Feather In The Crown Day

Feather In The Crown Day

What Do We Know

Deanna was quiet and peaceful when she came from Reno to visit me, something had clicked in her mind and that in itself was a lot to say, going to a strange place was never easy, but I think she had handled it well. Top that with having made up with me, I wasn't surprised at her wanting to see more of the country, journeys had always set me thinking and more often than not the philosophical thought process would rub on to my fellow travellers.  I had already fixed a deadline for the trip, a small town to the South of Punjab, Nabha, and the following weekend we took the train to head to the princely town of Maharaja Hira Singh. There was history to the town and and though it was small, with a population of 50,000 odd residents, the town is a thriving with activity.

When we reached Nabha, it was cold afternoon though the Sun was

was out and it was dusty, in general the state of the roads was a little on the broken side and it had been a bumpy ride to reach Nabha from Ambala.  The SaravPriya Hotel, Nabha is one of the budget hotels, Paramjit Singh, my friend and guide met us at the hotel, he had already booked two rooms for us.    

The biggish Punjabi Sardar gave me a large hug and patted me heartily on my back, "How have you been veerey."

"Lords mercy is on us."

"Wahe guru is always with us," he said jovially as he said a quick hello to Deanna, who had suddenly turned pensive, strange places initially always got her into that mood.

"Its pretty," she said staring at the lawn which centred rooms around it, there were a few tables and chairs with umbrellas basking lonely in the sunlight. "I figure all the guests would be busy with their sightseeing, I don't see many around."

"You will in the morning," replied back with his usual large smile.

I had met Paramjit during my college days travelling on the bike to Patiala, he was a large hearted guy, and loved to drink and would worked hard at his motorcycle workshop near Patiala Gate.  He guided us to the rooms where our welcome drink awaited us, Deanna took to the flowers really well, they were a nice bunch of Orchids purple in color.

"These are so pretty."

"I had them ordered especially for you both," said Paramjit, "normally they put roses, but I was told that you liked Orchids."

Instinctly Deanna gave him a peck on the cheek, "Thank You."

Paramjit blushed, he was not used to public affection from woman, this was a small town and after all he was a mechanic, so what if a highly skilled and special one.

Intuition is my Best Weapon Against God

Most mechanics don't know what they are getting into when they open up a machine, they tinker over with the spanner, get the electronics in, open up the machine and then decide what to do and normally what they do is totally contrary to what the customer would want..  Machines are like relationships, not totally and the angle is not immediately evident, but what forms a machine is multitude of inter related parts and what is that if not relationships.  If people fit well into each others lives then what we get is a perfectly functioning machine that has a purpose.

Parmajit was a very intuitive mechanic, and when I met him during a college tour I had seen his workshop totally scattered with tools and machines.  To the casual observer it might have looked like there was chaos all around, but Paramjit could find his way through the chaos, he would sit next to an opened up vehicle and without seeing what was happening pick up the right tool for the job.  He had during those days achieved the job of fixing the looseness in the cylinder-piston fit in 2 hours without even me knowing that the job was being done.

"How is the garage doing ?"

"The government has given me permission to acquire more land."

"Paramjit, my Dad once told me that he trusted mechanics more than Doctors," Deanna said.

"He He He, I don't know."

"Paramjit's wife cooks very well, how is she veerey ?" I asked, I had met Shiromani once, she was a strong willed woman who would never let Paramjit rest on his laurels.

"She is doing well, she cooked some Biryani and sent it for you, I have it in my car."

"Will make piece meal out of it during dinner." All three of us laughed, the conversation was moving.

Paramjit lounged himself onto to large couch in the room and poured himself a drink of water, he had an Ipod attached to his waist and Deanna opened up her suitcase and took out some Bluetooth speakers.  She paired the Ipod with the Bluetooth speakers, and the sound of some blissful Jagjit Singh Gazals filtered the room.

I looked around, overlooking the balcony was a market place, and the main road, called the Circular Road on which the hotel was located led to a Gurudwara that I could see in the distance.

"That's the Samadha Wala Gurudwara, its located in the Beed Forest, and is a great place to visit, we will visit it tomorrow."

