Micro CoGen.

Hi Fellas. Here in NZ it would appear on the face of it that we may have turned the corner with only a loss of 23 lives - most of which were elderly people with compromised health to start with. If what we read in the papers and see on the TV is to be believed, USA is around 1000 per day. We are starting to be let out of our cages in a measured fashion. Best of luck over there Fellas.

25.4mm to the inch = 3.28 ft per metre = 10.76 square ft per square metre x 70 = 753 square foot roughly. With the 24 ft x 8 ft (internal) caravan which is practically a small flat plus the 2 bedroom cottage we will be fine.

The new shed is high enough to retrofit a mezzanine floor into on one bay so could convert to a bedroom if required or my "doghouse"  when I am knee-deep. As the council slowly forgets about us and the new 7 metre x 9 metre carport i can slowly close that in also for a pretty cool BBQ and party area. Quite a few mates of mine are going up that road now also. I just gotta get a "dumb Diesel" vehicle now which I can work on without a lap-top or other flash gear. Hardest part will be Mum getting comfortable and over her "space anxiety". A good size piece of one bay of the shed has reluctantly been offered to her for a hobby room .  It will be great. Cheers.

Good on you Bob. You will love the downsizing of your workload. We are also downsizing to something around tiny-house size. 70 square metres down from around 200 square metres. Just built a 10 metre x 11 metre steel 3-bay shed with drive-through bay with 4 tonne  2-poster hoist which can lift up my 24 ft caravan high enough to walk around underneath. Got my "off-grid" capability with the generators and water-tanks and now looking at enough solar on the roof of the shed to run the joint without utility from the gate. Nowadays no need for hardwire comms from the gate. Mum is a bit pissed with the little house but she has a 9 metre x 7 metre carport and a small portion of the shed for hobbies and very little housework to do. At retirement age, many of our friends are de-cluttering their lives also and downsizing their homes but having a huge-ass shed for the toys etc. Allows us to get out in our buses/caravans/boats etc without the worry of a large high maintenance property.  Is very liberating really. We have a Hustler ride-upon mower which my son loves using so no worries with lawns and gardens. Bills are lower with very little heating required in a smaller well insulated home with small efficient wood fire. This becomes a consideration when you have a fixed income.  I am looking around for a water-cooled diesel Lister now to run on Waste-oil to take up the slack when foul weather inhibits the solar. Is quite an adventure. I recently asked a retired mate of mine what he did all day. Buggered if I know really, he said. But I know I never seem to have any spare time with all my hobbies. Sounds a bit like you Bob? Cheers, Derb.

Hi Glort. That is also the way we do money transfers over here. Domestic and international. Never had one go amiss yet. Quick, cheap and cheerful. Cheers.

OK - throw up a working link. I have never used PayPal but Mum will work it out

Ok Bob. PM me a bank account # to pony up to. Cheers.

Hi Bob. I come back regularly for a look as I love pretty much anything mechanical or electrical. To tell you the truth, lately I thought the Forum was "down" due to the non-activity. Whilst I was doing my mucking around at home I found the forum a mine of information. I also have enjoyed the "company" of like-minded individuals. I would agree that the forum's time has now passed. The information though is too valuable to trash. If possible as suggested it could be cashed as a library reference. I am not computer savvy enough to know how this is achieved. If that is the road you go up, thanks a bundle to you and all the contributors for freely sharing of your wealth of knowledge. Cheers, Brian. Derbyshire. New Zealand - Kiwi.

Hi Fellas. I recently bought a 6500 watt electric-start petrol generator at a clearance sale - sight only, not able to be tested. Funnily enough everything worked fine - no issues but a bit rough 1st glance. Pumped up the tires, bashed out the dents and tidied up the wiring and paint and welded on a few lifting eyes as it's a heavy sucker. I decided to fit a 16 amp outlet on the main panel to allow hooking up to my caravans main cord. Upon tilting forward the front panel I was confused with the wiring colour/plug orientation so hooked out my Fluke and with the generator running checked it out. WTF! All three single phase outlets had phase and neutral transposed. This generator had been sat on an engineers truck, out in the elements for a few years running his Caddy's and other power tools no issues. God help someone had hooked up to a switchboard with MENS wiring. (or an old caravan). How many thousand of these are floating around out there with "To whom it may concern" hovering around them?

Well Playdiesel - I followed the link you posted and........... Had a damn good laugh.

Our neighbours in front have 2 little chiuaua (or some such spelling and they go non-stop. I have always figured the other surrounding folk will sort it out. She (over the fence) was having a yarn the other day and spotted our 3 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (doncha-know) and exclaimed she hadn't been aware we had dogs! I replied we brought dogs we knew wouldn't annoy the neighbours  .

Those SR2's are heavy little suckers! Damn rowdy also. Good luck.

Hi Steve. An English single cylinder 4 stroke engine commonly used on old mowers, rotary hoes, water-pumps etc. It looks about early '60's thereabouts. I was given it by a guy cleaning out his shed. It is languishing in my "to do" pile at present. Looks around 3 - 5 HP I think. Will likely end up attached to an alternator or another Fisher and Paykel PMG for standby power. Cheers.

Cheers for the laughs Fellas!    Now this is what makes this forum so much darn fun. Open, frank, lively, humorous discussion. Keep up the good work.

Yeah - we all gotta take a slooow, deep breath of some of that lovely fine Lithium dust that powers most of todays toys.

Is all good Steve - we are charging away largely on hydro, Geothermal, Wind-Farm and  a little bit of Solar here in NZ. Begger-all Coal but a reasonable amount of Natural-Gas. All our charging stations are "Plug and Pay". They seem to be reasonably user-friendly also. I tow a 3 tonne caravan around sucking up good volumes of hydrocarbons in my diesel ute so haven't gone over to the dark side yet. Cheers.