Dose's Sometimes DIY and Pay Someone Home & Boat Improvement Thread

[No Crust Racing]

I'm hopeful of a new Silvia/something similar. 

With he success of the 86, Toyota's willingness to allow another Supra to be released, even if it is a BMW, and the ever increasing interest in old Nissan's, I'm hoping Nissan does "something" in the RWD 4cyl space. to compliment the 400z. 

 

[No Crust Racing]

I just bought 20 used Tigo optimisers for $16.25ea delivered, see how that goes with the shading on my off grid system. The on-grid system will benefit from a tree removal when it's dry enough for me to get the 4wd in there safely to assist.

I'm getting slammed by shade all round. 

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Nice man, hope that helps!

I really liked the idea of microinverters but reality is, I have no need for them as my roof is flat and there's no shading at all!

This solar shit is pretty interesting ay? more fun than playing with broken Nissans.

[No Crust Racing]

Dollar vs gain for microinverters is still a ways off IMO. Especially when you can get decent strong inverters so cheap, ew or used. Takes a very specific install to warrant them. 

I wouldn't have bought these optimisers either if they weren't cheap AF. 


 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Not bad, but looks like I'll struggle to crack 20kWh in winter 

[No Crust Racing]

Boohoo... 

My graph stops at the apex, and just drops away to almost zero as the shade hits 1 single panel on my old grid system with a single tracker... 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 06/07/2021 at 9:08 AM, ActionDan said:

Boohoo... 

My graph stops at the apex, and just drops away to almost zero as the shade hits 1 single panel on my old grid system with a single tracker... 

hopefully the optimisers do something, if not time to look on aliexpress for micro inverters haha

[No Crust Racing]

Microinverters won't get me anything extra above optimisers in my setup. This is retro fit, I already have inverters in place, I don't need to convert to AC at the panel. I just have shade issues in winter. 

Optimisers will help that on the off grid system, cutting down the stupid tree above the grid system will sort that one lol 

At the moment, if nothing else, I am off peak all the time as I can fill the battery overnight. 

 

 

[GTSBoy]

On 7/6/2021 at 9:50 AM, ActionDan said:

cutting down the stupid tree above the grid system will sort that one lol 

I have spent >10 years cursing the massive eucalypt that shades my array in the afternoon, but it would be a seriously f**ked up world where tress get cut down to increase yield on a solar array. No?

[No Crust Racing]

Mine is a 4mt tall scrubby wattyl piece of shit right on the embankment above the shed, it can go. That's all that's shading my on grid system, but it's a single tracker so on an old Kaco so 1 panel is enough to gut the output to 10%. 

The big euc's that shade the off grid array at various times, and our pool (filling it with leaves and seed pods constantly!) stay lol 

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 06/07/2021 at 11:19 AM, GTSBoy said:

but it would be a seriously f**ked up world where tress get cut down to increase yield on a solar array. No?

I don't see any issue, if that means less fossil fuels are burnt and factoring in transmission losses, etc. even more unnecessary fossil fuels are burnt & CO2 is released. Council would argue otherwise though, if we were powered by nuclear then yes cutting down 1x tree is bad, but we are burning rocks.

 

On 06/07/2021 at 11:32 AM, ActionDan said:

The big euc's that shade the off grid array at various times, and our pool (filling it with leaves and seed pods constantly!) stay lol 

Fire wood lol

[GTSBoy]

Chopping established trees is about more than the carbon balance. This one tree feeds an enormous number of rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, and lots of other birds that eat the blossom or live off the insects. Recently the flying foxes are eating there too. The possums that live there are semi-welcome, if they learn to stay out of the roof!

Habitat loss in the suburbs is a terrible thing. I'm lucky. I live in what amounts to parkland - there's thousands of such trees around me. And I still wouldn't cut that tree down to improve my solar yield. In other suburban areas, such as the sprawling urban wastelands of Sydney and Melbourne, every large tree should be considered sacred. They are the last shreds of the ecosystems that used to cover the whole area and are tiny little islands of life in a concrete and bitumen wasteland.

On top of that, I would rather have that tree for the shade that it casts on the house, which makes the place more pleasant on hot summer days. I'd hate to have bare brick walls (and the parts of the roof not covered in panels) facing the NW sun. I shudder every time I see those horrendous 2 storey McMansions with no eaves and massive walls facing W and N (or worse, massive windows facing W and N!).

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 06/07/2021 at 12:18 PM, GTSBoy said:

Chopping established trees is about more than the carbon balance. This one tree feeds an enormous number of rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, and lots of other birds that eat the blossom or live off the insects. Recently the flying foxes are eating there too. The possums that live there are semi-welcome, if they learn to stay out of the roof!

if you put it that way probably not, how about a slight haircut?

[No Crust Racing]

Agreed, the big trees around the house are essential the wildlife here, I moved out of town to be closer to nature among other things. 

But that Wattyl... can eat a dick. 

[GTSBoy]

On 7/6/2021 at 11:50 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

how about a slight haircut?

Acceptable.

On 7/6/2021 at 12:43 PM, ActionDan said:

But that Wattyl... can eat a dick.

I'm actually with you there. f**king Acacias. They only live 10 years then they sucker all over the bloody place anyway. Take it down knowing full well that it won't take long to replace it with something else.

[No Crust Racing]

They were completely surrounding my water tanks up the hill, if there was a fire we'd have no water 0_0

Had fun clearing those. 

I discovered the limb dropping is due to birds eating grubs from out of the wood. 

 

[mr_rbman]

On 7/5/2021 at 9:40 AM, DaymoR32 said:

would be great if there was a newer nissan you could buy the bits from. i need the whole AC assembly apart from the bit under the dash essentially. im looking at a fortune if i want AC back in my car (which i do)

yup, been piecing my a/c componentry together for a couple of years and only half mine was missing...

...All because the owner before me decided to cut lines pulling the motor instead of disconnecting 🙄

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 06/07/2021 at 3:28 PM, mr_rbman said:

..All because the owner before me decided to cut lines pulling the motor instead of disconnecting 🙄

this reminds me of my old 180SX, sold it to a chic, who then sold it back to a friend of mine, who then decided to remove the A/C by just using tin snips on the condenser pipe work and the compressor pipework.

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Tempted to angle my panels slightly up, this would theoretically increase my yield. However will the gains be worth more than the initial cost, even after 3 to 4 years? Probably not.

In other not so interesting news, rather boring. My block has been machined, cleaned and ready to go. Head has been skimmed, all the usual shit done to it and valve clearances being set for the brap sticks. This time being a RWD block, with an even larger sump I suspect we might not have any more oil supply and drainage issues.

[No Crust Racing]

You can DIY a tilt adjustment easily enough.

I have a big set of adjustable aluminium legs sitting in my shed doing nothing, kept them for the materials alone. 

I didn't need them as my roof pitch is bang on for my locale. 

Also these babies arrived.