FREE ELECTRICAL POWER from the grid and its legal

Sometimes one starts to wonder at alternative agendas of the powers that be when one has enough knowledge to SEE those agenda’s [ or cover ups ]. Now I have been doing
Electrics for neigh on 40 years [ yes, I’m that old ] and I can follow certain reasoning by authorities when new rules and/or equipment is introduced. There are many safety reasons for installing breakers and the like, on live equipment – like your house.
Over current breakers protect your house [ and you ] from shorts or faulty household products. If the active shorts to earth or neutral, the breaker trips like it should to protect you from being electrocuted should active make the metal case of that kettle – live. Ouch!! So too, over voltage breakers protect your new TV or computer from being fried like a big Mac; after all, something like 480vac instead of 240vac don’t do the gear any favors. Now ELD’s [Earth Leakage Detectors] seem like a good idea because they trip the breakers BEFORE a short circuit appears that might start a fire IF the short current is less than the trip current [ up to 20 Ampere – and that can cook something right smartly ]
So too, it trips if more that 3Milliampere is detected from either active or neutral TO the earth line. Gee, it all sounds so reassuring don’t it ?. Can’t be too careful these days what with some shoddy china products and if it saves one life, it’s well worth the ELD.
Now lets examine some of the hidden agenda of ELD’s here [ What !!! there’s a hidden agenda ? come on man, you must be paranoid ] Unless your totally conversant with most aspects of electrical safety, you won’t get it so I’ll try my best to spell it out and; at the same time, tell you how this bullsh*t can let you take raw electrical power from the grid –without illegally fiddling with the meters, and get it for free. The circuit to raw free power is in the inherent fault of the grid itself; what’s more, ELD’s are designed to stop you getting it, should you figure it out by design or accident.
We have 3 wires in an electrical circuit. Active, neutral and the earth. Most lighting circuits don’t need the earth as by design; there is nothing to earth [or ground]. EG, light bulb sockets in the ceiling. Some lighting circuits [fluro’s] have an earth to the metal case because the case IS metal and could short to active, making the case live when switched on. ALL power points have all three wires even though you might plug something into them that is double insulated anyway [power drills].
Now your distribution grid consists of many step down transformers which ALSO have an earth. Because of the way the power grid is designed [or LACK there of] there is never a perfect balance of power between the earth [ earths] and the return neutral line all the way to the power station. In essence, there is always a residual VOLTAGE between the neutral and the earth of every stage of the power grid. This voltage is called the balance factor voltage or rather, the un-balanced factor. Check it out for yourself – put a multimeter across the neutral and earth of a power point in YOUR house and you should see a voltage ranging from a few volts [ normal ] to as much as 30vac or even as high as 170vac in extreme cases. This voltage is limited by the balanced factor in your particular area. It’s dependent of several things. How bad the grid is in your area, load at certain times of day, the state of the nearest transformer etc etc.
What’s REALLY important is that the limitation of what you can draw in power from this ‘Phantom’ circuit is only limited to what breakers are IN the earth circuit from your house all the way to the feed transformer. Now you see why it’s mandatory to have ELD’s in this circuit that ‘trip’ when more than 3 milliampere is drawn from it.. Before we HAD ELD’S, the number of people injured [let alone killed] from leaky appliances was near enough to zero. Only the freakiest of freak conditions [one in a million] would result in a hazard and ONLY because, the object was not earthed [TV antennae for one]. It would have been far simpler and cheaper to make it mandatory that everything made of metal attached to a house was effectively earthed somewhere to true ground.
Are we all getting the picture yet ???
Now the state of QLD grids is a freaking mess because of poor or NO maintenance at sub stations and power factor transformers in the street. In theory, if you have NO ELD because you live in a house prior to it’s introduction AND you are not obliged to fit one by law if the system is in good condition – you can draw power from this ‘phantom’ circuit. The circuit is not metered as both neutral and earth should be under ideal perfect power conditions, the same !!. The piss poor condition of the grid means that unbalanced power is all over the shop like a mad person.
Since the voltage of this power can vary with a myriad of conditions as stated at any time of the day, we need an electronic regulator that can tolerate voltage from – say – 15vac all the way up to line voltage [240 vac]. The amount of raw power that you can draw is also dependent on several conditions; like how good an earth your house wiring has [ that’s that slim copper tube bolted to the outside wall of your house with a heavy green wire soldered to it- look for it, you’ll find it soon enough]
This close ground tube is designed to help eliminate unbalanced factors between your house neutral and true earth in some cases but in most cases, is essentially the ONLY true earth in your house wiring. Let’s pretend you DON’T have an ELD breaker in your house, just the standard safety circuit breakers [or old block fuses]. If you got hold of a muti- input voltage regulator that delivered 12DC output at a regulated current of – say – 20 Ampere maximum, you can draw 480 Watts from the circuit FREE!!! If the ground circuit to the unbalanced transformer feeding the street could support it. [ there is no reason why it wouldn’t because this feeder transformer could be feeding 1000 houses – that’s a sh*t load of power] Just calculate how much power you COULD draw. Each house can draw 40 Ampere – times 1000 YIKES!!!. If the balanced earth to neutral factor was out by just 0.1%, you can still draw 40 Ampere at the low voltage of 24 volts for example; holy cow! That’s nearly 1000 Watts of power at 12volts DC. The mind boggles.
If you have an ELD fitted, as far as I am aware, there is no law that sez you cannot have a bypass switch fitted to it for house wiring maintenance. In any event, legal or not, fitting one is undetectable as you are NOT drawing power from the true power feed circuit, nor are you by passing any metering. How many budding or long time electricians have figured this one out ?. A perfect feeder grid would eliminate this crap but as we all know, Queenslanders have been screwed by the Government for years taking power profits and neglecting the grid till it’s in a shocking state [Pardon the pun].
That’s it – nothing hard for us techo’s. So there really is a hidden alternative agenda for making it compulsory too fit ELD’s to new and some existing houses [ you can only draw less than 3 ma of the unbalanced power on this phantom circuit before the ELD trips and plunges you into darkness ]. Because the power factor is so bad between neutral and earth in some cases, someone could be killed IF [ and only if ] the NEUTRAL ONLY somehow is shorted to the metal case of some equipment [ toaster ], and IF it’s still plugged into the house socket [ even switched off ] and IF the earth wire to the case of this appliance is somehow absent and IF you touch it and are earthed, and IF the voltage is high enough to give you a ‘boot’ – above 90 Volts - and IF the ground circuit is good enough to pass more than 3 ma for a sustained period. That’s a bucket load of ‘if’s’ and just doesn’t become a credible factor in any sane persons book.

