Thomas Allen Schmidt's posts

How about this question. Are Gravity and molecular cohesion one and the same?
There is whats know as the Hutchinson effect, mass can be effected by changing the frequency energy harmonics. Gravity has an energy matrix and with all energy that matrix has frequency oscillations that create a carrier wave effect. This is also true about subatomic particles and their weak and strong nuclear bonding. The structures have energy bonds holding them in there order. It is this electromagnetic field bonding that creates the effect known as gravitational attraction.
It would seem possible that if a person could find a way to collect the frequency energy being produced by mass then transmit the gravitational energy, we would have an unlimited supply of energy potential to draw form. However, if resonance effect is not controlled the result would be a catastrophic breakdown of sub atomic and molecular cohesion starting a cascade chain reaction effect. But if the effect can be controlled the potential for massive energy production would be unlimited.
 Could this be happening in a natural way. Coronal mass ejections from our Sun can, at times, have an extremely large amount of mass. Some the size of Mount Everest! Our Earth is bombarded with this mass all the time. Each having thier own respective resonance energy matrix. Its when that mass is repelled by our Earths magnetosphere, we witness the Auroras near the North and South poles.

But a bigger question arise in my mind. What do we need with all of this energy anyway? What is it that drives humans to the brink of madness in a quest for more and more?

The reference to the WTC's was in response to the question of a float held at the bottom of a body of water is consider stored energy. Considering the energy used to put the float at the bottom and hold it there, then yes it is stored energy waiting to be released. Wether or not more or less energy is observed in the release than in the storing is another argument.
The effects of Gravity have been explained much like the effects of wind have been explained but we now what wind is and what creates it.
I can only guess at what Gravity is and what creates it but for my guess to be correct then we would have be in a macro/micro continuum. Which is to say that, what we (humans) can observe of the electromagnetic spectrum within the confines of our biological and technological abilities is, at the same instant, the smallest part of something way larger than could every imagine and the largest part of something way smaller than we could every imagine. Its kind of like making your right eye look to the extreme right and your left eye look to the extreme left at the same time. Even though the muscles are there to do this, there has been no reason for our eyes to be able to do that, so our brains don't know of a command to send the eye muscles to preform this feat. I would like to express to any children reading this that they not try this experiment without parental supervision! Time comes into play with this as well but I'll save that for another time. Getting back to Gravity though. We know that the farther away we get from our Earth the less effect our Earths Gravity has on us but that our Earth is not creating that Gravity its only the effect that Gravity has on our Earth that effects us humans. There is to our knowledge four states of matter; solid, liquid, gas, and plasmatic. For us to truly comprehend just exactly what Gravity is, I think that we would have to know is, just exactly what we are in the macrocosm. Is what our universe is, within a bit of blood? Or maybe we are part of a deep sea sponge? A molecule of air perhaps? Who knows? We could be anything at anytime. Energy is never "consumed" it merely changes from one state to another. One thing is for sure, we are impure energy. We are a form of solidified energy and this will all change in due course. After all, energy and matter in there purist form is light itself.
Imagine striking a match. For us it lasts for only a few seconds but for the microuniverse of molecules and elements, swirling and changing, intermingling.... somewhere within it all, there may have been sentient beings, unaware of us but for there kind, billions of millennia may have past by.

Seriously?
OK... Let me ask you a serious question.
What exactly is Gravity?
Does it fall within the spectrum of electromagnetism?
If so, what is its frequency or speed?
According to Albert Einstein "E=mc2" that is to say that energy and matter are one and the same at the speed of light squared. What happens when we apply this equation to gravity?

As for your question of stored energy. Yes, absolutely.
Think about the magnitude of each of the two WTC buildings collapsing and how much energy there was it that. Every bit of the energy that it took to build them, from the mining of the clay and iron ore, to the manufacturing of the bricks and beams, to the transportation of these, right down to the rising and setting in place of not just them but all of the components, and furniture, etc., etc., was released almost all at once but, in a since, it happened in slow motion. If that had happened at the speed of light squared it could very well have "rocked" our galaxy.
Would you believe that rust is an explosion of energy?

Gravity and anti-gravity.
What is Gravity? Seriously.

I am afraid I would have more question than answers.

Wow! Where to start. There are so many possibilities some probable some not so probable!
400 watts at 12 volts nominal would be 33 amps.
To start, was the total system designed end to end by a professional? If yes call him back, if no then.

