Category Archives: Energy

Generator

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Clear skies, calm wind.

The generator is not working. Yesterday it shutdown a moment after starting up. The shutdown switch says it was because of “hi/low volts”. Chris suspects it is the voltage controller on the generator. The battery bank,charge controllers, and inverters are all running fine. I am glad that it has been sunny these past few days because there is enough light to charge the battery bank for basic operations. All extraneous power/phantom draws have been shutdown and unplugged. It is also a reminder to always keep the water tank topped up (which I do) since the desalinator needs the generator to run. The mission now is to keep the solar panels nice and clean throughout the day.

Slack tide kayak visit from two of my friends.
Chris brought out this year’s Coutts lecturer Massimiliano Gioni +a handful of students +a guest and 2 kids

Power Restrictions

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Cloudy with scattered showers. Strong West wind in the evening.

4 tour boats

I spent the day with Aileen and her advisee group. Because there were 10 students (with all of their associated electronic equipment) the breaker on the inverter to the science house was tripped last night which resulted in a total electrical shut-down of the Science house where everyone was staying.  Our system and these old houses are just not meant for that much of a power draw. Because of that little power outage, the morning was spent showing them about the energy and resource systems on Race Rocks, with a strong emphasis on living within reasonable means, especially when in a remote place like this. My solution to the excessive use of power was to only allow them to use 2 plugs in the house to charge computers and phones. I think (hope) it turned into an unexpected team building exercise where they had to charge things minimally and barter for plug-time. Either way, it meant that we didn’t have any more power issues for the rest of their stay and it is something that I will implement for future groups.

I counted 13 Elephant seals on Middle rock. They return to Race Rocks for a few months in Spring to moult. Although they look absolutely terrible when they are moulting, it is a natural process that they undergo every year.

 

 

Update: past week

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On Friday Erik brought out a new wood stove and two guys to install it in the main house. The diesel furnace has turned been off since then and we are plenty warm.  This is a great addition to the island and another positive step Pearson College has taken to reduce its dependance on fossil fuels, reduce the risks of diesel contamination in this sensitive environment and improve financial sustainability of operations.

A group of Pearson College students arrived on Saturday afternoon with Erik on Second Nature to spend their project week at Race Rocks.  They will be helping out with daily tasks, doing some maintenance projects and working on their own creative projects.

On Sunday I picked up Garry and brought him to the island to get a closer look at the pup and to give the students a short marine bio and history tour.

DND blasting occured on March 4th, 5th, and 6th (945, 1030, 1310 big blast, 1350)

Eco tour vessels visited the reserve Feb 27 (x2), 28th, March 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 9th (x2)
Private vessels entered the reserve March 7th, 8th and 9th

Past Week projects and maintenance:

-harvested, cut firewood
-clean and prep for students arrival
-coordinating for project week
-cleaned out oil traps in propane lines of main house
-worked on boat console
-recycling offload to campus
-picked up peat moss and maintenance supplies
-completed month end report and data entry
-2 full propane tanks to island
-assist with wood stove supplies and install

Views from Race Rocks

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On  March   Barry Herring, spent a day with us out on Race Rocks recording some of the views.  Included here is some of his work. Barry is a photographer from Victoria, BC.

barryspanno

Click on this image for a panorama view of the south side of great Race Rocks island. On the left are the solar panels and foghorn operated by the Canadian Coast Guard for the lighthouse. On the left is the energy centre operated by Lester Pearson College . Note solar panels on the roof. This is the centre for the integrated Energy Project which provides energy for the other buildings and the camera servers on Race Rocks

 

barrypanowest

A panorama of the southwest coast.

IMG_4460

The remote-control camera 5 and a view to the west.

We happened to be there on a very calm evening with a great sunset:

barryshousesunset

The former Assistant lightkeeprers residence of the Lightstation is now the science house at Race Rocks. The building can house visiting students and researchers who arrive at Race Rocks.

 

 

Inverter back online

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For most of last week we had steady westerly winds reaching upwards of 40 NMPH. We got a break in the weather on Friday and Saturday some flurries began and the wind shifted back to North East and cold. It has been upwards of 20 NMPH NE today and the past two days. Today it is sunny for a change.

On Tuesday February 18 there were three heavy blasts that appeared to come from behind Christopher Point, not the usual blasting location.

On Friday Feb 21st Erik brought a group out to Race Rocks that include Ric the electrician and his apprentice. The inverter which had been repaired in Vancouver had shipped overnight and arrived on campus just in time to make it out here. We were able to re-install and test run the inverter, replace a broken solar pane- using adapter cables-on the roof of the engine room  and repair a failed light circuit in the assist house. Jonathan also came out and replaced the switch in the assist house and did some troubleshooting of the internet system. He also brought out a replacement conduit access box for Camera 5.  Five other guests from the college also came to visit for a total of 9 visitors including Erik. Erik returned in the afternoon with a group of student divers from the college; they dove near the jetty and brought the electrician and company back to campus. I picked up 3 guests form Pedder Bay and brought them for an overnight visit.

