openspaceman

I am having a quote for an air to air heat pump in January, the complete conversion, heat pump , radiators etc., came in at £11k, £4k net of grant, which I considered ridiculous for this little cottage. I simply do not want the disruption and this house will be gutted and extended when we're gone. If it weren't for regulations I would fit A2A myself, many do. Similarly I cannot avail myself of an EV tariff, apart from lying, many do. We have 4 cars to wear out first, one gifted 53 years ago, the others inherited. So I doubt I'll ever get an EV. This year I bought £318 of electricity and that is mostly standing charge, I exported £385 ( but expect that to go down as export rates drop) and paid £134 for gas ( only for domestic hot water) I am loathe to give up gas as it may make a house sale less attractive. Plus I still receive about £2k for FIT which goes on for a few years yet. It seems so strange that less than 10% of domestic properties have solar PV, yet on a day when Solar PV in UK only provides 3% of the total energy demand and Gas 40% I am actually self sufficient, and all for about £10k at current prices, which are still falling. I too have a well but only use it for filling the water butts, it ran dry this last summer.

Big step change though, I'm hesitant about moving away from wood heat. A battery and inverter will fit well with the heat pump. Some PV panels too, Xmas day in the past was the day when I bought the most electricity, this year I ran on solar power alone.

I'm glad you dropped by, I was going to suggest he asked on your forum Mick.

is it a starter motor and generator combined?

irrelevant

Nor I and I hope a renewable liquid fuel will be available at affordable prices. I do think we should stop using fossil fuels though.

@kram seems to be on the ball with these batteries and it will be interesting to see what @Fatboy2017 finds. A big difference between lithium ion batteries and the dry cells and lead acid ones we are used to in cars and toys is their very low internal resistance, so the chargers need current limiting as well as the correct maximum voltage. If this battery pack charges then well and good and @Fatboy2017 can use it again. If not, and allowing that @kram thinks the output from the battery is directly connected to 36V,with no switching by the BMS, I will be interested if the tool works with it when charged by other than the Stihl charger.

Because we are human animals, we have evolved to successfully out-compete other animals, to use tools, form tribes and learned to build institutions and then learned how to manipulate other humans to our own benefit, not theirs. Then these tribal leaders clash because we live on a finite planet.

I think so as it's quite porous, unlike , say, oak, which can be difficult. Having said that you can virtually discount drying between mid October to late March outside in England, though that's probably changing.

So rarely seen in the woods I worked that I wouldn't dream of shooting them.

Yes, I have avoided it mostly but when dry it's okay. I think it leaves more ash, but that may be a bit subjective and it takes up more space in the stack for the heat it gives out compared wiht a good hardwood, like birch, oak, beech or ash. Comparable with softwoods really.

Me too Alex, don't miss me out

It seems there is a hole at the bottom of the stove that allows the bottom hinge pin to be driven out, thanks to @Kernow Jack who has not been able to post direct: I've just managed to remove this door, it was quite a job though. As I read in the posts above the 2 door hinge pins are each held in place by a short hexagon headed grub screw, which I managed to loosen with a few squirts of WD 40 from the door hingering. however the pins themselves didn't want to move at all. Both the top and the bottom pin had smooth rounded heads which were visible top one looking up and bottom one looking down. I found a round opening underneath the door where I could reach the bottom end of the bottom pin and after a long battle finally managed to hammer this pin out (again using WD 40 liberaly) by first pushng the door up so that top hingering against the top of the stove hedge, then trapping a nailpunch tight between the botom of the bottom pin and a metal block on the floor and then giver the door a few hammer blows down from the top of the door. repeating this procedure lots of time the bottom pin finally was pushed up free from its hold and I could the lower the door free from it top hold.

I'd risk it . Make sure the polarities are correct then gently make the last contact, if there's a huge flash then I'd think twice.

I have never been to Liverpool but, tempting as the offer is, a 400 mile round trip is a bit much unless anyone is passing on the way down.

If I can get hold of one I could have a play, the cells will be worth something to me.

No, they are little hand held probes for pin pointing where a bit of metal is in the soil after first roughly "finding" it with a metal detector. Pro-Pointers | Metal Detector Pinpointer and Accessories GARRETT.COM Check out our Pro-Pointers at Garrett Metal Detectors! These metal detecting accessories ensure your precise locating and... A good one, my knock of clone is good for finding dropped nuts an bolts but not lead shot. The risk with lead shot is ingesting it and this is one reason game shops cannot sell all the pheasant that are shot, the advice is only to eat lead shot pheasant once a month ( same as bacon??). It is more of a problem if slow cooked in an acidy sauce, not so much if roasted. Generally acids dissolve metal oxides more than metals so it is probably the surface layers of the pellet that have corroded that get ingested. If we get steel shot (and maybe tungsten??) then the shot is likely to be bigger (because it is less dense and will lose too much energy if the same size as lead shot) and more detectable and less poisonous but it will break teeth where lead will not. a brace of pheasant stewed like this will make 4-6 meals for two of us. is

Whereas I did all of mine except dice the veg and serve up 😛

pheasant casserole cooked in slow cooker with squash, sweet potato, tomatoes and carrots. served with potato and peas. My cheap pin pointer was not sensitive enough to find 3mm lead balls, I wonder if a better one would.

Is that a warranty failure that gets sent back to Stihl?

Brave man that disarmed one shooter and had the sense to put the gun down quickly

A google shows a thread on reddit for the ap300 battery which suggests the BMS may store a fault code that needs to be cleared after a repair, it maybe that Stihl have done a John Deere on this. If @kram is right and there is no power control from the BMS via a MOSFET or IGBT then the BMS may communicate something to the charger to prevent charging and even after repair the battery may not work until this is reset.

I think the BMS has disconnected the battery, the small voltage you see is an ephemera of the bms connections. If so nothing will happen. If the battery was just flat the sudden rush of current would probably melt the wires you jumped the two batteries with, after all the 40V is 3 times what a car battery will zap if you touch the terminals together and a lithium ion battery has much lower internal resistance. I've had similar on a cheap ( but useful) Ferrex 40V grinder battery. It was one cell out of the 10 that had failed. I made the mistake of not de soldering the BMS to get at it and struggled to pull the bad cell out from the nickel strips it was spot welded to. Knowing what I do now I would take it to our repair cafe with a new cell with solder tags ( about 6 quid) and get one of the electronics experts fit it. If I am right the other 19 cells will be good. I recycle them by taping 4 together, adding a usb charger with type C charge port and protected usb output as little power packs.

I wouldn't advise taking it apart yet, each cell or pair of cells is probably connected to the battery management system and soldered. Can you count the cells? Fully charged they will each be just over 4.1V. The fact that you are measuring 196mV is either the battery is profoundly flat, which is unlikely or that a cell is out of circuit. Is there any way you can access the terminal each end of each cell?

I would file most chains freehand but the 4mm files had to be in a guide to prevent snapping.