The equipment supplied and knowledge of the people in the organisation supplying the electrical system seems to be excellent . . . however . . . I have paid in advance approx. 90% of the total costs of the system in order to be able to pick up the equipment but they seem to think that it is then acceptable to say "We have been terribly busy with new projects and haven't had time to complete your circuit diagrams"!!!
I don't care if mine is "only" a $20,000 project - I know what would have happened to my business if I had put some body's work aside to talk to new customers. We always did warranty (fortunately very seldom), regular customers, occasional customers and new work in that order.
Never the less "do what can be done" so - the batteries to be installed . . .
I originally intended to install them in the side bays below the doors as those bins would be the least convenient for every day use (which didn't matter as far as the batteries were concerned as they don't need to be accessed at regular intervals) but these bins proved to be awkward to reach into to secure and connect the batteries once they were installed.
So I decided to sacrifice the space under the table which is part of the limited internally accessible storage. The compensation for this is that I would not need to make table as easily movable as first thought.
I decided to reinforce the floor with another layer of 18mm thick plywood to help distribute the load so this was first glued and screwed down over the original sheet.
The batteries were then tried in several configurations to determine the best positioning. When being charged at full rate the batteries tend to heat up and expand and in order to dissipate the heat they need air flow all around so it is important to have gaps in between.
I prefer non-metallic things around when dealing with batteries for all the obvious reasons so a wooden "egg-crate" system was constructed to hold each battery in position with gaps all round.
In order to protect the batteries from any unevenness either in their construction or my floor a layer of 16mm high density foam was placed underneath all of them and series of strap guides and retainers screwed down to the crate system and a ratchet tensioner fed under each loop and over the battery and finally a block of foam placed between the top of each battery and the strap led back over the top holding it all in place and tensioned up.
This seems to work quite well and the batteries have not moved in subsequent testing so all seemed well enough to finish installing them all.
I don't wish to get excited too soon however as while demonstrating the air conditioner to an interested spectator during the week I was appalled to hear them ask "What's all that water running down the inside?"
You may remember that the whole air conditioner installation is not exactly as I had hoped it would be and that I decided to re-route the condensation drain to prevent it running down the outside of the body from the dinky little outlet provided on the front face.
Well it appears that this is not functioning correctly so out with the air conditioner to correct the problem.
This required dismantling the unit and drying out all the electrics.
I am also going to put in a single new drain hose with no joins while I am at it and ensure that the new hose routing will not cause kinks or constrictions.
While I am at it I am going to fit some foam gap sealing blocks to ensure there are no extraneous air leaks. I found one earlier where the cool outlet air was leaking straight back into the inlet side and I suspect a few more given the convoluted nature of the air path.
From this photo you can imagine how with the unit in place the air is conducted back over the top of the unit and up through the hollow wall. All the gaps need sealing for it to work at maximum efficiency.
So while waiting for cupboards and drawings there is still more than enough to keep me busy full time . . .
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