"Sounds like an interesting place to go to." Deanna smiled.

"Do they have animals in that forest."

"I think they do," said Paramjit.

"Not lions though, just some deers, buffulos, some Neel gaen and the likes.

"Where else can we go tomorrow ?" Deanna asked curiously.

"Well there is the Glaxo factory we can visit, I have visit planned, its popularly known as the "Horlicks" factory."
"I would love that, as also to meet your wife Param," Deanna replied back.

"Yes, then tomorrow we go to my house for dinner, Shiromani is a good cook," Paramjit replied back, I could see on his face that he had liked the idea of Deanna wanting to meet his wife.

I wondered at Params upbringing, a God fearing man, he was the perfect example of a morally upright person, religion played a huge part in his life, whether it be work or personal relations.  I had no right to ask him but I did ask a question that had been troubling me for a while, 

"Do you see Wahe Guru in your work ?"

"I often do and that as the case may be are two different Gods, the one that handles my work for me is so meticulous, there is wonder in almost every part of the machine that I fix, there is a method and logic to every part in which He resides, like he takes care of my machines for me, forewarns me when Mother Nature is out to seek revenge from the metal parts and provides me with logic to solve even the most difficult problems that SHE throws at me.

I stared at Param, my heart skipping a beat and my eyes wide open, this was the most profound logic I had heard in years, and the journey of my last two years seemed to be reaching a more forward looking thought. Nabha was going to be a fantastic outing, I could sense and that made me happy.

                     "When You Are In Misery, All Your Friends Will Flee"

This Is Where The Healing Starts

A Solar Water Heater is a precision device made with machines that shave metal away millimetre by millimetre till the equipment is manufactured.  In my previous posts I have touched on the Solar Water Heater that can be used with Space Heating.

A typical solar heater comprises of these Solar Parts:

1.     Solar Collectors                                5.  External Electrical Heater

2.     Solar Tank                                        6.  Tank Stand

3.     Solar Plumbing                                 7.  Collector Stand

4.     Electrical Accessories                       8.  Mechanical Accessories

How Does A Solar Collector Work

We might evince some interest in the Solar Collector in the post, the design of which is the key to the Solar Water Heating System.  Collectors are of two types a)Flat Plate b)Evacuated Tube , though a majority of them today are the Flat Plate type.  These type of collectors consist of a black absorber plate, water conduits and insulation at the back and glazed glass in the front.  Since they have to withstand tough winter weathers the absorber plate must be able to gather energy and the insulation store that energy.  Also the typical temperature of a absorber goes up to 200 deg C when the collector is empty, so all plumbing within it should be able to withstand that temperature.

   This is a home made design for Solar Collector plate where the black absorber plates are made of black coated Shelf Heat Spreader Plate, which are basically sheet metal

 made of poly or metal with grooves that are, built in, the absorber plate for the conduit.  The front is then covered with high intensity focussing glass sheet typically St. Gobain or other equal brands.  The back of the collector is insulated with insulation like Rock Wool.

More on this later, suffice to say, that a great Solar Collector is the key to all your water heating requirements       

       

“As I Perused All This in the Light Of The Sun, It became Clearer.”

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The Kitchen Sink

The Kitchen Sink

Like A Ghost From The Past

She had calmed down by the time she made the second call to me, “Were you listening to me the last  time?” she said quietly over the phone, “I want you here with me.”  There were some worries with her boy friend, I had sensed it the last time around.  “I am ok,” I said and asked her about her house in Reno. “It’s looking lovely up here now, the summers are upon us and the winds have changed direction, the Solar Energy System you had us install is doing very well too.” There was anxiety too here, but we spoke nicely to each other and put the phone down.

I had forgotten about Reno soon as I had got back, like a buried past

and got on with my life here, there were things to do and connections to revive and a job to look for.  In the meanwhile Deanna had gone from one stepping stone to another, she excelled in her profession and had made her moves in the journalism industry too. 

Soon it was 2012 and her first call had been in the month of December that had left me wondering but I had been eager to talk to her, she had been a friend beyond all boundaries and I had forgotten the animosity of the past.  Her tone had conveyed to me that something was amiss now, which was unusual, she normally handled her profession and personal life with aplomb.

