Generators?

[steve_earwig]

Especially in a small box that's already full of spaghetti up a ladder...

Well, that's ordered so we shall see. Might take a wee while to get here this time of year mind.

[Bailes1992]

What sort of house do you own?
Boxes full of spaghetti climbing up ladders?

[steve_earwig]

Hey, I keep telling you it's mad here

[Doggy]

Those spring loaded connectors first made an appearance in the mid 1980's and us industrial maintenance types have been cursing them ever since. They're not relaible if any amount of heat is involved, (in our industry things get hot without overheating the wiring) and are a nightmare to re-use if you have to alter anything. They only have a tiny conductor contact area and are hopeless where any amount of power is required.

The answer to relaible screw terminal connections are bootlace ferrules, cage-clamp terminals wherever possible, wire protection leaf terminals where you can't get the cage clamp type, (like this):



Even the Wago ones look like this inside:



How much of the conductor is actually making firm contact with the connector?

[steve_earwig]

I Googled some of the serial numbers on those Wagos and was seeing figures between 20 to 40 amps on them, so I presumed they were fairly good They must be preferable to self-loosening screws or sticky tape anyway. Or I could go the whole hog and solder and shrink wrap them, but I can't imagine that going so well in these crowded spaghetti boxes (fire!)

[steve_earwig]

The Wago connectors have appeared, although I'm not going to sod around with the electrics just now when it's minus something silly.

Looking at them, I was expecting opening the levers to allow the wire to be inserted and then hold the wires tight when they're shut, but I can't actually tell the difference between inserting the wire when the lever is up or down Strangeness.

In other news, it's snowed. Only 6 inches or so, hardly worth the bother of getting the snow shovels out (in fact I've not bothered in front of the yoyo as all that happens is, if I clear it there, when the drunks roll up at the fire house they see it as a parking space and we get blocked in ) However, the snow on the solar panels means we've produced absolutely bugger all for 3 days now Goddamnit, there must be a way of warming them up a little...

[Welly]

However, the snow on the solar panels means we've produced absolutely bugger all for 3 days now Goddamnit, there must be a way of warming them up a little...

I hope I don't need to tell you not to go up there a'clearing the schno. That's the sort of trick I'd pull with predictable results....

(Hello btw)

[steve_earwig]

Hi mate, welcome back

I can't say it didn't cross my mind but sanity has prevailed. It's really annoying because we haven't produced a single milliwatt since the 28th. I kind of knew this would happen when it snowed but I can't help thinking that a few hundred watts for some heaters would be a small price to pay, considering what they'd be outputting normally.

Oh, and we had a wee small power cut on the 24th I think it was, it was only long enough to trip the system (and pole axe the pc) but by the time I got upstairs to see what was going on we were back on mains again.

[Doggy]

That is a tad inconvenient. Must be some safe way of dislodging the snow......

Puts me in mind of a gadget one of our techinical boffins was recommending years ago, a kind of flexible hacksaw with a bit of rope on each end, which they thought they could possibly use to cut underground plastic pipes accessed by a small hole in the ground. Anyways, this wondrous device was an Austrian invention for cutting branches off trees - handle on one end, weight on t'other. Deployed by chucking the weight over the branch, then tugging on the handle like a sort of noise abatement society approved bell-ringer.

At this point in the explantion, I disolved into laughter, picturing a lederhosen-clad Bavarian getting twatted on the head by the branch he'd just cut off.

Silent stares from everyone else at the presentation ensued and oddly enough I wasn't invited to any of the subsequent discussions.

Anyway, you get the idea. Maybe there's some way of gently dislodging the snow without getting up there or pulling the solar panel down on your head?

[steve_earwig]

For some reason that's put me in mind of a cheese wire...

I can't really think of any way of doing it that wouldn't have a chance of damaging the panels or involve risk of death via falling off the roof or ending up getting squashed by a pile of snow falling on me.

Anyway, it's +2 today and the snow is slowly sliding off of the panels and occasionally going "wump!" on the terrace. I just checked it and it's showing an alarm, so I got the wife to call Denis the PV guy. His is doing it too, seems the panels are seeing the light and the systems are getting some sort of voltage but it's not enough to actually do anything.

Btw is there any reason I can't post this https://www.sunnyportal.com/Templates/P ... 365741d03a# on the forum? Obviously it's showing bugger all just now but I think it gives a system snapshot without the need to log in or anything. I'm just wondering if it shows anything it shouldn't (I can't tell as I'm permanently logged in)

[Welly]

Would it be too silly to frig up a garden hose/hot warty combo and kinda 'wash' the snow away?

[steve_earwig]

Interesting, I could do that quite easily. Ice everywhere is probably the main drawback.

[steve_earwig]

]
Nice sunny day today

[steve_earwig]

I poked our PV guy today by email, he just got back to us. It seems like Croatia aren't going to bother with any tariffs or quotas this year as they're too interested in the new COAL FIRED power plant, Plovin C. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plomin_Pow ... n#Plomin_C

See this (month old, thankyou dear ) article - http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/zbog ... 93934.aspx

Saving you the bother of going to Google - http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... 93934.aspx

Well thanks, I guess that leaves us up a certain canal without a certain implement.

[Welly]

Oh sh*t, so they don't want any of your electrickery, f*cking great. At least you'll have no (not much) bills? I know that's not what it's all about though, what a pisser.

They're saying Croatia produces seven times less Solar Energy (per capita) than India!