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Thread: Your honest opinion please

  1. #31

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Thanks Murf, It's pretty easy to see I'm out of depth. I'm only a limited budget, I've got one chance and only one of getting this right.

    Dave

  2. #32

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    from Honda site

    The EU10i is the first generator of its size to feature a microcomputer-controlled sinewave inverter that guarantees commercial-quality electricity – making it ideal for use with frequency sensitive electrical equipment such as computers.

    it is that quiet and easy to start that you would use it when ever you wanted

    seriously would be worth the look

    cheers Murf

  3. #33

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Quote Originally Posted by Reel Nauti View Post
    Thanks Murf, It's pretty easy to see I'm out of depth. I'm only a limited budget, I've got one chance and only one of getting this right.

    Dave
    I am hearing you mate, I run on a disability pension with a missus and two teen kids, I know how tight money can be

    I do honestly believe the Honda will serve you well and be worth the investment

    I have wasted money and countless hours on cheaper versions, not much of a problem for me as I can fix most things being an eleco that has worked for 20years as a fault finding repair and maintenance person underground but still not needed at times when I should have been relaxing and fishing

    cheers Murf

  4. #34

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    This is an interesting exercise but I am becoming lost in the range of choices.

    If your cooking is by gas and fire, that is one problem sorted out.

    If you already have a lap top, that would be easy to run on 12 volt supply from a deep cycle battery charged by a solar panel.

    30 watt panels cost $359 (from Whitworths) and a good deep cycle should be less than $200. With a 30 watt panel a voltage regulator will not be required and will easily charge up the battery/batteries for running a laptop plus lights and charging of a mobile phone.

    The freezer is the difficult bit. Would the gennie you have been offered be okay to run your freezer? It would also serve as a backup in case of extended bad weather.

    Can you do without a freezer and go back to the real old days and use an evaporative type of storage cabinet?

    My choice for an extended stay would be a gas fridge/freezer (but they cost about $1200) and a 9kg bottle should keep it going for three weeks. Couple that with a solar panel/deep cycle battery and you're set. Doesn't help the budget though.

    Will you be going back to the mainland periodically for supplies? I guess you must be planning for that if you are counting on gas for cooking.

  5. #35

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    I missed the bit about the drill. We have a couple of old 12 volt drills which were kept when their batteries died. Chuck the batteries and attach leads (a couple of metres should be sufficient) and, when needed, hook the leads up to a 12 volt battery. They work like a charm.

  6. #36

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    On a slightly brighter note (well, in one way it is) your plans and preparations might be putting you ahead of the pack.

    I lean towards sympathy for those who think that we all need an option for survival if things break down in society but have always been too lazy to put much thought into it let alone actual preparation.

    Some take the idea seriously and stockpile all sorts of things. In the USA they go so far as to stockpile not only food but guns and ammunition. That's a little too far out for me.

    However, I have begun to stockpile the more important things - coffee, beer making supplies and tobacco. So far I have about one years worth stored here and there.

    My half thought out 'bug out' plan is to go to the boat which is well equipped for long term use. Solar, batteries and gas equipment are on board for normal one to two week fishing trips but they could easily cope for months.

    Financial survival is another matter but normal choice (for me) has that covered with cash investments bolstered by precious metals in the bank's safety deposit vault. I have had 'paper' precious metal certificates in the past but now prefer the physical metal in lieu of paper promises.

    I don't really think that any of it is necessary but who knows?

    By reading all sorts of economic and financial analysis, news and opinions from around the world, the downturn that began in late 2007 did not catch me by surprise. In among all the reading, one naturally comes across some very extreme views and I have tended to laugh at almost all of them.

    But just recently I am beginning to take some of them a little more seriously because even some staid analysis is giving hints that we are in for a very rocky road ahead and the idea of social unrest is no longer being laughed at.

    A lot of focus is shifting to the September/October time frame - and not just because those were the danger months in 2007 and 2008. This is something new and the word 're-set' keeps popping up more and more. Not at frantic levels yet but increasing all the same. The re-set alludes to a new monetary paradigm which you would expect to come about over a long time period but some are now considering that it might be an event brought on suddenly and within a few months.

    I won't bore you with the history, stories and undercurrents of unrest in the system as it is now but fiat money is all that most have known since 1971 and many do not appreciate just how false it is. Fiat has been around longer than that but it's final separation from anything real happened in 1971. Thank you President Nixon!

    Debt levels around the world are enormous - so large that quite a few countries could default. Unemployment is rising just about everywhere, oil is running out, population is still increasing and there are many 'rogue' states capable of causing dislocation of financial systems by methods which could include chucking nuclear devices all over the place.

