onetrack

It's called a portable diesel generator, when you want backup. The local electrical suppliers use them now for power backups when transformers fail. It's when the backups fail, that the ordure really hits the rotating blades. We had an episode like this when the main Muja (Collie, W.A.) to Kalgoorlie HV transmission line suffered severe damage from a major storm in January 2023. Five large HV pylons fell over during the storm - then the two gas turbine backup generators in Kalgoorlie failed to come on-line during the outage. It took them several days to track down the backup generator problem - and it was simply a problem that no electrical designer had envisaged - zero voltage in the Muja-Kalgoorlie line. The backup generators were designed to actuate with residual voltage in the grid - but there was no residual voltage, so they couldn't crank up. It took about 4 days to track down the problem and bring the gas turbines online, and it took nine days to restore the Muja-Kalgoorlie line. https://www.westernpower.com.au/news/storm-destroyed-transmission-line-rebuilt-and-re-energised/#:~:text=Five towers were destroyed by,owned generator during the rebuild.

American culture is all-pervasive and has infiltrated every country in the world where they've rolled up. They even built a town here in Australia, using all American building standards, power standards (110V power station), and even imported a sizeable number of LHD cars, so they wouldn't be forced to drive those dreadful RHD cars! That town is called Exmouth and if you were silly enough to buy an ex-U.S. Navy-built house in Exmouth, you'll find nothing made to Australian Standards fits! The doors are all 3 feet wide (to accommodate lots of portly Americans, I suppose), the windows are also oddball dimensions, all household fittings, wiring and plumbing is U.S.-made materials, and even the cladding for walls and roof is unknown in Australia! Some of the Americans sold their LHD cars locally when they returned to the U.S., and made a financial killing.

The W.A. Govt is charging ahead and investing in large storage ("grid-scale") batteries, as fast as the manufacturers can supply them, and as fast as State budgeting will allow. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/energy-policy-wa/energy-storage https://www.synergy.net.au/Our-energy/SynergyRED/Large-Scale-Battery-Energy-Storage-Systems

The first 7 years after I left school and living in the city, were spent living in a rented farmhouse in the wheatbelt, where we only had 32V power. We had a stack of 2V lead-acid batteries and a 32V generator run by a single-cylinder, hand cranked, YB model Southern Cross diesel engine. It was no fun cranking up that engine on cold Winter mornings! There was a brass cup inserted upside down into the rocker cover, you filled this brass cup with oil and poured it into the orifice, and the oil ran into the intake and assisted in cold starting. The decompression device was a pin that went under the inlet valve and held it open, and which pin was operated by a lever and rod assembly, which was actuated by turning a pipe sleeve that rotated on the cooling water intake pipe. So you filled the old YB with oil, rotated the sleeve as you slowly cranked the engine, until the inlet valve was held open, then you picked up cranking speed until it felt like your arm would fall off, and then you rotated the decompression sleeve to close the intake valve, and hopefully, she'd fire up! Cold mornings with frost on the ground and thick oil made this a "short straw" job!! The engine was built in the Toowoomba Foundry and I was surprised to see Southern Cross built over 14,000 of them! They were the days when we built good stuff in Australia, designed by Australians! We had also Dunlite Wind Generators, too, they were quite advanced for their time, and large numbers were exported, even to places such as Canada and the U.S.

Michael Leunig, one of Australia's finest cartoonists and poets, has passed away, aged 79. Mr Curly and his ducks have gone home for good. I had the pleasure of going to one of his talks in Perth about 20-odd years ago, he was a gentle soul, and a great observer of human nature. He was declared a National living treasure by the National Trust in 1999. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/australian-cartoonist-michael-leunig-dies/104748614

I got confused for a moment between this John Marsden, and the other John Marsden, the highly promiscuous and abrasive gay lawyer, who's been dead for years.

After further investigation, it appears, yes, you must have electrical installations installed by a licenced electrician, even if they are completely independent of the grid. Australian/NZ Standards apply, and some States have specific requirements that depart from the AS/NZ Standards or override them. There are distinctions between Extra Low Voltage (ELV), Low Voltage (LV) and High Voltage (HV) installations. Even ELV installations require licenced electrical installer oversight. The only exception is 12V and 24V DC wiring.

Willie messaged me, he's just fine, he just cut back on computer time to concentrate on his driveway repairs and other jobs. Oh, course, he's also purchased a couple more trailers to cart stuff around with! 😄

I just had a random thought on Monday evening as I was returning from the Wheatbelt to the City, and driving South down the Tonkin Highway past Ellenbrook, looking at a huge golden sun setting. As I watched the sun sink, I counted up and realised 27,588 sunsets have gone down, since the day I first drew breath. That's a lot of sunsets. I've missed a fair few of them, for various reasons, but I've also seen some pearlers. This is one I took a photo of, in July 2019 - on the coast at Gnaraloo Station in W.A.

It's been a fair while since Williedoo posted. I trust he's O.K.? Maybe he's got caught up with rebuilding his convoluted driveway with all the free giveaways he's been acquiring?

If you set up your own stand-alone electrical system, without any connection to the grid, does it still have to be installed by a licenced electrician?

