We have baby piggies on the homestead! 7 little babies born on Father's Day. I'm pretty sure there are 4 boys and 3 girls. I'll be able to look better today when I give them iron shots.
Our other sow (or gilt still?) Annie should be due any day now also. I might have to throw up some kind of shelter for her because I think Pippi isn't letting her in their current shelter.
I also got a pen up for the bitties. Right now I'm just letting everybody roam together until they start laying eggs.
I haven't updated you guys on the solar setup for a while. For the most part it's going great. It's been going for 44 days now. Mostly. There have been a couple of days when the battery got low and I had to plug things back into the wall. Mostly because the box fan I have in the chicken coop draws more power than the battery can provide at night and I forgot to unplug the fan at night on those days. But I've had my whole electrical fence system going solar powered all this time. Well, except for the days when it got too low.
I don't know how much money that has saved us but I definitely need more batteries to get more out of the system. I currently have all 8 solar panels going into the charge controller. My solar panels are 12v but I've got them connected in sets of two going in series which brings each set up to 24v. I've then got those 4 sets going into the charge controller in parallel which keeps them at 24v but raises the amps. But still keeps the amps under the 40 amp limit of the charge controller.
Doing it this way, I'm able to have 800w of solar panels connected to one 40 amp charge controller. Saves me from having to buy another charge controller and I still have access to the 800w if I should need it. So far I think the most it has recorded using is about 250w. But it's still there if I need it.
I should also specify that the whole system doesn't shut down if the battery gets low. The charge controller will still charge as long as there's still sun. What actually happens is the inverter goes into standby. It has a feature that shuts off the inverter if the battery gets too low so as not to over discharge the battery.
I also love the bluetooth adapter for the charge controller. I can sit in the middle of my house (about where I have the adapter under our house) and I can check the status of my system without having to climb under our house. The crawl space under our house if fairly spacious. But I still have to climb into that little door to get down there. And the convenience of just not having to go out there at all is so nice.
I do have problems getting the app to connect to the adapter. I often have to restart the app to get it to work. But I'm not sure if that's a problem with the app, the adapter, my phone or if something in my house is causing it to be twitchy. But restarting an app is a small price to pay for the convenience of not having to climb under the house. And the adapter has a weak signal because even when I'm under the house I almost have to stand right next to it to be able to pick up the signal. But again, small inconvenience.
Anyway, I need to work on the pig's shelter a bit because the tarp I had over it tore and I've been wanting to give them an actual roof instead of just a tarp. And then maybe get something together for my other sow (gilt?).
Take care all and have a good day.