By NEC (National Electrical Code) 33 amps would require nothing less than #4 awg (american wire gauge) copper wire. Depending on the length of wire, it may need to be up sized.

Is polarity correct through out the entire system?
Are all connections clean and tight?
Loose connections will get hot and lose continuity and or lose current carrying capcity.

Has the C40 been correctly set up for 12 volt function?
What type of monitor is being used?
Is it and its subsequent shunt wired correctly?
Typically All negative wires will be on one side of the shunt with one wire leaving the other side going to the battery.
 
Does the battery need the power?
What is the percentage of state of charge?
When batteries are fully charged the C40 will send "surplus" power to its heat sink.
 
What is the ambient air temperature during the day?
What is the "working voltage" of the PV modules; 14, 16.9, 17.2, 17.4, 18, 22?
Are the PV modules where a goodly amount of air can flow across them.
Very hot weather can drive the power output down. The lower the "working voltage" of a PV module the more susceptible it is to this occurrence.

Is there a "ghost" load on the system?

All in all, think like a detective gathering evidence to convict a criminal. Sometimes it just takes a long process of elimination. Look for ever clue and leave no stone unturned and all that stuff. Double check. Be sure your evidence is real and not circumstantial or the criminals conviction could get over turned in a court of law!
Even the best detectives need tools in your case I believe an NEC handbook, a multimeter and, a temperature sensor might be beneficial.

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence?
The original Constitution and the one we have today?
The Bill of Rights?
An example. Did you know that originally it was unconstitutional for the Federal government to show a profit but when an attempt to open a federal bank was made they could help but show a profit, so what happend? The Constitution was changed.

Would you be a willing part of a mass exodus from the USA if freedom were to be over thrown by fascism?
Where would you go?
If you support a one world economy you may be faced with these questions sooner than you think. Wouldn't you like to know the answers now? Either way, brace yourself, anarchy is coming.

To give you some idea of cost, save your electric bills for a year, multiply that total by 40. That total would be approximately what you would pay for an off grid RE system.
Of course this an approximation but it will give you some idea. The more electricity you can live without the less you will have to pay for, either way! The cost will be approximately the same, RE or grid, you just pay for one all up front while the other you pay for each month for the rest of your life.

A one world economy is looming on the horizon of this worlds future. World banks are already controlling the nations of the Earth. Even the United States of America.
As Americans we have a civic duty to uphold the Constitution of United States of America. Or we could just abandoned it like the U.S. Government is doing. The U.S. Government is a servant to the American nation, not its ruler.

http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA6447282.html?title=Article&spacedesc=news&nid=2520%3E%20or%20%3Chttp://tinyurl.com/2bvzfl

The process of refrigeration is a simple one.
Remember that there is no such thing as cold, only the absence of heat and that heat moves into less heat and that some matter conducts heat better that other matter.

Consider the evaporation of latent heat.
We know the an open pot of water at sea level boils at 212 degrees F. Now one could have a flame of over 1,000 degrees F under that pot but the water will not exceed 212 degrees F. Water freezes at 32 degrees F. Some matter boils below this temperature such as pure Ammonia for example which boils at minus 27 degrees F. so just exposing it to ambient air can cause evaporation of latent heat. Its also poisonous and deadly to life and maybe even illegal. So don't try this at home.
Something else to remember is that whatever you can do with electricity in reverse via nature can produce electricity.
Hmmm what would be the reverse via nature of the computer?
Think about it!

To my mind Adam, there is contradiction in your statement.
At the very least you want to lower you current electric utilities power bill by half, but yet, you want to utilize a more expensive and less reliable way of obtaining that goal.
I'll take it that the 800 kWh is each month?
At the national average of $0.09 per kWh that would be $72.00 a month or half of that which is $36.00

If you can pull it off you will have $36 x 12 = $432 a year X how many years do you expect to pay your electric bill? The rest off you life? I will guess your a young man and say at least 45 years of paying an electric bill. So now we have a grand total of $19,440.00

Now ask the questions, "what wind generator could I install for this amount that would achieve this goal?" 
"Will it and the inverter and all last 45 years without additional cost?" (and thats just to break even!)

