wmbjk wrote:
On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:08:57 +1000, George Ghio
wrote:


You can't get anything right can you. First, I am an American. Born and
raised in San Diego.


Yes, I know, and we're grateful that you moved. If only Mars would
offer the type of retraining that you seem so fond of.

IF, as you say you know then you have told another lie when you claimed
I was an aussi.


A "putterer" does not hold a ticket for "Unlimited Thickness Structuial
Steel"


I don't see why not. There are plenty of ticket holders out there who
can't earn a decent living at their trade. Some of them can't do any
better than scabbing together rusty crap for cheap customers, and then
complaining about the experience on Usenet. Sound familiar?

So you have no ticket. But then there is no ticket for glue guns is there?


My work shop use has no effect on the house system as there is no
connection between them.


So a "design" is only required for homes? But I remember you writing
about doing laundry and vacuuming on generator power, concurrent with
shop use. Perhaps that's a wireless connection...


My fuel use is, Petrol, 20 L per fortnight(14 days) This runs the Gen
set of course, also the tractor, motorcycle and chainsaw.


Hmm... farther along in your post you mention 5 hours per month
welding, accounting for 10 liters per fortnight. Let's allow 3 hours
per week for laundry alone, say an addtional 12 liters per fortnight.
No need to calculate anything beyond that, as your tractor, motorcycle
and chainsaw are already running on magic bean fumes. Perhaps I was
too charitable using your own numbers to tally 15 tons of fuel hauling
so far.

Ah, your lack of numbers shines through again, can you tie your own shoe
laces? Walk and chew gum at the same time?

Let's allow 1 hour for the laundry per week. Something less than a litre


Yes I use wood and propane in the house. So what?


The "what" is that 1. while giving new meaning to the definition of
spartan, and claiming to be a professional, you've spent more and
accomplished less than many amateurs, and 2. - you insist on
criticizing those who've done better, particularly if they point out
your blunders.

Spartan? Hardly. And if you mean done "better" as in microwave,
dishwasher, bread machine, widescreen TV etc. Then the only thing you
have done better than me is to employ a dozen more Chinese than me.

You are a born consumer.




So, yes I can account for my entire energy use.

Is this important? Yes.

Why?

Because if you dont know what is going in or what is going out you don't
know what your system is doing. Which is really just not knowing what
you are doing.


I've met many off-gridders who manage quite well despite not knowing
the difference between a Watt and a gallon. They tend to get the idea
pretty quickly - batteries dead, must have used too much, and after a
while they develop a feel for what they can run. Call it what you
like, but lots of them get a much higher proportion of their energy
from solar than you do.


Ah well, you see I do have a simple solar hot water system. What I do
not have yet is the parbolic system.


That's an amazingly lame excuse, although I suppose it's a step in the
right direction that you're finally admitting the wisdom of taking
advantage of the sun. Duh! But 20 years to do a three-day project? And
given your previous comments on how you've "never seen a working
tracker", why would you use a parabolic collector? Anyway, let me know
when it's finished. I'll get a day pass from the old folks home, and
drive down in my Moller Skycar for the dedication ceremony.

What an imagination.


Off grid workshops, as I have said already, are as indivdual as the
people who use them. Asking for advice, which can only be generic at
best, is fine but in the end the workshop must meet your needs, not
Wayne's needs or George's needs.


Several of the regulars here who you've criticized bitterly have
systems that meet their needs. Why is it that meeting one's needs is
only a measurement of success in your own case?

No Wayne, the point is not that your system works but that you have no
idea why or how. I too know lots of people who have built systems
without knowing what they were doing. Their advice is as worthless as
yours when it comes to design. For the same reasons.


My most commonly used tool is a drill. I use battery drills with leads
because they are readily avaliable. I have six at the moment. With an
eighteen A/hour gell cell and two battery drills I can install a 5kW
system on site in two days.


Very impressive. I probably spent more time than that running conduit
for a 2kW system. Additional days for battery box, venting, inverter
mounting, and wire pulling, not to mention trenching, concrete, etc.
But equipped with that six pack of corded cordless drills, at your
rate the whole job could have been done in 8 tenths of a single day.
Man, them drills must be smokin'!

My point exactly, you couldn't organise a fart on a bean farm. Which
explains how you built your house. Just hire a swag of contractors then
claim to have done it yourself.



As for my welder, why build a system big enough to run it for perhaps
five hours a month.


To name just a few - to save 1200 hours of generator time and 1200
gallons of fuel, to have the capacity to run all the other loads that
are over a few hundred Watts, to demonstrate that as a successful
"solar power consultant" you needn't take the same road as broke
amateurs... But other than those, no reasons at all.

Why do you try to tout lifestyle as design? While the two go together
they are not the same thing. I don't give a two hoots about your
lifestyle but I do think it's a hoot that you can't define two days autonomy


The warning about your advice still stands as valid.


You might print out the warning and one of your spreadsheets, and take
them along with all your unused cordless drill chargers to the propane
supplier, and see how much of a discount they'll give you. Then report
back after another 20 years on the economics of "designing" a "solar"
home that 95% fuel powered.

Funny thing, I don't own a single cordless drill charger. Last year at
the Bedigo swap I found a nice cordless drill, the full kit. The guy
wanted $15, I offered ten, he said ok, so I put the drill in my bag.

As I started to leave he said, pointing at the case with the battery and
charger, "Don't you want the rest of it?"

I said "Why" and left.

LIFESTYLE. You don't have a clue.

My lifestyle is great.

You think your lifestyle is great.

The difference is that I know how my system works, I know what goes in
and what comes out. I know all my energy use, you can't even work out a
piddling two days autonomy. With or without the undecided reduced load.

Why should anyone in their right mind take advice from you?


The warning stands as valid.