Sharkey's blog

Short days and long nights create the need for indoor projects, at least for me so I don't surf the same websites, hitting "refresh" over and over in the hopes that some new content will be posted. Here's the start of a "build thread" concerning an electronic project to squeeze the last watt-hour of electricity out of my PV array and deliver it to me in a usable form.

Since on an instantaneous basis, my 1,300 watt photovoltaic array can produce more power than I may be able to consume, and the system batteries are kept in a state of constant float charge, any power produced in excess of what my household appliances consume is essentially wasted. What is needed is a method of detecting this excess power production, and shunting it to a useful purpose, in my case, heating water in my domestic water heater tank.

This narrative comes to us from a February, 2007 forum posting by PeterB. I exchanged some email messages with Peter last week and asked if I could republish this content as a blog post. He graciously consented, so here is a valuable body of knowledge about running a diesel engine at idle speeds for extended periods of time:

Well, yes, it has been nearly two years since I added anything to the 30 years in a Housetruck story. Now that the Fall weather and early darkness is creeping in, I've assembled a framework of the next year's worth of events from 'way back then and have begun writing some of it up.

The next series of chapters and pages will describe some associations and friendships that have made a significant impact on my life for decades, I wouldn't be who I am without them.

Here's Chapter Four: 1976

And a followup page: The Juice Bar

More to come, things are just getting interesting, and I can't keep myself from writing about it!

If there's one man who had the most influence on the development of the diesel engine in America, it was Clessie Cummins.

Clessie Lyle Cummins (1888-1968)

Clessie Cummins was born on a rural farm in Indiana. Clessie was a rather bright child and quite a tinkerer, by the time he was 12 he had already built a working steam engine. In 1908 he was hired by W.G. Irwin, a successful Columbus, Indiana businessman, as a chauffer and mechanic. Irwin was impressed by young Clessie's mechanical abilities and later set up their own auto mechanics shop and put Clessie in charge.

During WW1, Clessie operated a machine shop and scored quite a few government contracts. During that time he also studied up on the compression engine design developed by Rudoph Diesel and was convinced that it could be made economically viable. In 1919 he was able to convince Irwin to put up the capital necessary to start his own engine company and Cummins Engine Company was born.

This, the fourth in the series of posts about John Labovitz's house truck build, comes a little closer to home than the others. It seems John has been on a short road trip which brought him in contact with my sister at an RV campground in Northern California. Never being shy, my sister walked right up to his rig and announced that as a house truck owner, he needed to come visit this site. Of course, John was already aware of the Bus Barn, and told her so (I have yet to call Pat and find out what she thinks now that she has confirmation that her brother is famous, at least online).

As John would be passing though my community in two days, he sent an email message, and we arranged for him to overnight here before continuing to the Valley.

Here's one for the Volkswagen owners out there.

The exhaust down pipe on older VW watercooled engines is held on by two C-shaped spring clamps. These are a bit of trouble to get off, I usually wrench them off with a BFS (Big Freakin' Screwdriver) after wrapping them in a rag so they don't shoot off and smash something when they let go.

Putting these clamps back on is a grade-AAA-screw-a-duck-PITA, it's basically impossible with regular tools. There is a specialized tool for putting these back on, but it's expensive. Last time I checked (2001) it was $99 or so:

Before spending all the money on the high-dollar tool that you will use maybe twice in the next ten years, be aware that it only works so-so. It's not much fun to use and I always felt that it was about to fail at any minute while under the tension of the spring clamp.

Well, the Decoliner project is continuing to move forward, apparently under it's own power now:

As I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning, watching the rain sheet down, I began thinking about whether or not this has been one of the wettest winter/spring seasons ever. Checking the production of my solar array confirmed that there has been less sunlight than in past years, a LOT less. Normally, my system makes about 1,000 kilowatt hours a year, or 1Mwh. This year, I'm three months behind the production of the previous three years.

Here's the chart to prove it:

I've been having problems with the fuel system on my diesel VW Rabbit. It started back when I winterized the fuel, switching from 100% biodiesel to a 60% biodiesel/40% petroleum diesel blend. Each fall, it's necessary to blend biodiesel with a percentage of regular pump diesel as an anti-gelling preventative.

I have noticed in past years, that my injection pump seals would leak a bit during the winter, then stop in the spring when I went back to straight biodiesel. My assumption was at the ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel) that we are forced to buy at the pumps these days was causing my pump seals to shrink, resulting in the leaks.

This last fall, I noticed some leakage in the rear of the car, under the fuel tank. After a drive to the beach one nice day, I put the car away, only to find a large puddle of fuel under the car the next day, enough fuel it needed about half a bag of cat litter to soak it up. I decided to just not drive the car until I got that fixed.

If I worked on my house as diligently as Randy works on his cars, I'd have moved in a long time ago.

The "Decoliner" (it has a name now) is getting a skin. The cab is now painted too: