Going Green - The Tiny Home Project

Yes, my dream is about to become reality.  I didn't think I was going to be able to pull this one off for at least two years, but it looks like I will be able to start this project in the spring once the good weather comes back.  I might even be able to pull it off sooner and will if can.

Yes the Grumpy Hobbit is going to be being build a tiny home on wheels.  I am going to have be living rather rustic for about six months, limited power, limited water, limited space while I do this, but it is something I am willing do and sacrifice for in order to make this dream come true.

How did it come about?  Well I have been trying like hell to find a place to rent out here in Simcoe that will permit a dog and isn't too expensive.  My long term goal was to sack money away to for some land and then do my tiny house.  Well I was getting really frustrate in finding a place, I have been looking for 3 months now and no luck.  So yesterday I decide to put an ad out there about the possibility of renting/leasing a 1/8th to 1/4 acre lot.  Farmers out here have sections of land that just can not be farmed, but they are good enough to park a trailer.  For the farmer, it is pure found money to rent/lease to me, for me it is the opportunity to my Tiny Home in the spring or sooner.

I already had one farmer respond to my inquiry and he offered me a full acre wooded lot for $250.00 a month.  For him it is three grand of income from a parcel of land that generates no income and they he still has to pay taxes on.  I don't need any services, because my final solution here is live COMPLETELY off grid.  What little natural gas I need can be supplied by a single 40 liter cylinder.

Yes I will be document the entire process, from design, costing, building.  So stay tune.

It is Called *Being Consistent* Knee to the Nads For Ninny Nanny Nitwit Justin

To all those trained CPC Harper bots who had no issue with Harper having a private Chef and/or who were outrage about Trudeau firing said Chef,... Well seriously you just have to STFU about Ninny Trudeau hiring a couple of Nannies.  (PS, the Harper Chef also did Nanny duties in his spare time, so ya Harperbots, lets hear some of that outrage directed at Harper then too,... oh right that's different because STFU!!!)

Me on the other hand, I get to Knee Ninny Trudeau in Nads for Nannies.  It is called being consistent.

Going Green - Rechargable Battery Packs

In my first article about Going Green - Transportation I touched on Electropeds/Electro-Peds and the battery requirements and costs.  That was on November 22nd.  The thing that was burning my butt was the cost, a 48volt, 1500 Watt - 20Ah battery pack that uses Lithium-Manganese based chemistry was expensive ($850.00 USD) and I seriously got to wondering if I could construct one of these bad boys myself?  Could I make a better design?  Could I make it cheaper? Could I make a higher power density Battery Pack(BP)  The answers are yes, yes, yes and theoretically yes.

Cost of Battery Pack Technology

There are four major components to Battery Pack(BP) Technology you have to consider

1. Cost of the cells.  Typically you are looking at 100s of individual cells in each pack.  This will vary according to the voltage of the motor, the power the motor draws (Watts) and amp-hours you require (how long the battery will last on full charge).  For the Electro-Ped I am designing from scratch, I will need 48volts at 1500 Watts, switchable to 3000 Watts and as much amp-hours as I can pack into the size.  It seems that the best cell tech right now is the 18650 cell configuration and they are costly. 
2. The BCM, Battery Controller Module.  Now some people say you don't need a BCM other say you do.  I say it is mandatory!!!  The first reason is safety, the pricier 18650 Cells you can buy claim to have circuitry protection built into each cell.  This protection is limited at best being chiefly short circuit, open circuit and thermal protection.  For this level of protection you can end up spending $20.00 per cell, low end $10.00 per cells.  How good is this circuitry?  No idea, you would  have to buy a couple of these pricey cells and dissect one and then test several to failure to find out.  I have seen about a dozen youtube videos of one guy doing this and unless you are buying TOP OF THE LINE, you are wasting your money.  Also this type of cell protection only makes economic sense when you are using the cells in limited number, in expensive electronic equipment and using a crappy charger.  Since I want a cheap BP, a good BCM is mandatory.  More on BCMs in another article.
3. The BP Housing.  Some people go with making their BPs as small and as light weight as possible.  In order to do this you sacrifice maintainability, serviceability and safety.  Basically, they connect the cells in various parallel and series connections and make the connections with nickel metal strips and spot weld them directly to the cells (say good bye to maintenance and serviceability).  They bundle the cells into what are called offset parallel cell configuration and hot glue them all together(say good bye to maintenance and serviceability again).  This makes for a smallest and lightest weight parallel cell configuration possible (don't worry, in yet another article I will go into great detail about connect the cells and you will not need a freaking spot welder, and by that I mean parallel-series design).  This small, light design has a serious safety design flaw.  If you have a single or multiple bad cells in your pack (this can happen with a faulty cell(s) or a cell(s) that has aged into failure) it can cause a run away discharge and cause your BP to catch fire or even explode.  Remember we are talking about a very high density power source here, it can go all explody-wody and going BOOM!  With this in mind, it seems to make sense to put in a few extra design features that will increase safety and allow for serviceability.  Again, this will be another entire article,... maybe several. Ain't Engineering Design grand?
4. The Battery charger.  Ok, no sense beating around the bush here, buy a very good one, and one that will meet your BP Technology charging needs.  You want safety, testing and rapid charging capability, you may also want a good portable charger as well if you plan longer trips where you will need to charge on the road.  Sorry kids, cheap charges are just that CHEAP.  Even with a BCM on your BP you still don't want to risk it, cause things can go BOOM when charging as well.  Annnd once again, this will another article. 

