Garages

What happened to the neighbour lending you power?

Went silent/not responding to messages.

Pop round in person with some money.
That should get things moving again. If they are not on holiday

Spotted them walking down the hill we live on the top of when we came back earlier - she's just ignoring me. Solar it is!

Speaking of which, this was the reading when we got back - no apparent input at around 18:00 from the panels, but ~20 hours added to the "expected to be empty" timer.

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Perhaps concerned about electricity prices? And might not have initially expected the scope of what you were doing.

I offered to pay a year in advance- prior to the price escalation we have seen, however.

I’d still do so, because mains power would be a lot more convenient- but i have little agency here.

Therefore- on with the solar testing.

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^ Input is fluttering between 0-6 at 09:30 this morning. Laid the panels flat to see what difference that makes.

Maybe out of the shade of that tree

A lot is going to depend on working out accurately what things are going to draw in terms of power.

12v LED lights are not going to take an awful lot, but I am going to want to have wifi and that says "12v 3A" which is 36 watt constant draw. Is the 3A a peak figure, or is that a constant draw would anyone care to hazard a guess?

I can remember if you have sorted lighting out yet, but can I recommend these:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/ansell-tornado-twin-6ft-led-non-corrosive-batten-fitting-71w-7320lm-230v/370pg

We have one in each garage (and 2x 4ft in the attic) and they're fantastic

Sadly at 71 watts consumption they'd take roughly a grands worth of solar panels to run

Just popped out and plugged the Linksys AP into the Goal Zero - negligible to the point that there was no observable difference in the AP idling and when it was doing a speed test at 250 Mbps, and when it was idling there was no difference in the reported draw on the battery which stayed at 6 watts (it's always 6 watts, as that's what the inverter takes).

My current thinking (sorry, dad joke fans) was to have four 12v/5w LED bulbs which would be 20 watts, plus the AP which I think I can run off the 12v circuit and clearly doesn't draw the 3A that it says on it's base, and in an ideal world I'd turn the inverter on half a second before the garage door opener starts.

This whole thread is going to go like that Apollo 13 scene

Thinking about this some more I think a standard 230v AC system fed from the inverter is the best idea as otherwise everything is duplicated.

Just need to ensure that the low light/winter input is enough to run things.

Is all hope of mains power gone? You would have thoughts others in the block may want/like power too if it were an option.

I think it's safest to assume so - that way if it does become an option in future then that's a bonus.

I'm looking at the following:

• 250w PV
  
• Charge controller that can take 2x250w panels
  
• 12/500 inverter
  
• 100ah battery
  
• Bunch of cable
  
  

And my intention is to wire the output of the inverter into a small CU that then has conventional lighting and socket circuits.

It would appear that James Wright has just read the review I wrote for Checkatrade, and is upset.

He has said that he will take me to the small claims court if I don't pay the balance by the 12th of September.

Might as well offer to go now, didn’t you want this to get decided at SCC?

I said in my response:

"I think your suggestion of the small claims court is a good one - being able to lay out what happened to an impartial third party who will then make a decision is what I think we have been lacking."

I need you to write my passive-aggressive work emails. In all seriousness, I hope you get the result you're after in or out of SCC.

I'll update, I'm fully expecting on losing in court, but it's worth a go.

We support you Citizen Dammit (I should probably cross post this to the middle age thread).

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are you doing / have done anything with the floor?

My garage is in the midst of a refurb, the slab has been dug up, insulated and relaid, I'm not sure of what the best thing to lay on top of it would be?

It'll be 50/50 garage / office.

Thoughts so far have been tiles or possibly epoxy

Couple of years ago I had to run in mains water into a flat in a converted house. The flat had water but on a shared supply and it was necessary to run in a separate pipe. Cost just under £1k to run in pipes from the mains in the street via a mole, i.e. not everything had to be dug up. Have you approached the electricity board to see if they can connect you?