• Fwd: Backup power supply

    From Lars Poulsen@3:770/3 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Friday, April 05, 2024 14:08:43
    On 15/03/2024 10:51, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    Make that 5 minutes * 500W/5W or 500 minutes which is indeed a
    long time but a lot shorter than the 150 hours you were expecting.

    On 3/15/2024 6:43 AM, druck wrote:
    If you want 150 hours, you need to be looking at a backup generator,
    so your UPS only needs to last as long as it takes for your generator
    to fire up.

    That's usually a couple of minutes for professional diesel ones, but
    as its home setup it might take you a few minutes to connect it up and
    pull the starter cord on a cheap petrol one.

    It might then take a few more minutes to drain the tank of the sludge
    that used to be fuel last time you used it, and to run to the garage
    to get some fresh petrol.

    It might take a few more minutes if your spark plugs have been fouled
    as you didn't clean it after use, and your air filter has a hundred different types of bugs living it.

    So make sure the UPS lasts an hour or 2.

    Oh and once you've managed to get it going, and it's making a
    tremendous racket, just remember everyone else in the neighbourhood
    who is without power will be turning to look in your direction...

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10 seconds.
    When the grid comes back up, it syncs the AC to the grid before pulling
    the relay to reconnect. And every other Wednesday, it tests itself for
    10 minutes, synchronizing before going off-grid as well as before going
    back on-grid.
    In case the muni gas is down, my electrician will come over and install
    the propane conversion kit. (I don't have a good place to keep propane
    tanks.)

    -- Lars

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  • From Richard Falken@1:135/115 to Lars Poulsen on Friday, April 05, 2024 18:46:45
    Re: Fwd: Backup power supply
    By: Lars Poulsen to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Fri Apr 05 2024 02:08 pm

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10 seconds.

    My house is completly offgriddable because it has a 6 kW PV array, a 6kW diesel generator and a battery bank worth 15 kWh (which is way more electricity than my house uses up in a day).

    Switching power sources caries 0 downtime. The controller is automatable.

    I'd argue something like this is the proper way of running an uninterrupted supply of power for home but I also think this is way out of the scope of the discussion. Nobody in their right mind spend 20 kilobucks in a supply system for a computer worth 80 bucks.
    --
    gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (1:135/115)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Lars Poulsen on Saturday, April 06, 2024 09:32:01
    On 05/04/2024 22:08, Lars Poulsen wrote:
    On 15/03/2024 10:51, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
         Make that 5 minutes * 500W/5W or 500 minutes which is indeed a
    long time but a lot shorter than the 150 hours you were expecting.

    On 3/15/2024 6:43 AM, druck wrote:
    If you want 150 hours, you need to be looking at a backup generator,
    so your UPS only needs to last as long as it takes for your generator
    to fire up.

    That's usually a couple of minutes for professional diesel ones, but
    as its home setup it might take you a few minutes to connect it up and pull the starter cord on a cheap petrol one.

    It might then take a few more minutes to drain the tank of the sludge
    that used to be fuel last time you used it, and to run to the garage
    to get some fresh petrol.

    It might take a few more minutes if your spark plugs have been fouled
    as you didn't clean it after use, and your air filter has a hundred different types of bugs living it.

    So make sure the UPS lasts an hour or 2.

    Oh and once you've managed to get it going, and it's making a
    tremendous racket, just remember everyone else in the neighbourhood
    who is without power will be turning to look in your direction...

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10 seconds.
    When the grid comes back up, it syncs the AC to the grid before pulling
    the relay to reconnect. And every other Wednesday, it tests itself for
    10 minutes, synchronizing before going off-grid as well as before going
    back on-grid.
    In case the muni gas is down, my electrician will come over and install
    the propane conversion kit. (I don't have a good place to keep propane tanks.)

    -- Lars

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)

    --
    “Some people like to travel by train because it combines the slowness of
    a car with the cramped public exposure of 
an airplane.”

    Dennis Miller

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Richard Falken on Saturday, April 06, 2024 09:34:38
    On 05/04/2024 06:46, Richard Falken wrote:
    Re: Fwd: Backup power supply
    By: Lars Poulsen to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Fri Apr 05 2024 02:08 pm

    > I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    > installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    > supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10 seconds.

    My house is completly offgriddable because it has a 6 kW PV array, a 6kW diesel
    generator and a battery bank worth 15 kWh (which is way more electricity than my house uses up in a day).

