Happy New Year 2007 Folks!
Welcome to the FishHouse Blog!
Happy New Year 2007
Monday, January 1st, 2007Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year 2007
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year 2007
Frostie the Snowman
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006This is what I looked like the other evening. TIP Do not cut 6 inch thick Jablite with a jigsaw and then use silicone sealer!
I managed to get some silicone sealer on my hands after cutting 6 inch Jablite (posh word for polysterene insulation) and the polsterene dust stuck!
I took the two remaining slabs of 6 inch Jablite used to create the fish house partition in the old fish house, and after stapling Thermal Wrap to the inside of the garage doors and sealing with aluminimum foil tape, sealed the garage with the slabs, and then another layer of Thermal Wrap to finish off. Thermal Wrap looks like foiled bubble-wrap, it’s not cheap, at 23 GBP a roll, but it much easier to handle than Jablite (polysterene). It was cheaper at B&Q in the Autumn at 27 GBP, and get one free! I’ve used it previosuly in the garage, to insulate the flat roof at the rear, and cover the windows. It’s equivalent to 2.5 inches of Jablite (polysterene). So that’s a total of 8 inches of insulation behind the front garage doors. I think it might be working, as the temperature has increased a massive 4 degrees C, and it’s freezing fog outside. Hopefully all this investment, will reduce heating costs.
I had to cut myself out of the fish house, with a jigsaw, after I sealed myself in! Hence getting covered in polysterene dust!
Cold Weather…
Saturday, December 16th, 2006I’ve been lucky that we’ve been having some really mild weather for this time of year, although wet and high winds.
Not much to report in the fish house, I’m not having as much time as I had hoped with the new house, and DIY repairs to concentrate on breeding the pairs of fish I have.
I had hoped that this garage would have been warmer than the last, I think the problem lies, in the last garage, the “fish house” was built inside a wall of jablite, but it had a draughty asbestos corrugated roof, and garage door.
This garage is integrated into the house, so it only has two external walls, and the bedroom is above the ceiling, I had hoped that it was warmer, but my problem lies with the two very draughty barn doors!
One door now resembles something from the NASA Space shuttle, as I covered it in aluminium covered bubble-wrap, I’ve also insulated the flat garage roof at the rear with jablite, and the same aluminium covered bubble-wrap insulation, but despite what I try, I’m still losing heat. I may yet need to build a jablite igloo again.
Fish……
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006Oh, I nearly forgot in all the excitement, the fish are fine…Not traumatized by todays events, and using petrol generated electricity!
Power Outage
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006The electricity was cut-off to the village this morning at 8.45am, I started the petrol generator with ease, and then it took me a few minutes in the dark in the fish house (it’s got darker since I’ve insulated and blocked the windows!) to unplug the main four circuits and connect them one by one to the generator feed. At first the current draw from the generator was 12.5Amps, as all the heaters came on, but this gradually fell to a steady 7 – 8Amps. The petrol generator had a full 16l tank of petrol, and I had a 20l petrol can full on standby.
The electricity supply was restored at approx 2.30pm, but I left the Fish House on generator, for 30 minutes before migrating back to mains supply.
An excellent test, I only had to turn-off one 500 watt heater used to heat top-up water, and deemed this wasn’t necessary.
I used approx 10l of petrol, in approx 6hours to generate 9kWh (as measured by my Power Meters! Search the blog for details), so that’s approx 1 UK-GBP per kWh, so an expensive way of generating electricity, so I’m not going to make a saving by switching!
Petrol Generator in use
The small green box, far right under the bag of salt, is the earth box for the generator.
Power Outage is confirmed for 7th Nov 2006
Saturday, November 4th, 2006Despite several telephone calls to YEDL Customer Service, and I must admit the Customer Service Operator has been very good, but unfortunately would not let me speak direct to the engineer responsible for the work. It’s basically tough, the engineer Phil Johnson, YEDL stated “we given you the statutory notice of 7 days, it’s up to you, to sort out your own arrangements.” Phil Johnson better not come round here for a cup of tea next week!
In April 2001, YEDL were kind enough to supply a CAT Generator to keep the supply on the farm running through an outage, and a man in a Landrover, to check it didn’t stop!
CAT Diesel Generator – now that’s what I call a generator!
Green Landrover and CAT Diesel Generator.
Temporary hookup.
Ladder to stop cables falling in the drainage ditch.
View from across the pond.
I’ve purchased my 20 litre petrol “jerry can” and petrol, earth stake/rod and cable, so that’s tomorrows job!
Power-Cut 7th Nov 2006!
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006I’ve just received notice from YEDL, that they are turning-off the electricity supply in the area from 08.30 to 16.00 on Tuesday 7th November 2006.
Looks like I’ll be testing the generator, earlier than expected.
Need to purchase:-
- Large 20 litre petrol can
- 20 litre of petrol.
- Earth stake.
- Earth wire.
Need to check power cable reaches into fish house. Why YEDL cannot do this in the Summer, they have to wait for the cold spell!
Andy’s HandyPro 3500L
Sunday, October 15th, 2006Due to a local power outage in July when I was moving the Fish House, I lost a pair of Angel fish and a Magnum Pleco. Unfortunately, the power outage lasted in excess of 12 hours. Power outages in this area always occur, usually in the Summer months of July and August after the thunder and lightening storms. We very rarely have power outages in the Winter months. I decided in July to purchase a 1kVA (1000 watt) petrol generator from B&Q for 99 GBP UK pounds. Very little money to protect the fish house, if there should be a power outage. It’s only 1kVA (1000 watts), which is about 700 watts of power, using a 8 litre tank of petrol, it will not run the entire fish house, but will keep filters and air pumps running, and a few heaters until power is restored.
Lately, I’ve had a few problems with this unit, leaking petrol tank, after speaking with Performance Power Customer Support, I was not happy with the quality of this unit, and I’ve since noticed that B&Q have reduced these units to 79 GBP UK pounds, so I decided to return to B&Q for a refund.
B&Q 1kVA Performance Power Petrol Generator
This was the replacement I’ve purchased, a Briggs & Stratton HandyPro 3500L, this unit is based on the Classic Pro 3500, 16 litre petrol tank, a run-time of 11 hours @ half load. 2.7kVA (2700 watts), 10Amps. It weighs approx 66kg when filled with petrol!
Briggs & Stratton HandyPro 3500L
I’ve been testing it today, by boiling water in a kettle connected to it, it’s also quieter than the cheaper B&Q model.
October 2006 Update
Sunday, October 15th, 2006It’s been a few months, since I last posted to this blog. I’ve been very busy with the new house and the fish house, has taken second place to the new hobby of DIY.
The fish house moved successfully to the new house and garage, I’ve started to insulate part of the garage which has a flat roof, using Jablite Squeeze, fantastic stuff, this deserves a design award!
I just wanted to let you all know, I’m still here, but just a bit busy to post regular items.
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