As once said by the Not The Nine O’Clock News Cast in the 80s. Not a laughing matter if you lived in Wales during that period of Holiday home burning!
Not in Wales, but here’s a picture of the open fire. It’s been getting colder this winter, so we’ve lit the fire on occasion.
Lindsey has now started to decorate the bathroom, more photos later.
The 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.
Last night was a fantastic full moon, I rushed home from work, got my gear together rushed up the hill to photograph the Full Moon above the house, but by the time I had walked up the hill, the moon had risen too far. So here’s the picture I took anyway, without the house!
This should have been the photograph for Halloween! Maybe next year!
Petrol generator had it’s first test run today, check the Fish House Blog
Despite 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!
Happy Halloween folks, The Great Pumpkin Massacre is upon us again. Every year I prepare two pumpkins and place them outside on Halloween to keep the evil spirits away, I’ve always down it from childhood, encouraged by my Mum, the tradition continues (although it used to be carved swedes!).
Happy Birthday Mum!, tried to call but you must have been out on that Firebolt again!
Happy Halloween
My Brother’s Carved Pumpkin
My Carved Pumpkin
Outside the house on Halloween!
Wanted: glass cover for this victorian lamp, if you got any ideas, contact me.
I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay.
I sleep all night. I work all day.
I cut down trees. I eat my lunch.
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin’
And have buttered scones for tea.
I cut down trees. I skip and jump.
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women’s clothing
And hang around in bars.
I cut down trees. I wear high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra.
I wish I’d been a girlie,
Just like my dear Mama (or Papa in later versions)
But only at the weekends! God Bless Monty Python!
I’ve been working out chopping up firewood and kindling for a few hours today, with my new long and short-handled axes.
Very enjoyable, a friend has just had a Rowan tree cut down, and had some spare logs she need to recycle. Another name for Rowan is Mountain Ash. It is said that rowan wood will increase one’s psychic powers, and its branches were often used in dowsing rods and magical wands. Maybe she shouldn’t have had it cut down! Will it make my fire better!
Cut firewood stored to dry in an old coal bunker.
This has been used as the wood shed, it used to be an old outdoor privay, that was purchased by the previous owners from the neighbours. One of few outdoor s**thouses in the UK, that has it’s own Land Registry title! It’s actually quite common, in this area, that neighbours toilets are connected to their neighbours buildings.
Unfortunately, when the extension was built on the house 30 years ago, the neighbours refused to sell it, and hence why only half-an-extension was built on the house.
The consumer unit cupboard in the kitchen hides the following items:-
You are probably asking yourself, why I’m detailing such a boring item, a sparky-friend has offered in the future to replace my consumer unit and wanted to know the details of what’s currently in the cupboard, there’s alot in the cupboard. I’m looking to replace all the consumer units and earth leakage current breaker with a modern Dual/Split bus, RCD/MCB MK unit, space permitting, because I cannot move any of the other items without gettting the supplier to move them! I’m also thinking of having a Generator Transfer panel installed, so I can connect my 3.5kW Petrol generator to the house supply, when the power dies, throw the switch, connect my 3.5kW Petrol generator and I’ve got power for the entire house. Just need to work out the Grounds!
Here are the pictures
The foggy Autumn weather is upon us, we’ve been in the house almost two months, I’ve been busy plumbing in the washing machine and tumble dryer in the garage (burnt out two pneumatic SDS hammer drills!), cutting the lawn – that’s a job with an electric lawn mover, cutting the hedge (still not finished that job with my new Hedgers!, I’ll take a picture of them, thanks to Christopher at Groundscaper for the recommendation), boarding out one of the attics, discovering we had BATS, visit from the BAT Squad, to authorise works in the attic, planting bulbs in the garden, you get the general idea, been a little too busy to take pictures and update the blog.
After a recommendation, I got another roofing company to visit and inspect the roof and chimney stack – and their professional opinion – unless it leaks leave well alone – oh and take some pictures, and compare them in six months time, after the winter so here they are
Front view of The House including the Yellow Peril! (is that racist?) If you look carefully, the house was extended 30 years ago, so part of the roof is only 30 years old (above the garage and bedroom). This roof is felt-lined, different tiles have been used to “join” the roofs together. So there is a “ridge” at the join. The other roof is original, and is not felt lined, “daylight” can be seen in the attic space, it’s very draughty and dirty, where the grain has blown in off the fields, and is full of cobwebs, the Bats are only in the new part of the loft, as they hate draughts and spiders cobwebs.
Front elevation view of roof and chimney stack. Some bulging is evident in the stack, this could be caused by the iron-stays used to secure the pots, these have corroded, and have started to expand, causing the brickwork to bulge. The rear of the stack is worse, as this receives most of the weather. The stack my need rebuilding in the future, after consulation with my neighbour.
Front elevation view of roof and chimney stack.
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of roof
Rear view of The House
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of roof
Due 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.
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