Generators and switch mode power supplies

[rebel]

On 06 Feb 2009 12:40:52 GMT, terryc <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au> wrote:

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:30:37 +0800, rebel wrote:


Best fertiliser for citrus is cats. Dripline is fine.

Unfortunately some around here insists they be taken for a humane death.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. Humane death -> burial beneath citrus

 

[terryc]

On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:28:07 +0800, rebel wrote:

On 06 Feb 2009 12:40:52 GMT, terryc <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au> wrote:

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:30:37 +0800, rebel wrote:


Best fertiliser for citrus is cats. Dripline is fine.

Unfortunately some around here insists they be taken for a humane death.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. Humane death -> burial beneath
citrus

I think my method of stunning them with the back of the shovel, then the
coup de grace with the block splitter is the problem. Tough little
buggers. You really need a solid rock underneath as bricks inevitably
split.

Naah, the local council will take them for free and if wild moggy turns
out to be someones cut puddy that just escaped that night, then there is
no evidence.

Unfortunaely, our local council takes a dim view of recycling anything
organic and has actually passed a law requring all captured cats to be
surrendered. Also gives me the opportunity of retail therapy to get over
the <sob> of sending puddies to the death<sob>. As we leave the
pound "while we are over this way...." can be used -).

I just wish she would not pass around the pictures of me of my playing
with feral kittens to make them cute and cuddly to maximise their adoption
chances at the pound. I guess that is another fringe benefit.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"terryc" <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au> wrote in message
news:498ce790$0$96976$c30e37c6@pit-reader.telstra.net...

On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:28:07 +0800, rebel wrote:

On 06 Feb 2009 12:40:52 GMT, terryc <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au
wrote:

On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:30:37 +0800, rebel wrote:


Best fertiliser for citrus is cats. Dripline is fine.

Unfortunately some around here insists they be taken for a humane death.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. Humane death -> burial beneath
citrus

I think my method of stunning them with the back of the shovel, then the
coup de grace with the block splitter is the problem. Tough little
buggers. You really need a solid rock underneath as bricks inevitably
split.

Naah, the local council will take them for free and if wild moggy turns
out to be someones cut puddy that just escaped that night, then there is
no evidence.

Unfortunaely, our local council takes a dim view of recycling anything
organic and has actually passed a law requring all captured cats to be
surrendered. Also gives me the opportunity of retail therapy to get over
the <sob> of sending puddies to the death<sob>. As we leave the
pound "while we are over this way...." can be used -).

I just wish she would not pass around the pictures of me of my playing
with feral kittens to make them cute and cuddly to maximise their adoption
chances at the pound. I guess that is another fringe benefit.

**On a related matter, I had a run-in with my local pound a few months back.
There was a cat prowling around my yard at night and sometimes during the
day. I lost at least one fish and I have no idea how many native birds and
reptiles have succumbed to the creature. Last time I had a problem, I
arranged with the local animal control guy to loan me a cage, duly baited to
catch the buggers. Owners whose critters are chipped get them back (at a
cost) and usually keep their cats indoors after shelling out a few hundred
Bucks. Moggies get sent to the pound and ferals (and those guys are scary
critters) are executed. Anyway, my new local council wanted ME to knock on
all my neighbours doors and ask them if they owned the cat and if they would
do something about it. Sheesh! I protested that the cat was probably killing
native animals, but they said that they have a 'no execution' policy now.
Probably been petitioned by cat owners. I should introduce those cat owners
to some of the animals living in the stormwater drains.

Fucking cat owners. They're the problem.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Sylvia Else]

terryc wrote:

On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:21:41 +1100, Bob Parker wrote:


I haven't experienced any power interruptions here in Sydney for
many months so the supply's not exactly parlous where I am.

Who is your supplier?
I'm on Integral and you expect a few hours once a month. I suspect
they are butchering the wrong trees.

I'm on Energy Australia's network. Significant outgages are not that
common, but they do happen. A friend was without power for an extended
period because of the Chatswood substation fire in 1999. That fire
affected 23,000 people.