PRACTICAL IDEAS BEING IGNORED because the PTB didn’t think of them

Here are just a few of the idea’s that people just refuse to adopt because of all sorts of bull sh*t excuses.

1. Auto industry. Cyclonic, magnetic oil filter [ think about it – insert smiley here]
2. Paint industry. On site paint matching and mixing for Pressure packs
3. Vacuum cleaners. Gear driven, rotating steel liner spring on Teflon sleeve for hoses to ‘corkscrew’ blockages into the receiver [ gave this one to Electrolux 20 years ago – still no manufacturer ] Cyclonic receivers are great to keep full container suction but first you have to GET IT THERE via a bloody hose that is the first thing to become blocked.
4. ERBR/ERBS glue and molding compound to glue and un-glue anything to anything without a part ‘2’ reactant in a tube. Mold plastics without electricity.
Strip circuit boards of sealing compound to repair them THEN use the same compound to seal them again.
5. A paint that changes color with micro current [ like the darkening window ]
Useful in billboards for multiple messages and a list too long to mention

I could go on for pages but what’s the point. The real point is, there are things that SHOULD be made, and CAN be made today with a shit load of will, a little R and D, a modest investment, and a shit load of money to be made at the end of it.

Anyone remember a documentary on the Aussie inventor who made a cinematography lens to do what no other lens make could do ??????.
Bugger me, that was almost 20 years ago still. Essentially it was called an
‘Infinity Lens’ for Micro/Macro photography; where by, no matter WHAT you were filming, the focal length was infinite. Everything from 1 cm to infinity was IN FOCUS. When you had an Ant in the whole picture at 1 cm, the background was always in focus. So what do you think the spectacle makers would do with this ??
BURY IT !!!! because NO-ONE would need prescription lenses any more [ including bi-focal ] One lens for everyone, one pair of glasses for everyone.
I think you get the picture – if not, go shoot yourself, your already brain dead.

