Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Looks like a day off. Rain and thunder showers at present. Good for the gardens. Might be a good day to catch up on paper work, clean the garage, take a nap, etc... Later.

 

[fuzzi]

Looks like a day off. Rain and thunder showers at present. Good for the gardens. Might be a good day to catch up on paper work, clean the garage, take a nap, etc... Later.

Wish I could take a nap

 

[Smokerbill]

Wish I could take a nap

I took a little nap about 8:30 this morning. But I went to bed early last night and got up at 3:30, so I felt like I deserved some ZZZZZs.

I used some free wood to make a backer for my solar charge controller and 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. I pulled the 6 volt Trojan golf car batteries from my trailer and put them on my front porch, too.

I need to scrounge through my wood and make a portable frame for the three 80 watt solar panels that are now laying in the yard, temporarily.

I'm using free electricity to cook chicken and veggies in my crockpot today.

 

[gtaus]

I'm using free electricity to cook chicken and veggies in my crockpot today.

I would like to get into solar power, more or less as an educational project.

I thought it would be great to set up a solar panel and recharge my tool batteries for "free." However, when I looked into the least expensive solar kit from Harbor Freight, it was about $150 for the setup. Looking into the numbers, I discovered that it cost me about 1-2 cents to recharge each of my tool batteries using grid power. That comes out to 7500 recharged batteries at the high end to make up that initial $150.00 investment.

Considering I recharge maybe 10 batteries per month on average, that comes out to a payback period of 62.5 years!

So, I did not buy the solar kit I was looking at just for its limited use of recharging tool batteries. Obviously, if a person lived off grid, you would have many uses for solar power and that would make solar a more viable option.

A few months ago, I watched a YouTube video where some guy was advocating most people would be better off with grid power, backed up by a battery bank power station and a gas/diesel generator in case the grid power goes down. In his example, his battery banks would keep his house running for about 3 days off grid. If grid power was still out at that time, he would run his generator for a few hours every day to recharge the battery bank. For his needs, he looked at spending about $70,000 for a whole house solar setup, or about $2,000 for a battery bank and generator setup.

For him, it made much more sense to go the battery bank and generator route. He was advocating that a battery bank backup system was a better economical solution for most people who have access to grid power. After all, if you have grid power, the chances of not having power for more than a day or two is pretty low. If you lived in hurricane zones, and maybe had to go a week or longer without grid power, the generator and a tank of diesel would last a long time.

My idea would be to have some kind of a portable battery bank that was plugged into my car's 12v outlet and recharging all the time while I'm driving. If the house lost grid power, I could just unplug the battery bank from the car and hook it up to my house power box.

At any rate, cooking chicken and veggies from a solar panel is pretty cool. Way to go!

 

[Smokerbill]

I would like to get into solar power, more or less as an educational project.

I thought it would be great to set up a solar panel and recharge my tool batteries for "free." However, when I looked into the least expensive solar kit from Harbor Freight, it was about $150 for the setup. Looking into the numbers, I discovered that it cost me about 1-2 cents to recharge each of my tool batteries using grid power. That comes out to 7500 recharged batteries at the high end to make up that initial $150.00 investment.

Considering I recharge maybe 10 batteries per month on average, that comes out to a payback period of 62.5 years!

So, I did not buy the solar kit I was looking at just for its limited use of recharging tool batteries. Obviously, if a person lived off grid, you would have many uses for solar power and that would make solar a more viable option.

A few months ago, I watched a YouTube video where some guy was advocating most people would be better off with grid power, backed up by a battery bank power station and a gas/diesel generator in case the grid power goes down. In his example, his battery banks would keep his house running for about 3 days off grid. If grid power was still out at that time, he would run his generator for a few hours every day to recharge the battery bank. For his needs, he looked at spending about $70,000 for a whole house solar setup, or about $2,000 for a battery bank and generator setup.

For him, it made much more sense to go the battery bank and generator route. He was advocating that a battery bank backup system was a better economical solution for most people who have access to grid power. After all, if you have grid power, the chances of not having power for more than a day or two is pretty low. If you lived in hurricane zones, and maybe had to go a week or longer without grid power, the generator and a tank of diesel would last a long time.

My idea would be to have some kind of a portable battery bank that was plugged into my car's 12v outlet and recharging all the time while I'm driving. If the house lost grid power, I could just unplug the battery bank from the car and hook it up to my house power box.

At any rate, cooking chicken and veggies from a solar panel is pretty cool. Way to go!

Don't you have a 120vac automotive battery charger already? If so, just use it to fully charge the batteries, then disconnect it. They'd hold a charge for quite a while. You could give them a quick recharge every so often to keep them fully charged if needed. Or get a $15 trickle charger from Harbor Freight to keep them fully charged all the time. You'd need an inverter too, to convert 12vdc to 120vac. A cheap modified sine wave works with simple electrical devices, but some things require a more expensive true sine wave inverter to work. Or not be damaged.

The chicken and veggies were delicious! But I dislike cleaning the old Crockpots that don't have removable cooking vessels. Mine must be pushing 30 years old, but still works great.

I have a couple Honda EU2000 generators from my full timer RVing days for house backup. Seems I need to pull them out a couple times a year, during the winter storms. It's enough to run a space heater and keep the fridge and freezer running. And watch TV.

Yeah, I'm not going to save any money to speak of on my electric bill. I use very little as it is. Last month my actual electric usage cost was only $20. Plus fees and taxes over $30. But it's a fun little project, and good for the batteries to be worked. And since I don't have an outdoor electric outlet in the front of the house, it will come in handy for all my CORDED power tools. LOL

Having a backup battery bank with inverter does sound like a good way to go for power backup, if you don't already have generator.

