DIY Solar Water Panels

John, the owner of Ahu Lani was in town from Oahu this past week. Our project was to get the solar water panels back online. The previous copper panels were leaking and so we got out diy hats on and began making a test panel which eventually will serve as the prototype for the 7 that we will replace.

This project was right down my alley, DIY all the way man. Each panel cost about $150 while buying
the panels would have been about $1200. BooYA. Some tests showed that the panels made of
PEX 1/2" tubing and heat transfer plates is about 85% as effective as the $1200 copper panels. So the
trade off seems legit. I did some testing with an infrared laser and in full sun the panel reached temps of over 160 degrees F. Thats some free hot water baby!

More pictures to come, of panel two. I eventually was to make a video and post it to youtube as a

DIY help video.

Kona side adventure

One weekend I had a farm tour in Puna, and one in Kona side. Both potential places that I was hoping to work at. Getting around on the island is easy at times and others not so much. I had a 4 hour bus journey to get from my side to Kona side including a lot of hitching. I know I shouldn't have been hitching at night however I was still 12 miles from my friends house that I was going to spend the night at in Captin Cook at I wasn't going to make it walking. My back up was to spend the night at a hostel. Luckily precisely after the
15 minutes I alloted myself to find a ride before I bought a room at this hostel a car picked me up. A few people were in the car including a baby. B, the driver said he was going to SKEA, a pottery studio/community gathering art center for their once a month Reggae night. It was late and they said
it was good company and lots of kids playing so I joined them.

They had really awesome vegan stew, reggae music, and a featured artist from Jamaica named Bishop GAD. He rocked the house with some uplifting spirit driven Jamaican Reggae. Who of course I could only understand about every 30th word he said, something about "much love for big island" seemed to be the reoccurring idea. Any how, he was really awesome, and even gave me one of his CDs after
the show.

The vibe was really funny, just a bunch of kids and older hippie people chilln to reggae music.
I was networking to try and get a ride 8 more miles south and it just wasn't workin out. I got an awkward maybe from this lady but I don't think either of us were feeln it. So after the show I hit the road again and
this awesome guy Larry picked me up, let me use his cell, and even drove me around the area I was trying to get to, it was night and I didn't know where my friends house was. Super nice people here.

Baby DJing in Kona side, beat that on a friday night
Spent the night at Johnny Tsunami's Sea Camp, made it to my farm tour in the morning, and all was well.

B gave me a packet of the coolest stickers ever. One of them was of Nikola Tesla!
Another said "the Sun in 400 times larger than the moon but 400 times further away making them
seem the same size in the sky" cool stuff like that.