, minor unrest / martial law. Living spaces - bedrooms, living room, family room. TVs, computers, lights, fans.

Green - Extremely short term outage of a few hours from a storm or daytime-only rolling blackouts; post-expansion off-grid opportunity loads. This bracket is intended for when the expansion is acquired and installed - doubling PV capacity but no further increase in battery capacity (possibly lower capacity as S-500EX is 350AH as opposed to 400AH due to the extremely thick plates) - to allow running kitchen appliances or laundry off-grid during the day when the batteries are full. Currently only has the one unintentionally moved circuit (due to shared neutrals). At expansion this tier will have all remaining 120V circuits - washer, old-fridge circuit (has toaster oven and toaster in additional outlet), microwave circuit (also has 2 other outlets which includes the coffee maker), dishwasher, garbage disposal, dining room (shares neutral with old-fridge circuit)

All but one circuits were intentional. One unintentional circuit plus a split-up circuit because the house was wired with 14/3 or 12/3 romex with 2 circuits sharing the neutral.

All in all - 4 new circuits (2 truly new plus 2 spawned from 3-way split-up) plus 4 moved circuits.

Canon PowerShot SX20 IS
1/10s f/2.8 at 5.0mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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