Whatever it was, now we would manage it without any problems, like always after talking to her, life was looking like a fast car on an open highway

                             “Life is a Highway, Gonna Ride it All Night Long.”

The Art Of Enchantment

de·sign : to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully.

Still wondering about her, I said to myself, “Let’s Sketch,” it was late night on Saturday, nowhere to go, I took out out an A4 sheet and my sketch pens and laid the margins, I had the T-square, the Compass, Oil Paints, a splash of colour is never appreciate by corporate audience but then this was me. I started to create what I had dreamt of for 6 months now.

 Once I had the sketch ready, I put it into my design folder neatly

stacked up with all my other work, life was getting lonely, there were hardly any friends and work kept me extremely busy.  I took the scanned copy from my Design room and walked to Tech Lab and started to render it out on the machine.  It was taking time to render it and I still had 30 minutes to go, so I walked out for a smoke, heart heavy and feet numb, I took out a Marlboro and lit it up while this voice kept saying in my head,    “Honey It’s Time To Design,”   I just didn’t know where to look, so kept staring out of my window, it was dark, gloomy and dark, just how I had seen the world for months now, a place to eat, sleep and work, the noise on the computer woke me up from reverie and I walked back to the Tech Lab and stared at what I had, it looked perfect, “It always does, it always does, till it goes to the market,” my mind snapped back at me.

Money drives the world, from the marketplaces to the oversized malls; the moneyed economy was ruining the minds of people who still had it in them to create.  If I took the market driven path then I give you what everybody gives you, content, graphics, design and code, its easy isn’t it ? Just do what everybody is doing, stay with the herd and earn bucks for every single effort of yours, pilfer and plagiarize, a big house and Buick outside the house, a pretty wife and two kids standing on the porch.

                              

The Code “P”

Design is all about :

Pattern                                                                            

Panache

Personal

Poise

Perfection.

These are the 5 P’s of design that I have known for centuries, right down from the design of money to the design of websites.  I have adored history, knowing that through centuries, and especially after the World War – II, design has always been shy of media, it hides from publicity, likes to be subtle and sure, defining moment for me during this night.

An umbrella during the rain with water trickling down the sides, the clouds that look menacing before the burst and so beautiful, “Hey, what’s up ?” and I am thinking if it rains today I could design the night away and it did rain today. 

My Tech Lab was looking a little like cluttered and I started to look around for my Book on Design, it wasn’t really about making money, it was me who wanted to design this for myself and I was going to be patient, it always paid to wait around these parts, it was forbidden around here to finish the task before time, it wouldn’t do to ramp up, it was forbidden.

  

Design is a very clean process, and the more we talk about the more we learn, for instance, that special design you thought you saw up there goes into the dustbin, it is all a right brain process.  The design is to the left brain what the code to the right brain and once we have a layout ready I would merge code with it.  I prefer doing everything on my own, it’s all in the design, nobody wants to know what makes it work, but if it looks great then everyone is floored.  So here’s what I came up with after a cup of coffee of course.

  clean and simple, 

                   with straight lines and

                                                   classic colours to which the coder gives

                                             give a classic 2 column,

                                       with custom graphics.

                   “I got The Blues Tonight and The Rhythm is Awesome”

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All The Best - Efficiency and Excellence

All The Best – Efficiency and Excellence

You Were So Good To Me

She calmly sat in the car as I drove her to the house, she kept talking about something and I wasn’t listening, the Chief’s vote had been in our favour and of course, she had forgotten that she had shouted at me.

It had taken a while to calm myself down, “Seeing her true colours?” my mind had snapped back at me, and I had told myself to calm down, I had seen this before so why was it hurting me so much today, I drove the Dodge V8 slowly while she spoke of what we would do now, maybe eat and get to the house again. 

I was the chaperone I knew that, my role was all figured out

until today, then it had dawned on me that I was nothing to her.  I had side stepped questions from her friends in the city council building and had walked out, seeing from the corner of my eye Chief’s approval only.  

I ran around the back soon as we got home, looked around for my bag and started packing clear in my head that it was time to get back to where I had come from; truth had been made abundantly clear to me, leaving me in doubt what my next step was going to be.

