I was going to try to complete one project a month, but I've hit setbacks.
May included a family holiday and all the preparation that that entails. This was hampered by the illness of a family member. That this was the family CAT makes no real difference, as I'm sure I don't need to tell any pet owners, although it's sure to bring about puzzlement from non-pet owners (and those with dogs to some extent). So, all good intentions for May went out the window.
Onto June.
Following a post on here about one's instalations being legible and easy to follow, I realised that mine perhaps wasn't. It was neat and tidy, but bore no labeling.
Dymo in hand I set about changing this and now it's well labled but looks a bit like something out of a fairly advanced kindergarten school; eg FAN, FUSE BOX, DUMP LOAD etc. A bit ridiculous, but I now know I could confidently give someone instructions over the phone which would be more accurate than "No, the bit under the square bit with the red leads on!....what do you mean it's all black and crispy?!"
Next, I decided to tidy up the temporary wiring that runs down the garden from the mill as it's messy and been there for a year. I bought some PVC tubing sold as over-flow pipe, and I've run the cable through this....
It's not the best protection of cable, but it makes it easily visible and less likey to be cut with a spade. I'm a little concerned that it's not quite high enough gauge, but then I do need a line resistance near the battery so can afford a bit of cable loss instead.
The joint you see there is a take-off for a garden light. I'm using the normal live and neutral to carry the turbine output, and the earth will be 12v, regulated and switched coming back to the light.
This is my light
It's fitted with a 50W capsule bulb, that is WAY over the top and made the system sweat a bit on it's brief hook-up. I decided to replace it with one of those 21LED MR16 reflector bulbs, mainly because it was the same pins and an easy fit.
Unfortunately, this points upwards and doesn't give out much light; it obviously needed a reflector. So I came up with this made of aluminium foil...
I molded it around that ball to give it that shape. This then sits in the top of my lamp with the ball bit pointing downwards and the MR16 bulbs shines up at it which disperses the light outwards.
I was surprised at the amount of light that comes out of it. The foil "globe" shines and looks just like a regular tungsten bulb through the frosted glass, I was pleased that something so simple worked so effectively. I'll be looking for other places where I can work this the same way.
Thanks for sticking with it if you got this far.
