Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Simple Waste Oil Burner

Comment:

5:00 pm:

Here's another one of these.  This is a new area of study for this blog, as the idea never occurred to me.  Where to get this waste oil?  From used auto oil?  It seems to be the case here.




11:33 am:

Don't do this at home, he says.  Then why post the video?

Yes, caution is advised.  All the same, I'd like to make a note of it for later, perhaps.




Friday, November 15, 2019

Self-starting siphon

Comment:

Siphoning is one of the coolest things I've learned.  You can filter water this way.  Capillary action will cause the water to rise up through the filter medium and drain the dirty water into a cleaner container of water.  Works pretty good, but it is SLOW.

This is a quick way to siphon off one container into the next.  Self-starting to boot, which is nice.


Thursday, November 14, 2019

Chickens v. Rabbits

Comment:

This guy says his chickens cost him 50 bucks a month.  He didn't say for how many chickens.  Given the low cost of chicken meat, it wouldn't seem to be worth it if it cost much at all.

Rabbits were similar, he says.  But for a reason not entirely clear, he chooses chickens.  "More bang for the buck", he says.





Monday, November 11, 2019

SpaceX's latest Falcon 9 launch

Comment:

Another component of their Starlink system was placed into orbit.  It was the fourth use of a booster, which is a record.  The booster was recovered for a fifth attempt in the future.


Sunday, November 10, 2019

RV power setup

Comment:

Very nice, but expensive power system set up.

Lithium batteries with 10 year warranty.  Eight 180 watt solar panels.  Didn't price out all of them, but the panels alone are nearly 2k bucks.  Way too much money.  Does it really need this much power?  Looks like 6 to 8 lithium 100 ah batteries.

This dude has a serious system there.





Saturday, November 9, 2019

Moving right along

Comment:

They seem to be sticking with the plan.  The plan was to build a molten-salt reactor according to what is already known.  That is opposed to some uncertain future development that has to take place first.  In other words, Thorcon is going with what they know will work instead of waiting for something to be developed before going forward.

It looks like Thorcon is on track to a prototype reactor soon, and commercialization should follow shortly thereafter.



Cheap lithium battery

Comment:

Want to keep this idea in mind.  Batteries are expensive.



Friday, November 8, 2019

Composting toilet in an RV

Comment:

11.8.19:

Some faqs about composting toilets.




11.7.19:

7:20 am:

More info here:





6:00 am:

Here's one that may be better.





11.6.19:

This gives me an idea.  The idea is to convert from a black water tank to a composting toilet.  This will permit the occupation of the land without the necessity of digging a septic tank.



Mars city would require 1000 starships?


Very ambitious.




"Solar" mini split a/c

Comment:

11.8.19:

Here's a second take of the video.  He believes it was necessary, but I don't think it was.  Nevertheless, I'll put it up. 





11.7.19:

I've seen mini-splits before, but this one seems better for some reason.  Actually, it is very efficient in terms of energy use.  According to this video, it never uses more than 500 watts at a time, and can run on a lot less.  It can start with a 1000 watt inverter, which is also nice.

It is available on amazon for under 1000 dollars.  That part seems a bit expensive, though.






Thursday, November 7, 2019

Aneutronic fusion news, progress being made

Comment:

Still a long ways to go, but progress is being made.  A very significant milestone will require energy production to increase by a factor of about 80.

Hour shower

Comment:

This is a nifty little set up.  It will recirculate shower water over and over giving you a good shower with only a small amount of water.  At least, that is what the claim is.

Actually, this set up may be useful for cleaning up rainwater that you may have collected.  The water I collect doesn't look all that good.  It has to be filtered in order to be useful.  Well, this system has a filter that supposedly works pretty good.  Certainly it should be good enough to clean up some rainwater.

Interesting idea.



Monday, November 4, 2019

RV batteries

Comment:

He said some pretty nice things about lithium ion batteries.  He didn't say some negative stuff about lithium ion batteries.  One thing is don't let them get too hot.

Lithium ion batteries can catch on fire.  Too enthusiastic about these bad boys.  Still, it is all about judgment.  The more you know the better.



Back up trailer videos







Here's another backing up video:





Sunday, November 3, 2019

Controlling sway

Comment:

I've had this trailer for 3 years and I've never taken it anywhere.  There is a sway bar system, but this video says that's no guarantee.  

It has to be perfectly set up.

Argh.







Here's another video which demonstrates conclusively that weight distribution is critical in controlling sway.

Moral:  don't put a lot of weight on the back.  Maybe a good idea to drive slowly too.  This crash involved a car passing a big rig.  The wind probably caught it and cause the big sway that caused a loss of control.


Top 10 things to know about RVing.