openspaceman

2 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

 

So are you saying that this only happens on externally mounted clutches?  Or just that it is more likely to happen on externally mounted clutches but it can happen on both types? Thanks

I don't play with enough chainsaws to know but it's the husqvarna type with left hand thread to undo the clutch that are at risk, especially if it has been recently replaced, as they tighten with work.

The stihl type with E clips holding the clutch are not at risk if the clip is secure.

17 minutes ago, Con said:

Why do people pay insurance companies and then not claim for the reason they have been paying them?

That's a fundamental question; insurance companies ted to have to pay out 80% of their premiums as claims, the rest is operating costs and profit.

You never gain by making a claim because they make sure you have no betterment by reducing the value of the lost equipment in line with wear and tear.

So it does not pay you to insure stuff you can afford to replace.

59 minutes ago, Rms7 said:

do you know the chain dimensions, pitch, gauge etc?

No I am afraid not and as I gave it back I cannot look.

I certainly wouldn't want one but the one I rescued originally, which I bought a chain for, and cut s few loads of logs before giving it away, was usable and light and to my mind better than a stihl 171 I tried yesterday.

3 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

Yes, I presume as the clutch is reverse threaded, in a post-acceleration phase the clutch could spin "forward" faster than the engine and undo.

Yes it's the inertia of the clutch trying to rotate the slowing engine in much the same way the original range rover snapped rear half shafts when a wheel spun in the mud at full revs and the foot suddenly released the throttle.

3 hours ago, Stubby said:

As above . Its a Zomax Chinese made saw rebadged many times for whoever .  

It looks just like the einhell/spear&jackson one I just repaired

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/133943-walbro-carb-problem/

2 hours ago, roys said:

fancy clever chargers won’t work

Yes but you can fool them by putting an old car battery in parallel

2 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

Short answer, no.

 

As you're in the US I've found you an American tree diagram. Your cambium layer is gone, it's dead already.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/learn/trees/anatomy-of-tree#:~:text=C%3A The cambium cell layer,with food from the leaves.

Yes but you can see wound wood is starting to grow at the edge of the lesions which makes me think it is two season old mechanical damage. Whether this has allowed secondary infection by a pathogen is another matter.

On 14/02/2024 at 08:21, Seanp said:

That would be great thanks. 

I'll leave it up on drive for a week or so

1 hour ago, roys said:

Hope you don’t mind me pitching in, trying to understand your system as I am I think wanting to do something similar.

If I understand correctly your original 4kW system is probably 10 to 12 years old and getting a FIT payment. You have since added a 1.8kW system. My question is how have you combined them without affecting your FIT contract but still be grid tied and using the extra energy generated?

Apologies for being nosey but it professional interest and apologies for thread derail.

 

No worries it's not nosey but if it is going to get protracted we should move it to another thread or forum; about two years ago someone here pointed me to camelot-forum.co.uk which I and a couple of former posters here joined.

Because I am in receipt of FIT payments (which have funded my whole original and additional systems) I did not want to compromise my original system, there are ways one is allowed to make additions using a qualified installer but the new plus old system have to be evaluated and approved such that payments are then made pro rata. Far too complicated and I had no roof space left pointing in the same direction. A couple of people on camelot had got around the problem by adding panels only to the DC side of an AC coupled storage (which I had had for a year or so by then) which is completely independent of the FIT system and its generation meter. So autumn 2022 I bought 3 595W panels (which it turns out was not wise for a couple of reasons) and mounted them on a flat roof pointing SE which is 90 degrees from my original SW system. It took me a long time to get them mounted as I needed help from a friend who lives in Spain for lifting stuff two storeys. I bought an expensive victron MPPT charger and spliced in to the positive and negative cables between my AC inverter and battery Jan 2023. It was not without potential problems and most of these turned out not to be real but I did have an unexpected surprise when I connected up which made me stop, it's all on a thread on camelot with my username as here. Not being familiar with DC connections I mistook a spark of inrush current for a fault. It has run flawlessly since but not optimally as power is curtailed in summer.

Because it is a non standard method no electricians are willing to help but I would like to change it around to have a new hybrid inverter and bigger battery and add a few more panels and possibly get a used small EV. Time is passing though and it cannot be worth it for me other than wanting to scratch an itch.

How come "professional " interest? I see another sparky is also on thread.

15 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

 

Nothing really, unless someone strays into CHP!