On Saturday, in the morning I counted over 200 Pigeon Guillemots along the shore of race rocks.  I have seen and heard them a few times this year but this was by far the most i have seen. There were at least 3 eco tour vessels in the reserve, there have not been many lately.  I went off island for a few hours in the afternoon.

-fixing running light wiring in boat
-finished building and painting box for GPS console on boat
-coordinating with DFO for tagging elephant seal
-measurements for adapter cables for replacement solar panel
-coordinating with electrician, assisting with gear, installation, etc
-communications about wood stove
-moving back into main house/clean up
-cleaning up jetty more frequently due to NE wind

week in review

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I have missed a few days of logs; I was off the island Jan 22-26th. The day after I returned a inverter quit and we lost power to the main house, the internet connection was also interrupted a few days… we are now mostly moved in to the other house and are running ok with only 2 inverters on the island. Planning on having the bad inverter removed on Monday and shipped to Vancouver for servicing. We can still get power there by flipping transfer switch load 1 to “generator” while the generator is running

The weather has been very nice the last two days, sunny and relatively light wind. This house has more south facing exposure and is a bit smaller, it really warms up on a sunny day. We had quite a bit of rain earlier in the week and several days of patchy fog last weekend and early this week. Wind only got up to around 30 knots one evening mid-week.

The pup has really put on weight and is quite the squawker, often right outside the bedroom window… in the middle of the night. Chunk and Bertha are mating. He is quite persistent and she seems quite resistant but she wont leave her pup alone yet. This morning there was blood around her bad eye and it was swollen.

There has been ongoing blasting at Rocky Point this week, every day up to the weekend. One time several blasts were in short succession, sometimes there were flares too. The photo below was taken after one very heavy blast, the sealions all had their heads up right after and seemed alarmed.

heads up sealions-7339
Traffic in reserve:
Sunday Jan 26: I returned in the afternoon on the station whaler.
Monday Jan 27: 1 private, 1 ecotour, helicopter overhead, several navy ships doing exercises nearby in the straight.
Saturday Feb 1: 1 diveboat, 3 ecotour.

Work:
-troubleshooting inverter
-troubleshooting internet
-moving supplies over to other house, switching fridges, etc
-communicating with inverter repair person in vancovuer
-communicating with electrician for inverter removal
-removed 25 ft of 2″ clogged drain pipe from main house, cleaned pipes with rain water
-got crate for 2′ long inverter
-started month end inventory/report
-cut, chopped, stacked fire wood
-cleaned panels as needed
-picked up pipe and hardware for replacing sink drain pipe
-topping up batteries
-picked up parts for repairs on station whaler

Westerly

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Over the past 5 days we have had strong westerly winds reaching over 40 NMPH most days (in the evening) and over 50
NMPH on Saturday evening. There have been heavy swells as a result. Because of bad weather/low light I am having to run the generator longer most days, around 3 hours to charge batteries, than usual.

Chunk has mostly remained on main island with Bertha who continues to resist his advances. We are approaching the date when she gave birth two years ago. I have not been able to see the pup on middle rock for several days. The weather has made it harder to get a view over there.

On Thursday the 9th, 12 bald eagles were observed in the reserve. Still havent been able to get banding info on black oyster catchers.

Wednesday, Jan 8th: 1 charter fishing boat toured through reserve, 1 CG helicopter flew over.
Monday, Jan 13th: 1 CG helicopter flew over.

-securing things from wind
-following up on woodstove
-following up on furnace servicing
-cleaning solar panels
-fire wood cutting when weather permits

Change of Guardian, Snow

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I got a ride out to Race Rocks today with Erik to start my winter shift.  Pedder Bay was covered in ice up to around the college’s main docks.  Courtney updated me on operating procedures and returned with Erik. There was supposed to be a chimney cleaner coming too but it has been snowing since this morning and it was too slippery.

Chunk was in the water by the jetty when we arrived and came up the ramp. He is so big that i thought it was the alpha male, Misery, at first. The scars, from getting chewed up by Misery, are visible on his back.

The snow stopped before sunset so I cleaned off the solar panels. The tilted panels were partly clear whereas the horizontal panels had accumulated about an inch of snow.

DND testing

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Sunny and calm all day. Wind picked up to 25 kts this evening. Small swell still running.
Sunny enough that I didn’t need to run the generator  to top up the battery bank.

Tour boats: 4

DND testing:
0935 2 blasts; sea lions were startled and cleared out off the North-East flats
1120 1 blast
1125 1 blast
1350 1 big loud bang

12 elephant seals. They were all playing in the surge on the boat ramp in the morning. They came back ashore in the afternoon and piled up behind the boat shed.

-fixed sea lion fence in the morning
-cleaned solar panels
-found missing hardware and hung boat shed doors
-finished cleaning the rainwater tank

September 8/13

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Morning Weather: winds West 6kts,  seas Rppl,  Fog all around
Chris off station between 1100-1730hrs

marine traffic: eco-tour boats: 3

marina mammal count: west rock: 4 sealions , 3 seals, middle rocks: 142 sealions, 52 seals, north rock: 42 seals, Great Race Rocks (including east islets): 350 sealions, 65 seals

solar panels cleaned.