Author Topic: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications  (Read 289509 times)

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #645 on: August 13, 2018, 09:11:59 AM »
Fortunately, being a dedicated chelonaut doesn't seem to put me out of place here at all....
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EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #646 on: August 13, 2018, 10:53:57 AM »
Hey Guys....

Report back:

Finally got a chance to get the Blow Gennie up to 10m this weekend, having finished and painted mast last week. All pulleys, lifting tackle (Not related whatsoever to wedding tackle, Glort) cabling, guys and winch are done and dusted, Cables have been re-routed to a more permanent, temporary route, just the winch cover to make and put in place. I have included a "drip pulley" routing the 5mm stainless cable away from the winch drum on the downward leg of its route, around it, and back up to the drum. this prevents rain from saturating the spool of cable and rusting it to buggery.... To raise and lower, you unhitch it from the drip pulley and take up the slack prior to doing windey-windey...

Raising the mast by another 3 to 4m has made a marked difference in performance. I would like to go higher, but to go beyond the 10m mark would mean replacing the lower 3" mast with at least 4 to 5" diameter pipe, way beyond my finances at the moment...

Performance is about 3x what it was previously, in very light breeze at ground level, about 50 to 100W is generated - when it picks up a bit, the output hits the 200 to 300W mark with little effort. Bear in mind that this is a "toy" 500W wind installation, in less than ideal situation for wind, but ideally situated for access. The single 250W panel connected to the little toy generates probably 300% more power than the turbine itself overall... This unit would be best utilized in a higher relative geographical location and one with a good view of a regular off-the-sea breeze probably....

Enough said, it does what it was intended to do, namely running a few lights in the workshop and will be further utilized to keep batteries topped up for tractors, tillers and the like.... (Possibly even providing power for the forming of lead-acid cells that I hope to get a chance to make soon....)

Here's a link to a small vid one of the girls took of the layout so far.... Bound to make you a little giddy, the camera was turned 90 degrees during the filming... Professional camera operators are so hard to come by these days.... Glort, COME TAKE PICTURES!!

http://www.warriorpaintball.co.za/private/Blow Gennie

Keep on blowing....

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #647 on: August 22, 2018, 11:54:18 AM »
Hey all...

Been a bit down in the dumps lately...Dunno why.... but had a nice "brightner upper"  today... A mate sent a surprise gift of 3x5000L water tanks .....

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #648 on: August 23, 2018, 08:35:55 AM »
Hey Glort...

These are brand new, unused units... A mate owns the factory that makes them and they were surplus to a special order....

A lovely gift indeed, that has brightened my mood somewhat... I spent the evening yesterday getting my PL3203 USB-Serial adaptor working on my Win10 tablet... Going to hack and change the firmware a bit on the inverter I installed this coming weekend...

Sheeeesh..... Now I remember why I hate Win I.T. ...... No sooner has something stabilized then the great BG releases a new "upgrade" to the OS and you gotta start all over...

'Nuff sed....

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #649 on: August 30, 2018, 10:47:19 AM »
Hey Guys,

some info on what's been happening, some musings, some rambling.....and....well....just general BS too.....

So far the solar and wind projects have gone pretty well (Read that as "Not too much smoke escaped during installs!")

Wind/Solar combo power: Looks cute, looks interesting, spins and makes lovely sounds....doesn't make much power....on wind anyway... Best I have seen to get the 500W rated out of it, at 24V that's around 20A, was during the gale force winds a month or two back... The property location just doesn't lend itself to wind generation on a small scale. I daresay that if I elevated it another 20m or so, taking it to a 30m total hub height, things would be a bit more "lively" .... and "interesting" too... The solar side of the combo set works reliably and well, generating 250W from around 9am to about 4pm with little break in between, only cloud cover, obviously.... The wind does bolster it, don't get me wrong, but its spurious at best, with a power supply well below 50W on average... This little SHTF system is hooked up to keep my tractor batteries in charge, and runs the welding bay/machine shop lighting on a day to day basis, around a max of 300W draw for about 4 to 8hrs a day on average. Unfortunately there is little to no natural lighting in those areas, so daytime lighting is in order for any work(Playing and building sh!t) to happen there...

Straight Solar Power installation: Working very well so far - I have got all of the batteries I need for the moment racked up and installed, along with some HA-02 4 port battery balancers to keep things in the land of the living for as long as possible in that department. Yep, I know, 638SMF vehicle batteries are NOT the right things to be using, but at last check they were about the best bang for buck to use in the short term, Now, a bunch of supercaps would be loverrrrly, sniff, sniff....

