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Back to School: Bonus Week and Back to Work

Well, the rough week of tests and assignments from week 10 of my Intermediate had passed. My bonus week for the Solar Photovoltaic Systems course was quite interesting. I'm glad I took this course after Intermediate as some of the theory I learned crossed over into the solar course.

The biggest things I took away from the solar course was the different types of solar modules, how to size solar panel systems, how to size battery banks to store the energy, and the different ways you can connect to the hydro grid, or have the system work off-grid. It was definitely worth the extra week off work, and I was glad I had the chance to take it.

Our school has solar modules set up on the roof, and we got to check out the battery bank in the Renewable Energy Lab, which has a small 2 story house built inside. They also have a small renewable energy trailer, which has a combination of solar modules and a small wind turbine that charge a set of batteries. These batteries are used to power receptacles mounted on the trailer. The trailer is taken to shows and does double duty: demonstrates the setup/wiring for renewable energy systems and allows some portable power.

There were 3 other women in our group of about 20, a much better ratio than the 3:60 female to male ratio from the Intermediate course. There were a few people from my program that had also taken it. From the sounds of it mostly because they didn't have work to go back to anyways. It's always a bit slow this time of year.

My first week back to work was tough to get used to. I'd gotten used to sleeping in, relative to the hours I used to have to get up for work. So, the combination of the earlier mornings being back to work, and losing an hour over the weekend packed quite the punch on my sleep schedule. A week later, I'm almost back to normal.

I was almost anxious about getting back to work. Excited, but yes, anxious. Like all of a sudden I thought I might have forgotten how to do my job. Thankfully, that was not the case, and I got back into it just like riding a bike. But I'm still not ashamed to admit I was happy that it was also a short week my first week back.

I've done some work around the office, and a bit out on my own. And I've either worked with or bumped into some coworkers, and it was nice to see them again. I've been given a van to drive for now, and despite it being that slow time of year, work is doing their best to keep me busy, which is much appreciated.

Let's see how the next little bit goes!

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