So I have managed to save my whole neighborhood with reverse Karma

[Mick D]

Yeah yeah... a couple of blackouts.... lost two freezer contents, twice. Inconvenience was the least. .. fired all of the light globes and sockets out of the ceiling in one event.... yada yada yada..

So I  knew if I bought this aldi genny that it would be cheaper and less way less inconvenience in the long run..... drag it out. Fuel it.. run it... drain it every few months... just like tonight... so when no shit happens? Reverse Karma .... dont forget to think.... thanks mick

[Butcher]

it constantly amazes me how people whinge about how messed up the world is, but wont do anything to help themselves. I bought a little genny that will run my fridge, freezer and tv all at once. Cost $400 . I always leave fuel near it. The down side is the mrs comes down to my shed every blackout...... 

[Mick D]

   Well that's right Geoff.... lots to be happy about...lot's of good things have happened in sheds too   

[pokey]

I bought ALDI’s solar panels. Not worth a pinch of goat poo.
 Lost power tonight so I unfolded the panels and not a damn spark, nuttin
.Moonlight, sunlight its still in the sky I thought.  Someone should put that on the instructions.
Maybe I should have bought the genny.

[jimg1au]

unless you have an off the grid solar system or a battery set up panels wont help in a blackout its the way they are wired need the grid to work

[fred99999au]

Did you have them aldi panels the right way facing up, Pokey? Maybe they were upside down and you were getting earthlight instead of sunlight?

[Colin Jay]

I bought ALDI’s solar panels. Not worth a pinch of goat poo.
 Lost power tonight so I unfolded the panels and not a damn spark, nuttin
.Moonlight, sunlight its still in the sky I thought.  Someone should put that on the instructions.
Maybe I should have bought the genny.

What you need is a really big generator and a whole heap of Mega watt floodlights to shine on the solar panels. That should make them generate enough power to power a 60 bulb in the house.

[Wasp]

How about using Aldi fans blowing  on to  a wind turbine , Colin ?     Jokes aside , I did play with that a few years ago . Bought a 10 KVA  3 phase . First black out I eagerly turned it on . The Plasma TV started smoking and a few other appliances as well . Had to replace all the power supplies in the TV , motherboard in the fridge etc . I learned that not all genis are compatible . LOL. Since then a mate offered me one of those big enclosed units at a good price with low hours ,  powered by a 35 HP Diesel  delivering a steady 12 KW/H per phase . Took a bit of sorting ,(3 way switch set up )  but now it works nice and com s  on automatically  . Just have to remember to start it up once a month . I thought of connecting it to a battery trickler first , but I think starting up monthly , is good for the engine as well .

[sleepy]

Last storm season had to use the old Honda 3.8kv genny for 1.5 days before power came back, at some stage I noticed the lights looked a bit bright so got out the trusty multimeter and found she was pushing out 280 Volts. Was able to wind down motor spedd and got it back to about 245 v but the frequency was only about 45hz which was not good. Didn't blow anything up but must have come close.
Bought a new voltage regulator from china for $10 as the OEM part was $400. Fitted it the other day when the storms took out a big chunk of Bris but only getting 110volts. Took the whole genny to the local repair shop and was told the reg was good but the windings in the stator were stuffed.
Cut a long story short the repair guy told me to steer clear of inverter style gen's unless top of the line "pure sin wave" as the basic inverter ones will take out electronics. His recommendation was to just get an older style alternator type which produce quite clean 240v 50hz power. I bought a cheap 5kv thing that the chinese are proud to call it a Honda copy. I should give it a test run before the next power out to see what it will happily run. It would be nice to have a big 3 phase job to run the workshop but atleast with a single phase I can run lights and keep the computer on.

[pokey]

I wasnt getting any juice out of the panels so I decided to read the instructions. I read tand followed it to the letter.

They said to angle the panels to the sun for best efficiency.
 Now I seen that ol sun  dip below the horizon  a few hours before so I figured it would be in about the 7.30 position so I faced them that way. Not a thing.

[fred99999au]

bloody chinese instructions , translated through swahili and arabic on the way to english. Actually, at that time of night, the panels would have worked in China. Maybe needed longer wires?

[Matador107]

Any old low capacity 2-3.5 kva generator is ok to run a house fridge and a freezer generally. Get one started , let it settle for a while then get the other one on line. If you want to boil a jug then unplug the fridges etc. Average jug is around 1700 watts plus.

Dirty power and non stable frequency ( plus / minus 50 Hz ) will stuff a modern tv or computer.Buy a UPS from an electronics joint say Jaycar about 500 va or watts . This will accept the dirty power clean it up to run sensitive gear.Do not plug in any fridges or jugs , not enough capacity .

They contain a 12 volt dc battery , rectifier charger and inverter to output 240 v ac.
You will need this to run your phone via the NBN setup when it arrives as no 240 , no phone.

[Colin Jay]

How about using Aldi fans blowing  on to  a wind turbine , Colin ?     Jokes aside , I did play with that a few years ago . Bought a 10 KVA  3 phase . First black out I eagerly turned it on . The Plasma TV started smoking and a few other appliances as well . Had to replace all the power supplies in the TV , motherboard in the fridge etc . I learned that not all genis are compatible . LOL. Since then a mate offered me one of those big enclosed units at a good price with low hours ,  powered by a 35 HP Diesel  delivering a steady 12 KW/H per phase . Took a bit of sorting ,(3 way switch set up )  but now it works nice and com s  on automatically  . Just have to remember to start it up once a month . I thought of connecting it to a battery trickler first , but I think starting up monthly , is good for the engine as well .

We tried that with K-Mart fans Walter but couldn't get enough fans to make enough wind to move the WTG rotor which weighed over 47 tonne.

While working on the wind farms as a High Voltage Operator, part of our maintenance routines was to start up the emergency generators at the substations and let them run for at least 1 hour. The hard part was putting enough load onto the generator, as running them without load isn't that good for the diesel prime mover. The last substation that I operated actually had an Auto-Run program that would start the generator at 0800 on the second Tuesday of the month and have it run for 1 hour.

[80-85 husky]

ol  mate many years ago up on the atherton tableland area decided that he could help the family save $$ by wiring the genny into the power box (this is a nowitall 15 y/o), gave the genny a start and out on the road was huge flash and a bang as the transformer blew up!!
the power co sent a man out and when he said WTF happened here?? ol mate says "big storm last nite, lightning hit it " and the powerman said "bullshit, i live 5k's down the road...no storm here!"

there was some trouble apparently

[shelpi]

weve been on stand alone for 16 years, just done an upgrade last year, all good and highly recommend, we are very lucky to have a mad scientist, mate and solar pioneer, wouldn't trust anyone else as there are plenty of horror stories fly by nighters selling shit component and putting together shit systems, the price has come down a lot, can jump on the Tig whilst in the upper limits of the bell curve, can run the refridge a/c in cloud     lifes good