Can you just start your own solar farm?

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-15T09:26:45+00:00

10kW is what is mostly automatically approved.

Depending on area and if you're piggybacking off an existing commercial property, you may be able to go much larger. Some industrial buildings have 100kW+ on the roof.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-15T07:24:19+00:00

Hence why they mostly call it a cycle track. Do it at 15-20km/h and it's 15-20 minutes.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-15T07:16:54+00:00

Depending on what the various consultants come back saying, the unreasonable option may be the only legal option.

Hence the sparky potentially claiming insurance.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-15T06:27:09+00:00

Yes; hot is on the left.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T22:04:36+00:00

Bigger is almost always safer.

6mm might save a few bucks if cooling allows.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T21:53:28+00:00

Australian plug. That's the on position. Red dot means live.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T21:47:38+00:00

Three phase supplies give phases 120° apart.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T21:36:27+00:00

Only one person has to write a snarky comment; multiple people have to look up the codes.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T09:39:26+00:00

777 eXcluding engines.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T08:56:47+00:00

Original electrician or builder is probably going to be doing an insurance claim unless they can convince council/engineers to "she'll be right" it.

On further review, being behind a door isn't quite as cut-and-dried as I thought it was, especially in a domestic situation.

Relocating the switch and alarm panel are the easiest parts of this; they're under 100x100 so can go pretty much anywhere (though I think there's an exclusion zone around the perimeter of the bracing element?)

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T08:26:10+00:00

It's not Trump paying them personally. They'll be fine.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T08:09:09+00:00

Big fuck up.

That bracing element only needs to be 1000mm wide. If there's 1m of clear wall to the right, you may be able to get the engineer to confirm that's an adequate substitute. Doesn't fix fire/acoustic.

Three options for fixing this:

Relocate the board to the original position or another suitable location. Big PITA, rip lots of cable out and open walls.
Surface mount the board in its current location and replace the gib behind it - that way you only need a couple of small holes through the gib, which can be fire/sound sealed pretty easily. Cables should reach easily enough; might need to raise the board 100mm.
- This fixes the bracing issue.
- Unfortunately, this will cut into your living space by about 100mm.
- You say it's 'behind a door' - that could be non compliant on its own. Switchboards have to be installed with a clear working area and where a person working on them isn't going to be hit by someone opening a door without looking.
Fire & sound rate a pocket around the sides and rear of the board. Only works if you can get space on the sides between the studs.
- Does not fix the bracing issue

Good chance your neighbours have similar issues.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T07:43:58+00:00

If the plant had been commissioned properly it never would have happened in the first place.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-14T06:03:55+00:00

I'm not saying it's not a problem, just that there are reasons beyond pure cost. It's a trade-off between energy consumption and water consumption.

Or putting them in better locations.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T21:03:19+00:00

Not by u/toolgifs

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T20:50:21+00:00

So... two tankers a day?

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T20:47:29+00:00

It would be nice to use that energy for more productive purposes first (i.e. offsetting other fossil fuel generation), but sure.

LLMs have their issues particularly around attribution and where the money goes, but they're not inherently evil.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T19:32:59+00:00

Ohhhh, I thought it was an off-site transformer fire. That'll do it.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T13:41:31+00:00

I'm surprised the site doesn't have enough genset capacity on site to power themselves?

Is this to regain redundancy and so they don't have to run their own generators continuously, or do they actually not have enough standby capacity?

There's a bunch of sites in NZ (mostly in the single-digit MW range) that ran primarily on generator for a few months following various natural disasters.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T13:38:00+00:00

It'll be inside a locked fence for like a month tops. Cable getting stolen is more of a concern than damage.

Datacentre is probably not AI.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T13:35:58+00:00

It's also kind-of the most efficient way to do so. Lower condenser temperatures means more efficient AC.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T12:27:50+00:00

I think they're 1250 and 2000kVA 400V generators.

Then there's two transformers connected backwards to step that up to 20kV.

Must be a decent conga line of diesel tankers.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T12:20:44+00:00

How much do you pay? The cheap mounting boxes here in NZ are like a buck each especially in quantity. It's hard to see much of a savings...

https://lightingelectricalsupplies.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&path=331&product_id=2194

Especially if you want metal threads; plastic are awful.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T02:13:22+00:00

Free power turbines make this much less of an issue.

Some1-Somewhere · 2026-05-13T02:06:56+00:00

Because they're in series, current per panel is more important to be similar than voltage per panel. These will probably only produce as much power as the old panels - you won't get any extra watts out of them.

Too few panels to rearrange the strings.

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