Monday, April 19, 2010

Satellite Success :)

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We finally have our satellite up and running! Blake and Felix from Big Bend Telephone Co came out here this morning and worked on the connection for a third day, and now the unit is working.  It is still pointed directly at our house, which is a little disconcerting, but at least we have phone and internet (well, we'll have phone once we buy one, but we have a jack!).

There was some bad news though. The dish is a total energy hog, and the way it hooks up to our power system is grossly inefficient. Instead of taking DC power from our batteries directly and converting it from 12V to 24V, it has to be run on 120V AC.  This means that we have to run power from our batteries through our inverter (with some losses) to their battery chargers which then convert it back to DC (with more losses) and charge their on board batteries which then, finally, run the satellite dish transceiver, etc.

Making matters worse, absolutely NO ONE at BBT could tell us how much electricity the unit uses before we decided to get it, so today we found out that it uses between 1-2.5 kW per day just to run it (it uses even more when it is charging the on board batteries).  Perhaps worst of all, the unit MUST be on 24/7 or they'll have to come back out and reprogram it.

So basically, this dish uses more power than we though possible, and way more than we use in a day. Luckily, we have two wind turbines to put up soon (the Shinn Fu treadmill motor is so close to being ready -- we just need to weld some pieces) and the Wood Gas Generator to charge up the batteries for now.  We need even more solar panels too, but our budget is super-tight right now.  We are focusing on getting as much work done on our house as possible before we start dividing our time between employment projects.

In other news, we have set a post in concrete for a clothesline, and I have been working on finishing priming the exterior of the house.  The white paint really makes a noticeable difference in how hot the house gets inside. Lately it's been pretty cool and wet, but summer is just around the corner.

Thanks for reading!

Pax et amor,
Sara



1 comment:

  1. It looks pointed at your house, because that dish is an offset type of dish, the focal point is not in the center of it, but lower. Maybe the are hitting a satellite that is low in your horizon. Maybe you guys have already checked this, but it should be possible to tap into the DC side of the system's power supply. Down the line you might have to set up PV panels into a pair of 24-v battery banks (2x12v) just for your internet. I wonder if your cellphone carrier has coverage there, it might be cheaper to get a data plan, energy-wise. Some existing usb wireless data cards have a plug for an external antenna. I have experience with a router that accepts several models of wireless data cards (works with ATT, Verizon and Sprint) and the router in turn will make a "hot spot", distributing the Internet using wifi. And it is not too expensive ($120-ish) when compared to the convenience. The best thing is that it works directly from 12v DC @ up to 1.5amps. You just pay the monthly fee for the data card. Works great for browsing and skype(depending on the signal), I am not sure if you plan to have other uses for that internet connection.
    I sent an email to the yahoo.com address (raven**) with some information. My wife and I are glad you guys are out there making it happen. Take Care!

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