Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Where abouts in Bedfordshire are you?

Near luton, the farm is near clophill if you know it?

Thanks, looking up those batteries now.

I find not partying saves a lot of energy

I worked in Maulden (LW Vass Agri / Vassgro) a few years back and on a farm just on the Luton side of Houghton Conquest along the A6.. on the left side heading towards Luton

One of my mates moved to houghton Conquest a while ago, nice little place.

How far would the lot be from the main farm electrical source? Maybe just run extension cords and pay the farmer for your minimal use of electricity.

Vida, trust me I will be doing everything I can to get a mains source, this was just for if that wasn't possible.

Katali

I'm going to go way, way out of the box here and suggest a way that you might be able to
accomplish your needs.

If you stretch out 1000m of #18 extention cord and only asked 1 amp from it,
the voltage drop on the wire would be 41 volts. that leaves you with 198 volts at 1 amp.

That's near 200 watts RAIN OR SHINE. Use a grid tie inverter to put the voltage back up to
240V and you have all the power that you need bigger wire= more power.

Just a thought ...Daucie

no way can you run an extension lead 1000m

how much would a 1000m extension lead cost ?

Won't work. The grid tie inverter requires a stable grid to sync to. You can't sync to a grid that's dropped 41 volts.

Hello All

I have to agree whole hartedly with you guys. and I need to consider the possible dangers
that I may put someone in with my weird ideas. And why I used #18 wire as an example???

#10 wire would give 3% voltage drop which would make it legal at that load.

But in my defence, I have acually done that. showed up for work one morning and the foreman
gave me a 3000ft roll of #10 direct burial wire and told me to lay it out from the bosses patio
to the river bank half a mile away, set up some lights But "don't cut that wire."

Well the boss threw one heck of a beach party that night with all the inspectors and bankers
Even the Mayor was there. Next day foreman sent me back to roll the wire up and clean the beach.

The boss told me a month later that he really regreted not having me bury the wire so it would still
be there today.

And the grid tie inverter was totally wrong; a buck-boost transformer would be much better.

Anyway, thank you for guiding me back to earth...Daucie

If you have an extension lead then you don't need a grid tied inverter.

Also you can make your own extension lead from bigger heavier cables. The larger cables reduce the voltage drop.

Essentially an underground power supply is a custom extension lead hard wired into a power supply rather than using plugs.

Extension lead has voltage drop over distance so need something to raise the voltage after extension lead. Hence grid tied inverter.
don't forget also that you are wanting more than just your pump on this set up and the bigger the wattage use the more voltage drop you get plus it all starts to get hot and to much heat means you let the smoke out.

Make your own extension cord? Not in this country ( well not legally any way) not sure in uk.
An electrician can make one but I doubt you will get a registered sparky to make one that long.

Underground cables have also rats of hidden problems. (Once again in this country) must be buried minimum depth (600 mm deep) in a conduit. Don't know what it costs to dig trenches in Uk but here was going to cost $400 to dig 100 meter trench 100 mm wide, at that rate the solar and batteries start to look cheap.
If it is not buried some one will drive over it and your extension cord will be damaged.
Some one else will come along and think their need for the cord is greater than yours and remove a large portion of it.


Remember it's not other people you have to worry about. Once they are dead they can't hurt you. But they're relatives will sue.
It may take a few years, but solar will pay for itself.
Talk to off grid solar experts
They will know how to work out the minimum power needs.
Get a list of all the components they want to use and get them to explain what they do
See if they match other advice
Don't forget to compare apples to apples.
You should be ale to make it work
Good luck
Please don't go the huge extension lead. It's dangerous

Hi Katali
Consider this approach;
Two 110 AH sealed leisure batteries will cost about £180 delivered. ( Google Alpha Batteries)
A solar two stone oxygenator E bay about £20
A back up oxygenator E bay about £15 plus batteries £6
A 150W inverter about £50
A trickle charge solar panel about £20
A battery condition meter about £5 simple traffic light indicators
Get an electrician to run cables with isolators from your car battery to the boot of your car. Connected in parallel with your car battery one leisure battery will charge as you drive. Swap as required.

Titus

Just ask the people next door if they want to be part of the new world order, want educate their kids, like fish, and own a decent extension cord.

After that everything will fall into place.

Aquaponics sells itself.