Month of November 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.682)

Sparkling, sunny walk thru the bottomland to the SC. As stated before, the falling & fallen leaves no longer block the sun & the bottomland is brighter. Saw 2 Blue Herons & a Bald Eagle! Nice. Didn't get too warm with the temperature at 49degF. Still on schedule to reach 51degF. Coming back to the apt., I heard a tapping bird.....maybe a Pileated Woodpecker, Sapsucker or Flicker. But, all I saw were 4 Stellar Jays (western version of the Blue Jay).

PS.....Whoa! It thundered to.....52degF! No heat needed in this 3rd story apt.!

 

Got a nice filtered sunshine walk to a church breakfast today. On the way, I saw 1 Trumpeter Swan, sweeping over the bottomland. Good sighting. The breakfast was excellent, a stuffed baggett, eggs, sausage, large bowl of mixed melons, & whole milk....very fine. On the way home at an estate sale, I got a portable electric heater that should save on electric bills AND add warmth to cooler spots in the apartment. I like the apt's wall electric heaters, except they are positioned to warm the apt generally & not directly.....me. Ain't I selfish.

PS....Took several walks in the bottomland today, the last one I almost didn't take. Finally, I did AND LO....what flew over, but 6 Trumpeter Swans, honking all the way! Great sighting, really topping off my 6 miles today!

 

AAALLLLLRIGHT! & COOL.....NO, that is WARM & WARMING...or anything ya want to do with electricity!

Anyhow....tilt them panels UP for sure. Now on Nov. 19, the sun is about 4arcdegrees from its most southern position, which will occur on the first day of Winter. In your neck of the English terrain, the sun at noon will only be about 19 arcdegs above a flat HORIZON with no obstacles in the way. By wintertime, the sun's position will be down to as little as 15arcdegrees above the flat Horizon.

At this time of year & to the beginning of Winter, to collect the most solar energy, your panels would have to be tilted all the way up to 19 to 15 arcdegrees from VERTICAL. Probably your panels won't be able to be tilted that much. But, the panels still should be able to collect quite a bit of potential sunlight energy. By the beginning of Spring, your panels would be collecting full solar energy, if you can tilt them as high as say, 44 to 48 arcdegrees from vertical.

 

Its 44degF before 8am PST this morning! But, it'll only get to 47degF, thru the rest of the day, under fairly dark cloudy skies. Might be slightly increasing chances of rain in the afternoon, so an early morning bottomland walk looks to be a good bet. We'll see about the rest of the day.

Rice again this morning. Pretty good with the raisins. Only got dark brown sugar on the shelf, but its still good.

 

Well....it wasn't raining at the apt, so I followed the weather forecast & took a morning walk. Needless to say, it started raining on my walk. Well I said to myself, "Its just a spot of rain & will quit". So I continued my walk. The rain didn't quit, continuing also.
Back at the apt., the weather report said there was 100% chance of rain. Yeah, tell me about it. BBBUUUTTTTT, now predictions are in, for DECREASING chances of rain this AFTERNOON.

 

litesong, good and appropriate thoughts about tilting solar panels, but normally not feasible due to greater initial cost plus upkeep of making seasonal adjustments.

 

Yes, that's why foldable, light-weight solar panels attached to bungee cords that could be tilted to approximate a 90arcdeg angle to the sun's path would be workable. It would not need a permanent, AND rotatable equatorial structure to keep 90arcdeg angle to sun. But it would need a number of people who could trade off times, to be able to shift the cords every 2hours to keep the angle to the sun, say within about 15arcdegs to a right angle to the sun. Within 15 arcdegs would supply plenty of solar energy, specially if one could keep 15arcdegs ahead of the sun & then, let the sun, in 1 hour, proceed to 90arcdegs to the bungee cord solar panels (providing maximum efficiency). Then let the sun proceed 15arcdegs past the point of maximum efficiency. Then reset the bungee cords to keep ahead of the sun. Permanent hook supports could be calculated to anchor in the ground to accommodate the seasons. An artistic, but astronomically calculated angled support structure could be placed, for bungee cord shifting. I really think it would work with enough interested people in a community situation. You would NOT like it too big, so that the bungee changes could NOT be handled by one person every couple hours.
As I stated, work on the artistry of the devise, so people would be attracted to the structure for shade in the heat of the day.....& maybe develop interest in maintaining & working with this "practical but artistic work of art".

