When teaching in Virginia recently, the Evil Princess and I were able to have dinner with Jeff Yago and his lovely wife Sharon.  Jeff and I have both been writing for Backwoods Home magazine since the latter 1990s.  Jeff’s specialty is energy, and has long been the magazine’s resident expert on all things related to solar power. Here’s his article in the current issue: http://backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago152.html .

Jeff is also an authority on prepping, and does seminars on the topic as well as all his work in the solar area.  Talking shop was interesting; turns out that we have different writing habits.  It’s amazing how many writers do.

Take a look at Jeff’s work in the archives of the Backwoods Home website, and his retired blog, here: http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/EnergyQuestions/.  Deep knowledge and meticulous research, combined with a writing style that gets the material across clearly.  Jeff is one of the great resources in the Backwoods Home group, and it’s always a pleasure to be on a team with professionals like him.

Mas_Jeff

6 COMMENTS

  1. Mr. Yago’s article in BHM was greatly appreciated. There’s a lot new technology coming into the mainstream as well as a lot of older technologies that are getting more affordable. Two years ago, I took a class in printed organic solar cell development. Today, after 2 years of waiting, I received my printed solar cell for my trials. When they come to market, they should be great for using in remote locations where little power is needed and flexibility, light weight, and low cost is considered a premium.

  3. Sure am, Rick. Been using them a few years now. Prescription, from Rudy Project. The only glare-killing tinted lenses I’ve ever been comfortable driving with at night, and great on the range. (And they make a sunset look like a Hieronymous Bosch painting.)

  4. Great article as always. I have heard Jeff on Jack Spircos podcast. I actually live pretty close to him in VA. I haven’t gone solar yet but do have the generators, inverters, and batteries. My setup is not elaborate but it works. I have found the charge time can be reduced dramatically by using 2 amp power supplies. Many of those power strips and plug in chargers are a bit anemic. My S5 smartphone will go from 10% to full charge in a little over an hour. Turn off bluetooth wifi and 4G data and it’s even faster.

  5. Dang, that’s who was waiting in the parking lot after class! I’ve been a Backwoods Home reader for as long as y’all have been writing, and would’ve loved to say,”Hey!” to Jeff. Two BWH gurus in one weekend. Sweet!

  6. Some personal experience to share: The newer, big solar energy storage batteries seem to be an improvement. Beware of air pockets forming in the chambers containing the water level indicator floats, though. You may thus be deceived into thinking that battery water levels are OK, when they are not. When you do daily battery inspections, you might carefully tap on each float chamber to check if the float is not stuck above an air pocket. Your automatic water controller may be creating issues, too. Adding your distilled water to each battery cell by hand may be the best policy, using a clear, small-tube funnel to penetrate any possible air pockets or bubbles in the filling necks. Then you can be more assured that the float positions honestly reflect the water levels, at least for a time. Very hot weather requires closer water level supervision, because sharper drops can occur from the heat.

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