 

Yes I don't have an EV and am not really interested in export, nor trading power (charging batteries at off-peak to export at peak) etc.  Selfishly I see this at solving someone else's problem and the export prices aren't good enough yet. I'm aiming to have battery simply to keep power back from the average day to cover the average night's usage (or if that's not possible simply reduce winter peak power usage).

 

Me too but it pays my daughter to use the advantageous off peak rate to charge her car and home batteries in winter, from next month she will go essentially off grid for car and home using only solar PV generated electricity. Inevitably she will export and be paid 15p/kWh for it.

2 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

 

I had the PV installed last year and am currently looking at battery systems from Giv energy or My energy.  Yes I am procrastinating about the cost (dropping VAT has helped) but its also quite hard to size the system properly because Octopus havn't installed a smart meter yet (grrr!).

Professionally installed with battery sufficient for storing a winter day's worth of electricity worked out at £2k/kW for her, she is in a particularly good position for Solar PV and produces about 50% more than my similarly sized (4kW original and 1800W DIY addition) in the year. If I were buying again I would have a bigger battery to cover my worst day's demand. I don't see much point going bigger than that because off peak charging covers you for dull days. What is interesting to me is that her Solis hybrid inverter does not allow her to charge to a set % state of charge. The reason this is desirable is that you need to enter the day with enough room in the battery to absorb any solar PV but still have enough to cover the evening demand until the next offpeak slot if it is a dull day.

The economics if you have an EV are something like:-

Peak rate 31p/kWh

Offpeak rate 9p/kWh

Battery amortisation say 7p/kWh

Charge-discharge loses 20%

So using the battery to avoid peak rate costs 9p/.8+7p=18.75p so a saving of 12.25p/kWh by using battery to avoid peak rates.

...and what has this to do with wood burning stoves being banned?

3 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

Ah so the fact its DIY will explains the reduced cost, nice 1.

Yes, my Daughter's mcs installed similar system with a Zappi ev charger came in at £12k 11 months ago. Professional installation has the advantage of reclaiming VAT and allows you to get an export tariff.

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

 

You've got it all mixed up boyo. The increase in forest fires that we're seeing is nothing to do with Climate Change, it's just because of all those pesky arsonists. (Well, that's what I read on here anyway, in relation to the fires in Greece last year).

Well yes it is as it is the slight change in conditions that allows the fires to take off, for whatever way they are started. The world as we knew it was a miracle of circumstances that made it just right.

2 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

 

Interesting.  Are you sure that £6k quote is correct?

 

 

Bear in mind it was a price for parts to DIY and roof mounting adds to the cost, I bought scaffold poles and mounted on them for my recent 1800W

15 410 Canadian Solar  @£78

3 Pylontech 3000c @£975

1 5kWsunsink ecco offgrid/grid inverter @£1,049

=£5144

Personally I would spend a bit extra on 5 MPPT DC chargers and a Victron inverter to avoid chinese stuff phoning home

Also look at this graphic that shows the fall in price of PV and the rise in cost of nuclear

1 minute ago, Steven P said:

 

You got to do the full quote!! In the medium term yes, I think what ever storage there is has to be an energy dense storage. I don't have the figures but reckon that equivalent energy in pumped storage and in Hydrogen, and Hydrogen will take up much less space, just as an example.

Sorry but I was busy replying to other misinformation, we can go into the reasons I do not believe hydrogen production will be viable *in this country* later.

5 hours ago, GarethM said:

 

 

Gas should not be used for power stations, whilst I don't want to lament about the old days as I'm not that old.

 

Gas was almost exclusively heating, burnt at point of use and whilst back boilers were awful, at today's 92+ efficiency Vs a power station that's about 30%.

No gas has been burned in open cycle gas turbines in the past year, we have relied heavily on gas to follow demand using  combined cycle gas turbines which convert 60% of the heat energy into electricity.

Last week we curtailed more wind generated electricity power, which still has to be paid for, than Hinkley point is designed to produce because the grid couldn't cope with it, yet we will have to pay the French government 3 times more for the use of Hinkley point electricity that we currently pay for un subsidised off shore wind (also foreign owned). The subsidies for sizewell will be higher.

20 minutes ago, Steven P said:

My money would be to convert spare electricity to hydrogen generation

I'll beg to disagree with you there, there are many better ways to store excess without the inefficiency in conversions.