I've even thought about some details, where even I, with my bad back, could help shift bungee cords thru the day, without overstraining. Yes, I've seen a lot of heavy-weight, expensive motorized equatorially driven solar panels for solar tracking. That is not what my idea entails. The solar panels can be moved indoors, when the weather is bad & then wouldn't be subject to weather wear when they aren't providing power. A small enough set of panels can be taken indoors at the end of the day & set up in the morning, leaving the artistic astronomically calculated support structure outdoors.

 

Now at 12:41PM PST, the predictions are for decreasing chances of rain in the LATTER afternoon. No rain right now, but I do see low, rain(?) clouds to the west that may be coming this way. I'll wait & see if the possible coming rain will hit here & pass over, so a possible rainfree walk might occur later today.

PS...1:47PM, PST.....Well, its foggy & rainy(?) over on the western ridge. No rain here yet, but looks like rain is coming, like they predicted. We'll see....Oh, its starting to rain. Predictions are for rain till dark(?). We'll see.....

PS....4:14 PM, PST....Still predicting rain till dark.....& it still is raining. I just closed my curtains. I'm in for the night.....except for a small piece of sky with a pretty sunset.

 

Today , 44 deg F in Naperville , 45 in Elk Grove

Wind NNW 3

33.4 miles , fcd = 49.7

I will be having a physical exam this afternoon after work to make sure I am okay
to have surgery on Dec 4. Then I need to buy food for our Thanksgiving dinner.
Then to Skeleton Key Brewing in Woodridge for a pint.

I leave very early Thursday morning for Michigan.

 

That would be a great solution for apartment dwellers with appropriate sun-facing balconies, or access to a rooftop area.

When comparing foldable solar panels with mainstream, permanently mounted systems, there are a few differences that stand out.

• total capacity - Fixed arrays tend to be 4 kW and up. While I have seen foldables 300W or so, I can't see managing a lot of them whether moving them to follow the sun, or handling the rats nest of cables.
• cost - I have seen rigid panel costs as low as 50-60 cents per Watt. Foldables tend to be near $1/W for the cheaper ones.
• durability - Foldables will see a lot of wear and tear just from their movable and flexible nature. I have personal experience with several types. I doubt they would last the 25+ years that rigid panels are designed to last, all while surviving snow loads, hail and high winds. Long term cost effectiveness of foldables in question.
• electrical connection
  • Fixed panels either have:
    • a microinverter behind each panel with 240V AC cables going to the house mains,
    • or all the panel DC outputs are (now) optimized at the panel level, then series connected and further aggregated and fed to one or more inverters and then to the house mains.
    • Permits pulled and inspections done before being allowed to join the grid.
  • Flexible panels
    • Potential to treat like fixed arrays and wire as above.
    • More likely to be used ad hoc with solar charge controllers and batteries, or combined with smaller inverters that may or may not be grid tied.
    • No electrical permitting or inspection likely.
    • Question legality for tying into the grid.

Battery storage not considered above..

 

Temp at 6:30 am is 47degF, almost balmy & Global Warming-like. BUT, the temp is only predicted to get to 48degF thru the day. There MIGHT be clouds up there. But, an almost non-existant ground level fog that really seems to be hanging about 150+ feet in the air, is blocking sight of "real" clouds higher in the sky. Chances of rain in the morning are only in the teens & lower during the morning. Any precipitation in Western Washington in our region could be snow in the mountains. But, I will carry an umbrella walking to the Senior Center.
PS, 12:26PM.....Oh, I had a scheduled ccp coronavirus shot. I remembered after I made the post above. I'll get a second walk later in the day for the church dinner tonight....if it isn't raining.
PS 1, 8:35PM....The temp is already down to 38degF. But clouds for the next 24 hours, look to hold temperature at 36degF by Turkey Day morning (12degF lower than yesterday morning). Still, little chance of rain & warming to 45degF.

 

We had our first snow at home that remained on the lawn. However, I'm in Ocean City MD for Thanksgiving week.

 

Happy Thanksgiving. I've had more than my share of Holiday meals already. Today will be more of the same. Hey, I'll take Thanksgiving Day meals ANY DAY they want to serve them!