It was a turbine turning tool manufactured from nylon, especially designed to not cause engine component damage. The maintenance failure was simply one of slack accountability for tools. The advice to leave the tool in the engine intake for the incoming shift was totally wrong, and interfered with tool accountability, which should be paramount at all times. The tool was entrusted to one LAME, and it should've been returned to the tool-issuing dept at the end of the LAME's shift, even if it was immediately required again by the incoming shift. https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/15/tool_found_in_a380_engine/

I'm not buying an EV for at least 3 years, because in 3 years time, the current crop of EV's will look like Model T Fords, such is the rapid pace of EV development.

As plebs, we don't see the regular high pressure lobbying and other corporate pressures applied to our political masters, that sends decision-making skew-whiff, and directed towards favouring the corporates and the super-rich.

There are any amount of renewable energy and energy-storage solutions that the LNP simply ignores, in their quest to keep their fossil fuel mates rolling in money. Heating bricks with solar or wind energy, and then using the stored heat to generate power, is an elegantly simply solution that works admirably. The system uses fire bricks (which are a simple, basic product, that has been in use for thousands of years), to store solar or wind energy by heating the bricks to 1500°C (using electrical heating wiring through the bricks), and the bricks can retain their heat for days, if fully insulated. The heat is recovered using air blown through the bricks, which superheats the air, and the superheated air is then used to generate steam, which can drive generators. The steam can also be used in many industrial processes, thus providing cheap energy for industry. https://rondo.com/how-it-works

I thought that there was no organisation involved with random thoughts? They're just that - random thoughts, out of the blue.

The Libs rolled into Collie in W.A. with their nuclear proposal - despite the fact the LNP nuclear power study done by Frontier Economics, doesn't even mention any possibility of Collie as a site of a nuclear reactor. In the Frontier study, it says both W.A. and the N.T. are too small for nuclear reactors and our power generation systems are too isolated to even consider them as part of any East Coast energy centre. For those on the East Coast, Collie contains W.A.'s only operational coalfield and was the centre of power generation in W.A. for many years. Collie has been downgraded in the power generation stakes in recent years (with gas turbines, wind farms and solar power generation increasing in various areas around the State), and the coalfields and generating plants were sold to private enterprise (with an Indian company being a major investor), and their operations have run at major losses for years - to the point where the W.A. Govt has been bailing the coal power plant operators out. The W.A. Govt is intent on closing all the coal-fired generators, and ceasing coal mining in W.A., and to assist Collie into the renewable power transition, the State Govt has installed some major size, grid storage batteries in Collie. The W.A. Govt is intent on pouring money into Collie to assist in coal-generation employees transitioning over to renewable energy jobs - and Duttons plans got short shrift from Roger Cook, the W.A. Premier. And the local Libs big nuclear presentation in Collie went over like a lead balloon - partly because a survey they claimed to have carried out with locals, no-one knew anything about - and the Libs "core promise" centres around small modular reactors (one of which is now promised for Collie if the LNP is re-elected) - but no SMR has been built anywhere in the world, the technology is still in the "prototype/testing" phase - so the Libs can't even provide any accurate costing on an SMR, because none exist!! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-16/collie-inquiry-into-nuclear-power-generation-in-australia-/104732722

What I find interesting is that the authorities claim that many of the reported drone sightings are actually light aircraft. But there are many that are not. Why haven't aircraft, ATC and radar operators picked up these drones and issued advisory warnings? A number of these reported sightings have been over airfields, and I'd be pretty confident in saying that radar could pick up a flying object that is 8 to 10 feet in diameter.

YouToob is full of news stories and experts on the mystery drones. One police officer in NJ reported he sighted 50 of them coming in from off the ocean. They are well lit, some with multiple-coloured lights, and reported to be 8 to 10 feet in diameter and travelling at an altitude of around 300 feet. The U.S. Coastguard put up one of their drones to try and gain a visual sighting or close-up video to ID the craft - and they reported their investigative drone was left standing by the speed of the mystery drones, which flew off at terrific speed, and virtually vanished. The amazing part to me is how no military jets have been scrambled to intercept the airborne mysteries. Many Governors and people in authority are clamouring for some serious official action to ID the craft.

FUN FACT: Humans are deemed to be deuterostomes, which term means that when the foetus develops in the womb, the anus forms before the mouth, or any other orifice. This basically means that at the earliest part of your development, you were nothing but an arsehole. Unfortunately, some people never develop beyond this stage.

Gee, that socket must be a tight fit on that bolt! - or the car has seen nothing but smooth roads!

A sleep-inducing technique I learnt many years ago involves progressive muscle relaxation - starting with the toes and feet and working upwards. You tense the muscles in the body part for 5 seconds, then relax those muscles totally for 30 seconds. Then go onto the next body part above it, until you reach your neck and head. Of course, it goes without saying that you must shut down and cease watching any screen (phone, computer, TV) for at least an hour before you go to bed. And keep a regular bedtime and wake-up time, the human body likes regular patterns. Never take any electronic item into your bedroom, keep that room a sanctuary of peace, with no electronic intrusion. Light evening meals are also an important feature of getting a good sleep. If the body is trying to digest a big heavy meal while you're trying to get to sleep, it will interfere with the initiation of your sleep. And one thing I find works well for me is complete darkness, with no light intrusion. Serious amounts of light intrusion during the night ruins a good sleep for me. Full moon nights will also play havoc with your sleep pattern. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/relaxation-technique/art-20045368#:~:text=In one type of progressive,work down to your toes.

