Thread: RAPS for a shed

Originally Posted by eskimo

the 12v outlets go dead when the ignition is turned off...meaning that brown stuff gets warm and becomes unusable

Just read this after I posted. Hi Eskimo, Yes that would be the case but for fridges I would never rely on the crappy accessory socket or the minimal sized wiring to run a fridge. You are better off running a dedicated circuit direct from your dual battery (via a HRC fuse) to your fridge and change the plug/socket on your fridge to either a 50A anderson plug or at the very least, a merit type plug. To avoid substantial voltage drop I ran 8mm cable to this from the battery. I also make sure all my connections are properly crimped with the correct crimping tool AND then I also solder them and then heat shrink.

I have a fridge monitor that indicates the temp of the fridge so that I can keep an eye on things. While it's inconvenient to find all your drinks are warm (after the fridge has shut down from low battery), loosing a weeks supply of meat and fresh produce when you are 5 hours of 4x4 driving from the nearest general store is not my idea of a great adventure!

I notice on ebay that you can now get wireless fridge monitors. Can have the remote sitting on your table etc..... Genuine Twozone Wireless Fridge Thermometer Clock Suit Engel Waeco Evacool ARB | eBay
Cheers

Simon

Thought I may have been teaching you to suck eggs Eskimo. Sorry mate

Simon

I'm just going through a similar thing, but on a shorter run. Sourcing the components myself for a sparky to fit. He suggested looking at Sparky Direct for components. Some of them are much cheaper, and some were a similar price to the local wholesaler. E.g. cable is much cheaper but you have to buy a 100m roll (and I only need 35m) so cut to length at the local place was the way to go, along with a few other bits and pieces.

HTH
FF

Originally Posted by simonl

Thought I may have been teaching you to suck eggs Eskimo. Sorry mate

Simon

incidently..the 100 series was dual battery system ...same as 200..I split them and never had troubles...so will be doing same here...when I pull my finger out.
what seems crazy to me is that Sahara has 240v non dedicated supply at the rear...yes thats right 240v...and no 12v???
I will get back on topic

A club colluege bought a trailer mounted gen set for $5k for his workshop..cant recall how big it was but it runs his 3ph bridgeport and all lights with plenty of grunt left for other stuff

Originally Posted by eskimo

incidently..the 100 series was dual battery system ...same as 200..I split them and never had troubles...so will be doing same here...when I pull my finger out.
what seems crazy to me is that Sahara has 240v non dedicated supply at the rear...yes thats right 240v...and no 12v???
I will get back on topic

A club colluege bought a trailer mounted gen set for $5k for his workshop..cant recall how big it was but it runs his 3ph bridgeport and all lights with plenty of grunt left for other stuff

Didn't know that. Sounds like a plan!

The 240V in the rear of the Sahara would be intended for electric shavers and hair straighteners given the target clientele?

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

The 240V in the rear of the Sahara would be intended for electric shavers and hair straighteners given the target clientele?

of course.... of course... always thought that my mate is a bit of shiela sometimes.........

must remember to ask him where he hides the hair dryer and straightener next time I see him....nah I'll ask via email right now...hahahaha

Trees, for example.

Aurora Energy charges $420 + GST per hour when it comes to private power systems. Mine is classed as such due to distance from the road etc.

Oh well, that's what insurance is for (he says hollowly, waiting for the explanation of how, actually, things like this are not covered).

Next task is to call the local tree felling man; the rest of those trees are about to be recycled......

PDW

Originally Posted by PDW

Trees, for example.

Aurora Energy charges $420 + GST per hour when it comes to private power systems. Mine is classed as such due to distance from the road etc.

Oh well, that's what insurance is for (he says hollowly, waiting for the explanation of how, actually, things like this are not covered).

Next task is to call the local tree felling man; the rest of those trees are about to be recycled......

PDW

What a PITA!

Trees are lovely until they catch fire or fall down on stuff you own..... Or stuff other people own but want to charge you to fix!

Simon

Hi Ian,

You have pretty much hit the nail on the head here.