One of my small heaters I thought I'd turned off last night, but actually left on. I think the apartment downstairs kept their heat on last night, too. I woke up at 2am last night, too hot. Got up & turned the small heater off. I've noticed my apartment slowly cooling, but I think the heat downstairs is keeping my apt. fairly nice, despite the outdoor temperature being in the mid-30degF last night.

Anyhow, enjoying Thanksgiving & Holiday cheers to everyone.

PS....Oh, looks like some blue sky, brightening & sun at the western ridge. Well, I'll still dress warm on my walk-about. Take my pack & I can always take my over-shirt off if too warm.

PS I.....Yes, had to take my over-shirt off because the sun was warming. However, the outside temp was 44degF. Got home to the apt. ,of which I had the heat completely off, & because of the heat in apt. downstairs, my temperature was 61degF. Not bad at all!

 

Ain't spending much, & wasn’t even looking for anything......BUT, saw the quick ad for the Black Friday Walmart $98, 43 inch ONN TV, & got it, no researching, hemming or hawing. Went to Walmart, less than a mile away, 1.5 hours AFTER it opened, figuring crowds & empty supplies, but no problems whatsoever. I saw 43inch ONN TV's, but they were $198. Asking an available & excellent Walmart assistant & they sent me over to the Black Friday special section. A number of the $98 specials were there & I put one ONN in the cart. Went to the counter with no people lined up & paid easily for it. A Walmart employee even walked with me & with my bad back, he put it into the Elantra. Simple & easy. Just can't believe it.
Back at the apt., the boxed 43 inch TV was light enough that I was able to take it up to the 3rd floor. My back is good.
Now, I hope the TV may last 3 years(longer?).

 

Went for a walk in chilly night. However, I had the right clothes on AND actually had to slow down because I was getting TOO WARM. The Moon & Jupiter was fairly close in the sky. A combination of high fog, some clouds, street lights & the aforementioned Moon, did not make for a deeply satisfying astronomical outing tho. Altho on the return to the apt., I did glimpse Orion heeled over in the low southeast. Never saw the star Sirius, which must have been even lower behind trees.

 

Getting the ONN TV set up. I am jumping from 32inch to 43inch. Tell you later.
PS....I was happy with the 32inch TV. But, yeah, this 43inch is sweeter. Not the latest tech, not 87 inches, not 4K or 8K, but I'm happy. Nice that $100 can still make me happy. Watched videos of some of the prettiest birds in the world & started watching scenic videos with drone footage. Yes, yes, yes....old hat stuff, but I'm happy. So don't burst my bubble.

 

Out walking again this evening. This time I saw all of the "Summer Triangle" stars, still fairly high in the sky, but of course, descending toward the western horizon, after many months of high display in our northern latitude skies. The ST is comprised of Deneb in the Constellation Cygnus, the Swan, Vega in Lyra, the Lyre, & Altair, much further south, in Aquila, the Eagle. Altho Altair appears to be distant from Deneb & Vega from our viewpoint, it is Altair, Vega, & our sun, Sol which are closer to each other. Altair, about 17 lt-yrs from Sol, is 11 times brighter than Sol. Vega, about 25 lt-yrs distance from Sol, is 40 times brighter than our sun. Deneb is 3300 lt-yrs from Earth, an incredible 3.3% of the distance across our entire Milky Way galaxy. Despite the great distance from Earth, Deneb's massive thermonuclear radiance of 200,000 times that of Sol, blasts its existence to the Universe. Even as much magnificence as Betelguese & Rigel earn in Orion, Deneb is greater still. Tho Earthlings can see it, despite Deneb's incredible distance, Deneb also must shine through much MIlky Way dust & gas to make its presence known to Earthlings. AND IT DOES brilliantly.
Tho our Milky Way is made up of one third of a trillion(million times a million) suns, Deneb is one of the grandest of Milky Way stars.

 

Today , 17 deg F in Naperville , 14 in Elk Grove

Wind NW 10

33.4 miles, fcd = 45.0

Trip to Michigan : fcd = 48.5
back home fcd = 43.5

 

Another evening walk last night. The Moon was full, being in the opposite part of the sky to the sun. Since the sun rides low in the sky this time of year, the Full Moon is riding high. I woke up last night with the Full Moon shining thru the venetian blinds. As I said, the sun is low in the sky & now doesn't ever illuminate my apartment's northwest wall, during the months closest to the beginning of Winter. But, the high riding Full Moon, this time of year, really shines on the wall. Astronomy at its sleepy time best.