1627 replies to this topic

[RX25SE]

Yeah, we are one of the lucky ones. Just saw the news on telly for the first time, so many houses smashed to bits.
I'd love to have the Coonara I had in my old house at the moment! Luckily my kids could go to school today as i know some around here had no power.

Mate of mine in Maldon has been of grid for 20years, since he built the place. It started with a shipping container and a hand made wind turbine mounted to the top if it. The twin rotors were brake discs from a Rambler Rebel. I machined them with lip to hold 2x8 pie shaped magnets while the 3 phase stator had 12 hand wound coils formed over wooden pie shaped bucks. The coils were set in a fiberglass ring and mounted between the two rotors. The rotors were mounted to the Rambler stub axle and that welded to the mounting pole so it could rotate and face the wind. Some 140x90 pine hand formed into a 3 blade propeller was mounted to the hub to finish it off. In a stiff breeze it could produce nearly 1Kw! Old mate built the a voltage controller that, when the ex wheelchair batteries were fully charged, dumped excess current to a bank of 12v down lights. This kept load on the turbine to prevent it from over revving in higher wind speeds.
That thing, with some solar, powered his house for many years!

He is a clever bugger!

[El_Freddo]

That is bloody awesome!

I found out last night that my parents are hoping to have their power back on at 4pm today. I haven’t heard from my mate yet so I assume he’s in the same boat and doesn’t have battery power left on his phone.

I’ve tried talking M&D into getting a wall battery to go with their solar but they don’t want to for what ever reason (it’s not like they’re stuck for space). They’d be off grid if they had a battery bank of some sort! It’s the only bit holding them back from being off grid.

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

Same. If I went solar, I'd get a battery bank. I don't see the sense producing excess energy when everybody is doing the same thing at the same time. I have heard that this can push the grid voltage high enough that hardly any excess power gets fed into the grid.
Makes sense as voltage is like water, to get flow you need a pressure difference.

I'd rather store my excess, then use it when I need it.

[El_Freddo]

M&D’s is still without power apparently. The neighbours keep updating them as they’re with us for the long weekend. Can’t hang out in their own home with us because we’re too big in family numbers, but can rent accommodation and all stay in one place together... go figure.

Hoping power is restored soon, loads of food will be wasted when they get home - and they’re not the only ones!

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

That's a bugger Bennie.

Our power is still looking like it won't be on until Thursday.
We did have a glimmer of hope this evening when a truck with orange flashing lights turned up but alas, they were fixing the internet..

We are still some of the lucky ones and have a roof over out heads.

[El_Freddo]

Yeah to right about the roof situation! I read there’s still about 40,000 houses that will be without power and landlines until Friday this week - and they expect to get many more calls for help once the landlines are restored in areas where mobile reception is none existent. The article points this area to be around the Dandenongs and out to the east. They also said that Gippsland will cop it again with more flooding expected later this week.

On a positive note, it looks like the snow season will be a good one this year! There was loads of snow for opening weekend at Hotham! I’m sure it’s the same story across the board for the Vic resorts. The businesses up there are hurting with many bookings cancelled because of the Melbourne restrictions. I’m hoping this shit is over sooner rather than later, it’s ‘d!!

Back to the grindstone for some rest tomorrow

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

Well the tree just up the street has been cleared and the lines repaired. Still no power, but there is a larger team just around the corner that's working on the tree that smashed the power pole.

Fingers crossed we'll have power by morning!

Glad I picked up a generator last night...

[allpaw4]

Wow. Hope things are sorted out soon Jase, and your parentals Bennie. No power is never fun, especially for days at a time. Good time to buy a gen though, will give power to certain appliances as you need them. Fridges are another kettle of fish though.

You're right on the solar side though Jase, it's a big struggle for the network when there's so much solar around, because each inverter tries to raise the voltage just a smidge to export power. Not an issue when you have a few houses doing it, but when you have entire suburbs trying to do it, you very quickly have the standard 230/240V grid operating at 250 to 260V.

The only issue with grid connected solar when it comes to using batteries, is they are designed to shut down when grid supply is lost, so unless you have a specific system designed to run off-grid, it generally won't help in this circumstance, as when the grid comes back on out of phase with your batteries, very bad and large bangs generally happen. For this reason, most solar will turn off. I've heard of 200 litre engines behind generators having their crankshafts snap after coming back on out of phase... There's a lot of energy that gets unleashed if things aren't done right.

Your mates off grid setup sounds really interesting Jase, pretty unreal!

Anyways lads, I'm off to bed. Check all your light switches Jase, cos when the power comes back at stupid o'clock, it'll be painful when all the lights turn on for you.

Cheers,
Ben

[RX25SE]

Power is on!!!

 

I had already switched off the mains at the meter so if it came on when I wasn't home, we wouldn't have fridges running with open doors!