A few notes on power usage - We have dropped down from a max60kWh, ave50kWh per day down to ave15kWh per day from the monkeypality supply... A fair cost saving indeed!

As has been mentioned more than once around this forum, there is way more to power cost saving/gen/solar/wind implementation than simply putting in a system and expecting the dollhairs to start flowing in. It takes a little scheming and planning to use the power when its available, ie when the sun is shining in the solar sense of the plan... To this effect, I have made some pretty simple changes that are (generally) quite easy to implement, only a little growling and barking to get the residents to play along, especially when I point out that its largely to their financial benefit... to summarize:

Deep Freeze: On timer to start it up at 10am and turn it off at 5pm - Don't piss about and stand there with the top open trying to decide what you want to eat in 10 minutes time... Keep the bugger closed till the next morning, take out the stuff you want to cook and put it in the fridge till the evening....Not only will it defrost slowly and remain fresh, but it will help the fridge a bit too!

Grey Water Pump: These are also on timer, set to come on at around 11am where they will replenish the header tank for the toilet cisterns... If you run out of cistern supply in the evening, use a bucket to flush it... In any event, how the f!@# did you manage to deplete 300L of grey water in an evening anyway(toilet cisterns have been adjusted to use a max of around 12L per flushfill)? Was it fun to stand there flushing the toilet incessantly?

Fridges: Some, soon all, are to be on timers, going off around midnight and coming on around 9am.... It is not required that the fridge be opened in the early morning hours to check if the stuff's still there... There are far better things to do than see if the fridge light is working at 2am....go watch a movie if you can't sleep!

Home network, servers, security systems, pabx.... on power 24/7, but since the inverter has a battery supply, it acts as a ups anyway, so there is no need for a separate ups to be there....same applies to the home offices, all ups's have been put in storage, saving about another 150w of overhead per unit, maybe a bit less, but it all adds up...especially when there are 3 or 4 units running....

Heavy duty home electrical appliances: Iron, chip fryer, dishwasher, hair dryer.... I have provided a single heavy duty outlet in the scullery for playing with these things - Now you can even iron while you watch TV/listen to 2gigawatts of sound power from the adjoining kitchen entertainment system, how thoughtful of me! Oh, by the way, there is only one plug so please select whether you want to iron, fry chips, wash dishes, or dry your hair.... Actually works quite well - I see very little of the iron being left on while the clothes are being fetched/packed away or the smell of something "hot" emanating from a bedroom, like when curling tongs get forgotten on for 2 to 3 hours until the red glow finally attracts someone...Way more too my liking, but I did get a "bit" of opposition with this choice...

Enough ranting... on to some tech type stuff explaining how it all hangs together, the power systems as such...

Power comes in from municipal feed and hits my pay-as-you-go meter. It then hits the "Heavy duty stuff" like the dishwasher plug, the double oven, the electric hob, the metal workshop DB, the wood workshop db. From there it heads towards my Heath-Robinson "auto mains dump" contactors which are controlled by my Lister (See it is a Lister post!!). If I run either of my Listers, they take over mains supply automatically and supply downstream from here. After that, it heads to a couple of "non essential" items, that seldom get used and draw little power when they do. Next it heads to my little auto start 5kVa diesel gennie, this kicks in if the utility power fails, after a few seconds of startup delay. In short order it heads directly to the solar inverter utility input, then back from the solar inverter/ups to the DB board to power the more "critical" things as required (Like fridges, Tv's, Network, Offices, Home entertainment systems, Sound systems, bedroom plugs, Microwave and just about anything else I can squeeze into the 5kVa limit of inverter and gennie....)

The inverter and the little gennie are "plugged" into each other via surface mount plugs... If one or both gives shit, it can be bypassed without even opening the DB board, simply unplug and put the plug in one step closer to the supply....

Right....enough of my idiotic rambling....time to go play and see if I can let the smoke out....

Cheers
Ed

PS: Glort - The babbington powered heat exchanger is still running like a charm, with the odd flame out here and there due to wind or water in the fuel.... Averaging about 3L of waste oil per day on the 300L water supply heatup.....
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #650 on: August 30, 2018, 01:20:00 PM »
Hey Glort....

