I Think We're Back
Oct. 20th, 2024 06:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_ravenFriday afternoon, almost as soon as Clay Electric turned our power back on, AT&T's internet went down.
The guy from Clay Electric had to have known we DIY'd this repair, but he said nothing, checked the box, and put a dumb meter in. We'll get a new smart meter next week most likely - they're harder to get and they don't normally just have them on the trucks. Jeremy and his son came out and helped us with the actual replacement box part.
Later he sent us screenshots of his ticket with AT&T where they were saying "sabotage." At first they were trying to blame Milton and that didn't fly. But sabotage? That implies intent, rather than some doofus with a backhoe who didn't do that "call before you dig" thing. So I'm curious to hear any more about it - Jeremy has a business account so they're more communicative with him than they would be a residential customer but unless we hear in the news that someone was arrested for it I doubt we'll find out anything else. But I would also not be surprised about someone deliberately cutting the lines, people can do some wild stuff.
The net came back last night at right around 5 pm. We rely on internet to do stuff like control some of the outdoor lighting and get reports from the solar array. Once that was running again we found some of the wiring on the solar's consumption meter was mixed up and it was reporting that we were somehow making negative power! So ... we're giving off light? What. No, just a couple of wires that needed to be swapped. But it was also making me think of the joke about setting up flood lights to shine on your solar panels at night so you have infinite energy. XD
They actually are working on some kind of "night solar" panels that would I guess gather moonlight? But even at full, isn't that only about 10% of the sun's normal power? I don't know a lot about it, it sounds very experimental.
I'm going to get suited up soon and go run a 12-miler. I might get fancy and go out for 6.6 before turning around so that I get in a half marathon distance. I'm a bit torn as to whether I should maybe wait for Fox to get up - he mentioned driving into town and riding his bike on the rail trail - that would be an ideal place to run a time trial. No car traffic. I'm going to eat my breakfast and see what he does.
The guy from Clay Electric had to have known we DIY'd this repair, but he said nothing, checked the box, and put a dumb meter in. We'll get a new smart meter next week most likely - they're harder to get and they don't normally just have them on the trucks. Jeremy and his son came out and helped us with the actual replacement box part.
Later he sent us screenshots of his ticket with AT&T where they were saying "sabotage." At first they were trying to blame Milton and that didn't fly. But sabotage? That implies intent, rather than some doofus with a backhoe who didn't do that "call before you dig" thing. So I'm curious to hear any more about it - Jeremy has a business account so they're more communicative with him than they would be a residential customer but unless we hear in the news that someone was arrested for it I doubt we'll find out anything else. But I would also not be surprised about someone deliberately cutting the lines, people can do some wild stuff.
The net came back last night at right around 5 pm. We rely on internet to do stuff like control some of the outdoor lighting and get reports from the solar array. Once that was running again we found some of the wiring on the solar's consumption meter was mixed up and it was reporting that we were somehow making negative power! So ... we're giving off light? What. No, just a couple of wires that needed to be swapped. But it was also making me think of the joke about setting up flood lights to shine on your solar panels at night so you have infinite energy. XD
They actually are working on some kind of "night solar" panels that would I guess gather moonlight? But even at full, isn't that only about 10% of the sun's normal power? I don't know a lot about it, it sounds very experimental.
I'm going to get suited up soon and go run a 12-miler. I might get fancy and go out for 6.6 before turning around so that I get in a half marathon distance. I'm a bit torn as to whether I should maybe wait for Fox to get up - he mentioned driving into town and riding his bike on the rail trail - that would be an ideal place to run a time trial. No car traffic. I'm going to eat my breakfast and see what he does.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-20 01:49 pm (UTC)Apparently according to this article they produce about a quarter of the charge produced in daylight; enough to "charge a phone" or run LEDs, but not much more. Which makes sense from the description on how they work - they're relying on heat differentials instead of light to maintain some level of power generation after sundown, but infrared is much lower wavelength than visible light and thus can't provide as much energy.
My guess is the intent is to incorporate this tech into "next generation" solar cells in order to allow for them to do more than sit there dead after dark. Anything helps, and even though it won't be much it might be enough generation to offset passive loss through things like "vampire devices" or power indicators.