Farm Update 17-Dec-2018

It is usual that you plan one and what happens is another.  There are several initiatives that has taken backseat in the past few weeks. One after another issues cropped up and Subbu was busy solving them. The problems are under control now.

a) The Tamilnadu electricity board said they want to fix the 3 phase meter immediately. This is after a wait of almost 6 months of it having been delivered.  Once they come forward we should not waste time, lest it will go back to Madurai.   This activity involves replacing two wire with 3 wire upto the main post and the main room.  Any wiring upto meter is EB responsibility.  Thereafter the main meter is replaced with another digital one.  The new board would be bigger and hence new board had to be made with protection from Sun, Rain without compromising on its visibility. This involves little bit of civil work and electrical.  Typically takes a week in a remote place. This was done.

2 inch quality zinc pipe used as electric pole.
Anchored in concrete base.
Notice railings for climbing up.

b) The 3Phase current that has reached the main room must be distributed inside the farm at our own cost.  I wanted poles to be erected in such a way that we cover upto borewell, route it upto the water tank and the windmill itself.  Since wire is costly, we planned just to install the poles now and go for wiring later.

The 15 feet pipe to be used as pole

c) For the poles also instead of purchasing commercial poles that will work out costly (around 5K
above), we decided to use 2" pipes. 5 Nos of 15 feet pipes were purchased and welded with required hook, frame at the end.  The pipe was sealed off its hole. Then it was brought to the farm and erected through cement, concrete mixture. Around 2.5 Feet inside the soil and balance outside. This height is above a typical tracktor height. There was brief discussion on how we route the wire upto the generator room.

There are two poles visible in this picture.  Notice provision for wire holding and may be
street light also.

Pumping after repair

d) The existing wire that was left on the ground (against my repeated objection and warning) finally will be put on this post.  We used the existing wires only for the time being to run the bore well pump.

The faulty motor

e) The pump in the borewell failed after it ran briefly for some time. This is being run after a gap.

Reason was later suspected to be that the poles (2 wires of 3phase) could have been reversed resulting in motor rotating in reverse direction. Later after it was taken to repair shop in another town, it was found bearing fault. They were replaced. The winding also replaced. It is working fine.

The kirloskar slow speed.

f) The generator had failed long back.  A technician had been awaited for long. Finally he has come and seen some part worn out. Hopefully it must be replaced. i asked and subbu agreed  that we must keep everything in good working condition. Recently there was a huge hurricane /strom named Gaja in TN.  Several of the delta districts were cut-off electricity due to huge wind blowing at 180 Kmph speed and knocking every stranding structure on its path across the state.  Agriculture came to stand still.   Had our generator been working, we could have sent this for helping a village.

g) Finally the windpump amplifier that I made and shipped to Subbu is getting installed. Today only he found time to move it to the tower. He had been struggling to get it inside the tower. I believe he had to remove the side structure, get inside and again re-fit which took 3 hours.

h) He has doubts now. I have sent all the video, audio etc over whatsup. Hopefully in next couple of days it must be in action.

Finally the frame is in place.  However it is not fitting the bottom screws. Something will be done.

Under installation........Seems Subbu has become tired today.