There is another way. It would have the potential of being one the hardest things you have ever had to do in your entire life. Its a challenge. One that will test you ever step of the way. Its living without electric utilities. People did it for thousands of years you know. Electric utilities are less than 100 years old! But if you just don't see yourself as that kind of man... I guess I understand.

Would you believe that I have experienced people that expected me to feel ashamed of the fact that I lived without electricity? The same is true of people that thought there was a law against it. Honest to God.

We utilize PV now, not because of any of those reasons above. We use about 40 kWh a month worst case. Thats less than one lighted billboard along the I-95 corridor, assuming two 400 watt MH fixtures burning 10 hours a night for a month.

I am just a little bit confused about some of this.
The "powercenter" you mention is this grid power? Is it a 120 vac service only?
Are you currently laying out a "heavy" drop cord to get 120 vac power at the cabin 600 foot away?

Is what you want to do, is set the tansformer at the service, trench in an underground 14/2 w/grnd. - 15 amp @ 240 vac circuit from the "powercenter" to the cabin, set a 240 vac input charger that will charge a battery bank  which will then power the inverter at the cabin?
Or maybe a 14/3 drop cord? I am so confused.

You say your thinking of setting up a battery bank and inverter at the powercenter so I assume there isn't any there already and that its grid power....

Well, anyway no matter. As for wiring a modified sine wave inverter to a step up transformer, how well do stepdown transformers work on that inverter? Some like those plug in block boxes that recharge Dust Busters or rechargeable drills and the like? If the inverter will not do those things properly it may not do what you want to do either. I just dont understand. If the inverter has an idle mode, it will sense the transformer as a fulltime load. I am not sure if any of this helps because I don't know the full situation. I am not even sure I fully understand what it is your trying to accomplish. If you could clairify some of this? Maybe?

Signed, Bewildered

Don't know about the Boston area, but if there isn't anybody listed in your local Yellow pages that advertises installing tubular skylights specifically, you might try looking for a company that installs pre-fab wood burning fireplaces. One or more of their installers should have some experience penetrating ceiling and roof systems with  large diameter flue pipe. Practically the samething!

To Willa Kammerer,

Willa, take a moment and try to imagine that what we are in this, seemingly infinite universe, at the same instant in time, is a larger part of a being much smaller than we could ever "see" and a smaller part of a being much larger than we could ever "see."
For perspective; an elderly person is feeling "run down" low on energy, tired all the time. They take a trip to the doctor whom after an examination and tests diagnoses a blood condition, low iron, and perscribes a dietary iron supplement. This elderly person then begins a regime of eating more foods high in iron and consuming an iron supplement. The iron makes its way through the digestive tract, into the blood stream, breaking down farther and farther to a point that we cannot see it even with a microscope.
Now, shift your focus, look out towards space, there! Do you see it? Nearly five miles across, moving faster than a bullet, a solid hunk of iron hurling through space and if it where to strike the planet Earth?

If we humans could capture light and stick it under a powerful enough microscope I imagine what we would see is a universe just like the one we see through telescopes. A continuum of microscopy to macroscopy through time.

With all this in mind, I fear that what we human being here on the planet Earth have done is create something of a cancer within our host.
What happens next? What would a human being on the planet Earth do? Could we assume that, if I am correct, our host would do anything differently than we would?

What we are doing it is called progress, correct?
Is not old age and death a progression?
Why is ever one in such a hurry to die?
Fossil fuels and electricity are not keeping us alive, we are keeping them alive! All we have to do is stop using them.
Faith is a verb.
Pass it on.

You say that 15kW genset runs 100% - 24/7?
I will start with that.
15000 X 24 = 360000
360000 / 48 = 7500
7500 X 5 = 37500
Now let me explain what all that is.
15000 = 15 kW gentset at 100%
24 hours a day
360000 watt hours a day or 360 kWh's
48 volts dc nominal
7500 amphours minimum battery storage
37500 recommended amphour battery storage. To help keep the batteries in a shallow cycle to extend there overall lifetime, make the minimum 7500 amphours 20% of the total capcity of a battery bank.

