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Aptos Bifacial Solar Panels Are Installed, Results Are A Bit Shady | Ep 39 #svaguaazul #solarpanels
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Nov 3, 2024
We've installed Aptos 440-watt bifacial solar panels and are satisfied despite uncertain results. Continuous cloudy days at marina full of sailboats. Non-optimal panel angling for southern sun exposure, given the fall season and boat/RV roof mounting, haven't yielded ideal conditions. However, they almost outperformed our LG 375-watt panels in peak sun. During our 4-day testing, one Aptos 440-watt bifacial solar panel produced 400 peak watts of power. Two Aptos 440-watt solar panels in parallel generated 3.3 Kwh by 12:00 before clouds and rain moved in. However, our Victron 100/50 mppt charge controller and 12V battery bank limited the potential of the two solar panels to 700 watts. We will, of course, be living with the 2 Aptos solar panels, so there will be future results. The flat mounting of the solar panels will also be more ideal in the Caribbean. We hope to head there shortly, but the two hurricanes have gotten in the way. Please comment below with questions, such as about current results; we hope to have better results in the future. š¢ Our Website: https://www.chrisdoeswhat.com/ š¢ See Our Recipes: https://www.dininginwithdanielle.com Tools I Love: š Milwaukee 18-Volt Drill and Impact Driver Kit https://amzn.to/366BwxM š Husky Mechanics Tool Set https://amzn.to/3kuGUzD š iCrimp Ratcheting Crimping Tool https://amzn.to/3uv7u6i What's In The Kitchen: Beelicious 32QT Extra Large Air Fryer https://amzn.to/48NfQUY Empava IDC12B2 Horizontal Electric Stove Induction Cooktop https://amzn.to/47DD3bz What We Us In The Kitchen:
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[Music]
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so the solar panel's up and uh I tried
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to do some testing I did some testing of
0:07
this one and both of them
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together but we're going to go into uh
0:13
what theall look like and uh how we
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wired it and all that really cleaned up
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nice looks uh really decent so hopefully
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uh you like this uh these are the uh
0:30
aptose
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panels and uh they do pretty good
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they're 440 watt red bifacial so they
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can get 550 okay so it's next week and
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uh we're going to install this bar I've
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got that already mounted up there I have
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my bar with the end on it and we're just
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going to mount kind of facing this way
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so on these ones you'll see it's kind of
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pushing the ones on the side are
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straight up and down this one will be
1:01
the opposite direction so hopefully no
1:03
wind catches it but let me get this
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drilled in and installed and see what it
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looks like okay we have that
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installed looking
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good should uh allow for push action so
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hopefully it doesn't take
1:20
off um yeah steel strapped this down
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next big wins we get cuz I learned my
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lesson get these uh solar panels up and
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uh start pulling in some uh what so
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we're going to try to get these solar
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panels in place well we're going to get
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these solar panels in
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place and uh and kind of edge them up
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through
1:42
here and then flip them around and then
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uh flip them
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in but uh yeah this looks like a
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challenge and we have my little lady
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helping and I just hope it's not too
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heavy for her because you will have to
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hold it up this high at this point I
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dropped this down but still pretty high
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okay I have the solar panels
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in that one is not quite
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down cuz we got a little goop so I'm
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might have to hold it up and grind at
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the same time I think I knocked my
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forehead but uh yeah our neighbor helped
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us and basically saved our butts because
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these are 55 lbs a little bit too much
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for my my wife to negotiate around this
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uh cockpit here but uh
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yeah and uh I currently have just one
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plugged in I'm going start getting some
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readings off of it while we're doing
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this just to have readings I'm getting
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the solar installed my babies's out
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there cleaning up all our stainless you
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got to wellow they didn't see the before
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and the wenches they were oxidized oh
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yeah these these wenches look they were
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heavily oxidized look at them
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wites but found out that barkeeper clean
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a
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[Music]
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desert yeah just takes that it's like
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this stuff right
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here M was right all up
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here A year later I figured this out do
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you know how long I've been trying to
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polish
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these and it was bar and I had it in my
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cupboard
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love and learn
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huh okay and uh I'm still working on
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this solar our uh solar Arch I'm have to
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do some grinding cuz where the welds are
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on the inside shouldn't have weld on the
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inside cuz uh I'm having to grind it out
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but they're almost all the way
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in that these These
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are 55 lbs each and they're they're fun
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to
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move okay guys so I'm getting these uh
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it's next day I'm getting these riveted
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in and almost made a huge blunder
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yesterday and so I was using this little
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block to help protect and it's kind of
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beveled on the edge not good
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so I found this piece of I guess it's
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teak in the
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trash and uh I'm going to takeing I've
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got it mounted so I don't have to hold
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it and uh
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yeah I'm going try to finish drilling
4:33
these but uh I've got this solar panel
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over here it's the only one connected
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and so far it's hit uh 310 Watts it's a
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cloudy day and also the sun is being uh
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kind of blocked by uh Mast and things of
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our boat and other boats so it's I guess
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a good test cloudy day 310 Watts that
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would be 620 Watts with both solar yeah
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I did knock myself pretty good yesterday
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but uh yeah I'll get this drilled and uh
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I'll show you um about how I do that so
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hopefully this works better I got a
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drill this is a 3/4 I'm using 3/4 in
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rivets okay got my
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sunglasses these will add some safety
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[Music]
