Author Archives: Jay

Salvage 2013 Nissan Leaf Modules – 8 year age capacity test: 75-80%

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six nissan leaf modules with capacity test values written on the sides
Back in 2015 I bought a wrecked 2013 Nissan leaf and salvaged it’s 48 battery modules to use in my s-10 electric pickup truck. At the time, the batteries had 18,921 miles from the Leaf on them, (10 quick charges and 775 Level 1/ Level 2 charges) and the leaf BMS reported a capacity of 64 amp hours (98% state of health). [The modules are rated at a minimum of 60 AH new, but most exceed the minimum specifications a bit.]
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Ring Motion sensor (Gen 1) falling offline intermittently? Try a battery change.

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Gen 1 Ring Motion Sensor
I have a Ring alarm motion sensor that is located far away from the alarm base station. So I installed the Ring z-wave extender about halfway between the motion sensor and the the base station, and everything worked for about 2 years.   However, within the last year (3rd year of operation) the motion sensor would intermittently fall offline.   Sometimes simply triggering it would bring it online, other times it would come back online on its own, and other times I had to unplug and re-plug the z-wave extender box to get it to come back online.

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It’s February 1st 2021, how is Orange County Florida doing with Covid-19?

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Cases
The 7-day average of new cases (628 per day) has fallen from the post Holiday peak, and is comparable to that of the summer surge. I am hopeful that this decline will continue.

Deaths
The number of deaths per day are going up, but as physicians have learned better ways to treat patients we are not yet having as many deaths as in the summer peak.
In December 2020, Orange County Florida had an average of 3.35 covid-19 deaths per day (104 total deaths). In January 2021, the average had risen to 6.7 deaths per day (208 total deaths). The summer peak (June 22nd 2020 to July 22nd, 2020)   had 6.97 average deaths per day (223 total deaths).

In the state of Florida overall, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has started to decline, indicating that we may be close to the peak of deaths.
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2 year Grid-Tie Solar System report

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We have had our Grid-Tie solar system installed for a little over two years.

In 2020 (January 13th,2020 through January 12 2021) we used 15,866 kWh of power, while our solar system generated 14,877 kWh or 93.7% of our total usage.   We purchased 989 kWh from Duke Energy for $269.47 over the year of which $136.80 was the mandatory connection charge.

93.7% of energy produced by solar

[In 2019 and 2018 we used 16,695 kWh and 16,695 kWh, so our overall usage was slightly lower than in past years, mostly due to the fact that we did a lot less commuting in the electric vehicles in 2020….something was different after March…..]

Significant decrease in 2020 transportation energy usage...

Cost Calculations

We saved $1,958 in 2020 (compared to $1,886 in 2019). Given the average yearly savings of $1,922 on our electric bill, the system will pay for itself after 9 total years of operation. (After that, any savings are pure profit.)   As this calculation includes two years worth of data, I feel that it is slightly more accurate than the 9.19 year payback period I calculated last year.

 

Nissan Leaf (2015) Hitch Receiver – CURT 11396 Class 1 Trailer Hitch

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1 1/4 inch hitch receiver mounted under Nissan Leaf
I installed a CURT 11396 Class 1 Trailer Hitch receiver onto our 2015 Nissan Leaf. The procedure was relatively straightforward, but took me around three hours (the instructions say the novice install time is 70 minutes).  If you don’t already have a jack and set of jackstands, I’d recommend buying a set of auto ramps for this procedure, as it doesn’t involve the wheels/tires.
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AT&T Uverse (DSL) vs Spectrum Cable Modem (Orlando, FL)

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At my house, we have two options for wired internet. AT&T Uverse (copper wires DSL modem) “Internet 25” (their slowest option), or Spectrum Internet (via Cable modem). Unfortunately, AT&T Fiber is not an option at our location because the FCC does a poor job incentivizing competition.

AT&T Uverse (DSL) speedtest

The AT&T DSL modem option is the cheapest   (even including their $10 a month DSL Modem / Wifi router rental charge, which you could avoid by buying your own). Notably, the upload Mbps is almost as good as Spectrum’s basic internet. 30 Mbps down obviously isn’t as good as 57 Mbps that I can get from Spectrum, but as we only stream to a single TV and don’t do a lot of downloading, it’s plenty. [Also, every year Spectrum raises their rates by $5 a month.]

Spectrum Cable Modem basic internet speedtest

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New (Refurbished) Glowforge

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I received one of the original Crowd Funded Glowforge laser cutters  (oh, sorry, “3D laser printer”) in November of 2017. Other than the lid glue detaching from both the front handle and rear hinges in 2019 and 2020, it has worked very nicely. However, I did notice that the power of the unit was gradually decreasing over time in 2019 (I had to use higher and higher power settings to cut through the same wood).
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