I'd like to know how the death calculations were arrived at, as the death toll from Chernobyl was kept secret by the Russians,and the total death toll is still unknown. Deaths from Chernobyl would have still been occurring many years after the reactor explosion. And to say an event such as Chernobyl could never happen again is pure folly. On another forum I frequent, there are U.S. nuclear plant workers and the stories they tell of accidents that were never reported, and deaths that were marked down as being from other causes, besides being work-related - even when it was obvious to all the employees, that the deaths were work-related - numbered in the dozens. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190725-will-we-ever-know-chernobyls-true-death-toll

The dangers of nuclear power generation are multiplied to the nth degree over and above the dangers associated with any other current form of power generation. In a steam turbine power plant, the worst that can happen is a steam explosion or a turbine rotational failure, resulting in components being thrown about. In solar power generation, the worst that could happen is a major electrical short circuit. In a wind turbine, it's fire or mechanical failure, resulting in components flying around. In a storage battery, it's internal component shorts that result in a fire. All these things happen on an occasional but steady basis. Mankinds history is littered with errors that turned into disasters. All these above-listed potential accidents could be life threatening to those unfortunate enough to be in the near vicinity of one of these events - but a nuclear accident (and they happen just as easily as other accidents) results in a disaster with massive, long-lasting damage, and danger over a wide area that can't be seen (radioactivity on the loose). No nuclear facility can be made earthquake-proof, totally idiot proof, nor even be protected against enemy attack. We've never had a dedicated enemy attack on a nuclear power station, but a bad actor such as Putin or Kim Jong-il would have no hesitation in mounting an attack on a nuclear energy plant belonging to a nation that they were at war with. Kim especially, is crazy enough to do this. The fact that we even have an organisation calling themselves the Union of Concerned Scientists - who are scientific professionals intent on rigorous scrutiny of proposed major scientific projects around the world - which organisation is seriously against continuing to build nuclear reactors for energy production - should be enough warning to people that nuclear reactors for energy generation carry far more long-lasting safety and health concerns, than any other form of power generation. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/brief-history-nuclear-accidents-worldwide#:~:text=Back to top-,Three Mile Island,How did it happen?

The bloke who did the Nuclear costings for the LNP is Danny Price, a former economist with the NSW Electricity Commission. That's not much of a recommendation - and one even wonders why the NSWEC even had an economist on the payroll? But the bottom line is Danny Price is now a self-professed Energy Guru/Consultant, and makes millions sprouting his ideas to any Govt willing to pay for his opinion - which is exactly what the LNP got - biased opinion. But his LNP Nuclear energy report is so full of holes, it's laughable. He leaves the NT and W.A. right out of any Nuclear policies or plans - knowing full well both States are so isolated, they need to have fully independent energy generation. And of course, anyone with half a brain will quickly understand the economics of stand-alone Nuclear power plants for W.A. and the N.T., simply don't stack up. Both States have a small population and a huge land area to service. So that cans the LNP idea of a Nuclear power plant in every State. Then his report says nothing about large battery developments, and installations. Both W.A. and S.A. have already invested multiple tens of millions in battery storage - and battery development is going ahead in leaps and bounds, and battery costs are steadily decreasing, and will continue to decrease - simply because China is intent on dominating the world battery market, and will make sure battery costs keep coming down. The chances are much higher (than any nuclear option) that most Australian households will end up with home or community batteries in the next decade - because they will be cheap and affordable - and coupled with constantly-increasing rooftop solar, both will greatly reduce the electricity demand from the States grids. This will really kick the arse out of the LNP projections and nuclear dreams - and nothing beats generating power at the spot where it is required. The need for more or upgraded major transmission lines is removed in this future scenario, and the combination of rooftop solar and cheap and affordable home/community batteries, means that energy costs for homeowners will continue to come down. That doesn't even take into account the amount of future State investment in large amounts of battery storage for their grids. There's a great refutation of the LNP "pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye" nuclear dreams, in the Renew Economy article below. Every point they make is telling - especially the ones centred around Nuclear power plant costs, construction time frames, and construction problems. https://reneweconomy.com.au/a-sneak-preview-of-peter-duttons-nuclear-costings/ Here is Danny Prices LNP Nuclear economics article, if you like reading a pile of factually-deficient BS. https://www.frontier-economics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Report-2-Nuclear-power-analysis-Final-STC.pdf One of the important things I've learnt in the 75 years I've been on this planet, is that economists don't live in the real world, and their future projections are invariably so wrong, it's laughable. I'm always reminded of a quote from a book I read many years ago, about economists and their future forecasts for gold. It went, "300 of the worlds leading economists keep telling us that gold is a barbarous relic, and has no part to play in any future world economic system. The problem is, they still have yet to convince 3 billion of the worlds population, that they're right!" 😄