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okay that's
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done hopefully no damage to the slow
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Pell my wife was out here she'd be
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freaking
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out and I did tell my
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things is uh everything that goes in the
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ocean that's where it lives and I don't
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want this in the ocean plus it's got
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PL you no that's enough
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there's enough
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[Music]
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fell let's see where our wood looks
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like yeah I nicked it a few times
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there's that one got a little deeper
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though other in that pretty
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good
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and no damage to our panel now let's get
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some rivets I'm using this rivet gun
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I've got two size rivets I
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got half in and I got
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3/4 Going's see if/ in works
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here but
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uh
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also on these I've got
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uh washers that I've been printing on
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the top of them
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cuz uh I want the rivets to
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stay it's
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just a train with no uh cars on
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it yeah I don't know if y'all think uh
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rivets are a bad idea like I said we
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don't want this thing to come up that's
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why I'm doing uh rivets and washers
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on the washers is of course
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to keep uh cuz that when it pulls down
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it's not very big and these are the big
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head rivets on this side so they pull up
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very nice on this side but you don't
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have any uh big head on this side to
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cover a lot of space like the the Bob so
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these right here a little bit bigger
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than the head on this
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side there we go
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that is not coming up I don't know
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you're going to be testing that out or
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what but that's a looks like a fast boat
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right
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there like a
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sailboat yeah they're dropping that boat
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in the water now
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[Music]
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I got that thing
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fir nice and
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loud wow look all up off the bo
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[Music]
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okay there he
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goes this is as much as the race as
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we're going to
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see only took me about uh 4 hours to get
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all this riveted up got a drilled and 40
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rivets but these rivets I won't be
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scraping my head on them so that's a
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good thing and now we're going to do
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some testing had this one uh up all day
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running but also I'm going to have to
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figure out how I'm going to pin this
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wiring up so yesterday I was toying
9:37
around and I think I'm just going to do
9:39
this for now but I can put little screws
9:43
in the holes of these uh uh rivets that
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I pr in see rivet rivet right there and
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uh use it to hold uh wire ties to tip my
9:57
wiring but I've also got
10:00
more
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wire and it's already got some mc4
10:04
connectors on that but I'm going to have
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to cut it and I've got a bag of mc4 uh
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connectors and uh I'll show how I
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install these pretty simple but first
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I'm going to start measuring and tying
10:17
things
10:19
up okay my wife is in here cleaning all
10:22
the Chrome in the boat and look at this
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Bel St steel the stainless steel look at
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that right I didn't know it was actually
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shiny
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yeah I thought it was just
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old but yeah there's a lot of things
10:34
that have shined up in the boat and
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outside look at these look at these
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winches oh my
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gosh I can see my
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reflection that is that everything was
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going to be corroded and was going to
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look like an old boat in a few
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years but honestly it looked like this
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when we bought it except the winches the
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winches were really shiny yeah we we let
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go crap I didn't try to I just didn't
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have the right product I didn't think I
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did I kept trying to clean them but it
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kept getting
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corroded okay so now I'm going to make
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me uh some
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connectors and on
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these basically if you're making uh
11:17
making jumper cables you just have to
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use a male and a female and inside the
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male
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is a female inside the female is a male
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don't get dirty on me so that's a female
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that goes inside of a
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mail and the mail is a
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pan so these merry
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up inside the
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connection to do this I'm going to start
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with the female
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first put that on there like that
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untwist it
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it opens
12:05
up and then uh after that take a strip
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the sucker off it's pretty easy now
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there are better strippers in this
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but my bow everything rusts or D out
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here used to have them ones you just
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click and it's
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stripped so strip you off about that
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much get your crimping
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tool and you're going to load up this is
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the female connection use the male
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connection which is
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smaller load this up into your crimping
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tool now I I have this crippy tool
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that's
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uh all adjustment all adjusting
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so don't don't crimp the little teeth on
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the back cuz it won't go in
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correctly get started twist your
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wires make sure you have this on this is
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your seal your uh This Bites into the
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wire and your little screw
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on and let me retwist my wires cuz it's
