Hey Guys, thanks for the good advice, I am trying to rein in useless ambitions and concentrate my efforts into whatever will produce the best return.
Bromiliad house must come first, she who must be obeyed has spoken! Second should be the new dam, thankfully all I have to do for that is find a reasonably competent, not too pricey, excavator operator. Third must be the extension/alterations to my shed, which will include more solar generating capacity. Interestingly while exploring the options on solar inverters I discovered that there are three phase units available. This would allow me run 3 phase equipment in the shed.
Glort I`m not sure how your solar setup and metering works but are you back feeding all of your three phases or just the one? If you are only feeding one leg then a three phase grid tied inverter might be the go.
I also checked out the maximum DC input for my existing Sunnyboy inverter. It maxes out at 600 volt DC, so I could connect up the CS to a three phase alternator and rectify it to give me 580 volt DC. This would also give me three phase in the shed after dark.
Just to be clear I have no intention to cark it any time soon, if I can possibly help it. My wife is ten years younger than me so I have to assume that she will outlive by some considerable margin. I think it is only right that I take this into consideration in any plans, ambitions I may have.
Bob