Now to replace that with PV modules.
I will have to assume an average number of hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module per day of 4 hours.
360000 / 4 = 90000
Now let me explain that.
360 kWh's
4 hours of equivalent full rated charge per 24 hour period
90,000 watt PV array at 48 volts nominal

Oh! One more thing.
90000 X 5 = 450000
Now let me explain that.
90000 watt PV array
5 dollars per rated watt of PV
450000 dollars
I haven't even gotten into all the other costs yet. The batteries the inverters the electrical..... I will spare you though because I think you understand the simple math behind sizing a PV battery charging system now. Oh! I was being liberal with that 4 hours of full rated charge from a PV module and conservative with the $5 per rated watt for PV. As with all other things in this life, your mileage my vary!

More on Solar Electricity Cost, PHOTON Consulting

“By 2010, solar electricity will be produced for $0.12 per kilowatt-hours (kWh) in Spain, $0.18 in Southern Germany, and $0.13 in California.  The industry leaders will even be able to produce solar electricity in Spain for as low as $0.10/kWh, which is equivalent to the delivered cost of electricity from a new coal power plant.  These economics could quickly result in a very large market opportunity for solar energy." These are the results of an international study by PHOTON Consulting, which are being presented in Munich.  For more about this study, see the solar verlag Press Release 4/4/07 (contact: [email protected]).
http://www.photon-expo.com/en/pts_2007_europe/ssc_2007_program.htm or http://tinyurl.com/27fpk3

Normally I might say something like "I'd sure would like somebody to show me the arithmetic on that" but of course we all know that its just hype, right? I mean you do know that this is just a spin right?
 A cost per kWh of electricity from Sunshine via photovoltaic effect?
 For one thing there are just to many variables, the weather just to mention one, to make a claim as accurate as the one stated in the article above. At best it would be an average that could swing +/- $0.15 per kWh stretched out over a persons average lifetime.
Isn't it amazing how for thousand of years human beings on the planet Earth lived without the utilization's of electricity and now here we are putting a price tag on the one thing that has kept us alive all this time.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against renewable energies, or even PV specifically, part of my own PV array is Matrix/Photon but that PV array was put in place only after more than 20 years of living without any electricity at all. So you see, to me electricity, all be it more favorable, PV electricity is a luxury, not a savior. With that in mind maybe you can see why I remain cynical or at least not "forward thinking" of the PV industry in general and there claims. To me they offer hope, where no hope was lost.

Who owns the Sun anyway?

Becancour Silicon High Purity Silicon Sales

Timminco Limited announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Becancour Silicon Inc., has reached agreement to sell high purity silicon to a solar cell manufacturer.  This agreement represents BSI’s second commercial contract for the sale of high purity silicon. Press at: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B3FAC0503%2DD303%2D417A%2DBB99%2D167199BD3281%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=nbk&symb= or http://tinyurl.com/yqolqz
Timminco: http://www.timminco.com/

If you where to ask me, I would say "to much money is being spent on R&D." How many times must the wheel be re-invented anyway?
How many billions of dollars have been poured into PV R&D over the past 10 years?
What do have that wasn't there than 10 years ago? (I still see the same thing unless of course we include todays HIGHER PRICES!)
When will the PV module every reach its apogee?
Will there every be a day when there is no longer a need to pour billions of dollars into PV R&D?
When will those billions be poured into putting PV on "roof tops?"
After all, PV is not going to produce usable electricity sitting on a countertop in some laboratory, its only going to produce usable electricity sitting outside in the SUN!
With all these questions there is one I have yet to ask that really stabs at the heart of the matter. Why was the off switch and stop button every invented if no one cares to use them? Speaking philosophically, mankind has turned electricity on, but now it cant be turned off.

Solar Cell Production Equipment Market

According to this article, the total market for commercial solar cell production equipment will grow from revenues of $1.2 billion in 2006 to $4.5 billion in 2010.  See the story “Solar gear market shines” at: <http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198701402&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_semiRSS> or <http://tinyurl.com/2gdxy4>

Solar EnerTech Polysilicon Supply

Solar EnerTech Corp. announced the signing of a 10-year polysilicon supply contract with Jiangsu Photovoltaic Industry Development Co., Ltd. of China.  Press at: <http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BDE91ADF5%2D531E%2D4AFB%2D93FE%2D99C318AE91CF%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=nbk&symb=> or <http://tinyurl.com/2kx95w>
<http://www.solarenertech.com/>

My personal experience has been off grid with a Trace DR 1512 and quite frankly as a charger they suck. As for seemless transfer from gen.set to inverter it worked flawlessly, for a while, and then that quit. I still use the inverter part of it so it has not been a total loss.
The way my system was set up the gen.set only ran after long periods of cloudy weather or when a load was to large for the inverter. While the gen.set was running the DR1512 would automatically transfer and feed through itself to household loads while charging the battery bank. Even while browsing the internet with the computer and the gen.set ran out of gas, the DR1512 use to transfer back to inverter mode without any interuption at all.