Here is a little tip for people who have been unfortunate enough to have something stolen from their yard or even the family car from the car port.
Wire up a ‘break’ line to the object in question. A simple loop that alarms if the wire is broken. There are too many arrangements here to elaborate. The point is, in order for someone to steal the object and remove it from your premises [ or garden ] they have to ‘snap’ the cord away from the object [ pot plant, garden Nome, CAR, statue etc etc ] Wires can be hidden under gravel. Put a plug and socket on the car with the wire to the house wall or structure yadda yadda yadda.
I made a living doing this sort of business in another state many moons ago.

Simple but effective as most things stolen are done by morons of the first order who won’t SEE the wire or break it before they realize what it really is. Bell wire is cheap, batteries are cheap, siren modules are cheap and you don’t have to be an electrician to wire one up. Get a Dick smith DIY module kit for under $10.
The simple things work best, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel.

Adding on to this, a later post.

Before engine cylinder management systems were even thought of for fuel injected cars in Australia, I built one around the time the first FIC appeared on Aussie roads [ Holden – My father still has one in mint condition ]. I made the device from parts taken from a 1926 Telephone exchange and a washing machine [ no sh*t ]. It had cylinder compression inertial assisted breaking and rotational cylinder activation by speed and timing all done with relays and vacuum switches [ no electronics what-so-ever because they didn’t exist !!!]. Admittedly, it was the size of a shoe box but more importantly – it bloody well worked. I chucked it in the useless pile because petrol THEN was cheap and there wasn’t a need in the market for saving it.

Also, about this time, I made a covering to fit over a Hills Hoist. Made of clear plastic to let the sun shine through. I got sick and tired of birds crapping all over the washing I just hung out. Still waiting for this one guys – been waiting since the 70’s and that’s 40 freeking years yet [ hello everybody – the lights are on but nobody’s home.] .

How-za-bout self opening windows using drop weights in the casement [ and a button on the sill ]. Just like lift ones of old but slid sideways like all modern windows. OK, so reverse it !. A sliding window that shuts itself if left open triggered by rain, alarm setting, temperature and / or night fall etc etc. [ still nobody home; it’s lunch time in the walk of life ].

Solar panel made the shape of actual roof tiles [ or sky light panels ] was MY idea. Need more light or another power panel ?, just pull off another tile and match it perfectly with it’s solar or clear equivalent. The beauty of this is that there is nothing ugly on the roof to tell anyone it’s even there.

Double lined Steel and bladder Water storage tanks built into the exterior walls of a new house [ look ma – no tanks ] duel purpose insulation. Just don’t drill a hole in the wall to mount that hose reel unless you know WHERE the tanks are. Specific outside bricks can be etched to tell you where the OK spots are [ Called a ‘tick’ brick ] and so on and so forth till the end of time.

Simple [ and cheap ] e-field alarm system using a balanced core relay, 2 transistor circuit and a load of bell wire.

Hey guys, where’s the PROGRAMMABLE wireless door bell.
One wireless bell don’t cut it in a 3 story mansion. I need 4 wireless bells on the SAME Frequency activated by the one front door button, you wankers. Give us a 2 or 3 pack bell and one button that’s wireless battery or wireless 240 Volt plug in.
Edited on 7/11/2009.. UPDATE. Thank you ARLEC for showing some sense by bringing out just such a product at last. You now can buy packs of wireless door bells and packs of wireless push buttons that are ALL programmable with each other. Maybe some one in industry actually READS this blog [ Amazing!]

We have compulsory smoke detectors now but where is this circuit used in a range hood fan ?. [ Think about it people ]. The hood fan would regulate its speed according to detected fumes from the circuit [steam and/or burning food ] couple this with an audible alarm would stop a lot of fires on the stove and maybe save the house burning down [ put an auto stove shut off in it as well - so much can be done with a $10 circuit and a trip switch ] In top market stoves - a 1 litre fire retardant canister hidden in the hood could trigger IF actual flames hit the fan unit. Ruin the tea but save the house [ especially if you left the stove on and went OUTSIDE!]

So the above gives you some idea’s. I’m beginning to think I live in an alternate universe where the whole cosmos is ‘bent’.

A few more for the pot.

How many times have you wished the lights over the stair well would turn on when you are at the top or bottom in the dead of night ? [ or maybe illuminate that wall painting when you walk by and ONLY when you walk by ] Simple – just use a IR sensor in the ceiling or pressure mat under the carpet. You don’t need a massive power bill because those paintings have a spotty on them 24/7. Makes a handy night light to see the switch for the room lights. [ But keep the dog outside ].