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messy stick that in
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there like
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so it should look like that test your
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connection this is the female so get
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your
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female
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end there
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clicked and then you pull this up and it
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starts Biting Down on the
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cable the ones I got don't require the
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tool they just spin just tighten them up
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until there's no Gap okay finished up
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the wiring got it all cleaned up solar
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panels are right now have them both
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wired in so you look at this wiring
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basically I just put screws in the
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rivets all around and then I tucked our
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uh cable outside cables through that
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channel on both sides and now I'm coming
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here so this is a lot cleaner than
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before and once I get this cover on
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it'll look uh pretty good let me zoom
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out on that a little bit there you go so
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yeah let me get this cover on and show
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you what it looks like and that's what
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it looks like with the cover on looks a
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lot
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better and now I have some shade I
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messed with my
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shade but yeah still have our
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view okay so next day it
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rained and uh have to make some
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adjustments to the panels got to lower
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it on the back end made it too level and
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it was just pouring
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water uh basically uh more at the front
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at the back now sprayed it down got a
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little water on me but it's draining at
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the back now just have to cut this pipe
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now it's done got that last brace in
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we're making
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solar but what really doesn't help with
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power power in a
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marina is we have all these sailboats
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out here blocking and just blocking our
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sun and plus our angle is poor cuz the
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the wind direction would actually have
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us on a better angle with the sun even
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though our panels are flat and with our
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panels being flat that's why I also went
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with the bifacial because they're not
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optimized for capturing the sun
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especially the closer and closer we get
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to Winter the sun is way over over there
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so you'd want uh south facing panels to
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of course do better but we don't have
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that option here okay
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so here's our stats on the
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solar now you can tell it's been it's
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been crappy since we've had them up with
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solar poers up with one solar panel on
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the first day of solar that was when I
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was working under here and doing the
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install we got 1.4
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KW
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on the second trial of uh one
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solar we've got 1.4 KW the max w we made
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on solar was uh one panel was uh 400
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wats now Granite we have mast over here
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our angle cuz it's uh becoming fall is
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poor and our solar panel are flat so 400
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WTS for one panel that is pretty good
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especially in the
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conditions now with two solar panels I
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I've done this twice now the uh first uh
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time I tried this we got 3 Kow and that
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was with not making much power
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throughout the uh throughout the day it
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kind of dropped off at noon most
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everything here dropped off at noon and
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then and uh for today it's been raining
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and all that stuff it's about three
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we've got 1.5 Kow for two
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[Music]
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panels okay so my wife has been
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tolerating the solar install for quite a
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while her house has been in disarray
18:20
I've had metal shards
18:23
everywhere um it's been a mess but we we
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got it done and and uh I like the
18:30
results you know if I was going to do
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this again with the frame I would have
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uh of course not had the inside of the
18:37
frame welded so much cuz that was a bear
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to get in there and uh the power
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though compared to the uh old panals we
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had which were 375
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wat is uh better in low light conditions
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and cloudy we don't have enough victron
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uh um MPP
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t uh solar charger to actually meet the
19:04
needs of this new solar panels so it has
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peaked out a few times but we have the U
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100x 50 which is 100 volts 50 amps with
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our panels if they Peak out everything
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that would be closer a 90 amps which
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we're not close
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to but uh yeah and look at this chrome
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or the stainless steel my wife has been
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cleaning on it and it's it's going to
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look gray
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again a lot to
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do but our boys coming out tomorrow
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we're uh glad we got all these projects
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done before he came
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out and uh yeah stay tuned she's uh
19:51
she's preparing for a recipe here soon
19:55
so can't wait to get that out to y'all
19:58
and uh check out our old recipes they're
20:00
all still good and uh every time I get
20:04
one it's new to me I love it I eat it up
20:08
they're not old
20:11
no I don't just have them lying around
20:13
the house you no but on our blog you can
20:17
find all our recipes I think she's uh
20:19
close to 300 recipes and
20:22
then on our website we have recipe
20:25
videos of course she actually started
20:27
doing recipes before we actually
20:29
restarted recording so some recipes
20:32
don't have
20:33
videos and some of the videos I did suck
20:37
but uh naps out here the recipe is still
20:40
good just cuz uh I didn't know how to do
20:43
videos at that time recipe is still
20:47
good and uh with that being eaten by
20:51
nuts yeah it's
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cloudy poor went time to test the Sola
20:58
but with that guys y'all go ahead and
21:00
like the video it's down there looks
21:02
like this like the channel I mean
21:04
subscribe to the channel it's also down
21:07
there and uh if you have comments
21:10
feedback uh leave that down
21:17
below
21:23
hi you're just like abrupt stop babe
21:26
that was a yeah that was an abrupt stop
21:28
up
21:30
[Music]
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