Sounds as though you want more than this. In the event of a utility power outage you want an inverter to; take over loads instantly, start the gen.set, maintain the load until the gen.set is up and running, transfer load to the gen.set, recharge the battery bank, and then transfer the load back to itself if the gen.set runs out of fuel, seamlessly.

I have seen systems such as this at hospitals (where there is one utility entrance) but not at multiple, single family dwelling residential sites (where there is several utility entrances and one gen.set.)
Am I correct in assuming that each of the homes has its own utilities meter? How many homes? Is there only one gen.set for all the homes? Whats the load in watts for each of the homes? So many questions... I think the phrase you thinking is automatic transfer switch not a shunt.
Here are some places that may intrest you. In particular read up on; auto transfer switches, terminology, definitions, formulas, Ohm law, National Electrical Code and, features, etcetera, etcetera.

http://www.elec-toolbox.com/
http://www.bowerspower.com/index.htm
http://www.electricgeneratorstore.com/
http://www.xantrex.com/index.asp
And while your at it, check out the Xantrex SW4048 here at our hosts web site Alternative Energy store!

I am probably to late with this, but here it goes anyway.
It sounds as though there may be some confussion here after reading your post and then the replies. The "electrical panel" your replacing, is it fed from an inverter or from the utilities? If its fed from the utilities then it doesn't make much difference. Personally I would stay with a well known brand name such as GE or Square D and stay away from the really cheap ones like Murray (I think the make lawn mowers to). Not knowing how your system is set up its really hard to give anything more than general opinions, which we all know is like belly buttons, everybody has one!
If your feeding this panel with an inverter only, which is to say off grid, no utilities, no generator, no transfer switch, 120 vac then a GE panel might work for your application, one is the TLM2015CCU but there are others. Whats unique about these panels to my mind is; they have two isolated buss bars, one for EGC and one for neutral, you can get these panels with main lugs or a main breaker, and to make it either a main panel or a sub panel just leave or remove a bar the joins the two buss bars, EGC and neutral, as well as the green screw that bonds them to the can.
Now to get back to feeding it with an inverter(s) if one was to install a separate EGC buss bar straight to the can, remove the connecting bar between the two buss bars in the panel, don't bond either one to the can, and be particular about neutral placement in regard to which "leg" is being fed by which inverter so that a neutral for one inverter did not get crossed over to the other inverter, one could wire these panels with two inverters. It would not give 120/240 though. 
Of course the method of wiring a panel that I describe above is not UL approved. I could not find anything in the NEC that says it could not be done this way other than its not UL approved.

Any company that can supply the raw materials needed for PV cell production. Taking into consideration this so called "shortage of raw materials" due to increased demand of the raw materials needed to manufacture PV cells, I would think that anybody that owns mineral rights to lands containing the silicon needed for PV cell construction would be living better than royalty.

(Is that not what life on Earth for human beings is all about? Finding a natural resource and claiming it as ones own and then exploiting it for all its wealth. I suppose all one has to do is look at human history to know if this were true or not. I see no reason why the PV industry would be any different than the other industries despite the proclamations made, via advertising, of saving the environment. Pity about Earth. I mean, what good is Earth to human beings without an environment to achieve those lofty goals I mention above?)

As for a name, that I cannot help you with.

You will need to know the following;
1 - the maximum numbers of hours of full rated output possible from a PV module at your site. (see link below)
2 - the maximum number hours the existing sump pump must run during daylight hours. Assuming you want the pump to run directly from the PV module(s) with no batteries.
3 - the voltage and amperage of the existing sump pump or the voltage and wattage.
I will invent examples of these "need to knows" to give you a calculation to help you decide which is cheaper.