“Aren’t you going to be making some dinner,” she shouted from the living room, I quietly left the house and walked on to the stream that flowed close to the house, there was a cluster of trees where I usually sat down to smoke.  I sat there and waited for a sign, ten minutes turned to fifteen before this old man appeared out of the background, he wore a thick robe, it was cold, he was smoking a cigar with a Stetson on his head, I wasn’t sure about the gun running laws here but I think I spotted a holster around his belly.

“You waiting,” he asked, I just nodded my head and pointed to the stream, “Fishing then?” he said with a grimace, “It isn’t allowed here.”
“Yes sir,” I said melancholically, no peace today here either, “Goodnight boy,” he said as I walked away.  I took the long route home and reached at 11pm, late enough to avoid her.  Next morning I sold my Dodge V8 and took the train home.

                                    “I Just haven’t met You Yet.”

Taming the Shrew

I have been hearing a lot of talk about why should we change equipment to get Solar installed, shouldn’t solar work for our existing equipment?

A few interesting points here:

1.     Solar will work for the existing equipment

2.     It will work as efficiently as your grid does for the equipment

3.     Savings on the Grid are magnified when converted to Solar

4.     Grid and Solar are both electricity

What constitutes an energy efficient system is the Energy Star Rating, so let’s break it up, bird by bird, stone by stone, to the top 5 in each category:

Ceiling Fans

Refrigerators

Television

Computer Monitor

More on how these efficiencies affect the electricity that we pay for later on, for today I think I could rest my case.

                   

                  “I got The Blues Tonight and The Rhythm is Awesome”

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Saltpeter Brewing up - Taming PC's

Saltpeter brewing up – Taming PC's

Heading West Virginia

“She is calmer than ever now, back in her seat behind the glass,” I thought to myself as I drove Deanna back to her house from the City Council.  This day stood out in my memory as the saddest day in my life, I had worked for over two days to get this final vote and we had won, but I had got shouted at for being myself, it really was a sad day.

The next day, I went to the car dealer to sell my Dodge V8,

he was a slick old wily man, and told me I wouldn’t get more than “a thousand for this old hag,” this town was doing me no good now, I knew the moment she had shouted at me in the city council, something had changed within me.  There was “Saltpeter” blowing up in my mind and I would find it almost uncontrollable to handle my own temper, for the next week I stayed away from Deanna.

Ten days and I was back, away from Reno and Deanna, wondering if I had lost the game of life, either ways the design of things was becoming clearer to me.” I am a gambler and I m not in the habit of losing.  And I have never seen a woman I thought was more man than me.  I don’t care if I can get it up for her or not, but I must win no matter what,” this thought kept me busy all the way to New York airport, I was heading home to a new job, a new lifestyle and a life away from these broken dreams of hers.

In New York, Frank had asked me, “Why didn’t you tell her to bugger off there itself?” the bartender had got us two Jack Daniels neat and I had quickly slithered mine into my mouth and he did the same, the only thing this time around, his drink was down his throat while mine was still in my cheek and I showed it to him smiling.

I had held back and everybody in the country knew about it, the reasons were becoming evident enough to anybody and my mind sang, “A bee in her butt, a burr in her bloomers, Get her goat, bug her till she comes apart,” I thought wildly but had still hung back.  It was happening all wildly but certainly not to me, I was still at the same place safe and sound.

The chief had been sure,”I know I have made the right decision.

Taming the Shrew

All equipment has a base load that adds up when they are not switched off, that red light that glows in the dark while you are sleeping, the TV or Home Theatre doesn’t go to sleep when you do, is adding up to this base load.

My two PC’s used up 270 Watts of electricity while they were ON.  Realising this and understanding that these very a lot of watts, I decided to put my two PCs on hibernation while I went to sleep and suddenly realised that the power I was saving was close to 1780 kWhrs every year, that’s 3560 lbs of green house gas and a dollar $178 per year.  The computers use zero power while hibernating and come out of it in a few seconds or do they?

 Cost Estimate:

Cost was two power strips -- $20 -- they also provide some surge protection.

