That's a bit small!

Indeed, as the vicars wife once famously remarked to an eager young milkman, it is very small! My timer that is - get your minds out of that gutter!

According to eBay my timer had been dispatched a week ago. According to the tracking number it was two days ago that it finally hit the postbox. The important thing is it has arrived even though I probably need a magnifying glass to see it and a microscope to see the display.

It's a 16 event, 7 day timer. The way charge controllers are set up, they provide power continuously until they switch off to recharge the battery. My extraction fan can easily outpace my solar panels, a bit like the famed American motorist of the 30s who had to turn the engine of his automobile off when refueling as it used fuel faster than the pump could supply it. The purpose of the timer is to ensure the fan is operational only for as long as required rather than continuing until the battery is empty.

Thus, I've preprogrammed the timer for 15 minute operations every hour. According to my calculations, my fan should evacuate all the air in the bus every 10-12 minutes. 15 minutes should see that done and it commences operation at 10am, running hourly until 7pm. By then, summer or winter, the heat should be gone from the day. They could easily have left off their silly keyboard lock and the 7 day part of the timer.

Ominously the instructions say the timer has a 3 year lithium battery. Does that mean I'll be looking for a new timer in 3 years? Actually, I suspect all the electronics in use will die by the end of 3 years. This is largely why I don't load myself down with electronic junk. It barely lasts out of the reasonable use period.

Today was to have been a day spent working on wiring from my magic box to the battery. With my timer having arrived, I would have probably had a go at installing it. Connection is straightforward as it's just four spade connectors. Two go to the power and two are the switch. It seems polarity is unimportant.

I've been researching air conditioners, particularly the small portable variety. On my blog (which had a random advert via Adsense), I spotted an advert for a marine air conditioner. That looked interesting and I followed it. It seems though that marine air conditioners use seawater to cool the air conditioner high pressure coil. They're also ludicrously expensive!

Meanwhile, I've seen a couple of interesting portable air conditioners. It seems the exhaust vent gets really hot. Having said that, it's something that will be easy to vent through a hole in the bus floor with a duct leading out of the bus skirt with a mesh over it. The key is finding one that not only furs the space but also permits use of the exhaust hose in the same space.

Another alternative exists. I did see a portable unit that was just ten inches wide by eighteen long and about thirty six high that had the exhaust hose coming out of the top. That brings to mind all kinds of interesting ideas based on a unit that can be moved into a storage location. The downside is, according to a tradesman that used one in her grooming van, that the exhaust pipe gets very hot. It's all food for thought and various alternatives exist. I just have to keep investigating until I find an acceptable solution.

Tomorrow is another of my free days. Work starts properly on Thursday but even so, I have work related tasks that will take me to work for a couple of hours - stuff I probably won't even get paid for. That's all part and parcel of committing to an employer and doing one's best. The reality is that being exceptional is unrewarded. Being mediocre is accepted. It's all part of job satisfaction to do one's best, however. I always say, if you're not working on being brilliant then don't bother. I think Lincoln said something similar - whatever you are, be a good one.