Category Archives: House Renovations

Family Life, House Renovations

We have gone solar …

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After receiving a power bill of $1400 three months ago, $400 more than our normal $1000 bill, it was time to look at alternatives.

Without going primitive, the only viable option was solar.

We have been looking at it for a while but it always seemed too expensive. But with most things, over time the prices do eventually come down and now was the time to take the plunge but I am sure it will be even cheaper in the future.

So after looking at a number of different options – Chinese vs German vs Italian inverters, Chinese vs German vs Canadian panels – it was decided to go for a German Sunny Boy inverter and Canadian Solar panels. Then what size system and this was a matter of matching available funds against available systems and ended up with a 4 kW system.

Today was installation day and of course it was cloudy.

The installation team started at 8:00 am and had it all finished and connected by 11:30 am.

Even with the clouds, It was putting out enough to turn the electricity meter backwards – haven’t seen that before. 🙂

At the time of writing, we have generated 8 kW in 5 hours and that is with cloud cover so cant wait until the sun comes out. 🙂

Panels ready to go up ...
Empty Roof
Northern array going down
Northern array finished
Old meter and new inverter
Its going backwards ...
All finished
Western array
Northern array

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12 of 12, Family Life, Geocaching, Home Life, House Renovations

December 12 of 12 – nearly forgot …

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If it hadn’t been for a tweat from Mundoo, I would have forgotten that today was the 12th of the month.

Today was a cruisy sort of day. Had to drop off Bradley at a friends house at Flagstaff Hill. This gave me a chance to grab a couple of caches and at the same time hide a Gnome from the GeGnome Project. The GeGnome Project is a Geocaching Australia caching game where 217 garden gnomes have been hidden around Australia and for the months of December and January get moved around by geocachers.

One of the Gnomes (Firesafe Hoe) I have hidden has travelled so far from Port Lincoln to Melbourne to Los Angeles to Memphis so is leading the ladder for distance. I hope he makes it back to Australia.

I have been out of action walking wise for a couple of weeks now due to a bad case of gout. Yes I have heard it all – getting old, drinking too much, etc., etc. It may be the old bit but not the drinking bit as I have been on call most of the last two weeks.

Today was the first day I have felt like walking so I decided to go for a walk in the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park to grab a cache – Marri Track.

Back home and the deck is now finished around the pool so I had the pool fence to go back up. I was ably supervised by our dog, Molly, although I think she was more interested in the birds and other dogs making noise around the neighbourhood.

Yesterday I attended a Pathtag Swap Meet which meant that I had about 50 pathtags to log today as well.

BBQ with family friends for tea, then once it got dark, time for our Xmas lights to spring to life. We then dropped Bradley off at his friends for a sleepover and took the girls Xmas Light spotting. The most impressive ones were behind the BP at O’Halloran Hill.

So ends the 12 of 12 for December. 🙂

Nomad Gnome being hidden
Walking to a cache
Cache found
Pathtags to log ...
Deck Finished - time for the fence
Site Supervisor Molly
Fence up
BBQ Tea
Our lights going
Lights at O\'Halloran Hill
Lights at O\'Halloran Hill
Lights at O\'Halloran Hill

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Family Life, Home Life, House Renovations

Birds in the attic …

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Was heading home from work last night when Jenny rang through saying there were no lights in the house with the RCD tripping and not going back on when reset.

We knew that we had some young birds in the roof space. We thought there was 1 or 2 birds in there. This is the second year they have been there but they were no trouble last year. The original plan was to let then grow and leave the roof as they had before.

This year was to be different. When I got home, I checked the attic and found where they had chewed through a Gyprock panel creating a hole 500mm x 100mm. Not only that I counted 3 young birds.

It was then time to start lifting off roofing iron to see what else they had been chewing. I removed 5m of roofing, to find about 20m of wires and 2 light fittings chewed to death.

The hardest part then was to find an electrician who would do the job. Many I rang told me Xmas time so it was a phone call to a family friend who hasn’t quite retired yet and three hours later at 9pm, the wires had been replaced.

Today was spent putting the roof back on after bird proofing it. Just after I got the roof back on, the parents tried to get back in but thankfully the bird proofing worked.

In the end, I found 6 young birds which have now been relocated to our local Fauna Rescue person who already is hand rearing 7 parrots. The birds were Crimson Rosella’s.

There are 2 in there ...
Wire Damage
The whole family ...
Six in total ...

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