Appliances of Science

Thursday 1 December 2011

Shrimpy finally returned from his epic journey to the UK with a number of new and exciting appliances for us.  

Dave had decided that we should increase our solar energy collection, but as our existing panels were end-of-line specials, they are only 175 Watt.  Similar panels now (barely a year later) are 190 to 230 Watt, and nearly half the price.  Adding a more powerful panel to a lower wattage system reduces the efficiency of the new panel, so Dave thought we should duplicate our system – new panels (on order), new batteries (arrived today), new regulator and inverter;  and use the new system to take some of the load off our existing system, particularly the toilet.

We have a theory that if we didn’t have the compost toilet, we would probably be generating enough energy for our needs – on sunny days, at least.  But because the toilet tries to heat the room if the temperature falls, and runs fans and heaters pretty constantly, it is draining our power every day.  We don’t now get through the night without running out of electricity.  We have torches everywhere on standby.  So if the new system handles just the toilet, we will find out if the rest is manageable.  All this is useful info for planning the system the house will eventually need.  We are undecided whether the house will have a compost toilet or a soakaway – it may be that the compost toilet is not suitable for an off-grid system (or at least, not a small one).

Shrimpy also brought the new cooker, which - to gasps of amazement – exactly fitted the space cut out of the worktop in the camper.  It fitted it even better than the old cooker that it was cut for, as Dave had over-cut the back by about 3 centimetres.  But this one slotted in to a perfect fit.  Just doesn’t happen!

And, of course, the twin tub.  Taa - rah!

Meanwhile, the cats were edging closer to their doom ...