So you kiddies have three (maybe more) boring articles on EV-Cell rechargeable technology to look forward to.  I know this might sound boring, but understanding this technology is key when you want to do solar, wind, alternate energy production and alternative transportation.  In the long term it makes you a smarter consumer, saves you money (I hope) and provide you with greater degree of safety.  There are some many variables at play here and juggling them all at once is a bit overwhelming if you don't have the math and sciences to understand them.  Hopefully I will assist you in this regard.

The first article I will be doing will by BP Housing and and BCM design/selection.  Since these two things are the core of a safe Battery Package.  "Wait, hold on a second Grumpy Hobbit, what about the cost of the battery cells?" you all cry.  Well problem solved, I have found a source for inexpensive 18650 Cells.  I plan to buy about 600 cells in January.  Before I reveal the cells in questions, I first want to test them, see how they fail, when they fail, under what conditions they fail and how Explody-Wody they are. Also I will need to test their safe discharge/charging and power performance (this is kind of important)  This will involve a video or two and maybe a trip to the hospital,... don't worry I will be using extreme care and safety measures when I do this, I is a Engineer after all.

A Word on Safety

This should be address, please DO NOT attempt this stuff yourself, some of the things I'll be doing require a high degree of Engineering Science, Education and Experience.  One of the reasons why I am doing this series is to help you understand the risks and if you choose to build your own BP, provide you with the safest and easiest construction design for the end product.  Many of the tests I will be doing will be done to demonstrate the problems, risk and dangers of cutting corners.  I have seen some pretty piss poor designs for BPs on the web and if you follow those designs without understanding the risk, you could easily kill yourself and I am not exaggerating here one bit.

Related Articles

• Going Green - Transportatio, November 22nd, 2015

E-FLAP #000010 - Joshua Attempts Science/Science, Again

Well Joshua is back with his second installment of  "How Conservatives Can Reclaim Science", and still no science.  When I first read Joshua's second article I didn't think much of it, for he had very little to say about science.  Then after a second, more careful reading, I realized I was mistaken and there is much to dissect.  So what can we learn from his second installment? Well we find out that Theo can count to six, but that is about it.  He first mistake is the claim that his last article was last week, when in fact it was nearly two ago, so I guess Theo can't count past ten.

His latest installment are six rules or thingies, which I will boil down and remove all the meaningless drivel.

1) Science serves no end but itself

1. Science is science, it is not good or bad.  (Very good Joshua, you get a cookie)
2. Science's purpose to increase our knowledge and understandig (WOW two in a row, another cookie)
3. "Human cause global warming could overthrown tomorrow...", well technical true, ya, but I wouldn't bet your two cookies on that, or the rent Joshua.
4. I want to quote this part "We "knew" the world was flat, that it was the centre of the universe, and that it was 5000 to 6000 years old" Well, we have know the Earth was not flat, with scientific certainty since Eratosthenes of Cyrene made the first estimate of the Earth diameter in 240 BCE, that was 2256 years ago.  Oh and for claiming the Earth is the center of the Universe and the Earth is only ~6000 years old (aka religious theology claimed this, not Science), would you, Joshua like the very long list of RWNJ morons in North America that still believe this poop?  Some of them are even running for POTUS.  The failure is mounting and it doesn't look good for Joshua.

The more science is done, the more science changes

1. Science leads to more science.  Well yes, Joshua, if it doesn't then you are clearly not sciencing correctly *rolls eyes*
2. Don't like Scientific Consensus,... and I have to quote this  "Do studies showing that it’s wrong!" NO, BAD Joshua, BAD, you just failed miserably.  The correct method is to form a hypothesis based on your observable data.  Take that hypothesis and study it further. Collect more data and test.  Determine methods show that your hypothesis CAN FAIL and see if it does. MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL!!! You follow the data to where is leads, not to a predetermined conclusion.  Seriously Theo, do you even science?