 

[Sally PB]

Speaking of painting... We added onto the coop this year. We bought exterior siding of some kind. Not plywood, due to the cost.

A 5 gallon bucket of white medium grade paint was about the same price as a gallon of mixed color paint, again, medium grade. My coop is brown ("chocolate bon-bon" is the name, lol) on the outside, white on the inside. I like the white interior to keep it as bright as possible, especially in the dark days of winter.

Knowing that new wood soaks up paint like a sponge, I painted both sides of the siding white, two coats. The third coat was white for the inside, brown for the outside. I still have half a gallon of brown left over; enough to touch up the old area of the coop, and maybe do it all.

I still have 2/3 of the bucket of white paint left.

 

[Smokerbill]

Speaking of painting... We added onto the coop this year. We bought exterior siding of some kind. Not plywood, due to the cost.

A 5 gallon bucket of white medium grade paint was about the same price as a gallon of mixed color paint, again, medium grade. My coop is brown ("chocolate bon-bon" is the name, lol) on the outside, white on the inside. I like the white interior to keep it as bright as possible, especially in the dark days of winter.

Knowing that new wood soaks up paint like a sponge, I painted both sides of the siding white, two coats. The third coat was white for the inside, brown for the outside. I still have half a gallon of brown left over; enough to touch up the old area of the coop, and maybe do it all.

I still have 2/3 of the bucket of white paint left.

White on the inside also makes it easier to see mites that hide in the woodwork. I painted the inside of my coop white too. One coat of primer, then a coat of semi gloss white I used to paint the trim on my house. Semi gloss makes it easier to clean.

 

[gtaus]

Don't you have a 120vac automotive battery charger already? If so, just use it to fully charge the batteries, then disconnect it. They'd hold a charge for quite a while. You could give them a quick recharge every so often to keep them fully charged if needed. Or get a $15 trickle charger from Harbor Freight to keep them fully charged all the time. You'd need an inverter too, to convert 12vdc to 120vac. A cheap modified sine wave works with simple electrical devices, but some things require a more expensive true sine wave inverter to work. Or not be damaged.

You are right. The guy in that YouTube video had his battery bank continualy trickled charged in the house. I was just thinking it would be "free" to recharge a portable battery bank plugged into the car's 12v accessory plug.

The chicken and veggies were delicious! But I dislike cleaning the old Crockpots that don't have removable cooking vessels. Mine must be pushing 30 years old, but still works great.

Yeah, we still use our 30+ year old crock pots, too. If/when they ever die, I'll buy a newer Instant Pot because they can do more things. But I can't see myself tossing out a good crock pot that still works.

Yeah, I'm not going to save any money to speak of on my electric bill. I use very little as it is. Last month my actual electric usage cost was only $20.

Electricity is relatively cheap when you crunch the numbers. I have a Kill-A-Watt meter which I use to find out how much it actually costs me to recharge my tool batteries. I had estimated that it might cost me as much as 50 cents per charge. What I found out was that the actual electricity used was only about 1 cent.

A few years ago I looked into how much it would cost me to get a whole house solar setup, and how long the payback period would be. Of course, that all depends on where you live and what incentives the local or state governments provide. For me, the cost of the system would have a payback period of almost 20 years. I'm already in my 60's, so I just passed on the idea. Maybe it would have made more sense if we were a young couple just starting out.

Having a backup battery bank with inverter does sound like a good way to go for power backup, if you don't already have generator.

Of course, the battery bank with inverter would be pollution free and quiet. Chances are your grid power would be back online in a day or two, before your battery banks were depleted. If not, you could run the generator during the daytime hours to recharge the battery banks so as not to disturb people sleeping at night. You could probably add a few small solar panels to the system to extend the run time of the battery banks and reduce how much you would need the generator. Lots of options that don't require an expensive whole house solar setup. Again, for people already on the grid.

IMHO, the worst part of any solar system is the batteries. Although battery technology has improved some over the years, it's still very expensive to buy and maintain those batteries. I keep hoping there will be a breakthrough in battery technology that significantly lowers the cost, increases the amp hours capacity, and is maintenance free.

 

[gtaus]

We bought exterior siding of some kind. Not plywood, due to the cost.

Was your exterior siding already primed? Our local lumber stores sell some kind of siding that is already primed and ready to be final coat painted. It costs less than plywood, but certainly more than the cheap OSB I used. Having said that, when I build my chicken coop, I thought only maybe needing it for a couple of years. Here I am 4 years later, and still have a backyard flock. I never knew I would like laying hens so much. I had meat chickens in the past, but they were gone in about 10 weeks. I could not imagine having chickens for years and years at that time.

Of course, if I had to build a coop today, I would probably make it out of pallets and/or pallet wood as much as possible. I really like my elevated coop, but it will only be good as a chicken coop. I think I would build a shed converted into a chicken coop if I built one today. That way, if I ever get rid of the chickens, I would still have a nice shed to park the riding lawn mowers in, or store wood out of the weather, or clean out the closets and store stuff we don't want to toss out, but don't need at hand in the house.

I used barn paint for my chicken coop. It took one coat as a primer and then a second coat to finish it off. But sometimes new wood soaks up the paint a lot and it is easy to need a third coat. BTW, there is no primer barn paint per se, so they just recommend using the first coat of paint as the primer.

 

[gtaus]

White on the inside also makes it easier to see mites that hide in the woodwork. I painted the inside of my coop white too. One coat of primer, then a coat of semi gloss white I used to paint the trim on my house. Semi gloss makes it easier to clean.

I'm sure the white paint would also make things a lot brighter in the coop. I have adequate windows on my coop, but still it's not all bright and sunny inside the coop with the walls unpainted.

I wonder if having the coop walls painted white, and having the inside brighter during the day, would result in increased egg productivity?