    Some preparation at the individual level might be a good idea and a well set up camp on an uninhabited island could make many of us very envious.

  7. #37

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Quote Originally Posted by Reel Nauti View Post
    For all the years we've gone camping rigged up lighting to a standard 12v car battery. We've done it without any need for charging for 3 weeks. Will that do, with an invertor, to run the puter? Thanks for your help with this FNQ. My lighting etc is all from the battery. Small fluoro's. Cooking and kettles etc is gas and fire. It's the freezer power I'm concerned with, and of course charging the batt, which I could do from swapping the batt with the one in the boat and charging from the outboard? 2007 40hp 4stoke Yammie. This time is a bit differnt though as I'm looking at months instead of weeks.

    Dave
    yes an inverter will run the computer just the same as at home, strictly you may not need sine wave either as a run of themill modified sine wave may do it without fault but the sine wave is a certainty.

    Blackouts up here have been common place over time and I have a fairly big (1200watt+)run of the mill inverter (not sine wave) with good heavy duty connections to the battery I can run the TV all electronics in the entertainment system, PVRs, DVD player, TV, surround sound by just that alone but with a practiced start up routine. The Desktop computer runs very happily with it also so they do work but buying from somewhere like dick smith then testing to take back if it doesn't do the job is the go.

    I also found that this my smart battery charger when camping doesn't like my generators power supply it's an inverter gennie, it would cahrge but no push the full volts it does on mains. IMO take along a large sized basic battery charger (just in case) over the smart ones, they are cheap in comparison as a bonus.

    Outside of this the only thing you need to find out is if the cheap gennie will run the freezer...again nail this down with the seller, if they know what they are talking about they will guarantee the usage for you, if they are talking rubbish then they cannot complain you are taking it back after testing as the deal was agreed before hand.

    IMHO with a little research a $300 gennie and a $300 inverter is all you may need to spend.

    cheers fnq



  8. #38

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Thank you all. I'm doing a lot of research on this, and very soon I'm going to have to make a decision. I'll let you know what the outcome is. In the meantime, I'm in the process of converting a 50ltr keg for boiling seawater to make fresh. I'll have a good set up if I can everything right.

    Dave

  9. #39

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    200lt plastic drums with water run off from roof of your shelter, filter if you want

    cheers Murf

  10. #40

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Yes that's an option too mate, though not much rain about in the CQ area at this time of the year. Closer to Christmas there'd be heaps.

    Dave

  11. #41

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    G'day Dave.

    If I was you I would make contact with then go and see Derek Bester at ARB - Sidewinder. http://www.sidewinder.com.au/

    I have spoken to him in the past and this guy knows power systems like no-one I know and his knowledge for your situation will be invaluable. I believe he will give you the best advice available.

    Cheers and all the best.


    Derek

  12. #42

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Well, after a lot of mucking around, hounding people with questions, and researching, I've bought myself a gennie. It's not new, but the owner reckons it starts first pull and has been used twice a year for short periods since new. It's a Honda G200 genuine 5HP 2KVA made in Japan. It's just a basic gennie with no bells and whistles, but for $250 I'm happy! I pick it up this afternoon or tomorrow morning. It was an Ebay thriller for me, and it turns out it is only 5 mins away from my home here at Petrie. Now the search begins for the little freezer, which I think will be a lot easier to find then a decent gennie.

    Thanks everyone for all of your help and input and for your patience with me. I'll report on the freezer when I get one soon, and then a trial period here at home before I set off.

    A million thanks to you all

    Dave

  13. #43

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Other than wishing you all the best I just want to say that having mobile coverage is not neccessarily a good indicator of having realiable wireless broadband. I live in a urban area and find my wireless broadband very unreliabale (Actually its crap), even though I can have good mobile covereage. There are many "holes" in the coverage despite those nice looking "coverage maps" on the various websites...I can drive 100 meteres up the road and get more realiable coverage, I live in a hole. But me thinks you need to be connected to the net so you can keep talking to us and we can keep and eye on you .... I use Virginbroadband but would most likley rec. Telstra (Which I have been told is slower but has somewhat better covereage, but if you check the blogs there are lot of unhappy campers out there).

    Good luck

  14. #44

    Re: Your honest opinion please

    Nauti, just found this thread mate , sorry to hear about your situation mate, I am a cq boy myself mate and I feel for you. I hope your choosing the right island for your set up and wont cop any grief from the gov depts etc.
    Some good fishin in store in the next couple of months mate !
    I am an auto elec by trade and probably would have leaned towards the batteries/ inverter/ solar panels set up myself at least for the computer !

    Good luck mate !!

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