Nothing in science is ever truly “settled” 

1. WRONG! Sorry Joshua there are things in Science that are settled and indisputable. We call these thing Scientific Laws.  Like the Law of Gravity, The Laws of Thermodynamics, Newton's Laws of Motion and I will bold and say it THE LAWS OF EVOLUTION!  These are settled, people with sound educations know this, it is only the quacks out there that depute these Laws.  Oh and by the way, Joshua, a scientific law has less mean and value than a Scientific Theory.  I know you didn't suggest or mention this, but I am going to correct the record before you stupidly make that error in the future.

Again Joshua, do you even Science?  The evidence is building that you do not.  Almost time to make a Hypothesis about Joshua (evil grin)

Scientists have no reason to take rejection of science personally
 
Time to directly quote Joshua again because his failure is massive

Similarly, a scientist should not be wasting his or her time attacking believers or people who reject evidence. Does someone refusing to get the flu shot make the shot less effective? No! So why are you being so insecure? Oh, wait, I know -- it’s up to you personally to make sure we don’t have a flu epidemic. Mmm-hmm. Sure.

Really Joshua? How about when these morons take their rejection of solid indisputable science and try to market it is alternative medicine by sell people what constitutes nothing more than distilled water?  Or how about when they take their faith and try to get it taught in School Science class rooms? Joshua you are failing so bad at science, it isn't even funny any more, it is just sad and pathetic.

Scientists also block scientific progress

To quote the Joshua

There are so many stories of scientists getting so attached to their discoveries that they refuse to let go, but my favourite is about good ol’ Albert Einstein.

Yes Joshua, Scientist are people, not computers or robots.  I ma not going even go into the long and inglorious history of  Religion blocking Scientific Progress (When was the last time any religious text was updated to reflect reality?)  This is why we adhere to the Scientific Method and INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEW.  To bad you didn't mention that in your article, eh?  Again, do you even Science?  My hypothesis is Joshua will present very little real science in his future articles and I base this hypothesis on the limited data that Joshua has presented and his failure to form cogent arguments and his general lack of understanding of the Scientific Method and Scientific vetting procedures.  I shall call this hypothesis

The Joshua *Dunning-Kurger* Lieblein-Bro, Do you Even Science Hypothesis, and it holds a very important element, it can be verified false with further data and study.  I would truly love to see it proven wrong, and Joshua can easily do it too,... just be learning how to science.

Scientists should be humble

To Quote the Joshua

The amount of stuff we don’t know, and we don’t know that we don’t know, is awe-inspiring. Don’t lord your scraps of knowledge over so-called ignorant people. You really are in no place to judge. 

Um, why, you have present no logical reason why humility is required?  Yes I will lord my scraps of knowledge over stupid and willfully ignorant people.  I will slap them in the face with it, cause that is how you deal with willingly ignorant people, you know the types, they reject science because they believe in an invisible Sky Daddy and they believe the Earth is 6000 years old and 4400 years ago there was a global flood, and that Jesus is a Zombie.  Yes, those people I will LORD OVER and slap them silly.

As for the video he links in article, Jesus (must not swear, must not swear,..) Poopy Pants, that video is high level dumb stoopid moronic poop.  I can't go into discussing that video without using swear words.  Watch if you dare.  Joshua's failure is complete by including it, clearly Joshua is going to be push religion in his "Reclaiming Science" series, in fact he was doing it in this article, but I am going to let it slide for now.  If religion rears its ugly head in third installment, the gloves will come off. (take my advice Joshua, stop now before you make a complete fool of yourself, you are already 70 percent there, stop now and shut your mouth before it is too late.)

*Curriculum Vitae, The Grumpy Hobbit of A Grumpy Hobbit Blog holds a Bachelors of Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering (B.E.Sc., Mech. Eng.), Numerous Computer Coding Certs and Information Technology Certs, Worked in the IT field for over two decades.  Currently doing Hobby Engineering (Science and Engineering for fun, ya, I am that nerdy) in the field of Green and Alternate Transportation and Green and Alternate Housing and Energy Production at the practical and applied level.  So if the question is "Bro, Do you even Science" the answer is yes, I Science, I try to Science everyday.  The Grumpy Hobbit is not famous for his writing skills, but he is working on those, knowing that they suck and that continuous practice will lead to improvement,... hopefully (well that's my other hypothesis and theory).

