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News and Comment May 2023

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9 May - What’s their excuse?

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.

Battery Inverter etcIn 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?


Old Bexley and Sidcup Conservatives out of date websiteWhat is Bexley Conservatives excuse for neglecting their website?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 The current Bonkers page is overlaid on the screen shot to prove that the OBSCA site really is a year out of date.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!

 

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