LIVING OFF GRID

This blog is about our travels in our solar powered "Airstream" and living off grid, in our passive solar home, near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

If you have any questions send us a comment; we love to hear from our readers.
Click on pictures for larger view

Saturday 16 January 2016

IT ALL STARTED


It all started last Saturday when I decided to clean our battery terminals. This needs to be done from time to time as corrosion builds up on the terminals.

Everything was working fine but corrosion impedes the current flow and creates inefficiencies in the system.

I removed the cables with visible corrosion and Mary cleaned them with baking soda while I cleaned the batteries. 

Once cleaned I re-assembled everything making sure all connections where clean and tight; flipped the switch and nothing happened. 

Time to get out the instruction books and check the troubleshooting page. 

I suspected the inverter wasn't working and tried to restart it but the light still didn't come on; maybe there was another issue. 

As the day turned into night and we still didn't have power it was time to call Mike (our solar guy) and get some professional help.

Of course it was Saturday night and no one was at the store so we left a message and turned on our generator to keep the house systems working.

Sunday night Mike called back (he had been away all weekend) and walked me through what to do. Yes, push the button to restart the inverter. OK, done, no change, push again, no change, Mary push, voila ..... lights. We were back in business.

Another learning experience and a simple solution to the problem.

We are so grateful to have Mike just a phone call away. He is always so very helpful and patient with us as we troubleshoot a problem.

Now if I can just get my truck back on the road, life would be back to normal.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

No comments:

Post a Comment