Happy Xmas everyone, I am pleased to say that the crazy contraption seems to be working very well, I finished labeling all the electrical stuff today and screwed the lids on the boxes and declared it a job finally finished ( well for now anyway ). I am on a plane to New Zealand on new years day to see how life is out there for a while so I hope it is reliable as my Dad is no electrician ( well nor am I really, I am a joiner by trade ).
When I am not busy packing I will post the final pics, all that I have to do now is write an instruction manual and wiring diagram!!
Many thanks to everyone who posted their thoughts, especially to Guy Dewdney for letting us have a look at his setup and sharing his knowledge and experience with us.
I would love to have tried to get the system hooked up to an inverter / battery setup to run the house but time and money have ran out for now and it will be a good test of the mechanical side of things to see how it goes over the next few months doing the heating, I will put up some updates as and when they occur. Since the last post we have put 2 more 3 phase immersions in the DHW tanks and built a controller that prioritises them in the order that we want using thermostats to operate relays, this means that the load is always just one immersion or the dump load if they are all hot ( this will never happen, the last immersion tank has a thermostat controlled circulation pump which swithes on when that tank gets hot and heats a bathroom floor as another dump load), we even have some led's in the kitchen that tell us whats happening!!Anyway, I better get packing, lots to do.
Have a great new year and best wishes for 2011,
Rob