If the existing sump pump runs on 120 vac (volts alternating current) and it draws 2 amps that would be 240 watts.
The maximum number of hours to run and the maximum number of hours of full rated PV output would be basicaly the same without batteries. I will say a yearly average of 4 hours a day. So we are looking at what might as will be 1,000 watthours or another way of saying it... a 300 watt PV array, a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter with a drip proof box to keep it in, and a voltage controller to keep the inverter from shutting off because of to high of voltage from the PV array. The last could be achieved with a deep cycle battery and a simple on/off charge controller and an on/off load controller. Rigging it this way may even extend the pumping just a bit each sunny day. Just a reminder... 300 watts at 12 vdc nominal is 25 amps, at 24 vdc 12.5, and at 48 vdc nominal 6.25, have I confused you at all yet? There is more! You will have to decide which nominal vdc (volts direct current) to use because this will determine the size wires and fuses that will be needed for the system. Does the existing sump pump have a float switch? Does it every "jam up" with debris? Or is it very clean water?

The other way simply involves using a vdc pump and no inverter of course and there are vdc pump controllers on the market but you will still need to know watt hours for the vdc pump. As far as which one is cheaper... you will have to decide that. So here are some places that might help you to decide.
http://www.solarsolutions.ca/Agri/index.html
http://store.solar-electric.com/sodcwapu.html?gclid=CL-Ly4fdkIsCFQE6gQodhlsHRg
http://www.etaengineering.com/waterpumping/intro.shtml
and lets not forget our gracious host the Alt E Store I am sure they have something in store for pumping water as well!
Here is a web site to help determine the numbers of Sun hours I wrote of above. Your site may vary.
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/
I hope something here helps!

Depends on type of battery. Typically speaking, for most residential off grid PV battery charging systems there is either flooded cell lead acid or sealed gel cells. My personal experience is with flooded cell lead acid batteries. The charge controllers have adjustable set points. One is a Trace C-30-A, a basic on/off type controller. The low limit connect is set at 13.2 and the high limit disconnect is set at 14.4.
The second is a Trace C-60, a pulse width modulation type. Basically the same set points give or take a few tenths. Both have a "equalizing" mode that "locks in" full charge. The C-30-A has a manual on/off switch. The C-60 has to be turn on manually but can turn its equalizing mode off automatically.
In some cases depending on the relative size of the battery to the PV array and power usage a controller may not be necessary, but I don't recommend this to anyone because, as Forrest Gump put it "__it happens."
The idea is to get a good charge, and replace amp hours without an excessive amount of "bubbling" because this leads to more frequent water replacement.

We all know that if nothing else politician's are infamous for their rigmarole or doubletalk. Their good at it. Take this following news excerpt for example.

The President's executive order January 24 requires the head of each agency to ensure that at least half of the statutorily required renewable energy consumed by the agency in a fiscal year comes from new renewable energy sources, and to the extent feasible, the agency implements renewable energy generation projects on agency property for agency use.

When you read it, it sounds good, even agreeable right?
We hear the words in our heads that the government is consumming renewable energies and now it wants more. If this were a pep rally it would be right about now that the pretty cheerleaders would start jumping around in those short little skirts and tanned legs waving their pom poms, chanting to get everyone excited and cheering themselves.

 Try to focus out those cheerleaders in your head for just a second and read it again. Ok, that was hard to do I know, especially those short skirts and tanned legs.
First of all just what is the "statutorily required renewable energy consumed in a fiscal year that comes from renewable sources"? We have to know that before we can know what half of it is. Then we can know how much is to come from "new renewable sources". Just exactly what are they talking about here?
Anybody know?
The full story can be found at -
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com

To, Stephen M.

Now see, I would have to disagree with whomever wrote the first paragraph of that article.

In fact that history began sometime during the 1780's.

 While cutting a frog leg, Luigi Galvani's steel scalpel touched a brass hook that was holding the leg in place. The leg twitched.
It was probably the Sodium and/or Potassium (which are both metals by the way) in the fluids of the leg that acted like an electrolyte.
As for the other stuff...
Your right. What a lot people don't realize is that there is no such thing as "cold" because "cold" is merely the absence of heat and all matter with molecular motion generates heat. The more motion the more heat.
In fact, 0 degrees Kelvin is the temperature at which there is no molecular motion. Which translates into -459 degrees Fahrenheit. Thats cold!

Bon appetit!

