I have alluded several times to neglecting Bexley-is-Bonkers
while I tackle a DIY job that turned out to be rather bigger than I expected. It began last
summer at the height of the electricity price scares when I contracted an electrician to install
household battery storage. To cut a long story short they left it unable to charge from the grid
on the overnight cheap rate or with the promised control by mobile app. I have kept a
count of their promises to fix it and the number of failures to show is close to
20. Even when I got the thing working after a fashion it did not meet the specification which
was submitted before ordering . It became obvious that I knew far
more about battery systems than the so called professional installer.
In
a moment of exasperation, and with the contractors blessing who agreed to check
over the new installation and take back the useless inverter, I decided to
replace pretty much everything he had installed with something better and
inevitably rather a lot more expensive.
While I was busy working on it
Councillor Sally Hinkley dropped by and
christened it ‘Malcolm’s Power Station’ so it now bears a suitable label.
Now that I can store the solar generated electricity costs have fallen
to around 70 pence most days - including standing charge, water heating and some
car charging - but I still doubt it will earn its money back in any reasonable
time. Over time it changed from a money saving project to a determination to
install a good system whatever it cost.
It automatically switches the house to battery power in the event of a power cut
which was not on the agenda with the original system. But enough of that, I
think I have an excuse for neglecting Bonkers. Will I ever catch up
with reporting Council meetings?
What
is Bexley Conservatives excuse for neglecting their website? No idea but it has not been updated
for more than a year.
What have Councillors Kurtis Christoforides and Cameron Smith done to deserve
being persona non-grata? What is Val Clark doing there?
Click image for a more expansive view and see that
Adam Wildman is still a
vacancy. The current Bonkers page is overlaid on the screen shot to
prove that the OBSCA site really is a year out of date.
I expect to completely finish the electrical project next weekend. There is
quite a lot of tidying up to do including filling in the cable trench across the
patio. Essential and maybe one of the reasons for my electrician being reluctant to do his job properly.
He put in none of the stuff shown in Photo 2. No isolators and no fuses on the
battery line which could reach more than 200 amps. Beware of cowboys!