    Switching power sources caries 0 downtime. The controller is automatable.

    I'd argue something like this is the proper way of running an uninterrupted supply of power for home but I also think this is way out of the scope of the discussion. Nobody in their right mind spend 20 kilobucks in a supply system for a computer worth 80 bucks.
    --
    gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken

    It also amuses me how people think that the electricity that powers
    their homes is all the energy footprint they have.

    I wonder how many lumps of coal a typical Raspberry Pi burns in its
    manufacture and shipment.

    Or how much diesel goes into the organic vegetable basket they buy...


    --
    “Some people like to travel by train because it combines the slowness of
    a car with the cramped public exposure of 
an airplane.”

    Dennis Miller

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  • From yeti@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Saturday, April 06, 2024 10:35:03
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> writes:

    It also amuses me how people think that the electricity that powers
    their homes is all the energy footprint they have.

    I wonder how many lumps of coal a typical Raspberry Pi burns in its manufacture and shipment.

    Or how much diesel goes into the organic vegetable basket they buy...

    And how much lemon juice they need per day to stay invisible?

    CNR.

    --
    I do not bite, I just want to play.

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  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Saturday, April 06, 2024 10:35:20
    On Sat, 6 Apr 2024 09:32:01 +0100
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)

    Hmm thorium loaded filament, some technical difficulties just a
    small matter of engineering.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    For forms of government let fools contest
    Whate're is best administered is best - Alexander Pope

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  • From Bob Martin@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Sunday, April 07, 2024 05:51:57
    On 6 Apr 2024 at 08:32:01, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)


    So you finally bought one?
    What did you get?

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  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Sunday, April 07, 2024 17:28:19
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)

    I printed this a few years ago in glow-in-the-dark plastic: http://web.archive.org/web/20170209140207/http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1561276/

    The cooling towers make a handy pen holder at the scale I used. But
    now it looks like the nuclear regulators have caught on and had the
    3D model pulled off Thingiverse! :)

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Bob Martin on Sunday, April 07, 2024 09:55:32
    On 07/04/2024 06:51, Bob Martin wrote:
    On 6 Apr 2024 at 08:32:01, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)


    So you finally bought one?
    What did you get?

    I am awaiting delivery of a Creality K1

    I was attracted by the open source nature of its software, however there
    are an awful lot of knobs to twiddle on the slicers.

    PS Creality's slicer doesn't work on linux. Crashes.


    --
    Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.

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  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to Computer Nerd Kev on Sunday, April 07, 2024 09:23:05
    On 7 Apr 2024 17:28:19 +1000
    Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go
    off grid entirely :-) :-)

    I printed this a few years ago in glow-in-the-dark plastic: http://web.archive.org/web/20170209140207/http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1561276/

    The cooling towers make a handy pen holder at the scale I used. But
    now it looks like the nuclear regulators have caught on and had the
    3D model pulled off Thingiverse! :)

    Yet worse the wayback machine didn't archive the STL (can't say I
    blame them).

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    For forms of government let fools contest
    Whate're is best administered is best - Alexander Pope

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Sunday, April 07, 2024 10:20:39
    On Sun, 7 Apr 2024 09:55:32 +0100
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I was attracted by the open source nature of its software, however there
    are an awful lot of knobs to twiddle on the slicers.

    You will eventually want to come to a deep and meaningful
    understanding of pretty much all of them, but they should have sane
    defaults to get you going, then it's a matter of learning what to tweak to
    fix which defect.

    My upgrade plans got put on hold - and now they're talking about
    the V-Core 4 coming soon.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    For forms of government let fools contest
    Whate're is best administered is best - Alexander Pope

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Sunday, April 07, 2024 10:56:06
    On 07/04/2024 10:20, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    On Sun, 7 Apr 2024 09:55:32 +0100
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I was attracted by the open source nature of its software, however there
    are an awful lot of knobs to twiddle on the slicers.

    You will eventually want to come to a deep and meaningful
    understanding of pretty much all of them,

    I feared as much :-(

    but they should have sane
    defaults to get you going, then it's a matter of learning what to tweak to fix which defect.
    Indeed. I take it that the applied tweaks can be stored both in the
    resultant G code file, fir that specific object, and in terms of a
    generic sort of configuration like
    "Creality-K1-PLA-print-with-deep-overhangs"


    My upgrade plans got put on hold - and now they're talking about
    the V-Core 4 coming soon.


    well it seems to me that rather as with gearheads in music, its more
    important to play the instruments you have than constantly seek to
    acquire better ones.


