It was -28ºC the other night and I imagine Aussies would love that right now
Errr, NO!
Thank you very much for your kind and generous offer but you can keep your cold hell and we'll stick with our Hades thanks all the same!
I just came in for a bite of lunch after ploughing a bit of garden to put in the winter crops. Soaking wet with perspiration as usual when I do anything out in the sun. Half way through my 3rd 500ml glass of water. Another one and I should be right.
Every year it kills off the snakes, mosquitos, cockroaches, spiders and every bug. That's why we don't move to warmer climates, everything is poisonous there.
We had some -5's here last year and that Killed off half the plants in the garden, the lawn, some tress and a bunch of other vegetation.
I just finished building an oil burning yard heater for this winter. Going to put it at one end of the veg/ ornamental garden with a fan and blow the heat around to keep the damn frost away.
Unfortunately don't do much to rid us of snakes and the like, they just Hibernate till summer and then come out again. We have 8 of the top 10 worlds deadliest here. And I mean RIGHT here. I was in one of the most Noted reptile parks lasy year and spoke to this going after his presentation who is supposed to be the leading authority on snakes in Oz. Was asking him some questions and he asked where we live. The place is a bit on the fringe of the city ( as in sydney 3500Km away from where we were) and as soon as I told him he lit up and said Oh yeah, I go there all the time! and started telling us about local landmarks.
I asked if he had family here, he said no, I go there to catch and study the Brown snakes and others. There are higher concentrations of deadly snakes where you are than anywhere else in the country, we always get as many specimens as we want from there, most of our exhibits came from your area!
He was excited, Me, not so much!
had only been here about 6 Months then, not what I would rate as the most endearing feature of the area. He told me about the black snake population expanding here. I said great in a sarcastic tone. He said it is for you really. I said how you figure that? He said Black is number 8 on the poisonous list. They keep away the Brows that are THE most deadly in the world. Guess which one you are better off getting Bitten by? I asked if it was my goldfish but while technically correct, not in the context of snakes.
Didn't see any snakes myself this summer but talking to the postman whom I get on well with, He reckoned Dogs were not his main worry and he had 3 near misses this season... so far.
We do get Mosquitos all year round here which is a pain but thankfully everything else goes away till spring or so.
Solar panels output higher voltage when cold, their power output goes up around +4 to +5% per 10ºC drop. It's quite a welcome boost in cold weather, to get almost 25% more out of your panels.
While that may be true, I think it's bit of a catch 22. When it's hot it's because the suns radiation is strongest. While the efficiency of the panels may drop, the brute force of the sun beating down on them always seems to give me very good output on hot days. The best days however are when there is a tiny biot of cloud which amplifies the radiation with what is called cloud edge effect. That can really send the things into overdrive.
I also think panel heat rating is bit of a joke. the ones I have all seem to be rated to 40oC before they drop off. You can't have them in the sun at all here before they are too damn hot to touch and I know for me that's well past 50oC . In summer, I wouldn't even try and have no doubt they could hit 100. I was going to try and film cooking on them this summer but who wants to go out in the sun on a 40o day?
I was wondering how one would go building a giant parabola out of snow so the panels could be stood up and work on the reflection of the sun. I have read a few accounts of people getting unreal outputs from their panels in teh snow being a combination of the cold and the reflected light.
If a mound of snow was pushed up in the right direction and angle, maybe it could be used to advantage to reflect more light onto the panels and keep them at an angle that kept the snow off the fronts anyway. Certainly wouldn't be a lack of Building materials.
Snow on the back would be a good thing not that they would need any cooling.