07.20.07
Posted in Trojan Deep Cycle Batteries, deep-cycle-batteries at 3:27 pm by admin
Trojan Deep Cycle Golf Cart Batteries are the ideal deep cycle battery to buy when looking for an affordable alternative energy battery. These batteries can be used in tandem with 4 6 volt batteries. These golf cart batteries have a large capacity, they are reliable, a quality product and affordable.
Trojan actually invented the golf cart battery. The last a very long time and 98% of golf carts have a Trojan battery under the seat. Why do we use a golf cart battery for solar energy projects and wind turbine projects? The reason is because they are very reliable and have the right amount of capacity. Remember you want 24 volts total which means 4 of these batteries will do the trick. That will only cost you about $400 and will be a great investment to be well on your way with a succesful energy project for your home.
“More than 98% of America’s top golf courses use Trojan Batteries in their fleets.* Why? Trojan invented the golf car battery back in 1952 and has been making superior products ever since. Check under the seat of an electric golf car and you’re likely to see Trojan deep cycle batteries. Built to deliver superior performance, durability and reliability, these batteries are Trojan’s flagship line and can meet the challenges of the toughest, hilliest courses in the world.
- Trojan’s proprietary Maxguard® Advanced Design Separator and exclusive Alpha Plus® paste formulation team up to increase battery life, extend run time and decrease maintenance.
- Durability, reliability and proven technology mean you can depend on Trojan batteries for consistent performance day in and day out.
- Outstanding technical support is available on the phone or on the web.
- Products are available through Trojan’s worldwide network of Master Distributors “
*Based on listings of top golf courses in Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and the US Open list of venues 1995-2010.
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07.19.07
Posted in Consumer Report, Rapaport Diamond Chart at 9:44 am by admin
The almighty Rapaport Sheet!
Many people rave about the Rapaport sheet because of its prestige but the only ones who can accurately read it and interpret it are jewelers who understand the different cuts of a diamond. Just because you know the name of a particular diamond cut is not going to help you with this sheet. You have to know about depth and angles through a microscope. Forget about using a Rapaport sheet. A jeweler will help you interpret one which they are happy to do as they can inflate a diamonds price with this report almost 30%. Your best off checking with several diamond discounters and comparing similar rings.
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07.12.07
Posted in deep-cycle-batteries, quality-deep-cycle-batteries at 6:31 pm by admin
How do you start on an alternative power project for your home?
To begin the process you will need a base. That base will always be batteries. Most people cannot afford deep cycle sealed batteries. These are the batteries found in fork lift trucks and other large excavation type equipment. These batteries run several thousand dollars a piece. You could easily be up to $10,000 just in batteries for a small starter project for a cabin in the woods.
A better more affordable solution for those who do not have $10,000 to shell out on deep cycle batteries is to buy unsealed deep cycle batteries. These are sealed but by deep cycle battery standards and terminology they are not. When you look at the battery it is sealed according to what you see but let’s not argue with the experts.
Get to it! What batteries should I get?
Buy Trojan brand deep cycle batteries from a company that sells golf carts or golf cart supplies. Unless you live in a city that has a large battery store such as Interstate Battery you will have better luck dealing with a golf cart supplier or repair shop and you will only pay a little more for the batteries then driving to an industrial battery store that may not even be anywhere near you.
You want 4 batteries that are 6 volt batteries. They will each be over 200 amp hours in storage capacity which will make for maximum storage by having 4 batteries. Sure you could get 2 12 volt or 1 24 volt but you won’t have the battery storage capacity you need. That is why most experts would agree, you need 4 6 volt deep cycle batteries.
These batteries go for about $100 a piece. So your out $400 instead of $10,000. Not too bad. Unlike a Fork Lift battery you can only discharge these batteries about 50% which is why we need a lot of capacity because half of the storage will not even be utilized. If you were to drain them completely you would be severely depleting the lifetime of the battery. Not a good idea!
Now what do you need after you buy these batteries?
These batteries are your base for this alternative energy project. Now you will need a couple of inverters. Why you need two inverters instead of just one is something you don’t want to forget. Laptops, and certain other appliances with low voltage could be destroyed if not powered through an inverter specifically made for these smaller appliances. Be sure you research and buy an inverter for these low voltage items.
The 2nd inverter you buy will be for larger appliances and devices like, air conditioners, refridgerators, microwaves and most other home appliances.
Again cell phones, laptops and these smaller items will need to go through the smaller voltage inverter.
