**Any ideas how to make an excerpt longer**

Insert this into your functions.php file to control the length of the excerpt by characters NOT words

    function the_content_limit($max_char, $more_link_text = 'Read more »', $stripteaser = 0, $more_file = '') {
        $content = get_the_content($more_link_text, $stripteaser, $more_file);
        $content = apply_filters('the_content', $content);
        $content = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $content);
        $content = strip_tags($content);
    
       if (strlen($_GET['p']) > 0) {
          echo "<p>";
          echo $content;
          echo "&nbsp;<a href='";
          the_permalink();
          echo "'>".__("Read more")." &raquo;</a>";
          echo "</p>";
       }
       else if ((strlen($content)>$max_char) && ($espacio = strpos($content, " ", $max_char ))) {
            $content = substr($content, 0, $espacio);
            $content = $content;
            echo "<p>";
            echo $content;
            echo "...";
            echo "&nbsp;<a href='";
            the_permalink();
            echo "'>".$more_link_text."</a>";
            echo "</p>";
       }
       else {
          echo "<p>";
          echo $content;
          echo "&nbsp;<a href='";
          the_permalink();
          echo "'>".__("Read more")." &raquo;</a>";
          echo "</p>";
       }
    }

Use it in your theme like this 

    <?php the_content_limit(245); ?>