There are annecdotal reports of transformers being subject to ad-hoc
cooling with fire hoses to prevent them from overheating. This doesn't
lend confidence that the infrastructure is up to the task of handling
high temperatures.

Part of Victoria's recent power problem arose because Basslink
apparently cannot operate at full capacity in high ambient temperatures
(that is, exactly when it's likely to be most needed).

And of course, from the USA and UK and Europe (Switerland/Italy) we've
seen how power systems can have cascading failures that can take 24
hours to put right. Thought at least we're not likely to see outages
caused by freezing rain.

After the UK had its huge windstorm some 20 years back, some country
properperties were without power for a couple of weeks. I my self was
without power for 12 hours or so. One doesn't realise just how dependent
one is on power until it goes off. Even our stove was electric. I ended
up making tea by sticking a cup of water next to a gas fire (I prefer
electric fan heaters. I'd kept the gas connected, and paid the service
charge, just in case).

I also lived in the UK during a year long miners' strike, and we had
rotating blackouts lasting three hours on several nights a week. That
was a real pain.

Here in NSW we were fortunate that the heatwave occurred most severely
at the weekend when power demands tend to be lower. Had it occurred a
couple of days earlier, NSW reserves would have been stretched.

And of course there's the bushfire season, where bushfires can
compromise transmission lines (and did so last year, or perhsp a few
years before - Parliament House got cut off!).

My main concern is an extended power loss during a worse heatwave then
the one we've just had. I'm not trying to run the entire house - just
the study, with its airconditioning and computers, which has a floor big
enough to drag a a matress or too into to sleep on if the outgage
continues into the night.

How much it's really worth spending on protecting against something that
may never happen, well that's another question, but the price is not
just to address the issue when it arises, it's, like insurance, to
provide assurance that the risk is being managed, one way or the other.

Sylvia.

 

[terryc]

On Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:19:02 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
hs so the supply's not exactly parlous where I am.

Who is your supplier?
I'm on Integral and you expect a few hours once a month. I suspect
they are butchering the wrong trees.

I'm on Energy Australia's network. Significant outgages are not that
common, but they do happen. A friend was without power for an extended
period because of the Chatswood substation fire in 1999. That fire
affected 23,000 people.

I just worry about my own provider. If I was in the countryside anywhere,
then I would regard a number of diesel generators as absolutely
essential.

It really vcomes down to economic rationalism. If you can bill
$500 per hour, then your own serious UPS with backup generator and
250litre fuel tank is probably justifiable*.

But if this is just a home userwith an internet adiction, then a
laptop with prepaid wireless access and spending the night in the
knocking shop, woops Formula 1 motel probably makes a lot more
sense. Telstra has one of their WAP accesspoints just across the road from
the knock shop at McChuckies.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about where
they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone thought of
running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA supply
incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your house.

 

[Sylvia Else]

terryc wrote:

On Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:19:02 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
hs so the supply's not exactly parlous where I am.
Who is your supplier?
I'm on Integral and you expect a few hours once a month. I suspect
they are butchering the wrong trees.
I'm on Energy Australia's network. Significant outgages are not that
common, but they do happen. A friend was without power for an extended
period because of the Chatswood substation fire in 1999. That fire
affected 23,000 people.

I just worry about my own provider. If I was in the countryside anywhere,
then I would regard a number of diesel generators as absolutely
essential.

It really vcomes down to economic rationalism. If you can bill
$500 per hour, then your own serious UPS with backup generator and
250litre fuel tank is probably justifiable*.

But if this is just a home userwith an internet adiction, then a
laptop with prepaid wireless access and spending the night in the
knocking shop, woops Formula 1 motel probably makes a lot more
sense. Telstra has one of their WAP accesspoints just across the road from
the knock shop at McChuckies.

Though that can turn out to be needless upheaval for what turns out to
be only a 2 hour outage.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about where
they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone thought of
running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA supply
incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your house.

A mains gas outage is only an issue there if the power goes off at the
same time. Could happen, I suppose, but it's not very likely.

