Solar with a Purpose (and a few other odds and ends)

Solar power production, usage, and storage, is a nightmare to explain. Mostly because of misconceptions, misinterpretations, and flawed ideologies, on the part of people who listen to sales people, teachers, professors, and just idiots who have never touched a real panel, much less ever built a system. People who go on endlessly about "perfect conditions", "perfect sun", "perfect angles", on and on and on. Then to you have those who go on about "the devices will only consume this much", "the ideal temperatures",  "this humidity", until the air is so filled with BS that it leaves me running for a shovel. Of course, then you have the "I'm always right about everything" crowd. Who are experts on every condition and environment known to man. Where's my shovel.

One of the tenants of Guerrilla Solar, is to use "dead spaces" to generate power. This idea should be useful, with varying results, for everyone. Dead spaces aren't being used for much anyway, so anything produced is good. For example; I have a building downtown that I am "solarizing" that has a door that we call our "power door" (a project for another post). I basically turned it into a potential 9 amp solar panel. To date we haven't harvested more than about 4.16 amps at a time, but that is because the system has only needed that much at a time. Is this an ideal setup? No. Does it produce enough power to run the planet or even a small moon? No. Does it produce a usable amount of power to accomplish even a tiny task? Yes. You will probably hear me say that "Ideal" and "Perfect" don't exist, so get used to it.

I think that, what you the readers, need to keep in mind, is that your results will most likely not be the same as mine. Some of you will use crappy equipment. Some will have questionable building skills. Others will have IQ's that are lower than the cells you are using. Some of what I hope to show you will not be applicable to others. Some of the things I do are made necessary because of where I live (where I am almost happy to say is surrounded only by about 1 million other people in a 300 mile radius in any direction and 5 million cows). I have also been working with solar and alternative energies "in the trenches" for 20+ years, and have learned some nasty little secrets the hard way. There are a lot of shysters, liars, cheats, and crooks in this area of endeavor, and they all see you as a fast buck, a fast vote for some internet contest, or just an idiot.