Dollar Saving:
I measured the power levels:
Everything turned on (2 PC's, printers, ...):   297 watts (174 downstairs PC + 123 upstairs PC) -- this is measured after everything settles down.

With PC's in hibernate, but other other peripherals on:  59 watts (54 downstairs + 8 upstairs)

Saving is: 
Power strips for night:   (297 w)(10hr)(365 day/yr)(1/1000) = 1084 KWH!

Hibernate after 15 min in daytime: (297w-59w)(8 hr)(365 day/yr)(1/1000) = 695 KWH!
Where 8 hours is the estimated time in hibernation during the day.

This adds up to 1779 KWH per year for a $178 saving at 10 cents a KWH.

Conclusion

And all I did was put my computers on hibernation, they stopped right where they were using zero power and started back from the same spot without any problem.  In conclusion, this was the best thing I had ever done for my home.  More on energy efficiency in other posts, at least I know what the readers want now.

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Ear for Words - Collectors Loop

Ear for Words – Collectors Loop

Open Them Floodgates

It had been a rough day in Reno, we had worked out a lot of stuff today, we had been shopping, picked up some clothes and I was loving this feel of having bought a book to work out the technicalities of the Solar part, it was technical book and as I sat in my rucksack that night and begun to read, there chapters on Solar Water Heating, starting from Gravity Feed to All Seasons Systems, there were systems that had a mixture of glycerine in them to keep the freezing away.  The book was getting better and better when Deanna called me over to look at the moon which was brightly lit for a winter night.

The chief had been sure,”I know I have made the right decision,” and this had been despite the opposition from a section of the council.  The thing about US was that these meetings were held under camera, I had never seen this anywhere, funnily enough he looked very handsome, the chief, he had long hair and was tall about 6’4” and was dressed up moderately.

I had this ear for words and I was beginning to like even his prophetic statements, these normally were my bane but coming from him they sounded just right, there were ominous warnings of climate change, the “The Killing Fields of Great Glaciers” and “the Mighty Wave in the Ocean” – they were almost biblical and fascinating.

It was this ear for word that caught his fancy and over two days  we spent talking about lifestyles, cultures and politics in US, it wasn’t as if we had whole days but even half to one hour with him was enough, Deanna started getting angry at me, “That is good PR, however we have to think of other members here,” she had shouted at me with her friends looking up in glee,

“I'll keep that in my mind,” I had replied back, not knowing, that in 2012, this skill would actually get me to a Public Relations assignment.

There had been a wild flurry of activity at the door  when the Chief had voted for us, there was crowd there, probably Deanna’s friends, all stunned as much as Deanna was, she had thought I was chatting up the Chief for Solar, until he had voted for us.  Chief was as stoic as ever with only a faint hint on his upturned lips, and a twinkle in his eyes when he had looked at me.  It was obviously going to be a fine summer in Reno now, but I was going to head home, I was sure.

“Systems Are Never Wrong, It’s the Logic behind Them”

The Glazed Collector

Swimming Pool Heaters are different from normal Solar Water Heaters, in the sense that since the water that needs to be heated is larger in volume the Collectors need to be cheaper build and though they are numerous DIY kits that cut the cost by almost 1/4^th, in this post I look at the Glazed Solar Collector water heating.

A Solar water heating system is made up of Solar Collectors and a solar tank with the required plumbing.  A pool is a large water body that is exposed to the ambient temperature, every minute of exposure cools down the temperature especially in the night.

The glazed collectors are special collectors that do not have a glass covering on top of them, just a glazing that focuses sunlight on to the fins and tubes under them so that the water passing through them heats up because of the Sun Light.

The pool heater is a collection of:

1.     Glazed Collectors

2.     Plumbing pipes in the range of 20-25mm

3.     An assortment of Non Return Valves

4.     A vacuum breaker

5.     By Pass valves

6.     Pump

The water goes from collector to collector while it gets heated up to the required temperature and is fed back into the pool while the cold water is pulled away from the pool by a pump.  NRV (Non Return Valves) and BPV (By Pass Valves) are used to configure the stream of water to and fro from the pool.

                      “The Community Collector Loop Phenomenon”

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