The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years. So you keep
having the recycle the stuff. I was looking at LPG. Even a 3kg tank
would run a 2KW generator for 6 hours (according to the specs). Also,
you can to go your local servo and do a tank swap even if the power is
out (which stops the petrol pumps).

Sylvia.

 

[terryc]

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:09:20 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:

Though that can turn out to be needless upheaval for what turns out to
be only a 2 hour outage.

that's life.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about
where they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone
thought of running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA
supply incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your
house.

A mains gas outage is only an issue there if the power goes off at the
same time. Could happen, I suppose, but it's not very likely.

The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years.

Really. I was under the imprssion that it wasn't a problem in Australia
for small motors. I'm currently on the last 5l of 20L purchased 3 years
ago and the shredder is happy.

So you keep having the recycle the stuff.
That is only a problem when you have misplaced the funnel and have to pout

it on the side of the empty vehcile and hope that most of it ends up in
the tank.

I was looking at LPG. Even a 3kg tank would run a 2KW generator for 6
hours (according to the specs).

What brand and model of generator? I last asked Advance Power a decade ago
and they said $400 on top of the generator price to have it converted.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"terryc" <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au> wrote in message
news:498f9b4e$0$42554$c30e37c6@pit-reader.telstra.net...

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:09:20 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:


Though that can turn out to be needless upheaval for what turns out to
be only a 2 hour outage.

that's life.


* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about
where they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone
thought of running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA
supply incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your
house.

A mains gas outage is only an issue there if the power goes off at the
same time. Could happen, I suppose, but it's not very likely.


The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years.

Really. I was under the imprssion that it wasn't a problem in Australia
for small motors. I'm currently on the last 5l of 20L purchased 3 years
ago and the shredder is happy.

So you keep having the recycle the stuff.
That is only a problem when you have misplaced the funnel and have to pout
it on the side of the empty vehcile and hope that most of it ends up in
the tank.

**LOL! Sorry, I just had a vision of that Cheech And Chong movie, where they
filled the gas tank of a classic 1970s car (convertible Mustang, if I'm not
mistaken) from a garbage can. They, too, failed to use a funnel (or a
filter). They results, when lighting a joint, were, er, explosive.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Sylvia Else]

terryc wrote:

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:09:20 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:


Though that can turn out to be needless upheaval for what turns out to
be only a 2 hour outage.

that's life.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about
where they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone
thought of running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA
supply incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your
house.
A mains gas outage is only an issue there if the power goes off at the
same time. Could happen, I suppose, but it's not very likely.


The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years.

Really. I was under the imprssion that it wasn't a problem in Australia
for small motors. I'm currently on the last 5l of 20L purchased 3 years
ago and the shredder is happy.

So you keep having the recycle the stuff.
That is only a problem when you have misplaced the funnel and have to pout
it on the side of the empty vehcile and hope that most of it ends up in
the tank.

You have to remember to do it, though.

I was looking at LPG. Even a 3kg tank would run a 2KW generator for 6
hours (according to the specs).

What brand and model of generator? I last asked Advance Power a decade ago
and they said $400 on top of the generator price to have it converted.

http://www.apower.com.au/newproducts/lpggasmate.htm

Note that that's on their "New Products" page.

However...

I've just received a reply to my email asking about price, to be told
that they do not make a LPG 2.2KVA generator any longer, with their
smallest LPG model being a 7.5KVA.

Sylvia.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmoafr$i3e$1@aioe.org...

terryc wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:09:20 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:


Though that can turn out to be needless upheaval for what turns out to
be only a 2 hour outage.

that's life.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about
where they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone
thought of running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA
supply incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your
house.
A mains gas outage is only an issue there if the power goes off at the
same time. Could happen, I suppose, but it's not very likely.


The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years.

Really. I was under the imprssion that it wasn't a problem in Australia
for small motors. I'm currently on the last 5l of 20L purchased 3 years
ago and the shredder is happy.

So you keep having the recycle the stuff.
That is only a problem when you have misplaced the funnel and have to
pout
it on the side of the empty vehcile and hope that most of it ends up in
the tank.

You have to remember to do it, though.