To, Tom M.
 I am curious about your statement of
 "Most calculations regarding solar gain take into account reflection."
When I read "solar gain" in this forinstance it sounds kinda broad reaching.
How many calculations are there regarding solar gain in regard to "off the shelf" PV module source circuit, current carrying conductor sizing with mirrors for added reflection?

It would be interesting to know before hand the anticipated amperage of a PV module in regard to its rated Isc along with the 156% correction factor and more importantly, the possibility of increased amperage caused by adding mirrors.
 
For example: In my previous example I used an Isc of 7.5 amps with the 156% correction factor for reasons such as; below freezing temperatures and/or snow reflection and/or edge of cloud effect and/or the equivalent of 1,000 watts per square meter of natural sunlight,
but not mirrors.
Lets say all of those things come into effect (by some strange miracle) and indeed the PV module is producing 11.7 amps. How much more amperage would adding mirrors cause?
In other words, could the wire size handle the extra amperage of all these possibilities???

Its noon time. There is a foot of snow on everything (except the PV module.) There is a hole in the ozone layer. The sky is clear except for that one lonely could of a certain kind. You have mirrors around the PV module and its charging a nearly dead battery.
All I am saying is, there are possibilities and probabilities. Which one do you plan for.

I agree with Cormican.
More sunlight means more heat which is not good.
Cold is better. Cold is one of the reason for a multiplier of 156% on current carrying conductors for PV source circuits. That along with "edge of cloud effect" and snow reflection.
Thats 125% to satisfy UL and 125% to satisfy the NEC.
Lets say you have a PV module with a Short Circuit amperage rating of 7.5 After the 156% correction factor it would be 11.7 .
 Isn't that a kick in the head?
Standard Test Conditions for rating PV modules are very very rare in the real world as it is. 1,000 watts per square meters? Come on! Maybe if your standing directly under a huge hole in the Ozone layer on a clear day at noon time would there be about 800 watts per square meter.

As for experimenting ~ Hey! We wouldn't have half of this stuff that we've got today if some body hadn't of experimented. Right? Although if you got a roof top PV array you may want to reconsider, 'cause you don't want to burn your house down, do you?

This link to another web site sounds promising if not intriguing. Although some of it sounds like double talk, if you catch my drift.

http://www.powerchips.gi/index.shtml

Do great minds think alike? Or do they think for themselves?

You know how sometimes when you are pondering a thing you might hear someone say something or you may just have an epiphany? Either way, everything becomes as clear as a bell.
I had pondered the flooded cell, lead acid, deep cycle battery for years. I understood all of its abilities, all of the math concerning sizing, soc, dod, longevity, just what a cycle was. Anyway to make a long story short. There was still a cloud of mystery about it all. Even after having a battery bank in my home with a PV source/battery monitor to gawk at there was still something missing in knowledge. Then I found it. In the pages of a high school chemistry text book. These batteries do not store electricity. They convert electric energy into chemical energy and store that. Then when electricity is needed from them they convert it back from the stored chemical energy.
At a price!
 Next time you get the gumption to learn something, might I suggest research on Micheal Faraday and overlapping principles?
So much emphasis has been placed on Thomas Edison here in America. Where its true he is credited with inventing the light bulb, he actually "won a race" to invent it! To my mind his greatest accomplishment was putting together several would be inventors in one lab and providing them with the means to experiment and create inventions which Edison took credit for. Nikola Tesla was one of them, but Edison scoffed at Tesla's ideas using alternating currents. The history books all say that Ben Franklin discovered electricity. I would say, what he discovered is that electricity can be conducted. A good place to start.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/index.html

One of may favorite things to say when folks ask me such questions is...
Mankind had lived on our Earth without the utilization of electricity and fossil fuels for over 7,000 years but in only the last 100 years mankind has gotten to the point that it cannot live without them!
The real problem here is not that there isn't enough energy but that there are just to many humans.
An acquaintance of mine once compared mankind to rats in a gage. He said, "Four rats OK. Maybe ten or twelve. After a while those rats beget rats, which beget more rats, and more and more. Then they start to kill each other, rape each other and so on and so forth." Sound familiar at all?
For the most part we humans consider ourselves of a higher order, but are we really? Or is it all just a delusion?

If your seeking votes my vote would be to live without electricity and fossil fuels altogether. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Faith is a verb.
Have a nice day!

One more thing I meant to add!
http://www.sandia.gov/pv/docs/John_Wiles_Code_Corner.htm