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SteamyTea

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SteamyTea last won the day on November 22

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  1. Welcome. Used to live up your way. Do they have a traffic warden again in St. A now? You will find that the term Eco is rather dismissed on here. Low and extremely low energy is the preferred term.
  2. True, and itching as well.
  3. Definitely, you don't want a live conductor, AC or DC, what you cannot isolate at the source end. Make sure that isolator can handle the DC current. Yes. I am not sure if there should be one before it. Probably does need something to safely isolate it, but the MCB/RCD/RCBO may well do that. What do the regulations say?
  4. Thanks, shall do a bit more digging. Seems it is not a benign mixture when in the atmosphere.
  5. PV modules (the individual cells) are fixed voltage devices, basically diodes), as @JohnMo mentioned earlier, it is the current that varies with light intensity. Modules are tested to a standard format, "The reference condition called standard test conditions (STC) is commonly used and assumes 1000 W/m2 solar irradiance, AM1.5 spectrum, and a cell temperature of 77°F(25°C)" (more here), it is not difficult to exceed those conditions (even in the UK), so a lot easier to put in a safety factor. Putting cables into conduit can affect the amount of current they can carry (similar to passing cables though insulation). There are standards for this as well. DC cables also carry, for a given size, a different amount to AC cables (usually more but not much in this situation, more at higher voltages). On this site, there is no price difference between them.
  6. Yes, do the long runs on the DC side. Ideally you want DC isolators at the panel end, and then depending on inverter, maybe on nearer for convenience. A lot of new inverters have DC isolators built in. An inverter can generate a lot of hot air when running at 100% plus, so if indoors, make sure there is adequate ventilation. AC isolator is usually near the inverter and are nearly always used to isolate before the DC (takes the load of the inverter. As for cabling size, go for minimum of 6mm (even if the panels have 4mm tails). The DC losses (below 2% ideally) will only be a problem when you are generating close to maximum, most of the time you will only be at a small fraction of peak amps. Does depend how long the run is though.
  7. See if you can get the chemical data sheet for the gunk. I fancy a retirement job and setting a machine up and running it for a few hours seems ideal.
  8. Back in the 1980s we used to play a game called 'Plausible Answers'. Should have copyrighted the format. 'the Caspian Sea is 2 foot deep at its widest point' is still my favourite. It is worth asking AI what the rules of 'Mornington Cresent' are, and specially as the rule book was withdrawn in the early 1970s. That was a traumatic day, front page news for 15 minutes.
  9. I trust it as much as Wikipedia, it is OK if you know the answer, but just need a reminder.
  10. So all surfaces get a coating then? The ceiling will have as much on it as the floor.
  11. I think, based on this formula, t=(2h/g)0.5, that better results would happen before plaster boarding. I also think that the higher up the machine outlet is, the longer the latex will stay suspended in the local atmosphere.
  12. As is sciences want, it is not as simple as that. There are polar forces at work also. These can cause molecules to clump together, with H2O molecules forming a tetrahedral shape. This increases the effective surface area, which allows more water molecules to be attracted, it also means that smaller forces per unit of surface area can cause them to move. But I don't think we need to worry about that in a ventillation system. Probably a hole in the wrong place.
  13. I am not sure, but would think, from engineered properties, that the polymers form longer chains, do not need pigments, UV stabilisers, are more flexible and use water as part of the curing, as opposed to just drying. When water based paints dry, the water molecules evaporate, leaving just the base matrix. That matrix, in the case of water resistant coatings, shrinks and replaces the positions that were occupied by water molecules with voids that are smaller than water molecules. That is what makes them water resistant, water cannot get in. How chemists actually create this is a total mystery as they have about 20 words, which they just rearrange into compound nouns, to make things that are incomprehensible.
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