I was looking at LPG. Even a 3kg tank would run a 2KW generator for 6
hours (according to the specs).

What brand and model of generator? I last asked Advance Power a decade
ago
and they said $400 on top of the generator price to have it converted.

http://www.apower.com.au/newproducts/lpggasmate.htm

Note that that's on their "New Products" page.

However...

I've just received a reply to my email asking about price, to be told that
they do not make a LPG 2.2KVA generator any longer, with their smallest
LPG model being a 7.5KVA.

**How big is your air-con and is it an inverter type?


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Sylvia Else]

Trevor Wilson wrote:

**How big is your air-con and is it an inverter type?

960W, 5.1A. Inverter type.

Sylvia.

 

[Mr.T]

"terryc" <newssevenspam-spam@woa.com.au> wrote in message
news:498f9b4e$0$42554$c30e37c6@pit-reader.telstra.net...

The problem with storing petrol is that it goes off. There are
additives, but even then the life is only one or two years.

Really. I was under the imprssion that it wasn't a problem in Australia
for small motors. I'm currently on the last 5l of 20L purchased 3 years
ago and the shredder is happy.

It's only a real problem with higher compression and especially with higher
octane fuels. The more volatile components evaporate first.
You should run the engine every now and then in any case, so that burns a
little fuel.

MrT.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmohia$n97$1@aioe.org...

Trevor Wilson wrote:

**How big is your air-con and is it an inverter type?

960W, 5.1A. Inverter type.

**Make certain you do not connect a refrigerator to it as well.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Sylvia Else]

Trevor Wilson wrote:

"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmohia$n97$1@aioe.org...
Trevor Wilson wrote:
**How big is your air-con and is it an inverter type?
960W, 5.1A. Inverter type.

**Make certain you do not connect a refrigerator to it as well.

I wasn't planning to, but is there some specific issue, other than
starting current, that you're concerned about?

Sylvia.

 

[Mark Harriss]

Sylvia Else wrote:

I wasn't planning to, but is there some specific issue, other than
starting current, that you're concerned about?

Sylvia.

Some fridge compressor motors are very frequency sensitive, forget
which type though, and can easily burn out when running off generator
power unless the frequency is close to 50Hz. I expect an inverter type
generator would solve this though.

 

[Mark Harriss]

Mr.T wrote:

It's only a real problem with higher compression and especially with higher
octane fuels. The more volatile components evaporate first.
You should run the engine every now and then in any case, so that burns a
little fuel.

MrT.

Not to mention fungal growths in the tropics, especially with
distillate.

There is some common food preservative that allows fuel to be stored
free of bacteria and fungus: a spoonful per 200L drum.

It may be worth check what your household insurance states about
stored fuel and natural gas bottles: they have been getting weird
lately in that regard.

 

[terryc]

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:02:34 +1100, Mr.T wrote:

It's only a real problem with higher compression and especially with higher
octane fuels. The more volatile components evaporate first.

that was sort of what I understood.

You should run the engine every now and then in any case, so that burns a
little fuel.

Yep as it is unpleasent having to break one down if you can not get the
sludge out.

..

 

[Trevor Wilson]

"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmp3l4$6ov$2@aioe.org...

Trevor Wilson wrote:
"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmohia$n97$1@aioe.org...
Trevor Wilson wrote:
**How big is your air-con and is it an inverter type?
960W, 5.1A. Inverter type.

**Make certain you do not connect a refrigerator to it as well.



I wasn't planning to, but is there some specific issue, other than
starting current, that you're concerned about?

**Nope.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Sylvia Else]

Mr.T wrote:

You should run the engine every now and then in any case, so that burns a
little fuel.

One should do that anyway for a backup generator - the time it's needed
is not the time to find that it no longer works.

Sylvia.

 

[Mr.T]

"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:gmqg74$ijh$1@aioe.org...

You should run the engine every now and then in any case, so that burns
a
little fuel.

One should do that anyway for a backup generator - the time it's needed
is not the time to find that it no longer works.

And the less often you run it, the less likely it will work next time you
try!

MrT.