2 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

Its a complex problem, but local multiple source of microgeneration and batteries have to be part of the solution. A friend of mine has had a small hydro for 10 years now and doesn't buy any electricity between October and March.  When solar goes in soon, he'll be almost totally off-grid.  Hopefully the cost will come down.

 

The costs of solar PV and batteries has come down a lot recently such that if I wanted to DIY a new installation of 6kW PV panels £1062, 5kW off grid inverter £1049 and 10kWh of battery £2925 plus fittings, total ~£6k  I would have a system better than the 4kW PV I had fitted for £13k 12 years ago. This would supply all the needs of a 3bed household, except heating, for 8 months of the year. Trouble is to connect it to the grid there is the need for another of these gravy trains, MCS but there is an easy work around. Those prices are inclusive of VAT and a qualified electrician  can claim that back and not charge VAT for the whole installation, giving £1000 to offset labour costs. On a similar system that cost £12k by an MCS installer on my daughter's house she ran her EV from March to October too and it is on target to produce 6MWh in a year. She is paid  up to 15p/kW hour for the excess she exports.

For 12 years I have produced more electricity than I used net, for 2 years I have had a battery that has reduced my reliance on the grid to 500kWh/year.With a small few hundred Watt CHP I could cover that with 3 47kg  propane bottles and pay for those with the reduction of standing charges for utilities. I reckon about a quarter of UK houses could do the same.

Here is a graphic of nearly a year record, as I only started it last March, but it shows clearly the hungry period around Xmas where the blue is imports from grid and the yellow showing self consumption plus the red being exports to the grid.

5 hours ago, maybelateron said:

But then should the people who train trainers be trained and qualified to train trainers?

 

Just being an agent provocateur

 

 

Actually that is just how the pyramid of safety selling works, trainer charges trainee, after number of trainings verifier charges trainer, after a number of verifications verifier gets checked. Then once a year all the trainers, assessors, verifiers get charged to attend an update session hosted by the top dogs.

4 hours ago, Doug Tait said:

The good old days, when I was a young brickies labourer everyone on site got glass bottles of juice every day. I'd collect up all the empties (worth 10p or 15p) and every Friday ate for free at the bakers.

In the good old days 60 years ago I collected a crate full of Watneys pale and brown ale bottles after a family party in order to collect the 3d deposit, loaded them on the battlewagon and hauled them in to the jug and bottle kiosk of the local pub. I handed them over to the landlord, Ernie Madder, who took them and refused to pay me my three shillings on the grounds I was under 18 :-(.

I'll see if I can take some photos of the manual if you want? I worry that more modern versions are different.

On 10/02/2024 at 22:53, Seanp said:

Just wondering does anyone know the correct blade to anvil distance on a tp 760 woodchipper.

The manual for my 1980s one shows 0.5-1mm. I used a hacksaw blade thickness but more slop at the outer edge.

19 minutes ago, Steven P said:

the issue is getting smaller over time despite the recent popularity of wood burning stoves

Yes and that is why the contribution from wood burning is becoming a higher proportion of what is overall a smaller amount.

2 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Doubtful, when a particle of PM2.5 is a 2.5micron particle mostly of carbon.

It's 2.5 micron and down and while most of it may be carbon when it is collected on a filter the mass agglomerates and and can be analysed for markers, wood smoke typically has benzo-a-pyrene adsorbed onto the sooty particles amongst other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

1 hour ago, Muddy42 said:

 

True, you could also use a kiln and be there in two weeks.  I prefer a slower process that involves the wood getting rained on outside for a year then brought indoors for a year.  But then I do have lots of space and a telehandler.

 

Why take two weeks? Our kiln dropped 18 tonnes of poplar down below 20% in a 24 hours cycle.

Of course the practicalities are different between cutting and seasoning logs for domestic use from doing the same on a commercial firewood sale but until the moisture content drops below about 20% various microbes in the wood are respiring some of the dry matter in the wood. I surmise the stuff they consume is the  more volatile compound that give a lively flame so this bit is lost over time when logs are stored out  in the round.

Quote

I would love to see some proper scientific analysis of emissions from various logs that had had different treatments.

The concern is about particulates which are Products of Incomplete Combustion I suspect even if you could largely  eliminate these, perhaps with an electrostatic filter, you would still have the smells of wood burning ( which are also PICs but gaseous rather than sooty particles).