We are getting a bit off topic but hope Simon is Ok with that.

I once calculated the efficiency of the NSW power grid. I had the amount of energy released by burning coal (in BTUs I think?) and the generation from hydro versus the amount of electricity that was actually metered at customers premises. There was no solar back then. I had to ask an engineer for the conversion from BTUs to watts or something. The result was a stunning efficiency of 17%! All the rest was lost as heat in one way or another.

Another piece of obscure information is that once you start to shut down coal fired generation, about 20 minutes after starting the process you have to go through the complete cycle of shut down then restart, i.e. can't reverse the process. Less obvious is that if for any reason the electricity grid starts to electrically break up and generators are not connected to each other they have 20 minutes to restore the electrical connections between the generators. Failure to reconnect the grid means all the base load coal generation goes AWOL for a day or two. This is the situation those in control of the grid fear most, called a "black start". Luckily, it is a quite rare, though not unheard of, event.

I think another reason behind the 8c feed in tarriff is that it is probably about the cost of coal fired generation, so a level playing field. Also if it encourages people to use the power they generate during the day rather than in peak periods, that is a win for the distribution companies.


Cheers

The Beryl Bloke

Originally Posted by ian

Hi simon

the issue is you can't readily store the solar generated at midday to use in the evening when you get home and want to cook dinner. And while you and your neighbours' dinky little solar systems are cranking out power between 9 and 3, the coal fired power station is merrily burning coal, super-heating steam and running it's generators, as if your systems didn't exist. So there's really no system-wide saving -- it just takes far too long to slow a coal fired plant down and then bring it back on line.

IIRCC
hydro power generators take about 15 minutes to get up to speed and about 10 to shut down
gas turbines take about 30 minutes to fire up and about the same to shut down
coal plants take about 36 hours to get up to speed and around 24 hours to shut down -- so once started you leave them running until they need to be shut down for major maintenance

Hi PDW,

I feel for you on this one.

On the bright side you now have potential firewood or timber for the workshop.

Aurora really know how to charge. Is that an after hours / callout rate or just through the day charge?

Cheers

The Beryl Bloke

Originally Posted by PDW

Trees, for example.

Aurora Energy charges $420 + GST per hour when it comes to private power systems. Mine is classed as such due to distance from the road etc.

Oh well, that's what insurance is for (he says hollowly, waiting for the explanation of how, actually, things like this are not covered).

Next task is to call the local tree felling man; the rest of those trees are about to be recycled......

PDW

Originally Posted by Theberylbloke

I think another reason behind the 8c feed in tarriff is that it is probably about the cost of coal fired generation, so a level playing field.

Hi there,

Yes but then if you want to sign up to "green" energy, you get charged a premium.

I'm sure we're getting shafted somewhere, somehow by someone!

PS I fixed the quote thing up!

Simon

Originally Posted by Theberylbloke

We are getting a bit off topic but hope Simon is Ok with that.

All good. I'm lov'n it. I'm not that precious about threads I start. I like healthy discussions. Some of the best discussions are had when they are way OT!

Originally Posted by simonl

I stuffed the quote thing up but you can still get the idea...

(only slightly OT, but...)
Simon, you've knocked off the back square bracket on the front quote string. I do it myself occasionally but if you go back to "edit post", you can just type in a new one and when you save it will turn it into a proper quote as you intended.

Michael

Originally Posted by Theberylbloke

Hi PDW,

I feel for you on this one.

On the bright side you now have potential firewood or timber for the workshop.

Aurora really know how to charge. Is that an after hours / callout rate or just through the day charge?

Cheers

The Beryl Bloke

It was the normal day rate, but I'm not complaining. They were fast, efficient, polite and got the job done. It was a crew of 3 with a cherry-picker truck, all the cables etc and they waited until I got back from town to check that the phases were in the correct order so none of my 3 phase motors were now running in reverse.

3 people & a truck, I can see the hourly rate there. I wonder if my insurance company will agree, though.

Yeah, good supply of firewood for next winter now.

PDW