Why I am building a "cheater" R65

[Justin B.]

Looking back over last year my highest output for one day was around 60 kWh.  That was last April.  Funny thing being as the longer sun exposure of summer actually reduces the output as the panels don't generate as much when it gets hot.

We just bought some off-grid land up in the mountains and will be putting a few panels on a cabin after I get it done - nothing as elaborate as yours but not grid-tied.  Probably only a few hundred watts, some deep-cycle AGM batteries, and a pure sine wave inverter.

[skippyc]

For the Aussies, I am with Click energy in Victoria and I get a paying price of 80c a Kw. I have a 2.2Kw system which I have had since 2010. I have not paid a bill since. But gas is costing to much in winter.
I am going to miss this price when it expire in the future.

[Tony Smith]

For the Aussies, I am with Click energy in Victoria and I get a paying price of 80c a Kw. I have a 2.2Kw system which I have had since 2010. I have not paid a bill since. But gas is costing to much in winter.

And I was envious of the early adopters in QLD who get $0.48 kw/h feed-in tariff. Mind you, the rules under which they got that mean that they cannot expand their system or add batteries without reverting the $0.12 that we will get.

Funnily enough it was the price of gas that set me on this path. In 20 years our gas consumption has actually declined somewhat (I playfully suggested it is because we don't have showers together anymore which resulted in a spousal arched eyebrow) but our gas bills have gone from around $40 a quarter in 1999 to around $250 now.

Am in the process of installing a "heat-pump" HWS which will be on a time switch so it only draw power during the day.

[Ed Miller]

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My pistons are starting to look kind of worn...  Like, can't see the markings any more.  I don't know how long they last.  Mine are at about 110,000 miles.  But if I decide I need new ones, I'll check the price for stock BMW and probably get that kit.  Did you get new rods too?

[Tony Smith]

Did you get new rods too?

No. I think the standard rods are beautiful pieces of engineering and I'd only replace them if I win lotto and have access to a time machine and decide to go racing.

Seriously, at normal, non-racing revs the stock rods will last a thousand years. If I was feeling energetic  I might polish them for something to do, but in the knowledge that it will not change anything, just give me a warm feeling in conversations where I can say "I've got polished rods you know".

The one and only reason I can think of to remove the rods when fitting new pistons and barrels  is to balance them along with the piston. BUT. To do this means buying 4 new big end bolts.

At high mileage I might also think about renewing the main and big end bearings (very poor practice to only change big end), perhaps new small ends might also be required, and a new oil pump. - the preceding in addition to the standard renewal of old high-mileage engines of such things as chains, cam sprocket, rocket bearings, valves (and seats), all seals etc.

BMW engines are extraordinarily long-lived, but nothing lasts forever.

[Tony Smith]

But gas is costing to much in winter.

Domestic heating isn't so much an issue in FNQ as it is where you are (we have not taken the electric heaters out of hibernation for at least 5 years) but until yesterday we used gas for hot water and cooking.

The "instantaneous" hot water service used a LOT of gas, so much so that our quarterly bill for gas was approaching $260, then there was a yearly "facility fee" of $80. The thing that REALLY irritated me was that the gas company we were with was selling gas overseas  for around $0.44 per litre but was charging us $2.59 per litre delivered into our bottles.

On Monday our plumber installed a lovely new Steibel Eltron 222 litre heat-pump hot water system. In view of the fact we live in the tropics I bought the model that does not have an electrical booster element which means that the thing draws a maximum of 2.3amps which is pretty damm good.

Best of all it has a a signal terminal that can be connected to the Solar battery management system so it will only turn on when the PV panels are "active" - that saved me installing a time switch.

Went with a heat pump rather than a solar HWS because I need every square metre of roof for PV panels - besides if the sun doesn't shine for a few days, say after one of our all too frequent cyclones, I can run the HSW from the genset, can't do that with a solar HWS.

And yes, the feed-in tariff is a sore point - we were initially offered $0.10 Kw/Hr which is nothing short of pathetic. Then when the electricity supplier got our connection application they realized that a relatively big system was going in so quick as a flash they want to install a box to over-ride the export limiter on the inverter and draw additional power from us if needed. My response was that at $0.10c Kw/Hr they could get well stuffed! I've since sent them a letter saying they can shove their 5KwHr export limited feed-in too and we will not export power at all unless it is at the prevailing "spot rate". We won't get that, but if we did it would be nice as the spot rate today (for example) is currently sitting at $4.80Kw/Hr (It has gone as high as $90.00Kw/Hr a couple of years ago when there was a bit of a power shortage in QLD).