Storage Shed
Today is Christmas Eve! We don’t celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus our Lord. As it says:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God. Revelation 21:3
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:13So, during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus was born…1
Anyway, this post is about finally finishing the storage shed for lighting. The last major project of the year! And, as we were able to build the interior of the shed from scrap sheets left over from other projects, we used up a lot of the odds and ends laying around taking up space. It may not be the prettiest shed, but …
We have had the shed itself finished for quite some time, but had to wait for the additional solar parts to arrive. Praise God the battery arrived without damage! The last battery we received had one corner smashed slightly, allowing some of the contents to leak out. Fortunately it was not too bad, so we were able to patch it and still use it. However, for this battery (130 lbs.) we had to make a special bracket to attach to the forklift, to shoot it through the doorway and place it on the top shelf at the back of the shed.
After that, the remaining parts were trivial to connect. The first step was connecting the battery to the charge controller. This was to prevent an open voltage surge from the solar panels through the charge controller, with no battery to absorb the excess. Not good for longevity of the charge controller.
Next was hard wiring the preinstalled cables from the light switch to the 120 VAC inverter, under a protective cover, so as to prevent a possible dangerous electrical shock. Yes, 120 VAC at 20 amperes WILL KILL YOU! The lights are four foot LED2 shop lights, easily mounted to the ceiling. With a convenient switch by the door, we were in business.
The final step was building the mounting brackets for the two solar panels, which are mounted to the roof. The solar panels are tilted to the same angle as our latitude, with zero being the horizontal starting point, and oriented pointing due South. At this point we realized we had no nuts and bolts to mount the panels! Der! So we had to wait an additional week for appropriate hardware. After that, it was fairly simple to weld up some brackets.
Normally we only go to the shed during the day, but if we had to get something at night, the lights make a great difference! Done!
Now, for a final treat, we managed to capture a double rainbow during a rainstorm earlier this year, and thought we would share it with you! Enjoy!
Isn’t God great, to supply us with beauty from the most normal of events? So, we thank God for all He has allowed us, from supplying our needs to where we live! Happy New Year!