5 ms·

If you're going to do solar on an RV, you really should read Handy Bob Solar too [0]. The site formatting sucks, it's very much wall-o-text, and he's absolutel

by Syonyk 5y ago

If you're going to do solar on an RV, you really should read Handy Bob Solar too [0]. The site formatting sucks, it's very much wall-o-text, and he's absolutely right in everything he says and rants about regarding RV solar. Far too many solar installers just treat a system as the entry to people coming back for more, when the problem is that they don't know enough to adjust it properly for the stuff that was installed in the first place. [0]: https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/ https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/ //EDIT: So, apparently, a site that's been static since 2011 and I've linked quite a lot over the years was updated again in 2020 with some ranting about Covid. You can safely ignore that, and read his older writings on solar installs, because just about everything he says about that is correct, at a "Spend five years hands on with solar and you'll eventually come to agree with him, no matter how loony he sounds about some of it when you start in."

pengaru 5y ago
- kortilla 5y ago
- Syonyk 5y ago
  Read the rest about solar, I actually just grabbed it from my bookmarks and didn't realize he'd posted anything new since 2011. Ignore the first few posts and carry on reading his rants about solar, batteries, wire gauge, charge controller location, charging voltage, panel placement, shading, etc.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    - Syonyk 5y ago
      I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet. What he said about solar, RV installs, battery charging, etc, is all 100% accurate. He deals with the broken installs by the places that advertise that they know what they're doing. If you're willing to toss all that out based on more recent writings, it's your choice, but I try to judge writings based on their accuracy, not what I think about the person. You're entitled to judge writings however you want, but if you're considering off grid solar and write the guy's writings off, your loss.
      - pengaru 5y ago
        How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
        csours 5y ago
        Intelligence has almost nothing to do with it. The whole 'rona thing has been very very stressful and many people have not reacted well to it. Scam artists have exploited this stress (as they always have and always will). Some people have been led astray and some are leading people astray, and some are both. At any rate, it is an impairment of gathering and processing information correctly, not intelligence. It's a filter problem. I had a really hard time with this too, after seeing how people I previously respected dealt with this whole thing. --- For what it's worth - I'm strongly in favor of people choosing to get vaccinated and masking up in public. I despise the people who made this a wedge issue for their own benefit. I also think that being self-righteous about it is very tempting but also very bad and destructive to discourse.
        pengaru 5y ago
    - Diederich 5y ago
      Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
      - pengaru 5y ago
        > Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic? Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
        Diederich 5y ago
        > I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries You understand that most everybody who was born in the first part of the 20th century or earlier believed quite a few things that we now consider pretty abhorrent.
        Syonyk 5y ago
        > ... and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. Why? If person A makes some claim about subject X at some point in time, and you find it true and worth sharing, what then makes their claims invalid if you discover later that person A believes something you find distasteful? If their statement about X was true at the point in time it was made, is it any less true if you discover you can't stand the person? What if you read a book by someone who makes well written arguments and an enjoyable read, and then attend a book signing years later and realize that they have rancid BO or something, and are oddly vocal about [insert some fetish you find exceedingly disgusting here]? Does the character of the author you discover later impact the arguments in the previous book? It's a really odd and, IMO, exceedingly broken filter for what sources of information you're willing to consider. It makes it really easy to never go outside your own head, because anyone who believes all the same things you do can't have anything terribly interesting to teach you, and anyone who believes different things can be spun as somehow abominable. I'm not nearly so arrogant as to think I know everything. I'm certain there are things I'm wrong about, though I've no idea what they are at the moment. I'm equally certain that I have rather different opinions about subjects than many of the people I interact with, either in person or online. Some of them make for interesting conversations (I prefer a fire pit, pipe or cigars, and a bit of whiskey to make things civil), some of them we simply agree not to discuss, and that's fine.
cfn 5y ago
Nice, someone with a non standard/officially approved opinion is a loony and is served with such epithets as "f*ck is with the antivax covid-hoax propaganda".

by Syonyk 5y ago

pengaru 5y ago

kortilla 5y ago
Syonyk 5y ago
Read the rest about solar, I actually just grabbed it from my bookmarks and didn't realize he'd posted anything new since 2011. Ignore the first few posts and carry on reading his rants about solar, batteries, wire gauge, charge controller location, charging voltage, panel placement, shading, etc.
- pengaru 5y ago
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet. What he said about solar, RV installs, battery charging, etc, is all 100% accurate. He deals with the broken installs by the places that advertise that they know what they're doing. If you're willing to toss all that out based on more recent writings, it's your choice, but I try to judge writings based on their accuracy, not what I think about the person. You're entitled to judge writings however you want, but if you're considering off grid solar and write the guy's writings off, your loss.
    - pengaru 5y ago
      How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
      - csours 5y ago
        Intelligence has almost nothing to do with it. The whole 'rona thing has been very very stressful and many people have not reacted well to it. Scam artists have exploited this stress (as they always have and always will). Some people have been led astray and some are leading people astray, and some are both. At any rate, it is an impairment of gathering and processing information correctly, not intelligence. It's a filter problem. I had a really hard time with this too, after seeing how people I previously respected dealt with this whole thing. --- For what it's worth - I'm strongly in favor of people choosing to get vaccinated and masking up in public. I despise the people who made this a wedge issue for their own benefit. I also think that being self-righteous about it is very tempting but also very bad and destructive to discourse.
        pengaru 5y ago
  - Diederich 5y ago
    Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
    - pengaru 5y ago
      > Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic? Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
      - Diederich 5y ago
        > I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries You understand that most everybody who was born in the first part of the 20th century or earlier believed quite a few things that we now consider pretty abhorrent.
      - Syonyk 5y ago
        > ... and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. Why? If person A makes some claim about subject X at some point in time, and you find it true and worth sharing, what then makes their claims invalid if you discover later that person A believes something you find distasteful? If their statement about X was true at the point in time it was made, is it any less true if you discover you can't stand the person? What if you read a book by someone who makes well written arguments and an enjoyable read, and then attend a book signing years later and realize that they have rancid BO or something, and are oddly vocal about [insert some fetish you find exceedingly disgusting here]? Does the character of the author you discover later impact the arguments in the previous book? It's a really odd and, IMO, exceedingly broken filter for what sources of information you're willing to consider. It makes it really easy to never go outside your own head, because anyone who believes all the same things you do can't have anything terribly interesting to teach you, and anyone who believes different things can be spun as somehow abominable. I'm not nearly so arrogant as to think I know everything. I'm certain there are things I'm wrong about, though I've no idea what they are at the moment. I'm equally certain that I have rather different opinions about subjects than many of the people I interact with, either in person or online. Some of them make for interesting conversations (I prefer a fire pit, pipe or cigars, and a bit of whiskey to make things civil), some of them we simply agree not to discuss, and that's fine.

cfn 5y ago

Nice, someone with a non standard/officially approved opinion is a loony and is served with such epithets as "f*ck is with the antivax covid-hoax propaganda".