Dreams Coming True

I'm currently laying across the back seat of an SUV, gliding across Central Indiana, trying my best to write this blog entry and fighting off carsickness. This entry will be disjointed and rambly, but for once I have a real update to tell you about.

Okay, I have two things I want to talk about. One is not so important, just an idea I'm going to be working on, and the other, well the other is kind of a big deal, so we'll save it for last.

First, my idea. My plan thus far has been to power the house portion of the RV with solar panels mounted on the roof. There have always been some holes in this plan. Solar panels will basically charge a bank of batteries, and my ration of electricity will come from them, but what happens on a stormy day? Or if the batteries go flat while I'm working at night? Well, I may have a solution.

I'm going to start another DIY project. Using crafty half-assed-ness, I'm going to turn a couple DC motors and some scrap metal into a few small wind turbines, and mount those to the roof of the RV right above the cab. The theory is that, as I drive around, the air rushing around the RV will drive the blades, which will mechanically turn the output shaft of the DC motor, which will generate power. DC motors are already basically electromagnetic generators, so if I wire them into a charge controller, and hook the charge controller to my bank of batteries, I should get at least some charge just by driving around, and I won't need to rely on the weather for it to be effective. I'll be posting more on this as I experiment with different builds and figure out exactly how well this is going to work.

My second piece of business is a bit of an announcement, and a bit of an acknowledgement. Thanks to two EXTREMELY generous donators, I'm going to be able to start shopping for my RV this week, almost a full month ahead of schedule. The Indiegogo campaign is still up, and still live, and I'll still need every dime I can scrape together, but thanks to my amazing Aunt Sandy, and a fan of my work with the Tinderbox Circus Sideshow who wished to remain anonymous, things are coming together a lot faster than anyone could have hoped. I should be looking at my first option this coming weekend, and I'll be sharing the experience with you, here.

Thank you, thank you so so much. Your generosity has been truly humbling.

-Z