DandV

The industry standards were closely aligned on the basis the huge common experience.

The initial reason for passing the generator output through an isolating transformer was, the supplied house switchboard was wired for a future mains connection with a conventional earth to neutral bond at the switchboard. Phase at 230v to earth/neutral. But I found the generator was actually centre tapped to earth, that is a two phase 110v to earth, 220 v between phases, and I wanted the ability to completly remove the Inverter if it failed and needed to be removed for servicing. An isolating transformer between meant I did not need to get involved in modifying the generator by snipping the centre tap and earthing on side on the output of generator unsure as I was of the safety implications. The isolating transformer though does filter the generator output as a welcome by product when the sun goes into hiding for a few days. A 2.5kva isolating transformer is some brick.

The Victron combis in default setting are fairly fussy over the quality of input power, frequency, voltage, and wave form that they will accept before they will activate charging mode. They have no difficulty passing power through though via the bypass relay. For ours, there was a culture clash between the precision Dutch Victron and a agricultural open frame Chinese Generator. No we were not on the cut but in a remote isolated area of New Zealand coping with a week with no sun on the panels, a fridge full of food and no road access. But they a still a thing of the devil! Resolved when we changed the internal Victron setting away from UPS on to off. (or was it the other way round?) This needed to be done from a lap top via the optional R232 interface, dip switches did not cut it. We also took the generator power through a suitably sized isolating transformer which considerably improved the wave form.

As an oil company engineer I was responsible for hundreds of company owned storage tanks on customers sites and our own dispensing and distribution sites. Diesel bug needs water, so minimising water ingress to fuel storage is 1st priority in storage management. Secondly assume that some water will get through, even if it is just condensation from the make up air. Assume also, the yeasts that grow the bug will always be present from minute quantities upwards, from the supplied fuel, and just the pollens etc in the make up air. For most storage and engine supply tanks the fuel outlet is a little above the tank bottom. The space below the fuel take off point is your primary water settling chamber. If you never remove tank bottoms then the water level, with crud, will eventually rise to the fuel outlet level and overload your line fuel filters. Managing the tank bottom with regular water removal and sample inspection is paramount in fuel storage management. I personally did not like fuel additives, except for use cleaning up after a contamination incident. They are toxic to bugs and people, so treated diesel is more toxic then untreated and extra care must be taken to avoid skin absorption from dosed diesel. The toxin must be treated as cumulative. Emulsifiers defeat normal water fuel separators, which rely on the specific gravity differential. Emulsifiers facilitate the water, (and bug) dispersal through a broader interface layer. All that is needed is to routinely pump off the tank bottom, and examine it for water and crud. The results of the inspection will help determine a suitable following inspection interval. After our first inspection removed quite a bit of crud water, we re did it a couple of months later, and eventually settled for six monthly, the beginning and end of season. The heritage yacht I help with maintenance is currently on a three month frequency, but if the next result is near clear, six monthly should be fine. Rose's marmalade jars are great as sample, examination and disposal containers.

They must have friends in very high places that could summons the river back up to do a refloat so promptly. Wonderful! Perhaps there is power in prayer? Never worked much fo me, perhaps I was doing it wrong?

Whilton a great place for viewing boats, and probably not a bad place for you, or your estate to walk away from a no longer loved boat, with the simple instruction of "just get it sold and get what you can for it" Actually buying a boat from them, read the forums, if you know what you are doing, it appears you can do well, but otherwise caveat emptor seems paramount advice. And good searching, the more you see, the more focused your searching will become, and the better you will become at judging the price that somebody else might pay for any boat on sale, including that boat that entices you to place an offer.

Just put the megga away though when testing circuit insulation. Had a friend, who as an National Serviceman Aircraftsman with the RAF was in a cockpit of an aircraft in a hangar when another aircraftsman meggad the cockpit release circuit. He said it was one hell of a bang, that nearly got him early release on grounds of resulting hearing impediment, until the examining specialist asked him very quietly at the end of hearing testing examination, to "close the door on the way out" He obliged, and was recalled to serve the remainder of his term for having satisfactory hearing!

Sounds like the old joke "Mummy does the au pair come apart?" "No Johnny, That's a strange question, why do you ask?" "Because I heard Daddy telling the man next door that he wants to screw the arse off her"

I love these Ebay listings headed up with the disclaimer "May not post to New Zealand"

Brassicas are a versatile food source, but they do generate bodily gas, Cauliflowers heating water? Pray tell us the process, Methane to heat? Or more simply bloody unnoticed autocorrect once again?

Poor kangaroo. Survived years of gun happy Australians, then a devastating drought, a year of 40 plus temperatures, asphyxiating smoke, bushfires, record flooding and then meets a tourist driving a camper van!

There is good news and bad news about the epicentre of the Virus being in China. The best news is that China is a long way away away from most of us. The second bit of good news is that in China there is the combination a very authoritarian culture and regime, backed by a powerful and extremely well equipped government machine which can, and has, ruthlessly deployed massive containment measures, unavailable to countries where government interventions are kept limited, and personal freedom is given a higher priority. No other country could so rapidly deploy the resources to contain and hopefully suppress this disease once they realised the extent of the problem. The difference between the US response to Hurricane Katrina in the lower Mississippi, and China to Coronavirus is stark. The bad news is, that the conditions for the disease to form and then initially propagate as far as it did, were as a result of that very culture and state control of information that suppressed both, questioning state sanctioned processes, and whistleblowing.