 

It must have come on during the night as they were still at it when I went to bed. I think I'll hang onto the generator (a mate lent it to me) for a few days, just in case they shut it down for maintenance.

 

 

I didn't know that Ben, about the out of phase scenario, but it makes sense when you think about it. I'd be farkin annoyed if I had a battery bank I couldn't use when the power went out!

[allpaw4]

That's some great news there! Yea, the crews will usually keep working through the night to get things going. Hence the advice to make sure lights are off. Good call isolating the mains!

You should be pretty good on the power side by now, they don't like to do things by halves and then do further repairs again later.

If using batteries, I'd definitely sort something out to make sure it was good to go full time.

[El_Freddo]

Hey Ben,

Interesting stuff about the batteries, generator, mains power and phases etc. I’ve never thought about any of that!

M&D’s power was back online apparently 7pm Sunday. I haven’t heard from my mate and have been slack in giving him a call.

Rubbish week at work so far too. Short weeks are always the hectic ones! We had the power out for 2 hours in the middle of the day. It was interesting to see how many of our students didn’t cope knowing the power was out and that the school didn’t have internet! Very Sad.
And my rest at work isn’t going well! I’m really needing it too! Last night I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Mrs El_Freddo woke me up to head to bed. I remember saying I’ll be there shortly. 5:30am I wake up still on the couch!! Fun fun.

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

I took Friday off and headed to Wickliffe for a weekend away that the missus organized. Having driven through the place on many occasions, I know there is stuff all there....
Except an 1873 bluestone mansion you can stay at.

 

Wow, what an amazing place! Back in the day a wealthy Polish migrant built this place in the middle of a sheep paddock and the current owner (his family bought the property as a farm in 1951) has been restoring it over the last 30 years. It's been un-lived in for the last 80 years and had suffered the hands of time and vandalism, but now is looking grand again.
We spent a whole day just poking around the house and grounds and got a real sense of how the wealthy and their servants would have lived 150 years ago.
The owner is happy to share his wealth of knowledge, which really adds to the experience.

http://www.narrapumelap.com.au

[El_Freddo]

^ 30 year resto is dedication!! I’ve never heard of that area! Sounds good.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

And there goes the last day of the school holidays... *sigh*

I know there will be parents jumping for joy and shouting “YAY!” or something more Team America catch phrase that’s not so PG.

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

Happy lock-down everyone in Vic...

[allpaw4]

Lockdown 5.0
Awesome. And once again it means a quiet weekend with no changes to my working week. In some ways it's good, but others not so much. Means we need to wear masks inside again. That's shit. But don't get me wrong, I understand why, especially with the whole AFL cases that weren't even close and still passed it along. It's just shit to have to wear them on a mine site with gate access to generally locals only.

Got some new toys today though. New set of Milwaukee battery tools. Now I just need to trade in my Bosch stuff and it'll all be good.

I also lashed out and bought a heap more stuff for the upcoming 100k service for the beastie. Pretty sure I'm only a couple months worth of driving before I hit the point at which large sums of money need to be spent...

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Happy lock-down everyone in Vic...

Someone put lockdown 5.0 on the local triple m morning show birthday shout out

Not much changes for me other than dropping work packs to students and home schooling my own kids (Mrs El_Freddo does most of this because I suck at teaching my own kids their stuff).

Rain isn’t helping my projects...

Stay safe ppls!

Cheers

Bennie

[RX25SE]

I have a fiddy on this going two weeks minimum.

[allpaw4]

No deal Jase! I don't bet on loosing numbers!

Sounds like you get a lot busier really Bennie!

Yea, this weather is shit. Not making it easy to work on things.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

I have a fiddy on this going two weeks minimum.

Minimum is a definite. My bet would be another five weeks minimum - especially if the nsw govt doesn’t pull out all the stops on a proper hard lockdown that ppl ACTUALLY follow without any selfishness! There needs to be a dramatic turn around with people’s movements in NSW to see real downwards trending in the case numbers and virus spread. At the rate they’re going it’ll be mid spring before things go back to almost normal.

I think the shock in Vic was doughnuts for 12 days then sudden lockdown within two days of a case popping up/people found not doing the right thing. So we’ve copped the virus twice now from different states!! That’s the bit that bites the most I reckon - we’re “paying” for other ppl’s mistakes/poor judgements!

Work load for me (all in education! Especially leadership) spikes when a lockdown kicks in, especially when announced after hours (as was 5.0). After we know what we’re doing and work packs are sorted and delivered our weeks becomes easier as we move to a roster of working from home or being required at work. If this lockdown is extended we’ll have stuff planned and ready to deliver out to student’s residences again and continue with the roster setup. I’m not in a mainstream setting and we work very closely with the families of our students so my account shouldn’t be applied to all schools actions.

Cheers

Bennie