For those who aren’t sure what exactly an inverter is 
An inverter converts the energy produced via a generator whether that generator be a gasoline or diesel generator, a wind turbine, a solar panel as well as many other various generators out on the market and makes it available so that you can plug in a home appliance into a standard power socket and operate your appliance.
If for instance you had a wind turbine you would be feeding this energy into your batteries directly bypassing any other type of generator you had. Ultimately the inverter will always be the end device you plug your appliances into. You would never plug a solar panel, wind turbine directly into an appliance.
I forgot to mention that the inverters will probably end up costing you about $1000
Do I need anything else for my base?
You will also need a device that monitors how much energy is left in the batteries and when it is time to feed the batteries more energy to charge them back up. A light on the device or an alarm will sound letting you know when the batteries are close to their 50% threshhold. At this time you could power on a gasoline powered generator to charge up the batteries or let the wind turbine trickle feed the needed energy into the batteries over an extended period of time. You could also allow both a wind turbine and gas generator to both add a percentage of the needed energy back into the batteries.
This extra device will be the final piece to the basic base station for alternative energy and will cost about $300 at the most.
As you can see you can keep this beginning alternative energy base station under $2,000 and be on your way to being completely off the grid. Now all you need is a generator of some kind. If you have the money you could buy a wind turbine and solar panels if you can afford that. Wind Turbines can be as cheap as $700 and go up from there. Solar panels are basically astromically priced and takes years to recover the money. In a typical scenario it may take 15 years to recover your solar panel investment not to mention the maintenance and possible replacement of old panels.
There are companies out there that let you use their panels for free and you just pay them for the energy they produce. I would check into that if you still are set on buying solar panels.
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Posted in Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize Caving, Vacations at 2:37 pm by admin
Having fun in the Belize Jungle and Pyramids
When staying in Belize there is no doubt you will spend much of your time on the beach. With the 2nd biggest reef in the world next to Australia’s you would be dumb not to snorkel or dive in the reef. After diving, snorkeling and lounging on the beach you will want to get off your lazy butt and head into the interior of Belize to check out the Pyramids and jungle. You will want to go to San Ignacio Belize which is the jumping point to the several different jungle and pyramid locations.
Travelling to San Ignacio
The place you want to go to first after doing the beach thing is San Ignacio. This city is very close to the Guatemalan border. On your way to San Ignacio have the bus drop you off at the zoo. You will see a sign stating that you are now enetering the zoo. Once you have made it in about 200 yards you start to wonder if your lost down some abandoned road but then you will actually start to see the zoo. They have it setup as if you are walking through a jungle. The animals are lightly fenced in with chain link and you can get quite close to the wildlife. They have a black Jaguar which is very rare and several other mean looking felines. Parrots, Eagles, and many different birds are located here.
Playing with the baby Jaguar
There is a young baby Jaguar staying here that was rejected by the mother and so it was raised by the staff. It acts just like a baby kitty and loves people and attention. That was by far the neatest part of the zoo trip. We didn’t actually play with the Jaguar but we were able to tease playfully with it from the other side of the cage.
Riding a bus in Belize
After the zoo you will wait at the bus stop and a bus will be by shortly. Each time you see a bus just try and waive it down. If it is a bus that is allowed to stop it will stop for you and you will be on your way to San Ignacio. Bus fares are very cheap. You could take a bus from Belize City to San Ignacio for probably $5 US.
Where to stay in San Ignacio Belize
After arriving in San Ignacio Belize you will want to stay at “Martha’s Guest House”. They have very affordable clean accomodations. They charge $45 US a night to stay at their guest house. The place is amazing inside and I promise you will be more then pleased with your stay there. They currently only have air conditioning in some of the rooms but for $45 a night you only get a fan. This is good though as the fan blows so hard you will not need an A/C.
Martha’s guest house also does a great job in setting up discounted travel excursions into the jungle available by various tour companies. We went with PACZ Tours which the hotel setup and were more then satisfied with the professionalism and knowledge of the tour guide. We found the tour rate to be quite competitive then if we had gone at it on our own looking for someone. The tour guide could have easily have been mistaken for a college professor. In fact this tour company is certified by the government as official tour guides. We really got our money’s worth during our tours.
