Winter is most definitely on the way, slight frost on the car this morning, and the weather station run by the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group showing a significant dip last night, though it was colder on Sunday night. Strangely though, I’m looking forward to getting a nice fire going on our new stove. And seeing how well it can heat the sitting room and the rest of the house.

I finished off the rewiring i mentioned in a previous post.  This was mostly just a tidy up of the cables around the inverter. The inverter itself is an older model Powermaster PM-1500SL-24, however the battery charging circuit generates terrible Radio Frequency interference. This means that the shortwave bands are completely obliterated when charging is taking place (from either solar or mains/generator power), so I leave the inverter off unless I need it. I use a Steca PR3030 and two 80watt panels, facing roughly South, to keep the battery bank topped up.

I have tested the system it by running the central heating, fridge-freezer and chest freezer off the inverter for a few hours, but I must give it a more thorough test at some stage in the near future.  The batteries are no longer new and, should there be a power cut, I’d better be able to keep the TV running or the boss will not be pleased!