  

I Normally Don't Cross Post Other Peoples Material,... BUTTTT

Montreal Simon just went to town on Ezra's ballsack with an automatic paintball gun.

I highly recommend to pop over and read it, it will make you smile.

The Wonderful Humiliation of the Ghastly Ezra Levant

E-FLAP #000009 - EXCLUSIVE * Ezra's Huge Huge Cenorship Douchebag Move

You all know Ezra's TheRebel.Media Web domain right?  You know, its the site where he posts all of his stories before the cross posting then over at his The Rebel Community FaceBook page.  This is without fail, first the video rant or post goes up on TheRebel site and then it appears on the FaceBook, I have yet to see an exception,... until now,... but it is an "after the fact" change or dare I say DELETION.

While having a discussion with one of Ezra's minions about allowable comment behavior, I pointed out that Ezra, or one of media monkeys had commented on allowable comment behavior.  Basically the rules were simple.

1. Opposing points of views were welcome
2. No bad language
3. No insulting others

Ya, I know, try not to laugh too much.  Anyhoo, the guy seem skeptical of my claim so I decide I go back and dig up the comment.  I knew the approximate date, it was the thread were my primary FaceBook account was banned, comments deleted and I was censored.  Yet I could not remember exactly which Ezra FaceBook post it was.  So I went digging,... and digging,... and digging.  I could not find the comment or the comment that it was in response to.  It seems that one of Ezra's minions was miffed that comments and threads were going missing, ya act surprised please.  Anyways, here is a screen capture of the current comment thread, I have a feeling it will go poof soon too.

Screen capture from November 22,2015 LINK

So I started looking at Ezra's posts on TheRebel.Media and low and behold I find not one, but TWO Ezra posts that had been removed from his FaceBook Community group (I have to start wondering how many other have been deleted?). You may remember them, they were his video rant post about Trudeau spending ungodly amounts of taxpayer money to "renovate" 24 Sussex. In those facebook posts many of his normal fans and all of his detractors (me included) were calling him out on this complete bullpoop. They were not renovations, they were desperately needed and long over due repairs and the plans were not the Liberals or Trudeau's, but based on recommendations from the 2008 AG Report (linkie provided) and the 150 Million Dollar plans was from NCC (National Capital Commission, a Government Crown Corporation that is non-political). Of course Ezra, who read the media reports that he based his rants on knew all of this (cause he READ THEM) but instead of providing the information he just made stuff up in those two posts/rants.  Well it seems that the cross posts of these two rants have gone POOF, down the memory hole after even his fans start handing him his ass about his overly dishonest, dickish and highly partisan bullpoopy rants.

October 27, 2015 Rant found here
October 29, 2015 Rant found here

Needless to say, it was on one of these facebook cross linked posts were I proved that Ezra was out and out lying by omitting very relevant facts and that he was simply making stuff up and got I banned, comments deleted and censored from his group (well at least my primary facebook account get this treatment, my alt is still allowed to post, silly media monkeys).

Anyways, so these two entire FaceBook posts of Ezra were deleted, all the corresponding comments and discussion flushed down the crapper as well.  Why is that Ezra?  Where is this great Free Speech Warrior who welcomes opposing options and polite and courteous debate.  YES! I was polite, courteous and ignored the constant bad language and insults that were direct at me and I never respond in kind to them.  I was polite to a fault!  I backed up my position with links and documentation.  Well those facebooks post are now gone cause Ezra is too thin skinned to accept any criticism of his BS rants and outright lies.

I could rub the noses of Ezra's minions in this steaming pile of clearly documented lies and censorship, but you know how well Ezra has them believing he is the Second Coming of Christ, but at least the few people who read my Grumpy Hobbit rants will know the truth and will have more documentation and evidence to back it up.

I would dearly love someone in the real media to hold Ezra's feet to the fire about this,... sigh, well Grumpy Hobbit can dream can't he?  Heck, you don't even need to give me any cred for it, take it, run with it, it is all yours if you want it.

Going Green - Transportation

Back in 2014 I gave up my car.  It was mainly due to very limited cash flow, but also desire to be more eco-friendly.  While I was still living in Toronto, getting around was not an issue. Public transit, cycling and walking worked just fine, and in many case it was far less time consuming and less costly.

Now I live in Simcoe Ontario and public transportation is none existent, walking can be little bit too time consuming but cycling is still a viable option.  Thankful I am not completely stuck, one of the kids where I work has offered to pick me up and drop me off so I can get to and from work with little effort or cost, he only asks for $10 a week for the carpooling, which is a bargain. 