We have emergency exit lights for power fail or fire but what about painting the floor in a clear solution that glows red in the presence of floor triggered lighting ?.[ big fat arrows in florescent red because your crawling on your guts under the smoke and looking at the floor from 6 inches while the emergency sign is at ceiling level hidden by the smoke – IDIOTS! ] Where’s the thin color lines in the floor tiles of buildings starting from reception so you can get to a particular department [ Hospitals ? ] Just follow your color on the floor. Saw this one in another state but no where else in the last 20 years. What ?. Here's an idea. Walk in the front door of a big hospital, go to a rack and take a paper card with the dept 'u' want on it. The card has a cheap bar code on it and a color. As you walk up the corridor, wall mounted laser scanners pick up the bar code your carrying and the appropriate color on the card is displayed on small arrows in the wall at the end of each corridor. You only have to look ahead to the next turn and see your color flashing and pointing in the direction you need to go. Hell, apply this to a huge underground parking lot [ I've lost my car at chermside more than once ] A cheap paper duel strip - one you carry and one on the inside windscreen of your car yadda yadda yadda. Now run with this idea you brainiacs :)

Where’s the inside push button ‘pop-out’ rope ladder that can be attached under windows on the outside of houses [ in a pretty and color matching cylinder ] to escape in case of fire in a high set dwelling ?.

Want to have a moisture detector in case of leak from a pipe or sink overflow or a place where you need to know if water has spilled on a surface. You can use an electronic detector OR 2 thumb tacks, a soluble aspirin and a clothes peg attached to a bell, beeper, the dogs tail – what-ever. Cheap, replaceable, reliable. Just threw that one in for fun. But hey, you need to know it’s starting to rain if the clothes are on the line.

Where are our do good Philanthropist's who can get these ideas from the ordinary Joe Pay packet to the real world ?

SMART METERS TO LIFTPOWER COSTS .. [Courier Mail July 1st]

Just like the Government not thinking things thoroughly. Certainly the Technology is there but like Communism – a utopia ideal but by it’s very definition – it ain’t gunna work.
The argument is that we charge people more/Kilowatt Hr during peak demand. Here-in lay’s the rub. What exactly IS the time of peak demand? Is it not when everyone wants to use the power simultaneously? and is not this a choice by the majority ?. What this all means is that if most of us DO use power sparingly and WE ALL spread the power evenly, then the time of peak demand disappears. The new meters become redundant.
The only way [ by Theoristics ] this methodology can really work is if the USER of the electricity knows EXACTLY what he is being charged in real time; hour by hour. It doesn’t matter what the high point of demand is and what time it shifts too as long as the consumer is notified on site what the price is INSTANTLY and on inquiry. Supplemental to this; the consumer MUST be alerted ON SITE !! when the price changes hour by hour.
It follows, therefore , the meters must incorporate a system of visual and audible alarms that can be heard and seen by the consumer, on site, when the price is ABOUT to change.
If you ignore this Methodology and set the peak time within specified hours; it won’t be long before this time changes as EVERYONE will start to use power at the cheapest time AND THEN this time becomes peak. So you see it’s not as easy as that corrupt ignorant clown Robinson tries to make out. The cost of power will rise anyway to pay for the cost of the new meters which will be eventually, a total freeking lemon.
This is tackling the problem from the point of view of making the consumer feel it’s HIS fault for not doing the will of the supplier. The main problem here is not Electricity supply from the Generators but infrastructure to get it to the consumer. The corrupt Labor Government has been screwing the people for decades with regards to neglecting infrastructure and taking power profits. To add insult to injury, the government has made absolutely sure that cheap electricity is denied the consumer by turning the rebate on Photo-Voltaic into useless carbon credits STILL under the control of the profiteering hands of the Government. The greedy manufacturers have colluded to make the COST of the power panels so high, that most people can’t afford them. And if you can afford them, it would take longer to recover the cost compared to the life of the panels themselves. What Power panels would do [ if everyone could afford them ] is feed power from both directions and reduce the load on the feed infrastructure.
A simple bit of engineering and a modest cost would see ONE industry get power for nothing and pump ten times their consumption back to the grid - and it doesn’t even involve Power Panels. I put forward this suggestion to the niche industry of Crematoriums but so far, no one has done jack.
I digress; we must tackle power usage from the point of view of SUPPLY.