Another Addition

[Stephane Kotze]

Hello All - I am new around here, but hope to stay awhile.
My name is Stephane, (the male version) and I live in Oudtshoorn - South Africa.

The region is called "Die Klein Karoo" - in the "Afrikaans" Language.
Translated - the name reads "The small Karoo" - The word "Karoo" loosely means a slghtly dry hot region ..

And obviously - the most famous, and the second largest Caves formations on the planet - are right on my doorstep. Also - The origin of Ostrich breeding many years ago is right here in Oudtshoorn.
I live a very sedate but full life on a farm, 15km outside the Town.

I had a wonderful and informative working carreer as an Consuling Engineer (Mechanical) - and retired some 10 years ago.
But believe it - It's only the body thats old - You young Chaps can still converse with me - I will understand. Not senile yet!

I am in fact - still very active and employed as the CEO of a medium business.
Plus! - I love all animals and creepy crawlies in creation except, flies and mosquitos.
I raised seven Ravens - which fell from nests during the past nine years. All of them went off to find mates and start a life of their own in the wild. I have cats, dogs, parrots, wild bunnies, eagles - and plenty cobra's and other snakes around in the "veld"
(country side) .

I run my super quiet computer in vegetable oil.
I am building a wind generator; and intend converting every implement in
my home to 12 or 24 volt DC.
My Internet connection is "wireless" - I have installed a solar powered receiver / transmitter on a hill behing my house. The system recieves signals from my partners ADSL connection in Oudtshoorn 15km away.

Want to know where Oudtshoorn is?
Type "Kango Caves" into Google and expand your knowledge!

There you go.
Thanks for having me. :cool:

[Rob Beckers]

Hello Stephane,

Welcome to Green Power Talk!
I've moved your message from the "post testing area" to the "green life" area. That way people will actually see it. The testing area is for just that, trying out formatting, images in messages and the like. Things in there are not permanent.

It's always interesting to see those old Dutch names in South Africa (I'm Dutch myself); "Oudtshoorn" is certainly Dutch!

What are you using for your wireless Internet? 15 clicks is a pretty good distance!

Well, browse around a bit. Make a few new friends. :cool:

-RoB-

[Stephane Kotze]

thanks for the response Rob.
I tried to move my first message from the testing area - failed cause I could not find
a button or link to use. Maybe you chaps can make it easier, or a bit more obvious?
Maybe i am simply old and missed the obvious?

Also - Would like to join the pro corner : what do I do?
I was the consulting engineer and project manager for the "Palace" and "Lost City" development, at Sun City in SA. ( for those who know and find such things interesting )

Regarding my Internet :
Our national telecomunications service provider (Telkom) will not provide ADSL to
"Volmoed" - where I live, 15 kilomete outside Oudtshoorn, as it is to costly. ( you are right about the origin of the name being dutch ) -

I can explain about the equipment we use - But I am urging my partner to also join Green Power Talk - I will leave it to him to inform you-all about it. He is our webmaster and looks after our internet stuff. I should reserve something for him to chat about.

Rather I chat about my "Oily" - my computer running in oil.
Or - wind power generation; we have lots of wind here - out in the country.

Some Electrical boffins may know how I can build an "Inverter" myself? I dont want to buy anything I can make myself - to costly anyway. Will appreciate it?
Total load is about : 2500 W ...

Also - It will be appreciated, If anyone out there can point me in the right direction to find a small 12volt DC pump to circulate the oil througout my computer system. We have limited supply of small "stuff" here in SA.
Only need it to run once a day for a complete oil change between my "box" and the oil reservoir - about 25 liters in say 12 hours.

More later - Pleased to be here! :)

[Rob Beckers]

thanks for the response Rob.
I tried to move my first message from the testing area - failed cause I could not find
a button or link to use. Maybe you chaps can make it easier, or a bit more obvious?
Maybe i am simply old and missed the obvious?

You didn't miss a thing: Only moderators/administrators can move posts and threads around.


Also - Would like to join the pro corner : what do I do?
I was the consulting engineer and project manager for the "Palace" and "Lost City" development, at Sun City in SA. ( for those who know and find such things interesting )


I'll add you to the Pro group.
As things are now we have too few Pro members to make that forum area interesting. Hopefully we'll eventually reach "critical mass" and it'll become a useful Internet destination for those that make a living in RE.


Some Electrical boffins may know how I can build an "Inverter" myself? I dont want to buy anything I can make myself - to costly anyway. Will appreciate it?
Total load is about : 2500 W ...


Inverters are not at all easy to design and build, they're as much 'art' as engineering (and I'm saying that from the perspective of an electrical engineer who has just gone through learning power electronics, including inverter design; they didn't teach power electronics in the time I did my degree). Voltages and power levels are also such that mistakes can get painful or even deadly. On top of it all, even if you would build a working design yourself, you would probably pay more for parts than buying one off the shelf.

Take a look at the newer and simpler inverters that are meant for off-grid use (assuming you want to use them off-grid), prices of those came down quite a bit. For example, the Xantrex ProSine series.

While I'm at it: I'll be away for two weeks, visiting family in The Netherlands. Not sure how much I'll be on the Internet, so best wishes for the holidays to all!

-RoB-