Every
man needs his own shed space and my little abode only measures 12x11 metres
which is close to 100% total R.E. Power.
I have a 15 KVA
Onan genset which has 32 amps 3 phase, 43 amps of single phase and runs on
autogas which can handle all the shed needs. My R.E. battery banks are 700
AH and 550 AH @ 24 volt and the bank of 10 nife batteries supply power for
the lights and stereo. Coupled with the batterybanks are a 3Kw pure sinwave
inverter with a 9Kw, which can handle just about everything bar the air conditioner
and the caddy welder. My Bridgeport Milling
machine was recently converted to a VFD(Variable Frequency Device) and a new
2hp 3 phase motor wired up in delta. I can now run the mill off the inverter
and I found when drilling a 25mm hole using the power feed on the quill only
drew 2 amps. Shortly
I'll be converting the big lathe over aswell and the second VDF will be setup
to use on all the other machinery tosave buying one for each machine. With
the govt talking about carbon credits I can tell them to go jump as my machineshop
will be totally R.E. and I reckon it will one of the few, if any machineshops
running totally off the grid. With a good friend
buying a myford lathe has re-instilled my interest in making attachments for
small lathes following on from my father who used to make them and he left
me all the drawings and some castings/ patterns. The main problem these days
is everything is 'made in China' and offering a locally made quality alternative
could prove very fruitfull.