Most recommended tour to take while in Belize
The best tour to take while in Belize is known as ATM for short. The actual name is Actun Tunichil Muknal. You have to go with a tour company to take this tour as sanctioned by the government of Belize. For those who would like to know how to get there on your own I can tell you. You take a bus into Tea Kettle Belize from San Ignacio. Have them drop you off at the Yellow Catholic School. Walk down the dirt road until it dead ends. Take a right and follow that road all the way down until you get to an open site with a couple of palm tree canopies. These are changing rooms so people can change from wet clothes to dry clothes. Try and get someone with a car to drive you here as it is about 2 or 3 miles to this location. If you don’t mind the walk then go ahead anyway. Watch out for viper snakes and other poisonous snakes. It’s best advised to go with a tour guide and you will likley be reprimanded by a tour guide if they see that you are on your own.
You will be paying $85 a person to go into a guided tour into the jungle for about 1 1/2 hours. There a bush man tour guide will have you try various plants and bugs if you like and tell you of there medicinal equivalent in the pharmecutical drug market. This trek into the jungle is facinating on its own.
You eat a packed lunch as you arrive at this large mountain that jets straight up from flat land. Many of the mountains in Belize seem to come out of nowhere as they are not a gradual incline. You walk down a narrow slop into a jungle river only to find that it winds into a cave in the mountain and continues on for 5 miles on into the cave. Prepare for your next adventure that will last 5 hours in a very interesting cave.
We swam and hiked into the cave for 1.5 miles until we came to a place in the cave where we had to climb up several steep walls without climbing gear. The tour guide gave us step by step instructions on how to proceed up the cave walls without breaking anything or falling. We made our way up into the cave and began to see pottery from the Mayans as well as skulls and skeletons as we proceeded further. At times I was even walking over bones, skulls and pottery making my way further into the cave. All the while teh tour guide gave us instruction not to step on the artifacts as they are history and very delicate. These artifacts are between the time period of 600 - 900 A.D. This was around the time the Mayan civilization was having problems and was on the decline. They began to sacrifice some of the elite of the people in order to appease the God’s but of course this did not work and the civilization came to an eventual complete decline.
Scorpion Spider - Found deep in the cave.
After going in 1.5 miles into the cave we turned around and came back out and trecked back out of the jungle. Changed out of our wet clothes and drove back into San Ignacio Belize. There were about 6 people in our group and everyone of us were truly amazed at what we had experienced. It almost makes you feel guilty to walk over such old artifacts because I kept thinking I might accidentally step on a pot or a skull but I managed to not break anything.
About 1 mile in the cave. That’s me waving in the black shirt and Melody’s head is behind my hand
I recommend this expedition of all other possibilities when going to Belize. I doubt this cave adventure will be allowed too much longer by the government of Belize because of the chances that some of these artifacts being destroyed.�
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07.04.07
Posted in Affordable Belize Accomodation, Belize Hostel at 6:13 pm by admin
Me and my wife have been touring Belize on our honeymoon and I have found this place in San Pedro that is prestine. It has been here for about 8 years. They double as a hostel and have quaint private rooms for a little more money downstairs. A very nice English man runs the place and you feel very safe here. In fact San Pedro is a very fun safe environment for families and singles.
The upstairs is a hostel and costs $25 US dollars a night if there are two of you otherwise you share the room with someone and pay $12.50 US dollars. This is by far the most affordable accomodations in San Pedro Belize. The private rooms run anywhere from $40 - $50 US a night. San Pedro is often times referred to as the expensive island. When the locals mention this they are actually talking about how expensive the beach resorts are. By staying at Pedro’s Inn you can scrimp on the expense of the accomodations and spend your money on activities like, snorkeling, diving, ruin pyramid hiking and caving.
Pedro’s inn is only about an 8 minute walk from the beach offering the most affordable Belize accomodation. They are right behind Ramon’s Village which is considered the best pier and beach for snorkeling and swimming on San Pedro’s main busy center. Their beach is free for anyone to enjoy and they will not run you off if you are not staying there.
When your ready Pedro’s has been very helpful in setting up different activities and excursions at a discounted price.
We love it here at Pedro’s so much that after we went into San Ignacio to experience the Pyramids we came back again to San Pedro island to stay here at Pedro’s Inn again.
I promise you will not be disappointed. Pedro’s Inn has air conditioning in their private rooms and fans in the Belize hostel double bed rooms.
Peter runs the hostel\hotel and has a great hang out casual bar and pizzeria downstairs. Free internet is provided and he makes you feel welcome.
If you decide to stay at his Inn please let him know you found out about him on this site and mention my name ‘Donny”.
I told him I would be writing a blog about his place because I liked it so much and he bought me a few beers.
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