Small things matter

[Joeboy]

Here you go Joe

Shoulder of lamb in a Yogurt, Garlic and Ras-al-Hanout marinade on a trivet of veg with stock underneath.

Will be slow cooked for 5 hours on the outside oven - covered for the first 4 then uncovered and moved to the top shelf to get a bit of lamb crackling




For a family and friends bbq - son’s 38th

Weather forecast looking good.

What time should I arrive with beers?

[Bugtownboy]

Any time after 14:00

Though there might have been a couple of vino tinto had by then

[Joeboy]

Been doing similar myself with the cabling the last couple of days.
Sunsynk installer installed the AC cable to my invertor in 4mm cable through the loft to the fuseboard, and i noticed last year it was getting fairly warm and not just on sunny days when my loft is like an oven. He'd also pushed the bulk of it through the loft in the same 20mm dia trunking as the CT clamp cable. Length around 7m. Sunsynk manual (for what its worth) says min size 6mm.
Now im no electrician at all but have never been overly happy with that, its noticably warm, so have been planning to uprate the cable and finaly got it done yesterday.

Added myself an additional 20mm trunk through which the 6mm was run, as i didnt fancy pulling the old 4mm out of the existing shared trunking incase i damaged the CT cable, it was quite tight. So have left the old 4mm cable in situ in the old trunking disconected at both ends.

All now up and running on the new 6mm and 'cool to the touch'

Not the tidiest of wiring jobs but what do you expect from a plumber

That looks great, always worth reviewing the installations on a reasonably regular basis. As they are not inert and we are only human! Cool to the touch is a good place to be.

I've been gathering together my wee pile of bits for Turkish balcony micro solar installation. Made up some brackets this morning. I'll backpack out the lot mid July.






I am a big fan as we know of balcony solar. Another plus we've not mentioned is zero need for expensive rails, clamps and brackets? As panels have dropped in price a much bigger percentage of the cost is now attributed to fixings?

I can genuinely claim that the last 6 strings (including Turkey) that I have put together have cost literally a few quid all in to mount. I'm not advocating non pro rail systems for homes but garages, outbuildings, sheds downwards are all fair game for ingenuity?

Turkish system will be fixed to the rear balcony wall with leftovers from the last diy battery bank build. I'll need to buy 16 no5 50mm stainless steel screws in Marmaris as I can't backpack sharps but that's it. The rest is Wombled or hand fabricated from my own stocks. I like that.

[Joeboy]

Any time after 14:00

Though there might have been a couple of vino tinto had by then

Brilliant, I'll be there.... damn! Forgot that I'm going for a pint with No1 at 3pm. Party on BTB!

[Joeboy]

The pooltable/dining table had been allowed to slide far too far.









Got into it yesterday, the stripping of the wax and oil coats that remained was a pig to do. After that, belt sander on each leaf 40 to 120 grit then finished with a 1/3rd sander up at about 180 grit.



Stained using a mix of morrels woodstain light oak 1/3 antique pine 2/3rd. Two coats applied with foam pad.





Left to dry overnight and four coats of Briwax Antique pine hand applied. Used half a half kilo tin!







I'm not sure if this is upcycling, recycling or renovation. I'm happy though and good for years again. I'll leave it 24 hours or so to cure then polish again.

[Fintray]

That looks as good as new again.

[ecogeorge]

just needs a green baize table cloth ................
i'll get my coat..............

[Krill]

I'm not sure if this is upcycling, recycling or renovation. I'm happy though and good for years again. I'll leave it 24 hours or so to cure then polish again

Maintenance. Same with solid wood kitchen worktops, a cost of having nice things.

It's looking good

[Joeboy]

Thanks lads,
It's curing nicely. A bit of rain through the night with wind today pulled the temps in home down a bit. Gave me the chance to run up the 2 stage 1.8kW ceramic fan heater that SWMBO conjured. I'll guess a fiver paid, maybe?

Even with the hit & miss solar today we ran at max soc, had some curtailment.... but we managed to bring the house up to 23 degs from 19.9 degs this morning using the aforementioned ceramic heater and a couple of 800W hidden SH's.






I know this reads as "duh" but it really was a bit today and there was no default to WBS. These ceramic heaters for high instant plus the SH's for deep low really are a practical working combo. No HP multiplier right enough yet sub 1kWh for the whole day.

[Joeboy]

That was fun, 4 of 50mm fans now cooling the inverters/controller

1 on solaredge
1 on Goodwe Hybrid
2 on Victron charge controller

The temperature probe when it arrives will be fitted to the Victron unit to automate cooling as it generates most heat.



The Goodwe hybrid has been a pleasant surprise.

Before


After


As has the Victron

No fan


Two fans


Anecdote- while running cables in after initial test I had all 4 fans off. The Goodwe internal fan kicked in within a minute or so. That surprised me as to the effectiveness of one 50mm fan blowing across the rear fins.



Further out on the anecdotal limb. The 60A limit on the charge controller has been pretty consistent at 3,180W shown on the gauge. Immediately the sun came out with the new fans the limit now seems to be 3,250W or just over. I had directed these two smaller fans to clear heat off the rear fins rather than onto the front of the unit as was the case with the larger single usb fan previously used.

Before


After