    --
    Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Monday, April 08, 2024 08:39:33
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 07/04/2024 10:20, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    My upgrade plans got put on hold - and now they're talking about
    the V-Core 4 coming soon.


    well it seems to me that rather as with gearheads in music, its more important to play the instruments you have than constantly seek to
    acquire better ones.

    I sure think so, I'm still using my MakerBot Cupcake CNC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MakerBot#Cupcake_CNC

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:770/3 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Monday, April 08, 2024 13:19:10
    Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
    On 7 Apr 2024 17:28:19 +1000
    Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go
    off grid entirely :-) :-)

    I printed this a few years ago in glow-in-the-dark plastic:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20170209140207/http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1561276/

    The cooling towers make a handy pen holder at the scale I used. But
    now it looks like the nuclear regulators have caught on and had the
    3D model pulled off Thingiverse! :)

    Yet worse the wayback machine didn't archive the STL (can't say I blame them).

    This is why I never delete such files. Here's my copy: https://objectstorage.ap-melbourne-1.oraclecloud.com/n/axqlf7atlxkh/b/attachments/o/nuclearpp.zip

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Lars Poulsen@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 06:15:07
    On 4/6/2024 1:32 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 05/04/2024 22:08, Lars Poulsen wrote:
    On 15/03/2024 10:51, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    ;     Make that 5 minutes * 500W/5W or 500 minutes which is indeed a >>  >> long time but a lot shorter than the 150 hours you were expecting.

    On 3/15/2024 6:43 AM, druck wrote:
    If you want 150 hours, you need to be looking at a backup generator,
    so your UPS only needs to last as long as it takes for your generator
    to fire up.
    ;
    That's usually a couple of minutes for professional diesel ones, but
    as its home setup it might take you a few minutes to connect it up and >>  > pull the starter cord on a cheap petrol one.
    ;
    It might then take a few more minutes to drain the tank of the sludge
    that used to be fuel last time you used it, and to run to the garage
    to get some fresh petrol.
    ;
    It might take a few more minutes if your spark plugs have been fouled
    as you didn't clean it after use, and your air filter has a hundred
    different types of bugs living it.
    ;
    So make sure the UPS lasts an hour or 2.
    ;
    Oh and once you've managed to get it going, and it's making a
    tremendous racket, just remember everyone else in the neighbourhood
    who is without power will be turning to look in your direction...

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10
    seconds. When the grid comes back up, it syncs the AC to the grid
    before pulling the relay to reconnect. And every other Wednesday, it
    tests itself for 10 minutes, synchronizing before going off-grid as
    well as before going back on-grid.
    In case the muni gas is down, my electrician will come over and
    install the propane conversion kit. (I don't have a good place to keep
    propane tanks.)

    -- Lars

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)

    How large is your 3 printer? Do you know of a power generator that fits
    in a cubic foot? (Thermal, maybe? like what NASA uses for inerplanetary probes?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From TimS@3:770/3 to Lars Poulsen on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 14:07:07
    On 10 Apr 2024 at 14:15:07 BST, "Lars Poulsen" <lars@beagle-ears.com> wrote:

    On 4/6/2024 1:32 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 05/04/2024 22:08, Lars Poulsen wrote:
    On 15/03/2024 10:51, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    Make that 5 minutes * 500W/5W or 500 minutes which is indeed a
    long time but a lot shorter than the 150 hours you were expecting.

    On 3/15/2024 6:43 AM, druck wrote:
    If you want 150 hours, you need to be looking at a backup generator,
    so your UPS only needs to last as long as it takes for your generator >>> > to fire up.

    That's usually a couple of minutes for professional diesel ones, but
    as its home setup it might take you a few minutes to connect it up and >>> > pull the starter cord on a cheap petrol one.

    It might then take a few more minutes to drain the tank of the sludge >>> > that used to be fuel last time you used it, and to run to the garage
    to get some fresh petrol.

    It might take a few more minutes if your spark plugs have been fouled >>> > as you didn't clean it after use, and your air filter has a hundred
    different types of bugs living it.

    So make sure the UPS lasts an hour or 2.

    Oh and once you've managed to get it going, and it's making a
    tremendous racket, just remember everyone else in the neighbourhood
    who is without power will be turning to look in your direction...

