".... micromanagement by political entities of technical matters ....."
One example, from very many, was the specification of spacing between transmission towers. What I reckon the boffins should have said was : no, you can't double that distance safely ( and we won't do it ). When the high winds came the inertia of the much longer strings of cables while oscillating pulled the towers over. Once one fell the chain was compromised for more to do likewise more easily. This is akin to a government cabinet meeting dictating that a satellite launch operation use their choice of engine design. But engine design is a key choice to achieve orbit. Or not. They literally have no useful knowledge to make such judgments, either individually or as a group. NOR do they take advice outside of their personal belief bubbles. NOR do they permit any scrutiny, or suggestion of scrutiny, of the boundaries of said individual horizons. Unfortunately this is the level of arrogance currently in play at executive level : a willful disregard of the physical rules applying in this universe.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
This thread is about renewable energy (particularly solar generation) and methods for storing it. If you want to discuss quite unrelated matters, please start your own thread rather than hijacking this one.
I am quite sure that Mike noted your concerns regarding his thread.
Unfortunately this is the level of arrogance currently in play at executive level : a willful disregard of the physical rules applying in this universe.
Ah yes, design by committee. Bean counter rule, engineers get over-ridden by commercial and financial pressures to deliver a product, fit for purpose or not. M$ has good experience of that :-)) It was ever thus.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Other examples - I kid you not - involve deciding upon the current/power ratings of switching devices, including normal vs emergency operating margins. The key impetus seems to have been creating the appearance of proper design, doing it far cheaply than any technical advice would ever validate, and when the S hit the F hiding/deflecting responsibility to save face. In this era of low information voters ( plus public excoriation of possibly useful participants from the 'wrong' social classifications ) all of the above is a doddle for the top echelon. So the dreadful truth is that getting any good transition to new means and models requires reformation, even reconstruction, of public decision processes.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I forgot to mention that I haven't found a well supported figure for how long this new installation will buffer the state when called upon. The kindest I could find was "up to one hour". Alas five minutes, say, lies within the set of time intervals labelled as "up to one hour". I have yet to discover any that use the phrase "at least". :-)))
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
You mention current/power ratings, can I remind you of the debacle that we had in Europe over voltage harmonisation.
The EU said we have too many differing voltages across EU countries of 220v, 230v, 240v and 250v, we need to find a common standard. But politics came into play because to re-design all the electrical and transmission kit would have cost millions. So what did they do? Play with the figures.
The current standards are 230 volts +10% - 6% (ie. between 216.2 volts and 253 volts), and to maintain the frequency at 50Hz ± 1% (ie. between 49Hz and 51Hz) over a 24 hour period.
In other words nothing actually changed for any country, but many Civil Servants got good money for being involved in the negotiations and the final decision.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Back in July, (this previous message), I posted some pretty pictures of some production stats from my then recently installed solar system. It's been chugging along very nicely with increasing daily production as the height of summer here has been approaching and has now just been passed (the longest day - not the hottest day :-) - I'm sure that's still to come in Jan/Feb).
A couple of days ago was cloud free although there was a bit of haze around to diminish the potential output just a little. Still, it's a nice looking curve and very interesting to compare with the one published earlier. There was no office aircon above me, just the fixed refrigeration and hot water appliances that run 24/7, as well as all the non-crunching office computers idling away.
-
-
Notice how much taller and fatter the curve is compared to the screenshot dated 08 July 2017 shown in the previous message. That was just after the shortest day and the full day produced 114kWh which was 27% of that day's full consumption. In the above picture, my farm consumption is considerably higher (more computers and more GPUs) but the solar array managed to produce almost 50% of the total consumption for that day. Of course, some of this was exported (basically my donation back to the State Government) but what I was able to consume did represent 41% of what was needed for the full 24 hours.
I've done a quick calculation for the first 6 months of operation. The array has produced over 30 MWh and at the unit rate I get charged, that represents just over $8,000 worth of electricity. Even though a small amount is being exported and doesn't represent much of a benefit to me, at this rate the system will pay for itself in less than 2.5 years.
