i have been mainly spending all my money fixing the generator and charge controller.
This sounds interesting. Any more details?
the genny is a chinese copy of a yanmar l100 with a4kw alternator on the end of it.
it first started when i inadvertently put some contaminated red diesel in. had some water in it. i hadn't used the genny for around 6 months. i only use to top up my battery bank. the solar panels have been keeping the panels on float all summer. 3 weeks of Cornish fog dragged them right down.
genny wouldn't start. fitted new pump. still no joy. checked the timing. adjusted by different sized shims. still no joy. took it to a mate as i am in a field and trying to fix it in the rain wasn't getting me anywhere but very wet. he took the head off reground the valves, still no joy. only thing left was the rings being gummed from using veg oil. took it all apart. not easy as we had to dismantle the alternator first. got the piston out. rings stuck to the piston. new rings honed bore. put it all back together. fired up straight away. with his bill plus the parts to worked out about the same as buying a new one. should have asked him for a quote first.
now the charge controller is broken as well. been putting the dump load straight across the batteries flattening them in a couple of hours. i now have them back up to something like a decent charge.
i could have done all myself but was panicking about killing the battery bank. would cost 2 grand to replace that. still done now. must run the genny a bit more to stop it happening again. for the times i use it i will stick to red from now on.
in hindsight spending £500 on more solar would have been better, but a bit late now. never mind its only money.
