Do you have a basement? Why not install a door peephole in one of the stair treads about eye level. If you have to retreat to the basement you can stand under the stairs and observe someone coming down the stairs. A 5.56mm round will slice thru a 3/4" board like butter.

TLDR: When you run higher voltages you can move the same amount of power on thinner wires. In solar we like to connect lots of panels in series to take advantage of running thinner and cheaper wires across the yard to the panels. It is not uncommon to have 500 or 600vdc on the solar panel side of the system.

One of the local guys here is creating a rather large solar system. It'll produce 20kw @ 240v from solar/batteries and have an additional 15kw of 240v during the day for a daytime total of 35kw. For the 15kw portion, he has selected a fronius grid tied inverter that can accept up to 1000vdc strings. His panels are bifacial, so they make 550w on the front and with white rock or sand under them, can make up to 688w. He has 32 of these panels, so that's 17.6kw up to 22kw feeding a 15kw inverter. This is a ratio of 17-46% over paneled. In other words, that inverter will spend more than a few hours a day maxed out at full power (clipping as it is called).

Most systems are certified for 600v, so right off the bat he's go to use special THHN wire, special solar shut off switches. He will put 16 550w panels per string giving a peak voltage of 880vdc on cold morning. Now being a forward thinker, he has decided that it would be really slick to be able to reconfigure these 16 panels into four strings of 4 and feed them to his victron MPPT chargers in the event the fronius fails. The idea is to land groups of 4 panels onto a DIN rail terminal block and then be able to reconfigure the way the panels are interconnected with a premade set of jumper wires he can leave in the box holding the din rail terminal blocks.

I did want to get special DIN rail terminal blocks for him that accept small jumpers but those aren't rated above 600v. Now the electrical engineer in me says that anything rated for 600vac is actually good to 600x1.414= 848v, but his highest voltage on a cold morning exceeds that by 40 volts. So he has to spend more money on 1000v rated terminal blocks as well. We cannot cheat and use 600Vac rated terminals in this case.

Long story short.... 1000v systems are still in the practical realm of commercial solar farms. 600v is the norm now for the DC side residential systems. While it's really cool to get 15kw from only two strings of panels, you best open your wallet. 1000v stuff does not enjoy the economies of scale that consumer grade equipment does.

There's a lot of noise on social media now about EBT (food stamps) not being funded on Nov 1 due to government shut down. There are several videos of blacks threatening to steal groceries. While I expect there to be more than a few (ahem) irrational events at the checkout stands, there may be cases of people being robbed of their shopping carts in the parking lot.

A South African group member once told me about his protocol for getting groceries... his wife loads the groceries in the back of the car and he stands with his back to her and head on a swivel ready to address any people who may approach.

Probably not a bad idea. You know what's a better idea? Not having to go to the grocery store in the first place.

North Carolina man was fined for using veggie oil to run his car. The state said he hadn't paid fuel tax. It is interesting to me that they wanted to fine him for not paying tax but they can't know how much fuel he used and therefore how much tax they didn't get. https://www.wwaytv3.com/charlotte_man_converts_car_to_veggie_oil_gets_fined_by_state-06-2007/

Put a hem at the top of your sheet metal roof to prevent wind from blowing rainwater under the ridge cap.

I have 6 of these radios Baofeng 888s. They come programmed with some 460mhz frequencies that no other radios have. If you want interoperability with other FRS or GMRS radios, you need their programmer box and Chirp software that's free. These are stupid simple radios. They have a channel selector knob. No worries about getting knocked off frequency or the keypad locking. If you just need radios for the neighborhood or the kids, these are the ones. I think I gave $10 a piece for these radios on amazon. You can get a dozen for $112 right now with USB C charging plugs.

https://a.co/d/0STW4Wc

Meshtastic repeater

Parts list:

Heltec T114

4 Pack Outdoor solar fence light (IP65) 12 bucks for 4, basically $3 each! https://amzn.to/43bFpix

Rubber washers (I add these to everything lol)

External antenna

Not much modification was needed. The light itself still works with the original 3-color white modes, which is a fun bonus. For waterproofing I added a couple of spare rubber washers where the antenna exits the case. Beyond that, it’s basically stock housing with the board tucked inside.

When you're a "neighsayer"