Addendum"....
)
Addendum
".... micromanagement by political entities of technical matters ....."
One example, from very many, was the specification of spacing between transmission towers. What I reckon the boffins should have said was : no, you can't double that distance safely ( and we won't do it ). When the high winds came the inertia of the much longer strings of cables while oscillating pulled the towers over. Once one fell the chain was compromised for more to do likewise more easily. This is akin to a government cabinet meeting dictating that a satellite launch operation use their choice of engine design. But engine design is a key choice to achieve orbit. Or not. They literally have no useful knowledge to make such judgments, either individually or as a group. NOR do they take advice outside of their personal belief bubbles. NOR do they permit any scrutiny, or suggestion of scrutiny, of the boundaries of said individual horizons. Unfortunately this is the level of arrogance currently in play at executive level : a willful disregard of the physical rules applying in this universe.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
This thread is about
)
I am quite sure that Mike noted your concerns regarding his thread.
Ah yes, design by committee. Bean counter rule, engineers get over-ridden by commercial and financial pressures to deliver a product, fit for purpose or not. M$ has good experience of that :-)) It was ever thus.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Other examples - I kid you
)
Other examples - I kid you not - involve deciding upon the current/power ratings of switching devices, including normal vs emergency operating margins. The key impetus seems to have been creating the appearance of proper design, doing it far cheaply than any technical advice would ever validate, and when the S hit the F hiding/deflecting responsibility to save face. In this era of low information voters ( plus public excoriation of possibly useful participants from the 'wrong' social classifications ) all of the above is a doddle for the top echelon. So the dreadful truth is that getting any good transition to new means and models requires reformation, even reconstruction, of public decision processes.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I forgot to mention that I haven't found a well supported figure for how long this new installation will buffer the state when called upon. The kindest I could find was "up to one hour". Alas five minutes, say, lies within the set of time intervals labelled as "up to one hour". I have yet to discover any that use the phrase "at least". :-)))
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
You mention current/power
)
You mention current/power ratings, can I remind you of the debacle that we had in Europe over voltage harmonisation.
The EU said we have too many differing voltages across EU countries of 220v, 230v, 240v and 250v, we need to find a common standard. But politics came into play because to re-design all the electrical and transmission kit would have cost millions. So what did they do? Play with the figures.
The current standards are 230 volts +10% - 6% (ie. between 216.2 volts and 253 volts), and to maintain the frequency at 50Hz ± 1% (ie. between 49Hz and 51Hz) over a 24 hour period.
In other words nothing actually changed for any country, but many Civil Servants got good money for being involved in the negotiations and the final decision.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Back in July, (this previous
)
Back in July, (this previous message), I posted some pretty pictures of some production stats from my then recently installed solar system. It's been chugging along very nicely with increasing daily production as the height of summer here has been approaching and has now just been passed (the longest day - not the hottest day :-) - I'm sure that's still to come in Jan/Feb).
A couple of days ago was cloud free although there was a bit of haze around to diminish the potential output just a little. Still, it's a nice looking curve and very interesting to compare with the one published earlier. There was no office aircon above me, just the fixed refrigeration and hot water appliances that run 24/7, as well as all the non-crunching office computers idling away.
-
-
Notice how much taller and fatter the curve is compared to the screenshot dated 08 July 2017 shown in the previous message. That was just after the shortest day and the full day produced 114kWh which was 27% of that day's full consumption. In the above picture, my farm consumption is considerably higher (more computers and more GPUs) but the solar array managed to produce almost 50% of the total consumption for that day. Of course, some of this was exported (basically my donation back to the State Government) but what I was able to consume did represent 41% of what was needed for the full 24 hours.
I've done a quick calculation for the first 6 months of operation. The array has produced over 30 MWh and at the unit rate I get charged, that represents just over $8,000 worth of electricity. Even though a small amount is being exported and doesn't represent much of a benefit to me, at this rate the system will pay for itself in less than 2.5 years.
Cheers,
Gary.