Technology - David Mathre Photography

Thursday (31-December-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Visitors to the birdfeeder: White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal.

Backyard Birdfeeder. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (6.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Rain and clouds. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 59.5 kWh.

Monthly Electric Energy Used (1963 kWh) from Sense. Monthly Solar Electric Energy Produced (551 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 1412 kWh.

Annual Electric Energy Used (20,515 kWh) from Sense. Annual Solar Electric Energy Produced (15,082 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 5543 kWh. The SREC credits (15 MW) and not needing ~$4K of fuel oil more than pay for the deficit.

Seven-Years Ago (06-December-2013) — New Jersey

LG Combination Washer/Dryer Vibrations: Troll Family Dance

The combination LG washing machine/dryer arrived seven years ago. It was a bit of a challenge getting it into the house, and into the laundry room. Once in the laundry room, it was very easy to set-up. It only required a single outlet (120 V, 15 A), hot & cold water connections, and the drain. The previous electric dryer required higher voltage and current (220 V, 40 A), and an outdoor vent. There was a bit of vibration (actually a lot of vibration during the spin dry cycle until I leveled the unit). The house trolls quickly discovered that it worked as a great dance floor. The unit is still running (2020), although did have to replace the drain pump last year.

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with some clouds. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 26.8 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (365 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (110 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 255 kWh.

Sunday (04-October-2020) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

Small Owl caught on Infrared Video hunting for mice in the yard.

Daily Electric Energy Used (37.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (37.4 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with clouds in the afternoon. A surplus of 0.1 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (273 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (228 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 45 kWh.

Monday (14-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Morning session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Out on the patio, I planted some Garlic for next spring and watered the Grow Towers. Theta Z1 Camera set to record images using program auto mode (shutter, aperture, white-balance, JPG + RAW (DNG) every 10 seconds. Camera mounted on a tripod just above head level. The camera collected ~ 360 images (~ 1 hour) before running out of internal storage space. The DNG dual fisheye images were processed with Capture One Pro, saved in TIF format. Then converted to 360 degree equirectangular pano images with PTGUI (batch process). The Little Planet time-lapse video was created using PhotoShop CC (image converted to 1:1 format (7430 x 7430), rotated 180 degrees, converted to polar coordinates, then exported as a MP4 video (1920 x 1920, 10p). Rotation to the video was added using Premiere Pro.

Daily Electric Energy Used (48.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (51.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A surplus of 2.9 kWh.

Tuesday (01-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The immature Baltimore Oriole is willing to stand up to a gang of Blue Jay’s.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Northern Cardinal.

Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Morning at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

I went out with the DR Power Brush Mower to mow the wildflower meadows. Not much is blooming anymore, and the weeds including the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine are starting to take over. I attempted to capture the exercise with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera both on a fixed tripod, and a tripod I carried over my head. While mowing the sections I kept finding adult Praying Mantis which I tried to move away from the mower. The Praying Mantis are “good” bugs.

Saving the Praying Mantis. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The fawns still have dots. While cooking dinner I saw these two in one of the wildflower meadow sections that I didn’t mow. You can see that the weeds have taken over. The deer seem to be immune to the electric fence.

Fawns with Spots inside the electric fence. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 18.7 kWh.