What the heck is all this?

[Mattb4]

Over time my ventures into solar/backup power has led to some unusual setups. Couple that with the free form nature of my place here and it suddenly struck me that when I die, and a stranger comes to takeover the place, they will utter the Title to this thread.

25 years back I bought undeveloped property in a rural area with no building codes or restrictions. Getting grid electricity involved paying the electric Co-op to place a few poles, string wires, hang a transformer and hookup to a meter panel and disconnect I built and supplied. Everything after that I wired and changed as years, buildings were added, backup power was planned for and crazy schemes were hatched. In the process of building I always tried to keep to safe and good practices even though there was no inspector standing over my shoulder. But there was never any plan beyond the immediate although I did leave potential upgrade options as I went.

Last few years solar was introduced and now it is being integrated and it adds to the overall complexity.

Just standing back and thinking I may not be around to point out where every wire terminates and why. Where cable is buried. What the meaning of the setup is and why you need to follow a sequence when going from one use case to another (like you must turn off this before you turn on that. SCC and hybrid inverters have this situation but so do some of my manual transfer switches and breaker setups.)

Makes me think I should write up a manual and draw up a layout of everything. I could maybe do the manual but my drawing skills are pitiful.

How many alternative energy folks have their setups all documented and operating manual devised?

 

[HRTKD]

My dad did all the work at a 2000 sq ft cabin that had zero documentation/labeling. There was a panel on the wall with switches, lights and gauges. I asked what it was and he looked at me like I was stupid. "It's the water pump system," he said. Sheesh, how the heck was I supposed to know that? Not one bit of labeling. The entire house was like that. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC. It was a mess. An electrician was up there to help clean things up and I asked how much to put it to code. He guessed $12k.

If he had died before selling the cabin, the plan was to blow it up. No insurance claim. Just blow it up and start over. Fortunately, we found some one (poor soul) to buy it.

 

[Lilikoi_Heavy_Industries]

A line drawing of the system and quickly writing down each operation that you do and under which circumstances you do it would probably be the minimum, but I don't know what kind of designs or operations you're needing to explain.

I am pretty much the offgrid caretaker where I live now. Many people who post on this site probably are also. Not just power, also water catchment, water pumping/pressure, hot water, refrigeration, internet... All need to be maintained for a modern experience living offgrid.

The DC+Solar power system here was done to code and simple enough, it was a pleasure to work with high quality disconnects, proper grounding, etc. honestly. It goes to hell after leaving the inverter, there was no AC breaker for the inverter, just a panel that distributed AC to multiple buildings! The AC side is NOT SIMPLE enough, I have disabled a couple circuits because they have shorts that need to be followed up on. I might bring in troubleshooting assistance. For example, there's no labeling of which wires or circuits go to which buildings (I know how to toner/probe but it's not that high priority so far).

 

[mvonw]

We'll all be flying around in rocket cars by then.

 

[houseofancients]

Over time my ventures into solar/backup power has led to some unusual setups. Couple that with the free form nature of my place here and it suddenly struck me that when I die, and a stranger comes to takeover the place, they will utter the Title to this thread.

25 years back I bought undeveloped property in a rural area with no building codes or restrictions. Getting grid electricity involved paying the electric Co-op to place a few poles, string wires, hang a transformer and hookup to a meter panel and disconnect I built and supplied. Everything after that I wired and changed as years, buildings were added, backup power was planned for and crazy schemes were hatched. In the process of building I always tried to keep to safe and good practices even though there was no inspector standing over my shoulder. But there was never any plan beyond the immediate although I did leave potential upgrade options as I went.

Last few years solar was introduced and now it is being integrated and it adds to the overall complexity.

Just standing back and thinking I may not be around to point out where every wire terminates and why. Where cable is buried. What the meaning of the setup is and why you need to follow a sequence when going from one use case to another (like you must turn off this before you turn on that. SCC and hybrid inverters have this situation but so do some of my manual transfer switches and breaker setups.)

Makes me think I should write up a manual and draw up a layout of everything. I could maybe do the manual but my drawing skills are pitiful.

How many alternative energy folks have there setups all documented and operating manual devised?

yeah, when we did a full rebuild of our current home, i thought about "what if one day a tree crosses the road exactly when i'm driving there.?" and knowing my wife, this would lead of total chaos and mayhem.
comming from IT , i started planning my new electrics in visio.
turns out that visio came in real handy when the electrian needed to do his work, plus at time when i was abroad for work and stuff failed, even the wife could find her way around.
saved me a bunch of money in labor time, prevented me buy stuff i didnt need, and in turn also gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling of contempess.

it will take you a bunch of time, but still highly recommend it

 

[houseofancients]

you could start making some drawing on the website draw.io.
it's a freeware visio alternative, you can also download it as a stand alone software

 

[Bluedog225]

Sharpie and masking tape is (a lot) better than nothing. Or write on the wall.

 

[Mattb4]

Hmm... printing out some instructions and laminating them before attaching near a component is a great idea. Thanks.

 

[45North]

Or at least start by labelling all the circuits by writing in the breaker box and making labels to hang on any other unidentified wires.
Then at least someone troubleshooting will have half a chance.
And have some flashlights on hand too!

 

[OzSolar]

I've lost count of the times I've mumbled disparaging things about the last guy (aka "hack") who worked on the thing I was working only to remember I was the last guy. Oops

 

[Mattb4]

I just hope after I am gone that someone maintains the plasma cooling system. If the matter/antimatter generator is left to go super critical the resulting explosion might destroy the Solar system. Also someone needs to occasionally redraw the pentagram that contains the demon.

There can be big problem if the next person does not read the manual.

 

[OzSolar]

I just hope after I am gone that someone maintains the plasma cooling system. If the matter/antimatter generator is left to go super critical the resulting explosion might destroy the Solar system. Also someone needs to occasionally redraw the pentagram that contains the demon.

There can be big problem if the next person does not read the manual.

Just like when they decided to not reset the timer on Lost?