As I mentioned in the previous post, Power Shift: A New/Old Battery Bank, we will soon receive a nickel-iron “Edison” battery to replace our weakening lead-acid battery bank.
Ironically, about the only thing I don’t like about this change is how much we will owe to Thomas Edison. Widely revered as a paragon of American ingenuity and genius, I happen to be an admirer of Nikola Tesla, which means I have a somewhat different view of Edison. I won’t explore this further; the excellent online comic strip, The Oatmeal, explains more clearly and entertainingly than I could why some of us do not hold Edison in such high regard.
At any rate, we do use many of his innovations, and are excited to learn how to use these new batteries.
As we wait for the battery to arrive, we have run into trouble with the wind generator again, as described in the recent post, Tilting Windmills. Through that whole ordeal, I remembered, as i often do, that through it all, our photovoltaic array continued to quietly, competently provide power to the “homestead.”
A change is gonna come to the “homestead’s” Power Point (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).