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10
    seconds. When the grid comes back up, it syncs the AC to the grid
    before pulling the relay to reconnect. And every other Wednesday, it
    tests itself for 10 minutes, synchronizing before going off-grid as
    well as before going back on-grid.
    In case the muni gas is down, my electrician will come over and
    install the propane conversion kit. (I don't have a good place to keep
    propane tanks.)

    -- Lars

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off
    grid entirely :-) :-)

    How large is your 3 printer? Do you know of a power generator that fits
    in a cubic foot? (Thermal, maybe? like what NASA uses for inerplanetary probes?)

    Only if your printer can print plutonium-238.

    --
    Tim

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Lars Poulsen on Thursday, April 11, 2024 10:48:00
    On 10/04/2024 14:15, Lars Poulsen wrote:
    On 4/6/2024 1:32 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 05/04/2024 22:08, Lars Poulsen wrote:
    On 15/03/2024 10:51, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    ;     Make that 5 minutes * 500W/5W or 500 minutes which is indeed a >>>  >> long time but a lot shorter than the 150 hours you were expecting.

    On 3/15/2024 6:43 AM, druck wrote:
    If you want 150 hours, you need to be looking at a backup generator, >>>  > so your UPS only needs to last as long as it takes for your generator >>>  > to fire up.
    ;
    That's usually a couple of minutes for professional diesel ones, but >>>  > as its home setup it might take you a few minutes to connect it up
    and
    pull the starter cord on a cheap petrol one.
    ;
    It might then take a few more minutes to drain the tank of the sludge >>>  > that used to be fuel last time you used it, and to run to the garage >>>  > to get some fresh petrol.
    ;
    It might take a few more minutes if your spark plugs have been fouled >>>  > as you didn't clean it after use, and your air filter has a hundred
    different types of bugs living it.
    ;
    So make sure the UPS lasts an hour or 2.
    ;
    Oh and once you've managed to get it going, and it's making a
    tremendous racket, just remember everyone else in the neighbourhood
    who is without power will be turning to look in your direction...

    I read this and feel first-world superiority for having last year
    installed a 14kW Generac system, powered by our municipal natural gas
    supply. In case of a power outage, it kicks in within about 10
    seconds. When the grid comes back up, it syncs the AC to the grid
    before pulling the relay to reconnect. And every other Wednesday, it
    tests itself for 10 minutes, synchronizing before going off-grid as
    well as before going back on-grid.
    In case the muni gas is down, my electrician will come over and
    install the propane conversion kit. (I don't have a good place to
    keep propane tanks.)

    -- Lars

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go
    off grid entirely :-) :-)

    How large is your 3 printer? Do you know of a power generator that fits
    in a cubic foot? (Thermal, maybe? like what NASA uses for inerplanetary probes?)

    Actually a sort of cast iron range stove filled with decay products that
    would do about 20kW thermal, and boil enough water for a 20KW steam
    turbine style alternator would be ideal.

    I could feed the grid with surplus power.....


    --
    I was brought up to believe that you should never give offence if you
    can avoid it; the new culture tells us you should always take offence if
    you can. There are now experts in the art of taking offence, indeed
    whole academic subjects, such as 'gender studies', devoted to it.

    Sir Roger Scruton

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    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to TimS on Thursday, April 11, 2024 10:53:27
    On 10/04/2024 15:07, TimS wrote:
    On 10 Apr 2024 at 14:15:07 BST, "Lars Poulsen" <lars@beagle-ears.com> wrote:

    On 4/6/2024 1:32 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    On 05/04/2024 22:08, Lars Poulsen wrote:

    I think I will print a small nuclear reactor on my 3D printer and go off >>> grid entirely :-) :-)

    How large is your 3 printer? Do you know of a power generator that fits
    in a cubic foot? (Thermal, maybe? like what NASA uses for inerplanetary
    probes?)

    Only if your printer can print plutonium-238.

    Any inkjet can print *that*, but as Shakespeare's Hotspur says 'does it
    then go critical...?'




    --------------------
    William Shakespeare
    “I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come, when you do call for them?”

    ― William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1

    --
    I was brought up to believe that you should never give offence if you
    can avoid it; the new culture tells us you should always take offence if
    you can. There are now experts in the art of taking offence, indeed
    whole academic subjects, such as 'gender studies', devoted to it.

    Sir Roger Scruton

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