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I’ve recently started planning and designing the low voltage renewable power system for the new house. It will be a little while before I really get a chance to implement the design, with boys taking up most of our spare time, and it will take a little while to settle into the new house. However, I’ve already started making requirements, and I’ve hunted out some components. Some of the initial designs are now in my notebook.

The majority of the system will be controlled by a nice all-in-one control panel, which is designed for a top spec motor home. However I also need an additional Main bus control panel to remotely control the main battery disconnect, and monitor the status of the Main bus. The Main bus will form the heavy current backbone of the system (initially spec’d for bursts of100A), and will provide power to the main panel as well as directly supplying heavy loads such as inverters, heavy pumps or motors. The Main bus should be able to cope with bursts of current up to 100A at 12V from a sudden ~1KW load.

A few of my requirements for the Main bus control panel included:

• A master switch which will remotely connect and disconnect the Battery bus from the Main bus, this will basically switch off everything
• An instant visual indication of the current state of the Main bus (Red light for Main bus power failure)
• A indication that basic verification of Main bus had been confirmed (Green light for system verified)
• A plunger push button to start the Main bus connect, and start Main bus supply verification
• A warning alarm system to alert us of a sudden power failure or a failure with Main bus verification (flashing Amber light with buzzer)
• A parallel switch, for paralleling any auxiliary batteries with the battery bus
• A timer module, which will provide a delay for Main bus verification. This is required to prevent the startup loads causing triggerging a low voltage battery or overcurrent disconnect.

One of my favorite websites for low voltage supplies is www.vehicle-wiring-products.co.uk. On this site I came across the following switch panel:



This fits my needs nicely, and I really do like the big red switch

My initial wiring diagram is included. This may require further tweaking, and I suspect there are a few simplifications possible, but I’ll need to look into these further:



Basic Operation

• Main bus is disconnected from the live Battery bus, the red switch above is down, and no lights are displayed. Everything is disconnected except those on the Hot Battery bus.
• The user lifts the main switch cover up, and lifts the main switch up. Main bus control panel is now live. The RED light will indicate that system Main bus is disconnected.
• The user starts the Main bus connect and verification system by pressing that START switch, at this point the RED light will extinguish, and the the Main bus becomes live.
• During the verification time all connected items will be powered allowing the initial burst of power to stabilize on the Main bus.
• After a 3 seconds the Main bus verification system becomes enabled. If it fails, the RED light will come on and the Alarm will start (flashing Amber light on top with buzzer). If the verification system passes testing, the GREEN light will illuminate to indicate that all systems are running normally.
• If at any time the verification system detects a problem, or the Main bus loses power, the RED light will come on and the Alarm will start.
• The Main bus can be switched off, including verification alarm system by switching off the main switch and by moving its red cover down.
• The parallel switch connects the Hot Battery bus to the auxiliary Hot Battery bus.
• I may add an optional yellow light at some point to provide a visual indication of the 3 second delay between Main bus connect and Main bus verification. Alternatively I may just illuminate both RED and GREEN light together for a short period of time.

As many of you are aware, I am very interested in Eco Gadgets, and I have a few around the kitchen, some of which will be covered in a future posting. However, I was sitting down the other day reading the latest addition of “Clean Slate” the quarterly magazine from the Centre For Alternative Technology when I came across an article about our old friend the Pressure Cooker. My mother had one for years, and we’ve had one since the wedding, but we’ve only occasionally used it for soups and the like. Anyway, designed in 1679 by Denis Papin, it truly is one of the best Eco Gadgets you can have in your kitchen. Since the cooking inside occurs at 125oC at a pressure of 100KPa or 15psi, everything cooks significantly faster. I was also under the impression that everything had to be submerged in water, this is not the case, as little as 300ml of water (barely covering the bottom) can be used to steam pressure cook potatoes and carrots in as little as 4 minutes. Because the energy in the steam is only be lost through the valve and metal chest, most of the energy is being maintained in the chamber, meaning that once pressurized the gas can be dropped down. C.A.T quotes that on average cooking time is reduced by 70%. All the recent versions, of which ours is one, have various safety features, and tools to make cooking easy. For the outset of £50, it could be just the thing. Most come with instructions from cooking Veg, soups, casseroles, and just about anything... Worth checking out! By the way the picture below illustrates last nights cooking of potatoes and carrots, and just like it says on the tin, it took 4 minutes to cook under pressure, and about a minute and a half to achieve pressure. I’m impressed, you can bet my pressure cooker will see more use..... Oh and there’s something exciting about steam under pressure......

Development of my new master control panel which is to be installed in the new house are underway. I've connected up the control panel, switchboard, and the new 16 Amp Charger. Initial testing shows things are all working. I've got various cables, connectors, relays, and bus-bars to obtain before progressing. More on that shortly. Here's my test setup anyway:

Okay for a while now I've been looking into solutions for distribution and control of the 12V electrical system which I plan to install in our new house. The 12V system will be sourced from a new battery bank to be built. My initial estimates this will be around 440 Amp/Hours, in real terms this will give me just over 1KWh of capacity without eating into battery life expectancy. The batteries will all be of the 12V Lead Acid variety, but will be of the boat/caravan type, which are designed for deep discharge when compared with the car variety. The bank will be charged by an array of solar panels and a wind turbine (hopefully!), and if things are bad, a mains charger. I've even got a few ideas for a pedal power generator, and for desperate times, some form of cable which can be hooked up to my car alternator. The resulting output will run the following:

o A mains inverter, which will initially run mains lighting circuits in some parts of the house, and later all parts. All light fittings will be energy efficient and low power.
o Pumps to pump water back and forward from water butts at the front and back of the house. These water buts will form a rain water supply which is additionally pumped up to all WC supplies in the house, and later the supply to the washing machine.
o A 12V DC bus for the sitting room. This means I no longer need an array of 12V transformers for set top boxes, chargers. 12V sockets will be provided for car plug compatible devices which means I can charge phones, run laptops, run mini inverters, and charge household rechargeable batteries.
o Some 12V lighting in certain places in the house were practical.
o 12V supplies for garage lighting and 12V garage supply.

As some of you may already be a aware I have a large control panel in the garage of my existing house. This is very home made looking, and I've been looking for something more professional for fitting inside the new house for control, and monitoring of the majority of the system. The solution is a control panel and remote relay system which is developed by an Italian company CBE, who specialize in controls and panels for large motorhomes. I now have the control panel, and I'm now evaluating the installation design. Here are some pics: