August, 2019 - David Mathre Photography

Saturday (17-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Day two putting up an electric fence around the Forsythia and Lilac bushes we planted earlier this spring. It is hot out. One hour of the work recorded as a time-lapse video using a Garmin VIRB-360 camera.

Daily Electric Energy Used (66.9 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (57.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. A bit more Sun, but I ran a load of laundry (3.1 kWh), a load of dishes, and cooked dinner in the oven (0.3 kWh) today. The WaterFurnace geothermal HVAC had to work harder (26.8 kWh) because of the extra heat generated by the laundry, dishwasher, and oven. Daily net deficit 9.7 kWh.

One note — the WaterFurnace Symphony software indicated the system used 14 kWh, however the Sense Energy monitor indicated that the geothermal heat pump used 26.3 kWh. I tend to believe the Sense numbers since they more closely the energy being recorded at the external power company (PSE&G) meters. I’ve asked the WaterFurnace folks in the past about the discrepancy, but they didn’t have a good answer. The Sense folks told me they thought that the WaterFurnace/Symphony system was only measuring one phase of the energy even though the system is powered by the 220V circut (using two phases). I wish an electrical engineer that understands this better would correct me here.

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Three-Years Ago (17-August-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night Time Thunderstorm. Two minute time-lapse video. Moon, Clouds, Lightning. Approximately 3000 Images taken between midnight and 4 AM from my backdoor using a Nikon D810A camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 4 sec). At one point I had to move the camera away from the door during a heavy downpour. Time-lapse video created from the in camera jpg images using Photoshop CC. This was the fourth night in a row that we have had thunderstorms.

Friday (16-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I was out putting up an electric fence around the Forsythia and Lilac bushes we planted earlier this spring, and came across this frog. The location is well away from the pond, and it looked different than the Bullfrogs that live in the pond. This new frog appears to be a Pickeral Frog (Lithobates palustris). The shape of the spots on the back make me think it is not a Leopard Frog. I will call it Kermit’s Cousin.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (58.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (48.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Less Sun, and I ran a load of laundry (2.7 kWh) today. Daily net deficit 9.8 kWh.

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Thursday (15-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: Just one image today. Butterflies Beware — the tiny Praying Mantis I saw earlier this spring has grown up and is looking for a meal.

Praying Mantis looking for a Meal.Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 1.4x teleconverter (ISO 200, 112 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (55.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (63.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More Sun today. Daily net surplus 8.0 kWh.

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Wednesday (14-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. By sneaking out the backdoor of the garage I was able to catch a pair of Goldfinch feeding on the Sunflowers before they got spooked and flew away. Then lots of Butterflies (Various Skippers, Monarch, Tiger Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Pearl Crescent, Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, and ). I have noticed many of the butterflies have ragged wings. Are they just getting old, or escaped being caught by a bird? It has been several days since I have seen a hummingbird moth.

Click on the above image to access the images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (29.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sky was cloudy most of the day (0.04 inches of rain) impacted the solar production. Daily net deficit 23.7 kWh.