we turn our backs for one minute … actually two days (in hobart), but in the context of the seemingly never ending journey to building our own power plant it certainly feels like just a moment. which makes me wonder if we are going to hit the next deadline: the installation of solar panels has…
building a power plant 7.
i know, it should be up and running already. the solar panels and the battery were scheduled to be installed yesterday & the day before and since it’s a sunny day today electricity would be pouring into the system and we could start dreaming about that electric car. but it wasn’t meant to be, and…
building a power plant 6.
it’s a bit slow going at the moment: while there is visible progress, at this stage it seems like there are only a few ribs and bones being added here and there, but you’d have to be a keen observer to spot the additions. on the bright side, it appears to be big enough. if…
building a power plant 5.
it’s the end of week one of seeing our shed rise up. progress was hampered a little bit by a bout of rain today. we only got a few millimeters but i can understand that balancing on top of a wet metal scaffold isn’t a great idea if one wants to be able to turn…
building a power plant 4.
it was a little slow getting to this point but it looks like we’re rolling now. on monday things were still looking a bit unchanged: a slab, by now properly seasoned and literally as hard as stone. bits and pieces made of rolled mild steel, hopefully cut to the appropriate lengths. at this point the…
building a power plant 3.
the foundations have been laid, and today we received the material for the shed. we had warned the company about our driveway; it’s a little steep and it can catch out cars that are not good at maintaining traction on loose ground. i was quite surprised when the truck almost made it up, though, the…
building a power plant 2.
the first step was the levelling and preparing the basis of the slab. that turned out to be already quite a bit more difficult than everyone hoped it would be, mainly due to the number of massive rocks that turned in the area. while that slowed down the work on the slab it supplied the…
building a power plant 1.
when we bought our bush block in st helens we knew it had hundreds of trees, more kunzea that you could wave a torch at, amazing views of the town, the bay and out to sea, and access to the george river. we also knew it had no buildings, no water, no sewer connection and…