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Post by meandog on Oct 7, 2006 6:41:39 GMT 12
This thread is for posting your questions or suggestions here for others to help in the ultimate great achievement. There is so much money we can save ourselves by doing the projects ourselves and also a great feeling of satisfaction on completion.
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Post by mpg1 on Oct 7, 2006 10:12:33 GMT 12
Awesome idea, meandog. Are you in the industry and our go-to guy for all things DIY? I've been looking at the whole off-grid power/hot water generation thing lately. Plenty of options and it's interesting and a head-spinner at the same time. Have correspoded with a number of very clever Kiwi's with their own ingenious ways to tackle micro-power generation. Still plenty to learn though. Desperately hoping to not need the grid connection, ever.
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Manukarose
Administrator
Honorary Founding Member
Posts: 1,175
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Post by Manukarose on Oct 7, 2006 11:16:19 GMT 12
Your threads are awesome meandog ... keep them coming. At this rate we will put an awful lot of high profile magazines out of biz!
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Post by meandog on Oct 7, 2006 11:16:22 GMT 12
I have done quite a bit of DIY but have not ventured past installing a power point, any other sort of power installation I have had to call in the experts. LOL. Ya can't see that stuff coming to jump out of the road.LOL
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 7, 2006 21:14:03 GMT 12
Awesome idea, meandog. Are you in the industry and our go-to guy for all things DIY? I've been looking at the whole off-grid power/hot water generation thing lately. Plenty of options and it's interesting and a head-spinner at the same time. Have correspoded with a number of very clever Kiwi's with their own ingenious ways to tackle micro-power generation. Still plenty to learn though. Desperately hoping to not need the grid connection, ever. Don't you have a power connection? How do you get power? We are thinking of slowly getting of the grid, or even feed into the grid. I have asked the power company and they said it would be possible but they don't like it. Especially when they do maintenance work and someone is feeding power!
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 7, 2006 21:15:09 GMT 12
Your threads are awesome meandog ... keep them coming. At this rate we will put an awful lot of high profile magazines out of biz! Yes it's more fun than Nz Woman's Weekly
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Post by mpg1 on Oct 7, 2006 22:04:32 GMT 12
Awesome idea, meandog. Are you in the industry and our go-to guy for all things DIY? I've been looking at the whole off-grid power/hot water generation thing lately. Plenty of options and it's interesting and a head-spinner at the same time. Have correspoded with a number of very clever Kiwi's with their own ingenious ways to tackle micro-power generation. Still plenty to learn though. Desperately hoping to not need the grid connection, ever. Don't you have a power connection? How do you get power? We are thinking of slowly getting of the grid, or even feed into the grid. I have asked the power company and they said it would be possible but they don't like it. Especially when they do maintenance work and someone is feeding power! In auckland, yes. Elsewhere no and the price for such has motivated the search for ways to stay off it.
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Post by mpg1 on Oct 7, 2006 22:09:00 GMT 12
I have done quite a bit of DIY but have not ventured past installing a power point, any other sort of power installation I have had to call in the experts. LOL. Ya can't see that stuff coming to jump out of the road.LOL so true!
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 9, 2006 8:21:29 GMT 12
Don't you have a power connection? How do you get power? We are thinking of slowly getting of the grid, or even feed into the grid. I have asked the power company and they said it would be possible but they don't like it. Especially when they do maintenance work and someone is feeding power! In auckland, yes. Elsewhere no and the price for such has motivated the search for ways to stay off it. Good idea. I support that. We try to go this way too.
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 9, 2006 8:24:42 GMT 12
We have a friend who is electrician. He came to our place a few weeks back and showed us the latest light developments. They are made from several leds and use hardly any electricity but are quite bright. We have a small batch in the back of our property and are thinking about a solar panel which would feed into a car battery and we would run the lights of this. Any suggestion of a good solar panel? Do you know good brands?
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Post by meandog on Oct 9, 2006 9:33:59 GMT 12
Don't know which ones are the best but Dick smith sells them. One thing to be aware of is any children throwing stuff that might break the pane. Much more expensive to repair than a window. Some people use these to charge the auxilary battery for their burglar alarm, as theives quite often go to beach houses and turn the power off then come back a week later when the battery is flat and break in.
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 9, 2006 9:41:32 GMT 12
Don't know which ones are the best but Dick smith sells them. One thing to be aware of is any children throwing stuff that might break the pane. Much more expensive to repair than a window. Some people use these to charge the auxilary battery for their burglar alarm, as theives quite often go to beach houses and turn the power off then come back a week later when the battery is flat and break in. Thanks meandog for those thoughts. Also, I wonder what happens when someone has their electricity meter outside. Can they be switched off and a burglar could get inside without triggering the burglar alarm? Or are they somehow secure and can't be switched off easily?
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Post by meandog on Oct 9, 2006 9:52:36 GMT 12
Most meters are easy to get into if they are on the outside of the building. They are only made of tin sheet. Thats where the burglars head for to turn off the power. If I was building a new premises I would have the power isolating switch and fuses inside and only the meters out side that way one has got one over the crims.
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 9, 2006 10:09:45 GMT 12
Most meters are easy to get into if they are on the outside of the building. They are only made of tin sheet. Thats where the burglars head for to turn off the power. If I was building a new premises I would have the power isolating switch and fuses inside and only the meters out side that way one has got one over the crims. I wonder why do they still install them the other way? (...somewhere I have read that burglars have an average yearly income from around $16500 - not much really, but maybe it is a supplement to the income they get for free and they can sleep in during the day and get the rest at night!)
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Post by meandog on Oct 9, 2006 19:45:34 GMT 12
This is what can be achieved with a bit of time. I had no toilet for a month so I was the boss of the bucket brigade. The following pics are before and after.
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Post by meandog on Oct 9, 2006 19:49:07 GMT 12
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Post by meandog on Oct 9, 2006 19:53:32 GMT 12
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Post by ivyplus on Oct 9, 2006 19:59:55 GMT 12
Wow! Very well done!!! It looks really great. Do you want a job at our place? Oasis seems to have not enough time to do up our toilet (I think I should go an hide ..... I can already hear him coming!)
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Post by OasisNZ on Oct 9, 2006 20:15:18 GMT 12
Hahaha, gggrrrrrrrrrrrr, just let me finish one blardy job at a time wouldya!
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Post by meandog on Oct 10, 2006 6:41:48 GMT 12
If one notes the old toilet bowl has sagged in the kiln when fired. The top of the bowl was 20mm lower one side to the other so the seat had heaps of washers to pack it up level. Just another penny pinching thing I found done by the previous owner.
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