I think I might have to write a fairly in-depth manual on the place before I shuffle off... I will, of course, demand payment for said manual, preferably in burgers and cough mixture, other creature comforts will be negotiated if required. The manual will be in audio form, personally related, by the designer, on demand(of said creature comforts!) This manual will be updated at least once a week, requiring a (remaining lifetime's) demand of said subscription fees.... There may also, of course, only be one person "tuned in" to the audio book at any given time.... I will just shut up as another, second body presents itself....

The power co will probably come visit, I hope they do.... I had the waterboys here a while back, they kind of left with their tails between their legs when I finished with them.... No holds barred!!

We are lucky to get away with 15Kl a month, comparable to your 500L a day, that's including grey water recycling, the ladies looooove the water, no doubt about it! Before the grey system was installed, we were at about 20-25Kl, sometimes more... But then again, there were 3 guys and 5 gals on the scene, kids and boyfriends thereof....

Fridges: Run the buggers when its hot and bright, drawing off solar, they can coast the night/off hours through, the house is cool evenings anyway... There is pretty much an excess of solar during the day for us, the batteries are damn near full by 17h00 anyways, even with limiting the charge currents to 50A max across 4 banks, ie 13A per bank, each bank 70AH rated, so around 20% of AH rating for charge....

Regarding the heavy duty plug..... In full view from where I sit in the kitchen having dinner..... Ain't no sodding power splitter going in there while I'm around!!

I have had many, many occurrences of implements being left on and unattended.... My standard procedure is: First occurrence-Turn it off and warn offender, Second-Same as first, Third-Don't turn it off and call offender, stand present, tapping foot and glaring while they turn it off, Forth-Unplug device and leave a sarky note, Fifth-Unplug device and make a cup of coffee, place plug in coffee and leave it in there, when question is asked as to why, well, that's where I get creative with explanations.... Sixth-Side cutters on cord at device side..... But that's only happened once so far....

Babbington Heatex: Nope, none of the TM's involved, except by sharing an exhaust stack as a chimney... Bab's pretty much ok, just like to flame out every now and then when I least want it to... (When I'm on the sh!tter or drinking a frosty, or eating a steak, or chatting on the phone, or watching a movie, or eyeing out some beauty....) As long as I'm doing stuff I'm dying to take a break from, it runs faultlessly!

Keep it smiling!!

Cheers
Ed

PS - I did manage to let the smoke out (almost).... One 7Ah gel cell is now ovoid.... It was a "what can I do with these damn things, lets put them on the 24v blowgennie and get some use outta them".... scenario
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

BruceM

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #651 on: August 30, 2018, 03:40:17 PM »
Bravo, Ed, on your huge energy project.  Shifting loads to sunny hours when PV power is in excess takes some seriously good planning...and you have done it well.

I expect that adding some phase change materials (PCM) in panels on the interior walls of the refrigerator, especially, might some day be a common add on.

This UK company has organic PCM they call A6 which freezes at 6 C.
http://www.pcmproducts.net/files/PCM%20Summary%202013-A.pdf
Perhaps something similar available there in ZA?

Only dairy is fussy about temperature, and your freezer to fridge defrost does the same...keeping the fridge cooler overnight.

Great project, Ed!





EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #652 on: August 31, 2018, 12:27:42 PM »
Thanks Bruce!!

Dunno if that stuff is available on the local market.... Not that I know of, I have chatted to a few mates in the aircon/refrig line over similar in the past and it was never mentioned...

Now on to the next project...Looks like my damn deepfreeze is going legs up because the thermal insulation has broken down...eventually... Well, can't really complain, got it second hand for a song about 20 years ago, its had a good innings, probably best to lay it to rest!!

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

BruceM

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #653 on: August 31, 2018, 06:21:40 PM »
I found a great use for retired chest freezers.  I put mine outside the shop, and store all my paints, glues, solvents, grease, etc. in it.  It reduced the stink in my closed up shop greatly. It's amazing how ferocious the chemical cloud is when you first open the freezer, even though all those containers are closed and sealed. 


EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #654 on: September 01, 2018, 09:06:37 AM »
A good many years ago, I used to have 2 smaller chest freezers...one was left unplugged, and was used to store dry goods, the other was used for its intended purpose. Once a year, or when required, the dry goods unit was unpacked, plugged in and the contents transferred from the other... When the first was fully defrosted and cleaned, it was left off and the dry goods packed into it... That worked extremely well... The insulation had plenty of time to dry out and get back up to spec... Part of the price of living in a damp environment.. Moved to a new house, dryer suburb, the ex decided......well lets just say that not all plans are acceptable to everyone...

Anybody looking for a large chest freezer that could double as a well insulated bedroom....?