Yet I still plan to cycle in the from late March into late November, weather permitting.  Yet I need a little more flexibility and power in my cycling kit to make this work.  Things tend to be more spread out here in Simcoe, almost any cycling trip will be a minimum of a 10km round trip.  I was looking at buying a used Jeep, but that is still at least $8500 for the Jeep, then there is gas, insurance and maintenance, so owning even cheap vehicle would end up running about $400 bucks a month.  So after looking around at used Jeeps and thinking it over I decide to stay green and go with another solution. The solution?

THE ELECTROPED

An Electroped is not an e-bike, it is normal bicycle that has had a kit conversion applied to it.  The kit conversion has two major componets

1. A Electric Motor hub that is either on the rear or front wheel, and
2. Battery.

The huge benefit of the electroped is that it is still a fully function bicycle with a proper gear train.  An e-bike may have peddles, but if you ever had to peddle one of those things you would be hard pressed to call it a bicycle.  The electroped is very best of both worlds; if you want your electroped to be a pure bicycle again,  it only take about five minutes to drop out the electric motor wheel and pull the battery and control system (leave the wiring in place).

Costs of the conversion will greatly vary depending on the type and power of the electric motor wheel you install and what type of magnetic braking and pedal power assist option you go for.  The cost of these motorize wheels can go for as little as $250.00 and as high as $850.00.  The battery system is another great cost variable, and is dependent on many factors:

1. The power requirements of the motor 
2. Your desired range before recharge
3. How much extra mass you want to carry
4. How quickly the battery can be recharged
5. Lifetime of the battery system

The cheapest up front option on the battery are lead-acid cells, but they are extremely heavy, shorter recharge cycle life and not very environmentally friendly.  After much research I have opted to go with the top end type of battery.  The Lithium-Manganese type of battery, but even these you have to research carefully, cause not all lithium-manganese batteries are equal.  In the end, I have opted for 48 volt, 20Ah Lithium-Manganese battery cell.  Comparing Lithium-Manganese to a lead-acid battery array and you see why the extra cost is worth the extra up front cost.

Comparison Of Lithium-Manganese vs Lead Acid

Voltage of all Required Cells	48 Volts	48 Volts
Amp Hours of all Required Cells	20 Ah	16 Ah
Power of all Required Cells	960 Watt●Hours	768 Watt●Hours
Charge Time from Dead	Depends on charger you use, but a reasonably cost 48V 15Amp charger will do the job in about 2-2.25 hours	Depends on charger you use, if you only have a charger that can handle one cell at a time it will 16 hours for the total array. If you have really good charge 4-8 hours
Cycle Life	1000 to 1500 charge cycles, some people claim as high as 2000 charge cycles	300 to 500 charge cycles
Number of Cells Requires	1	8
Size of All Require Cells	Per Battery Length 10.84 inches Width 7.17 inches Height 3.17 inches One Battery Required Length 10.84 inches Width 7.17 inches Height 3.17 inches	Per Battery Length 5.94 inches Width 2.56 inches Height 3.70 inches For the Eight Required Batteries Length 11.88 inches Width 5.12 inches Height 7.4 inches
Mass of Required Cells	Per Battery 11.7 lbs One Battery Required 11.7 lbs	Per Battery 6.5 lbs For Eight Batteries 52 lbs
Cost	$840.00	$18.50 per battery $148.00 for eight and shipping cost will be on top of that
Cost Per km* (*not adjusted for extra mass) (a car cost about $0.60/km)	$0.219	$0.193
Cost/Size/Mass/Life/Power Index (the lower the better)	1.24	5.60

The last two rows are what it all boils down to, the average cost per kilometer and CSMLP Index.  I guess I should explain CSMLP Index number. It is a calculation that takes into account the cost, size, mass, Charge Life Cycle and Power the resulting calculation allows you compare the all the variables. The lower the CSMLP Index number the better, but it must also be compared to cost per kilometer.  The cost of the lithium-manganese is about $0.026/km more than the lead-acid batteries, but the CSMLP Index Lith-Mang is 4.5 better, I think the Lithium-Manganese batteries are far superior given that your ride will be 40 pounds less top heavy.  If you should get stuck with dead batteries and have to manually peddle home, believe me, those 40 extra pounds is a huge ass amount extra weight to move around.  Yet is you looking for a dirt cheap solution, then the lead-acid battery is the best route in the short run (ie, the up front costs).  In the long run, they cost just about the same.

Anyways, more on this later and I will be following up with the custom design Electroped I am planning to build and hope to have on the road in the late spring.