Burning Nest - Cornwall

So. How far is it to Cornwall? 270 miles. Probably about 7 hours. Bloody Hell Harry!

Willow, at the end of a LONG drive - not impressed...

Tatting up at the end of the drive

Getting the fire going

I'm looking odd, and have a pirate patch, because I have Bell's Palsy.

End of a LONG day

And the next day (Thursday) I start to build the Art. Willow has disappeared off with her friends, and gone completely feral...

Delilah in situ

And the Art set up

Art running - it's alive!!!

Yeah, just don't say a word...

Sign by Willow

Willow doing standup.

Aaand tatting down Sunday

Seriously. Too much firewood.

All tidy...

And home. Phew!

New boots!

So the back tyres had slow punctures in them. Decided it was time to spend £200 on a pair of new boots. 8 ply commercial grade...

Also I started working on the 'Art Project' which is supposed to be being displayed at Nest, Nowhere, Borderland and MicroBurn. It's sort of a suspended array of 10cm glowing computer controlled globes....

 Willow working hard on the globe wiring: 

Also Willow's goggles arrived for Nowhere, because dust:

This is the art controller:

And this is it running one globe: It's aliivve!

The spare solar panel is going to be used for the art, along with another 135Ah battery...

Globe construction:

Fully Solar

Spent this weekend riveting the solar panels to the roof, after last weekend's Beltane Bash where we only had one panel, it was a bit overcast, and someone parked a dirty great truck right next to the solar panel. The battery managed, but was down to 11.9 volts by the end of the weekend, and that was with running the fridge just occasionally.

So, how to attach panels? Angle aluminium, Sikafix, and pop rivets. Lots and lots of pop rivets.

So, there you have it - two panels, attached to the roof. Since this photo, I added some flashing to hold the cables down.

And the result - 13.8V with the fridge running!

5A going to the fridge and sound system.

6A coming from the panels. The battery is already pretty well charged so I guess I won't ever see the full 26A it should be capable of kicking out.

The battery is 130Ah, so even with no solar power (in the hold of the ferry to Bilbao, for instance) I'd expect it to run the fridge for 24h before expiring. And in full sun it should recharge in 6 hours or so.

Beltane Bash

... was epic.