Lol
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #655 on: September 03, 2018, 11:46:31 AM »
Hey Guys...

A quick checklist....

Handy largish solar power install....Done
Small combo wind/solar install....Done
New water tanks arrived...Yep
Fittings ordered to install tanks...Yep
.
..
...
....
Power Failed...Yep
Solar Batteries flat...Yep
Overcast and not charging...Yep
Pissing with rain...Yep
Wind howling and generating 2 million terrawatts on my 500W blow gennie...Yep
Blow gennie connected to house...Nope!
....
...
..
.
Prepared to go out into the rain and install the damn tanks...Nope!
Prepared to piss around in the rain and stick a 48V charger on the house from the wind gennie...Nope!
Running on Lister Power ... Yep  ;D
.
..
.
Contingency Planning at its best.... The more contingencies you plan for, the less prepared you will be!

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #656 on: September 03, 2018, 12:55:15 PM »
Hey Glort!

Bwahahahahaaaaaaaa.....

I thought I was the only one with the "Sadim" touch.....the opposite of Midas.....

Actually, what I was saying was, stuff solar, stuff wind, stuff diesel, stuff hydro...and....stuff the monkeypality services too! A grass hut in the Savannah with a nice wood fire going to keep me warm....No....stuff that too, 'cos I'm gonna have to chop wood and carry water....I think I'll just move in with one of the kids and they can do the worrying after that!! (Hey junior, when's supper...I'm hungry!!)

Keep it spinning!!

Cheers
Ed
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

EdDee

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #657 on: September 03, 2018, 02:58:58 PM »
I must admit....I wouldn't mind an old stationery steam engine to tinker with....Would be good fun!!

I've seen a few episodes on his channel, steeplejack of note!

Reminds me when I was asked if I was scared of climbing my antenna tower, roof etc.... Simple answer...No...Less than 3m scares the crap out of me, above that I'm dead, someone else's problem....

Could just picture the scene if I move in with the kids, Junior gets home to a nice home cooked meal, freshly hunted turkey compliments fly..... A knock on the door and the local po-po's are there to arrest me....discharging a shotgun in a supermarket....

Lol
Ed

PS - I'm too young to be a grandfather, you, girlie, keep your legs crossed, you sonny, keep it zipped up!!
12/1 750RPM/9HP Roid 5kVA- WMO Disposal/Electricity & Hot Water Gen
12/1 650RPM/8HP Roid 4.5kVa - Demon Dino
Chinese Yanmar - Silent Runner with AutoStart
Classic Komatsu 1963 Dozer/Fergusson 35 Gold Belly ...
Bikes,Cars,Gunsmithing & Paintball...Oh yes, a 5Ha open air Workshop to play in!

dieselspanner

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #658 on: September 03, 2018, 04:38:11 PM »
Hi Guys

I met Fred Dibnah years back at the Great Dorset Steam Fair (It had it's 50th last week), he was driving an ex army lightweight Land Rover, can't remember what he was doing there, nice bloke, just the same in real life as on the tv.


Not been too bad a day here, only 7 hours to change the starter motor on the Series III Landy. I poked a 200TDI from a Discovery up it last winter, the only difficult bit is the turbo, it's very close to the chassis rail if you use the Disco exhaust manifol, so close it buggers up access to the starter so I fitted a new one to avoid future imbuggerance.............

The Sadim touch running world wide?

The patron Saint for today is St Gregory, patron saint of students, teachers and musicians, where was Saint Pat when we needed him?

Cheers
Stef
Tighten 'til it strips, weld nut to chassis, peen stud, adjust with angle grinder.

mikenash

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Re: The Listeroid Chronicles-WMO and Other Listeroid Modifications
« Reply #659 on: September 03, 2018, 08:20:42 PM »
I must admit....I wouldn't mind an old stationery steam engine to tinker with....Would be good fun!!

I've seen a few episodes on his channel, steeplejack of note!

Reminds me when I was asked if I was scared of climbing my antenna tower, roof etc.... Simple answer...No...Less than 3m scares the crap out of me, above that I'm dead, someone else's problem....

Could just picture the scene if I move in with the kids, Junior gets home to a nice home cooked meal, freshly hunted turkey compliments fly..... A knock on the door and the local po-po's are there to arrest me....discharging a shotgun in a supermarket....

Lol
Ed

PS - I'm too young to be a grandfather, you, girlie, keep your legs crossed, you sonny, keep it zipped up!!


The grandad years are the best years so far :)